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Tag: Nicolas Maduro

  • Venezuela’s Maduro reshuffles cabinet after contested election victory

    Venezuela’s Maduro reshuffles cabinet after contested election victory

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    As tensions persist over his widely questioned re-election, Maduro makes major changes, naming new interior and oil ministers.

    Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro has made major changes to his cabinet, as protests continue following his success in a recent election rejected by opponents as fraudulent.

    Maduro on Tuesday brought in new figures to lead the oil, finance, and interior ministries, among others.

    Anabel Pereira is the new finance minister, while Hector Obregon is the new president of state oil company PDVSA, replacing Pedro Tellechea, who will move to head the Ministry of Industries and National Production, Maduro said on state television.

    Vice President Delcy Rodriguez will remain in her post, but add the oil ministry to her brief, Maduro added.

    Yvan Gil and Vladimir Padrino will remain in their respective posts as foreign minister and defence minister, Maduro said, while governing party leader Diosdado Cabello will be the new interior, justice and peace minister.

    The changes are “a profound renovation of the national government and we are putting together a new team which will help us transition everything for this era, open new paths … speed the changes the people need,” Maduro said during an event broadcast live.

    Cabello, a close ally of Maduro’s predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez, will return to the cabinet after being the second in command of the governing party PSUV. He is a former vice president and legislator and served as interior and justice minister in the early 2000s.

    “Today, I think Venezuela is on the path of definitive peace, a peace with justice, a peace where the people feel that those who have acted against the constitution and the law have justice applied to them on time,” Cabello said.

    The changes have come amid long-running tensions in the South American nation, following a July election in which both Maduro and the opposition, which had led him by a nearly insurmountable margin in pre-election polling, claimed victory.

    Election observers, opposition members, and regional leaders have all expressed strong scepticism about Maduro’s claims of success, with growing calls for the government to release vote tally data that could help confirm the results.

    The opposition has released its own data, tabulated from around the country, purporting to show that it beat Maduro by a 2-1 margin.

    The government has led a harsh crackdown on protests and members of the opposition in response, opening an investigation into opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia over his claims that the opposition were the true winners of the election.

    Urrutia, who has barely been seen since the elections, has ignored a series of summons to testify as part of that investigation.

    Maria Corina Machado, another prominent opposition figure, told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday that street protests and international pressure could push Maduro to step down, but the embattled leader has shown few signs that he is willing to do so.

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  • Elon Musk Accepts Fight Challenge from Venezuelan Dictator Nicolas Maduro

    Elon Musk Accepts Fight Challenge from Venezuelan Dictator Nicolas Maduro

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    Screenshots: CNBC Television and New York Post YouTube

    Strange times we live in. Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, currently in the process of “challenging a democratic election”, also challenged X CEO Elon Musk to a physical fight.

    And Musk accepted.

    The challenge comes about after a series of public exchanges between the two, with Musk criticizing Maduro’s leadership and accusing him of outright election fraud.

    “Do you want a fight? Let’s go for it, Elon Musk,” Maduro said earlier this week. “As we say here: If you want it, I want it.”

    He added: “I’m not afraid of you, Elon Musk. Let’s fight, wherever you want.”

    RELATED: Trump Mocks Biden’s Campaign Farewell Address: ‘Barely Understandable’

    Elon Musk Accepts The Maduro Challenge

    Whether just playful banter on social media or a serious response, Elon Musk expressed interest in the brawl to end it all with Nicolás Maduro.

    Musk replied succinctly on X saying, “I accept.”

    The tech mogul then added some stipulations for the winner and loser.

    “If I win, he resigns as dictator of Venezuela,” Musk wrote. “If he wins, I give him a free ride to Mars.”

    A one-way ticket, perhaps?

    In a post suggesting that Maduro was directing his security forces to protect him from Musk, the X CEO taunted him further.

    “I’m coming for you Maduro!” he said. “I will carry you to Gitmo on a donkey.”

    RELATED: Here’s The Exact Moment Trump Smacked Down Democrat Socialists In His Speech

    Nicolás Maduro Is A Brutal Dictator

    You absolutely have to go read the New York Times article setting up the showdown between Elon Musk and Nicolás Maduro. It is a remarkable display of how far American media has fallen.

    If you were living under a rock and emerged and this was the first news article you read in a long while, you’d think Musk was the bad guy in this situation. The article devotes 98% of its time to giving a negative slant to Musk’s current red-pilled worldview and propping up Maduro as someone standing against that view.

