International

Guterres calls for “total transparency” in the election results in Venezuela

The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, on Monday, asked for “total transparency” about the results of Sunday’s presidential elections in Venezuela, and trusted that the disputes “will be resolved peacefully.”

In addition, he encouraged the authorities in Venezuela to “publish the results and the breakdown by polling stations in due time.”

According to the National Electoral Council of Venezuela, which proclaimed President Nicolás Maduro in power since 2013, with 51.2% of the votes (5,150,092 ballots), while the candidate of the main opposition coalition, Edmundo González Urrutia, obtained 4,445,978, which accounts for 44.2% of the votes.

After the results were known, González Urrutia, whose main waner is the anti-chavista leader María Corina Machado, denounced that “all the rules were violated” to the point that “most of the minutes have not yet been delivered.”

The UN Secretary-General limited himself to “talling note of the announcement” of the CNE, but also “the concerns of some political actors and members of the international community,” alluding to the positions of the United States. The United States, the EU, numerous Latin American countries and Spain, among others, who have expressed their doubts about the results of the elections.

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Guterres urged the electoral authorities in Venezuela to “carry out their work independently and without interference,” in order to “guarantee the free expression of the will” of Venezuelans.

In any case, he said he was confident that the electoral disputes “be focused and resolved peacefully,” while calling for moderation “all Venezuelan political leaders and their followers.”

As for the presence of the panel of UN experts invited by the Government to monitor the elections, and whose conclusions are not public, but reserved for the secretary general, Dujarric said that they will stay a few more days in Venezuela and will return to New York in the course of this week.

International

Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links

A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.

Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.

However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.

International

Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

Guatemalan court decides Wednesday whether to convict journalist José Rubén Zamora

The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.

“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.

The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.

His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”

International

Miyazaki’s style goes viral with AI but at what cost?

This week, you may have noticed that everything—from historical photos and classic movie scenes to internet memes and recent political moments—has been reimagined on social media as Studio Ghibli-style portraits. The trend quickly went viral thanks to ChatGPT and the latest update of OpenAI’s chatbot, released on Tuesday, March 25.

The newest addition to GPT-4o has allowed users to replicate the distinctive artistic style of the legendary Japanese filmmaker and Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away). “Today is a great day on the internet,” one user declared while sharing popular memes in Ghibli format.

While the trend has captivated users worldwide, it has also highlighted ethical concerns about AI tools trained on copyrighted creative works—and what this means for the livelihoods of human artists.

Not that this concerns OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, which has actively encouraged the “Ghiblification”experiments. Its CEO, Sam Altman, even changed his profile picture on the social media platform X to a Ghibli-style portrait.

Miyazaki, now 84 years old, is known for his hand-drawn animation approach and whimsical storytelling. He has long expressed skepticism about AI’s role in animation. His past remarks on AI-generated animation have resurfaced and gone viral again, particularly when he once said he was “utterly disgusted” by an AI demonstration.