International
US sanctions Venezuelan officials for “falsely” proclaiming Maduro’s victory
The United States imposed sanctions on 16 Venezuelan officials, including members of the National Electoral Council (CNE), the Supreme Court of Justice and the National Assembly, for “falsely” proclaiming the victory of Venezuelan President, Nicolás Maduro, in the presidential elections of July 28.
Among those sanctioned are the president of the Supreme Court, Caryslia Rodríguez, the secretary general of the CNE, Antonio José Meneses, and the vice president of the National Assembly, Pedro Infante Aparicio.
“Instead of respecting the will of the Venezuelan people expressed at the polls, Maduro and his representatives have falsely proclaimed their victory while repressing and intimidating the democratic opposition in an illegitimate attempt to cling to power,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
In total, the Treasury Department announced financial sanctions on 16 people “related to Maduro,” including members of the National Electoral Council, the Supreme Court of Justice and the National Assembly, whom it accuses of having “impeded a transparent electoral process and the publication of accurate electoral results.”
At the same time, the State Department banned the entry into the country of “officials aligned with Maduro who have undermined the electoral process in Venezuela and who are responsible for acts of repression.”
Almost 2,000 people with visa restrictions
With the measures announced today, to date there are more than 140 Venezuelan officials sanctioned by the US Treasury and about 2,000 people are subject to visa restrictions by the US State Department.
“The United States will continue to promote accountability by those who undermine democracy in Venezuela,” Blinken warned.
The CNE proclaimed Maduro’s re-election in the elections of July 28 without publishing the voting minutes, but the opposition claims the victory of its standard bearer, Edmundo González Urrutia, who recently traveled to Spain and asked for asylum in that country.
Reaction of Venezuela
The Government of Venezuela described as a “new crime of aggression” the sanctions announced by the United States against 16 officials of the Caribbean country, including members of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), the National Electoral Council (CNE) and the Parliament, for “falsely” proclaiming President Nicolás Maduro as the winner of the July elections.
In a statement, the Venezuelan Executive rejected, in “the most energetic terms,” this “new crime of aggression committed by the Government of the United States of America against Venezuela, by imposing unilateral, illegitimate and illegal coercive measures on a group of state officials.”
For the Chavista government, the United States demonstrates, “once again, its total contempt for international law, the self-determination of the peoples and the democratic will of Venezuelans.”
“Little can be expected”
However, he continued, “little can be expected from the most hostile and bloodthirsty power that humanity has known, responsible for millions of murders in the world with genocidal partners and a history of indifference to the needs of its own citizens.”
With these “erroneously called sanctions, which have been shamefully promoted by the fascist extreme right,” as Chavismo usually refers to the opposition, “they break and violate the agreements signed in Qatar” between both American countries.
Guterres’ refection
The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, believes that the new sanctions of the US Government against 16 high-ranking officials of the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, whom he accuses of hindering the last elections, will not help find a way out of the political crisis in which the South American country is immersed.
“I don’t think they will help,” said Guterres spokesman Stéphane Dujarric, when asked about it in his daily press conference from the United Nations headquarters in New York.
He immediately added that in the UN general secretariat the “concern for respect for human rights” and for the “lack of transparency” still prevailing today after the presidential elections of July 28 in Venezuela continues.
Venezuela affirms that António Guterres is on the side of those who “illegly sanction”
In turn, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil said that Guterres sides with those who “illegally sanction,” in relation to the new measures imposed by the United States, despite the fact that the Portuguese diplomat considered that these penalties do not help solve the crisis in the Caribbean country.
“The UN secretary general avoids condemning the application of unilateral coercive measures, he takes the side of those who sanction illegally, it is an affront to the mandate that the States have given him, all to defend the aggressors of Venezuela,” Gil said in a message published on Telegram.
The foreign minister indicated that Guterres, instead of showing solidarity with the “victims of the blockade and sanctions,” sides with the “liars and victimizers, of the fascists who violate rights and do not know the Venezuelan State.”
“(It is) urgent that the secretary general return to international legality, respects Venezuela and asserts the institutions of the system to which it is due,” he added.
International
Democrats pressure Donald Trump with a vote in the Senate on in vitro fertilization
In an attempt to corner former US president and Republican candidate Donald Trump, Senate Democrats put to a vote on Tuesday a bill to guarantee access to ‘in vitro’ fertilization, a proposal that the conservatives blocked.
The vote took place just two weeks after Trump said that, if elected in the November 5 elections, he will not only protect access to in vitro fertilization, but will also make the Government or insurers cover the cost of this service.
Taking advantage of these statements with which they intend to attract moderate voters, the Senate Democrats decided to put the legislative initiative back to a vote, three months after it was blocked by the Republicans.
The architect of this strategy was the leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, who this Tuesday appeared with his co-religionists at a press conference on the stairs of Congress, surrounded by dozens of photos of families with children conceived by ‘in vitro’ fertilization.
“For many Americans, starting a family is one of the greatest joys. However, millions of people fight infertility every year. Unfortunately, as we have seen this year, access to ‘in vitro’ fertilization can no longer be taken for granted,” he said before the vote.
The senator recalled how the conservative majority of the US Supreme Court ended in June 2022 with federal protections against abortion by repealing the ‘Roe vs Wade’ ruling, which protected that right for half a century, allowing each state to set its own rules.
Twenty months later, the highest judicial instance of the conservative state of Alabama banned ‘in vitro’ fertilization by accepting the argument of the evangelical right that frozen embryos should be considered children.