    They even give cover to the Venezuelan president by putting the word “dictator” in quotes.

    Here is a quick rundown of the type of man the New York Times is siding with.

    Maduro has a history of extreme homophobia and outright murder at the hands of his regime.

    In 2018, Canada imposed sanctions on Venezuela and a referral to the International Criminal Court in light of Maduro’s crimes against humanity.

    The move was in response to the Organization of American States findings that Maduro was “responsible for dozens of murders, thousands of extra-judicial executions, more than 12,000 cases of arbitrary detentions, more than 290 cases of torture, attacks against the judiciary and a ‘state-sanctioned humanitarian crisis’ affecting hundreds of thousands of people.”

    So yeah, Elon, feel free to go rounds with this guy.

    Kamala Harris’ Authenticity Problem Takes A Hit As She’s Accused Of Using Fake Southern Accent At Atlanta Rally

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    Rusty Weiss

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  • Maduro is declared winner in Venezuela’s presidential election

    Maduro is declared winner in Venezuela’s presidential election

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    Venezuela’s opposition claimed victory in Sunday’s presidential election, setting up a showdown with the government, which earlier declared President Nicolás Maduro the winner.“The Venezuelans and the entire world know what happened,” opposition candidate Edmundo González said in his first remarks.Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said the margin of González’s victory was “overwhelming” based on voting tallies it had received from campaign representatives from about 40% of ballot boxes nationwide.The National Electoral Council, which is controlled by Maduro loyalists, earlier said Maduro had secured 51% of the vote to 44% for González. But it didn’t release the tallies from each of the 30,000 polling booths nationwide, promising only to do so in the “coming hours,” hampering the ability to verify the results.Foreign leaders held off recognizing the results.“The Maduro regime should understand that the results it published are difficult to believe,” said Gabriel Boric, the leftist leader of Chile. “We won’t recognize any result that is not verifiable.”U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. has “serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people,” speaking in Tokyo.The delay in announcing results — six hours after polls were supposed to close — indicated a deep debate inside the government about how to proceed after Maduro’s opponents came out early in the evening all but claiming victory.When Maduro finally came out to celebrate the results, he accused unidentified foreign enemies of trying to hack the voting system.“This is not the first time that they have tried to violate the peace of the republic,” he said to a few hundred supporters at the presidential palace. He provided no evidence to back the claim but promised “justice” for those who try to stir violence in Venezuela.Opposition representatives said tallies they collected from campaign representatives at the polling stations showed González trouncing Maduro. Meanwhile, the head of the electoral council said it would release the official voting acts in the coming hours.Maduro celebrated the result with a few hundreds supporters at the presidential palace.Maduro, in seeking a third term, faced his toughest challenge yet from the unlikeliest of opponents in González: a retired diplomat who was unknown to voters before being tapped in April as a last-minute stand-in for opposition powerhouse Maria Corina Machado.Earlier, opposition leaders celebrating, online and outside a few voting centers, what they assured was a landslide victory for González.“I’m so happy,” said Merling Fernández, a 31-year-old bank employee, as a representative for the opposition campaign walked out of one voting center in a working class neighborhood of Caracas to announce results showing González more than doubled Maduro’s vote count. Dozens standing nearby erupted in an impromptu rendition of the national anthem.“This is the path toward a new Venezuela,” added Fernández, holding back tears. “We are all tired of this yoke.”Voters started lining up at some voting centers across the country before dawn Sunday, sharing water, coffee and snacks for several hours.The election will have ripple effects throughout the Americas, with government opponents and supporters alike signaling their interest in joining the exodus of 7.7 million Venezuelans who have already left their homes for opportunities abroad should Maduro win another six year term.Authorities set Sunday’s election to coincide with what would have been the 70th birthday of former President Hugo Chávez, the revered leftist firebrand who died of cancer in 2013, leaving his Bolivarian revolution in the hands of Maduro. But Maduro and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela are more unpopular than ever among many voters who blame his policies for crushing wages, spurring hunger, crippling the oil industry and separating families due to migration.The opposition managed to line up behind a single candidate after years of intraparty divisions and election boycotts that torpedoed their ambitions to topple the ruling party.Machado was blocked by the Maduro-controlled supreme court from running for any office for 15 years. A former lawmaker, she swept the opposition’s October primary with over 90% of the vote. After she was blocked from joining the presidential race, she chose a college professor as her substitute on the ballot, but the National Electoral Council also barred her from registering. That’s when González, a political newcomer, was chosen.Sunday’s ballot also featured eight other candidates challenging Maduro, but only González threatens Maduro’s rule.After voting, Maduro said he would recognize the election result and urged all other candidates to publicly declare that they would do the same.“No one is going to create chaos in Venezuela,” Maduro said. “I recognize and will recognize the electoral referee, the official announcements and I will make sure they are recognized.”Venezuela sits atop the world’s largest proven oil reserves, and once boasted Latin America’s most advanced economy. But it entered into a free fall after Maduro took the helm. Plummeting oil prices, widespread shortages and hyperinflation that soared past 130,000% led first to social unrest and then mass emigration.Economic sanctions from the U.S. seeking to force Maduro from power after his 2018 reelection — which the U.S. and dozens of other countries condemned as illegitimate — only deepened the crisis.Maduro’s pitch to voters this election was one of economic security, which he tried to sell with stories of entrepreneurship and references to a stable currency exchange and lower inflation rates. The International Monetary Fund forecasts the economy will grow 4% this year — one of the fastest in Latin America — after having shrunk 71% from 2012 to 2020.But most Venezuelans have not seen any improvement in their quality of life. Many earn under $200 a month, which means families struggle to afford essential items. Some work second and third jobs. A basket of basic staples — sufficient to feed a family of four for a month — costs an estimated $385.The opposition has tried to seize on the huge inequalities arising from the crisis, during which Venezuelans abandoned their country’s currency, the bolivar, for the U.S. dollar.González and Machado focused much of their campaigning on Venezuela’s vast hinterland, where the economic activity seen in Caracas in recent years didn’t materialize. They promised a government that would create sufficient jobs to attract Venezuelans living abroad to return home and reunite with their families.___Associated Press writer Fabiola Sánchez contributed to this report.

