International
The Parliament of Venezuela approves a law that provides for the regulation of NGOs by judicial means
The National Assembly (AN, Parliament) of Venezuela, controlled by Chavismo, unanimously approved on Tuesday, the Law of Supervision, Regularization, Action and Financing of NGOs and Social Organizations that provides for the judicial dissolution of these groups that violate the provisions established in the regulations.
During the session, the Legislature agreed to include in the text, at the request of the Chavista deputy Diosdado Cabello, that NGOs be prohibited from receiving contributions for the financing of “terrorism” because, he assured, there are organizations that receive funds and then sponsor “guarimbas” (violent protests).
“These NGOs receive funds and we see them financing guarimbas, financing acts of terrorism in the national territory and this would serve to put a stop to that possibility,” the legislator explained.
NGOs, according to the new law, are prohibited from receiving economic contributions destined for political organizations or making economic contributions to such formations, as well as promoting “fascism, intolerance or hatred.”
Likewise, it establishes as grounds for the dissolution of these associations the non-compliance with these prohibitions, declared by judicial decision, as well as the non-payment of any fine imposed “in accordance with this law, once the available judicial remedies have been exhausted.”
The text indicates that the courts of first instance in civil matters will be competent to agree on the “dissolution of a non-profit social organization,” to which “the right to defense and due process must be guaranteed.”
NGOs must, by law, notify “the financing or donations” they receive, in order to “ensure the legality of the funds,” in addition to declaring the “donations received with full identification of the donors, indicating whether they are national or foreign, accidental or permanent.”
On the other hand, according to the text, the Executive is responsible for “following and controlling compliance” with the “duties and prohibitions” established in the new legislation, for which, among other measures, it will implement and evaluate mechanisms that serve these purposes.
The NA resumed the discussion of this law three months after its last debate on it, last May, despite the warnings of numerous NGOs, which warn of a “suppression of civic space and the right of association.”
On Tuesday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, asked the Government of Venezuela to reject this legislative text, as well as that of a bill to regulate social networks, due to the negative impact they would have on human rights and democracy in general.
International
Biden replies to Trump that the United States is strong because it is a nation made up of immigrants
President Joe Biden claimed on Wednesday that the United States is a strong country because it is a nation made up of immigrants, in response to the anti-immigration rhetoric of former governor and Republican candidate, Donald Trump.
Biden made these statements when participating with actress Jessica Alba in a reception at the White House with leaders of the Latino community to commemorate Hispanic Heritage Month that is celebrated every September in the United States.
“We don’t demonize immigrants. We don’t attack them. We don’t think they are poisoning the blood of our country,” Biden said in reference to some comments made by Trump last year.
“We are a nation of immigrants and that’s why we are so strong,” Biden remarked.
The president defended that the United States was not created on the basis of a certain territory or ethnicity, but under “the idea that all men and women should be treated equally.”
Biden, who will not seek his re-election on November 5 and was applauded in the room with shouts of “Thank you, Joe,” he added that the Hispanic community “will change” the country in the next decade because 25% of minors are Latinos.
For her part, Jessica Alba exposed the story of her grandparents, who migrated from Mexico to the United States at the beginning of the last century and “never stopped believing” in a better future.
“That legacy of hard work and unwavering hope is something I carry with me every day,” he said.
Previously, the White House dedicated part of its daily press conference to claiming, in Spanish, the policies promoted by Biden and his vice president, Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, in support of the Latino community, such as the plan to regularize migrants married to Americans, something that Trump has rejected.
Spokeswoman Luisana Pérez Fernández stated that “diversity is one of the greatest strengths” of the United States.
Immigration is a central issue of the November election campaign and was put even more in the spotlight after Trump’s campaign (2017-2021) spread the hoax that Haitian migrants eat the pets of neighbors in Springfield (Ohio).
International
Rapper Diddy appeals the judge’s decision to keep him in custody until the trial
Rapper Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs appealed on Wednesday the decision of Judge Robyn Tarnofsky to keep him in custody in a detention center until the trial is held on the charges of sex trafficking, human trafficking and organized crime conspiracy for which he was charged on Tuesday in New York.
At an appeal hearing held today, District Judge Andrew L. Carter rejected the defense’s proposal, which called for Combs to be released on $50 million bail, and agreed with the prosecution that he should remain in a detention center until the trial.