That decision, later reversed by the Alabama state parliament, has fueled the debate about this reproductive method that has infiltrated the election campaign. The vice president and Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, defends the technique, while Trump has maintained ambiguous positions.
Although he recently expressed his support for in vitro fertilization, he has also repeatedly boasted of having appointed the three Supreme Court judges who contributed to annul the federal right to abortion.
Trump has promoted the idea that the Republican Party is a “leader” in ‘in vitro’ fertilization, but the reality is that the formation is divided: the moderates are committed to protecting this method and the most religious sectors consider that it should be banned.
For his part, Harris has made the defense of reproductive rights a pillar of his campaign. In a statement issued after the Republican blockade of the measure, he harshly criticized the position of the Republican Party and described its resistance to women “freely deciding on their own bodies” as “extreme, dangerous and wrong.”
The legislative project, baptized as the “Law of the Right to ‘in vitro’ fertilization”, received the support of all Democrats and Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine). The rest of the Republicans opposed it.
The text only received 51 votes in favor and could not exceed the barrier of 60 supports necessary to be debated in the Senate and, subsequently, be submitted to a final vote.
The project aimed to make access to ‘in vitro’ fertilization more affordable by requiring some insurers to cover fertility treatments.
According to the FertilityIQ organization, dedicated to providing information and guidance on fertility, the average cost can exceed $20,000. However, the exact price depends on the circumstances of each patient, including the coverage of their insurance.
International
The Government of Ecuador decrees a curfew in six provinces during a national blackout
The Government of Ecuador decreed a curfew in six provinces and one canton (municipality) of a seventh province during the eight hours that the power outage will last throughout the country, which will begin at 22:00 local time (03:00 GMT) on Wednesday.
The curfew will govern in the coastal provinces of Guayas, Los Ríos, Manabí, Orellana, Santa Elena, El Oro and in the municipality of Camilo Ponce Enríquez, in the province of Azuay.
In these same areas there is currently a state of emergency in force to face the organized crime gangs that operate in Ecuador, mainly dedicated to drug trafficking, and whose violence has led the country to register in 2023 the highest homicide rate in Latin America, with 47.2 per 100,000 inhabitants.
The Presidency indicated that police and military will strengthen their actions to ensure citizen and country security, “with special attention to the cantons (municipalities) and parishes in which this suspension of freedom of transit governs.”
He said that, in due course, he will communicate other complementary measures that they consider necessary depending on the situation next week.
Wednesday’s blackout was initially attributed by the Government to maintenance in the national electrical infrastructure to face a new period of electricity rationing due to lack of generation in the main hydroelectric power plants in Ecuador, before what the Executive described as the worst dry season of the last 61 years.
But on Monday night, the Administration of President Daniel Noboa anticipated that from Monday to Thursday of next week there will also be eight-hour blackouts during the nights throughout the country, due to the impossibility of supplying the national demand for electricity.
During these blackouts, the Police will deploy more than 46,000 agents nationwide to carry out patrols that will focus especially on financial institutions, residential complexes, fuel service stations and prisons.
This was anticipated on Tuesday by the Chief of Police for the Metropolitan District of Quito, Henry Román, who pointed out that there will be police controls at the entrances and exits of the main cities of the country, where all vehicles will be inspected.
For its part, it is expected that the military will take control of the Mazar reservoir, the second largest in the country, as provided by Noboa in the previous days to avoid sabotage in this critical infrastructure for the supply of national electricity demand.
The Mazar reservoir, located in the southern Andean province of Azuay, has a capacity of 410 million cubic meters of water and serves to supply a complex of three hydroelectric plants located in the Paute River basin with an installed capacity of 1,757 megawatts.
However, in recent days the level of this water reserve has dropped drastically due to the prolonged absence of rain.
International
Harris expresses confidence in the Secret Service and criticizes Trump’s anti-migrant rhetoric
The vice president of the United States and Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, expressed her confidence in the Secret Service on Tuesday, after the second assassination attempt suffered by former President Donald Trump, and charged against the anti-migrant rhetoric of the Republicans.
During a conversation with the National Association of African American Journalists, Harris said that she feels safe with the protection of the Secret Service and immediately criticized Trump’s campaign for spreading the lie that Haitian migrants from Springfield (Ohio) steal and eat the neighbors’ pets.
“I feel safe. I have the protection of the Secret Service, but that does not deter the importance of fighting for the safety of all people in our country,” he said.
The Democratic aspirant stressed that “not everyone has a Secret Service,” she regretted that “there are too many people who do not feel safe” and gave the example of Ohio, where threats against Haitians have grown due to the hoaxes of Trump and his vice presidential candidate, J.D. Vance.
Likewise, Harris revealed that this same Tuesday he called Trump to talk about the assassination attempt he suffered on Sunday, when a man armed with a rifle was arrested in the vicinity of the West Palm Beach golf course (Florida) where the Republican was.
“I told her what I have said in public: there is no room for political violence in our country,” the vice president said.
This is the second assassination attempt suffered by Trump so far in the campaign, after the one that occurred in July when a man shot the Republican at a rally in Butler (Pennsylvania).
Trump blamed on Monday the second attempted murder on the “lies” that Harris spreads against him and the “rhetoric of the communist left.”
Democrats pressure Donald Trump with a vote in the Senate on in vitro fertilization
The Government of Ecuador decrees a curfew in six provinces during a national blackout
Harris expresses confidence in the Secret Service and criticizes Trump’s anti-migrant rhetoric
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
Defense Minister commends salvadoran soldier for Central American Cross Country victory
Ecuador prison riot leaves at least 43 dead
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