    CARACAS, Venezuela —

    Venezuela’s opposition claimed victory in Sunday’s presidential election, setting up a showdown with the government, which earlier declared President Nicolás Maduro the winner.

    “The Venezuelans and the entire world know what happened,” opposition candidate Edmundo González said in his first remarks.

    Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said the margin of González’s victory was “overwhelming” based on voting tallies it had received from campaign representatives from about 40% of ballot boxes nationwide.

    The National Electoral Council, which is controlled by Maduro loyalists, earlier said Maduro had secured 51% of the vote to 44% for González. But it didn’t release the tallies from each of the 30,000 polling booths nationwide, promising only to do so in the “coming hours,” hampering the ability to verify the results.

    Foreign leaders held off recognizing the results.

    “The Maduro regime should understand that the results it published are difficult to believe,” said Gabriel Boric, the leftist leader of Chile. “We won’t recognize any result that is not verifiable.”

    U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. has “serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people,” speaking in Tokyo.

    The delay in announcing results — six hours after polls were supposed to close — indicated a deep debate inside the government about how to proceed after Maduro’s opponents came out early in the evening all but claiming victory.

    When Maduro finally came out to celebrate the results, he accused unidentified foreign enemies of trying to hack the voting system.

    “This is not the first time that they have tried to violate the peace of the republic,” he said to a few hundred supporters at the presidential palace. He provided no evidence to back the claim but promised “justice” for those who try to stir violence in Venezuela.

    Opposition representatives said tallies they collected from campaign representatives at the polling stations showed González trouncing Maduro. Meanwhile, the head of the electoral council said it would release the official voting acts in the coming hours.

    Maduro celebrated the result with a few hundreds supporters at the presidential palace.

    Maduro, in seeking a third term, faced his toughest challenge yet from the unlikeliest of opponents in González: a retired diplomat who was unknown to voters before being tapped in April as a last-minute stand-in for opposition powerhouse Maria Corina Machado.

    Earlier, opposition leaders celebrating, online and outside a few voting centers, what they assured was a landslide victory for González.

    “I’m so happy,” said Merling Fernández, a 31-year-old bank employee, as a representative for the opposition campaign walked out of one voting center in a working class neighborhood of Caracas to announce results showing González more than doubled Maduro’s vote count. Dozens standing nearby erupted in an impromptu rendition of the national anthem.

    “This is the path toward a new Venezuela,” added Fernández, holding back tears. “We are all tired of this yoke.”

    Voters started lining up at some voting centers across the country before dawn Sunday, sharing water, coffee and snacks for several hours.