Carter said the prosecution had provided sufficient evidence to show that Combs is a danger to society and that in his case there is a high risk of obstructing justice and harassing witnesses.
Combs is currently in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he was transferred after his appearance yesterday in a Manhattan court, where he pleaded not guilty to all three charges.
Judge Tarnofsky already rejected the request of Combs’ lawyers yesterday and argued that the accused could commit the crimes “behind closed doors, even when the preventive detention services are watching.”
Tarnofsky also said there is a high risk that Diddy will obstruct justice, since he has repeatedly contacted victims and witnesses to try to manipulate them.
The rapper’s lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, stated in a letter presented today in court that his client is “trustworthy” and again asked for release on bail, endorsed by Combs, his mother, his sister, his three adult children and the mothers of two of his daughters.
The defense also proposed limiting women’s visits to the rapper’s home and frequently subjecting him to drug tests.
Agnifilo defended his client by indicating that when he learned that he would be charged he left his home in Miami and traveled to New York, “where prosecutors and agents are investigating him.”
In addition, he alleged that the rapper has been wanting to sell his private plane for some time, with which he ruled out that there was a risk of escape.
The prosecutor’s office yesterday accused the musician of continuously participating “in a widespread scheme of abuse of women and other people” and revealed that Combs regularly organized forced sexual encounters between women and sex workers.
Combs is accused of being the head of a criminal company, Combs Enterprise, whose members were involved in sex trafficking, forced labor, human trafficking, drug-related crimes, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice, among others.
International
The Venezuelan Prosecutor’s Office processes the request for an arrest warrant against Javier Milei
The Venezuelan Prosecutor’s Office is processing the request for an arrest warrant against the President of Argentina, Javier Milei – to whom it opened “an investigation” – for the “theft” of the Venezuelan-Iranian plane that was detained in Buenos Aires since June 2022 and was sent to the United States in February, the Attorney General, Tarek William Saab, reported on Wednesday.
The institution “announces the assignment of two prosecutors specialized in the matter, who are advancing the relevant steps to the case and are processing the arrest warrant” also against the Secretary General of the Presidency of Argentina, Karina Milei, and the Minister of Security of the Southern Country, Patricia Bullrich.
“This, in the coming hours, will have its consequences in a competent court here in Venezuela with the respective arrest warrants in the competent bodies, because that cannot go unpunished,” said Saab, whose statements were transmitted by the state channel VTV.
He explained that, in the case of the plane, which was “totally dismantled” in the United States, the crimes of “aggravated theft, legitimation of capital, illegitimate deprivation of liberty, simulation of a punishable act, illicit interference, aircraft inactivation and criminal association” were incurred, according to Venezuelan legislation.
On the other hand, Saab reported the appointment of a “specialized prosecutor in human rights protection to carry out the corresponding investigations” against Milei and Bullrich for “the actions committed against the Argentine people.”
“We could be in the presence of serious human rights violations that could constitute crimes against humanity,” he said.
In that sense, the prosecutor, who called Milei “fascist” and “neo-Nazi,” said that in Argentina a “program of premeditated institutional violence” is applied against his population, so he pointed to the president of the southern country as “the most fierce human rights violator on the continent” and as “a brutal danger to the entire hemisphere.”
This month, the Argentine Foreign Ministry urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to request an arrest warrant against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and “other leaders of the regime,” in the face of “the worsening situation” after the presidential elections in the Caribbean country on July 28.
The Government of Argentina repudiated on Wednesday the decision of the Venezuelan Prosecutor’s Office to process the request for an arrest warrant against Argentine President Javier Milei, in the case of the Venezuelan-Iranian plane detained in Buenos Aires since 2022 and sent to the United States last February.
“The Argentine Republic repudiates the arrest warrants issued by the Attorney General of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela against the President of the Nation, Javier Milei, the Secretary General of the Presidency, Karina Milei, and the Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, following the incident of the Emtrasur plane,” the Argentine Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
According to the Government of Milei, “the aforementioned case was resolved by the Judiciary, an independent power over which the Executive cannot and should not have any interference, in application of an international agreement.”
“The Argentine government reminds the Venezuelan regime that the division of powers and the independence of judges prevail in the Argentine Republic, something that unfortunately does not happen in Venezuela under the regime of Nicolás Maduro,” the statement adds.
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