    The election will have ripple effects throughout the Americas, with government opponents and supporters alike signaling their interest in joining the exodus of 7.7 million Venezuelans who have already left their homes for opportunities abroad should Maduro win another six year term.

    Authorities set Sunday’s election to coincide with what would have been the 70th birthday of former President Hugo Chávez, the revered leftist firebrand who died of cancer in 2013, leaving his Bolivarian revolution in the hands of Maduro. But Maduro and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela are more unpopular than ever among many voters who blame his policies for crushing wages, spurring hunger, crippling the oil industry and separating families due to migration.

    The opposition managed to line up behind a single candidate after years of intraparty divisions and election boycotts that torpedoed their ambitions to topple the ruling party.

    Machado was blocked by the Maduro-controlled supreme court from running for any office for 15 years. A former lawmaker, she swept the opposition’s October primary with over 90% of the vote. After she was blocked from joining the presidential race, she chose a college professor as her substitute on the ballot, but the National Electoral Council also barred her from registering. That’s when González, a political newcomer, was chosen.

    Sunday’s ballot also featured eight other candidates challenging Maduro, but only González threatens Maduro’s rule.

    After voting, Maduro said he would recognize the election result and urged all other candidates to publicly declare that they would do the same.

    “No one is going to create chaos in Venezuela,” Maduro said. “I recognize and will recognize the electoral referee, the official announcements and I will make sure they are recognized.”

    Venezuela sits atop the world’s largest proven oil reserves, and once boasted Latin America’s most advanced economy. But it entered into a free fall after Maduro took the helm. Plummeting oil prices, widespread shortages and hyperinflation that soared past 130,000% led first to social unrest and then mass emigration.

    Economic sanctions from the U.S. seeking to force Maduro from power after his 2018 reelection — which the U.S. and dozens of other countries condemned as illegitimate — only deepened the crisis.

    Maduro’s pitch to voters this election was one of economic security, which he tried to sell with stories of entrepreneurship and references to a stable currency exchange and lower inflation rates. The International Monetary Fund forecasts the economy will grow 4% this year — one of the fastest in Latin America — after having shrunk 71% from 2012 to 2020.

    But most Venezuelans have not seen any improvement in their quality of life. Many earn under $200 a month, which means families struggle to afford essential items. Some work second and third jobs. A basket of basic staples — sufficient to feed a family of four for a month — costs an estimated $385.

    The opposition has tried to seize on the huge inequalities arising from the crisis, during which Venezuelans abandoned their country’s currency, the bolivar, for the U.S. dollar.

    González and Machado focused much of their campaigning on Venezuela’s vast hinterland, where the economic activity seen in Caracas in recent years didn’t materialize. They promised a government that would create sufficient jobs to attract Venezuelans living abroad to return home and reunite with their families.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Fabiola Sánchez contributed to this report.

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  • Venezuela standoff: Maduro declared winner of presidential election but opposition claims landslide victory

    Venezuela standoff: Maduro declared winner of presidential election but opposition claims landslide victory

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    Caracas, Venezuela — Venezuela‘s opposition claimed victory in Sunday’s presidential election, setting up a showdown with the government, which earlier declared President Nicolás Maduro the winner.

    “Venezuelans and the entire world know what happened,” opposition candidate Edmundo González said in his first remarks.

    Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said the margin of González’s victory was “overwhelming” based on voting tallies it had received from campaign representatives from about 40% of ballot boxes nationwide.

    Venezuela Election
    Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez hold a press conference after electoral authorities declared President Nicolas Maduro the winner of the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 29, 2024.

    Matias Delacroix / AP


    The National Electoral Council, which is controlled by Maduro loyalists, earlier said Maduro had secured 51% of the vote to 44% for González. But it didn’t release the tallies from each of the 30,000 polling booths nationwide, only promising to do so in the “coming hours,” hampering the ability to verify the results.

    Other nations voice doubts about official results

    U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking in Tokyo, said the U.S. has “serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people.”   

    Foreign leaders held off recognizing the results.

    “The Maduro regime should understand that the results it published are difficult to believe,” said Gabriel Boric, the leftist leader of Chile. “We won’t recognize any result that is not verifiable.”

    Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo said, “We receive the results announced by the CNE (electoral authority) with many doubts,” the Reuters news agency reports.

    Reuters quotes Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou as saying, “It was an open secret. They were going to ‘win’ regardless of the actual results.”

    Italy and Spain were among other countries indicating concern about the truth of the announced official results.

    But China congratulated Maduro on his win, and Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said he spoke with Maduro to congratulate him on his “historic” victory, according to Agence France-Presse.

    The delay in announcing results – six hours after polls were supposed to close – indicated a deep debate inside the government about how to proceed after Maduro’s opponents came out early in the evening all but claiming victory.

    When Maduro finally came out to celebrate the results, he accused unidentified foreign enemies of trying to hack the voting system.

    “This is not the first time that they have tried to violate the peace of the republic,” he said to a few hundred supporters at the presidential palace. He provided no evidence to back the claim but promised “justice” for those who try to stir violence in Venezuela.

    APTOPIX Venezuela Election
    President Nicolas Maduro addresses supporters gathered outside the Miraflores presidential palace after electoral authorities declared him the winner of the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 29, 2024.

    Fernando Vergara / AP


    Maduro, in seeking a third term, faced his toughest challenge yet from the unlikeliest of opponents in González: a retired diplomat who was unknown to voters before being tapped in April as a last-minute stand-in for Machado, considered a powerhouse.

    Earlier, opposition supporters celebrated, online and outside a few voting centers, what they assured was a landslide victory for González.

    “I’m so happy,” said Merling Fernández, a 31-year-old bank employee, as a representative for the opposition campaign walked out of one voting center in a working class neighborhood of Caracas to announce results showing González more than doubling Maduro’s vote count. Dozens standing nearby erupted in an impromptu rendition of the national anthem.

    “This is the path toward a new Venezuela,” added Fernández, holding back tears. “We are all tired of this yoke.”

    Voters started lining up at some voting centers across the country before dawn Sunday, sharing water, coffee and snacks for several hours.

    Results will have broad impact

    The election will have ripple effects throughout the Americas, with government opponents and supporters alike signaling their interest in joining the exodus of 7.7 million Venezuelans who have already left their homes for opportunities abroad in anticipation of Maduro winning another six year term.

    Authorities set Sunday’s election to coincide with what would have been the 70th birthday of former President Hugo Chávez, the revered leftist firebrand who died of cancer in 2013, leaving his Bolivarian revolution in the hands of Maduro. But Maduro and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela are more unpopular than ever among many voters who blame his policies for crushing wages, spurring hunger, crippling the oil industry and separating families due to migration.

    The opposition managed to line up behind a single candidate after years of intraparty divisions and election boycotts that torpedoed their ambitions to topple the ruling party.

    Machado was blocked by the Maduro-controlled supreme court from running for any office for 15 years. A former lawmaker, she swept the opposition’s October primary with over 90% of the vote. After she was prevented from joining the presidential race, she chose a college professor as her substitute on the ballot, but the National Electoral Council also barred her from registering. That’s when González, a political newcomer, was chosen.

    Sunday’s ballot also featured eight other candidates challenging Maduro, but only González threatens Maduro’s rule.

    After voting, Maduro said he would recognize the election result and urged all other candidates to publicly declare that they would do the same.

    “No one is going to create chaos in Venezuela,” Maduro said. “I recognize and will recognize the electoral referee, the official announcements and I will make sure they are recognized.”

    Economy central in unrest  — and election

    Venezuela sits atop the world’s largest proven oil reserves, and once boasted Latin America’s most advanced economy. But it entered into a freefall after Maduro took the helm. Plummeting oil prices, widespread shortages and hyperinflation that soared past 130,000% led first to social unrest and then to mass emigration.

    Economic sanctions from the U.S. seeking to force Maduro from power after his 2018 reelection – which the U.S. and dozens of other countries condemned as illegitimate – only deepened the crisis.

    Maduro’s pitch to voters this election was one of economic security, which he tried to sell with stories of entrepreneurship and references to a stable currency exchange and lower inflation rates. The International Monetary Fund forecasts the economy will grow 4% this year – one of the fastest in Latin America – after having shrunk 71% from 2012 to 2020.

    But most Venezuelans haven’t seen any improvement in their quality of life. Many earn under $200 a month, which means families struggle to afford essential items. Some work second and third jobs. A basket of basic staples – sufficient to feed a family of four for a month – costs an estimated $385.

    The opposition has tried to seize on the huge inequalities arising from the crisis, during which Venezuelans abandoned their country’s currency, the bolivar, for the U.S. dollar.

    González and Machado focused much of their campaigning on Venezuela’s vast hinterland, where the economic activity seen in Caracas in recent years didn’t materialize. They promised a government that would create sufficient jobs to attract Venezuelans living abroad to return home and reunite with their families.

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  • Venezuelans anxiously await results of presidential election that could end one-party rule

    Venezuelans anxiously await results of presidential election that could end one-party rule

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    CARACAS – Venezuelans waited anxiously for the results of Sunday’s presidential election that could pave the way to an end to 25 years of single party rule, even as some polls remained open more than three hours after a deadline to close.

    President Nicolás Maduro, in seeking a third term, faced his toughest challenge yet from the unlikeliest of opponents: Edmundo González, a retired diplomat who was unknown to voters before being tapped in April as a last-minute stand-in for opposition powerhouse Maria Corina Machado.

    Opposition leaders were already celebrating, online and outside a few voting centers, what they assured was a landslide victory for González. Their hope was boosted by purported exit polls showing a healthy margin of victory for González. Exit polls are not allowed under Venezuelan law.

    “I’m so happy,” said Merling Fernández, a 31-year-old bank employee, as a representative for the opposition campaign walked out of one voting center in a working class neighborhood of Caracas to announce results showing González more than doubled Maduro’s vote count. Dozens standing nearby erupted in an impromptu rendition of the national anthem.

    “This is the path toward a new Venezuela,” added Fernández, holding back tears. “We are all tired of this yoke.”

    Maduro supporters were not showing any signs of throwing in the towel, however.

    “We can’t give results, but we can show face,” a smiling Jorge Rodriguez, campaign chief for Maduro, said at a press conference.

    Polls were supposed to begin closing at 6 p.m. but more than three hours after the deadline some voting centers in Caracas remained open and authorities were silent. The opposition called for the National Electoral Council to begin counting ballots.

    “This is the decisive moment,” Machado, flanked by González, told reporters at their campaign headquarters.

    Machado was careful not to claim victory before authorities announce results but said she had already received copies of some official voting tallies and they indicated a record turnout — exactly what the opposition needed to overcome Maduro’s well-greased electoral machine.

    González was similarly enthused, congratulating Venezuelans on the “historic” day and urging supporters to “celebrate in peace.”

    Earlier, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris offered her support. “The United States stands with the people of Venezuela who expressed their voice in today’s historic presidential election,” Harris wrote on X. “The will of the Venezuelan people must be respected.”

    A few Maduro allies were also projecting confidence.

    “The ballot boxes express what the streets said during these past few months of campaigning,” Maduro’s son, lawmaker Nicolas Maduro Guerra, said on X as night fell on the capital. “Victory for the Venezuelan people.”

    But in the absence of any order to close polls, their optimism rang hollow.

    Voters started lining up at some voting centers across the country before dawn Sunday, sharing water, coffee and snacks for several hours.

    The election will have ripple effects throughout the Americas, with government opponents and supporters alike signaling their interest in joining the exodus of 7.7 million Venezuelans who have already left their homes for opportunities abroad should Maduro win another six year term.

    Authorities set Sunday’s election to coincide with what would have been the 70th birthday of former President Hugo Chávez, the revered leftist firebrand who died of cancer in 2013, leaving his Bolivarian revolution in the hands of Maduro. But Maduro and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela are more unpopular than ever among many voters who blame his policies for crushing wages, spurring hunger, crippling the oil industry and separating families due to migration.

    Maduro, 61, is facing off against an opposition that has managed to line up behind a single candidate after years of intraparty divisions and election boycotts that torpedoed their ambitions to topple the ruling party.

    Machado was blocked by the Maduro-controlled supreme court from running for any office for 15 years. A former lawmaker, she swept the opposition’s October primary with over 90% of the vote. After she was blocked from joining the presidential race, she chose a college professor as her substitute on the ballot, but the National Electoral Council also barred her from registering. That’s when González, a political newcomer, was chosen.

    Sunday’s ballot also features eight other candidates challenging Maduro, but only González threatens Maduro’s rule.

    After voting, Maduro said he would recognize the election result and urged all other candidates to publicly declare that they would do the same.

    “No one is going to create chaos in Venezuela,” Maduro said. “I recognize and will recognize the electoral referee, the official announcements and I will make sure they are recognized.”

    Venezuela sits atop the world’s largest proven oil reserves, and once boasted Latin America’s most advanced economy. But it entered into a free fall after Maduro took the helm. Plummeting oil prices, widespread shortages and hyperinflation that soared past 130,000% led first to social unrest and then mass emigration.

    Economic sanctions from the U.S. seeking to force Maduro from power after his 2018 reelection — which the U.S. and dozens of other countries condemned as illegitimate — only deepened the crisis.

    Maduro’s pitch to voters this election is one of economic security, which he tried to sell with stories of entrepreneurship and references to a stable currency exchange and lower inflation rates. The International Monetary Fund forecasts the economy will grow 4% this year — one of the fastest in Latin America — after having shrunk 71% from 2012 to 2020.

    But most Venezuelans have not seen any improvement in their quality of life. Many earn under $200 a month, which means families struggle to afford essential items. Some work second and third jobs. A basket of basic staples — sufficient to feed a family of four for a month — costs an estimated $385.

    Judith Cantilla, 52, voted to change those conditions.

    “For me, change in Venezuela (is) that there are jobs, that there’s security, there’s medicine in the hospitals, good pay for the teachers, for the doctors,” she said, casting her ballot in the working-class Petare neighborhood of Caracas.

    Elsewhere, Liana Ibarra, a manicurist in greater Caracas, got in line at 3 a.m. Sunday with her water, coffee and cassava snack-laden backpack only to find at least 150 people ahead of her.

    “There used to be a lot of indifference toward elections, but not anymore,” Ibarra said.

    She said that if González loses, she will ask her relatives living in the U.S. to sponsor her and her son’s application to legally emigrate there. “We can’t take it anymore,” she said.

    The opposition has tried to seize on the huge inequalities arising from the crisis, during which Venezuelans abandoned their country’s currency, the bolivar, for the U.S. dollar.

    González and Machado focused much of their campaigning on Venezuela’s vast hinterland, where the economic activity seen in Caracas in recent years didn’t materialize. They promised a government that would create sufficient jobs to attract Venezuelans living abroad to return home and reunite with their families.

    After voting at a church-adjacent poll site in an upper-class Caracas neighborhood, González called on the country’s armed forces to respect “the decision of our people.”

    “What we see today are lines of joy and hope,” González, 74, told reporters. “We will change hatred for love. We will change poverty for progress. We will change corruption for honesty. We will change goodbyes for reunions.”

    An April poll by Caracas-based Delphos said about a quarter of Venezuelans were thinking about emigrating if Maduro wins Sunday. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

    Most Venezuelans who migrated over the past 11 years settled in Latin America and the Caribbean. In recent years, many began setting their sights on the U.S.

    Both campaigns have distinguished themselves not only for the political movements they represent but also on how they have addressed voters’ hopes and fears.

    Maduro’s campaign rallies featured lively electronic merengue dancing as well as speeches attacking his opponents. But after he caught heat from leftist allies such as Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for a comment about a “bloodbath” should he lose, Maduro recoiled. His son told the Spanish newspaper El Pais that the ruling party would peacefully hand over the presidency if it loses — a rare admission of vulnerability out of step with Maduro campaign’s triumphalist tone.

    In contrast, the rallies of González and Machado prompted people to cry and chant “ Freedom! Freedom! ” as the duo passed by. People handed the devout Catholics rosaries, walked along highways and went through military checkpoints to reach their events. Others video-called their relatives who have migrated to let them catch a glimpse of the candidates.

    “We do not want more Venezuelans leaving, and to those who have left I say that we will do everything possible to get them back here, and we will welcome them with open arms,” González said Sunday.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Fabiola Sánchez contributed to this report.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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    Regina Garcia Cano, Associated Press

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  • Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro clinches nomination for upcoming national election; seeks third term

    Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro clinches nomination for upcoming national election; seeks third term

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    Venezuela’s Machado speaks about campaign ban


    Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado speaks about ban on presidential candidacy

    07:20

    Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro is set to seek a third term in July 28 elections after receiving the official nomination of the ruling PSUV party Saturday.

    PSUV official Diosdado Cabello said Maduro, was elected “by acclamation” at a party conference.

    AP21048806913334.jpg
    FILE – In this Jan. 22, 2021 file photo, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro speaks during a ceremony marking the start of the judicial year at the Supreme Court in Caracas, Venezuela. 

    AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)


    “We’ll go to a new victory,” the 61-year-old said as he accepted his ruling PSUV party’s official nomination to be its candidate, after 11 years in office marked by sanctions, economic collapse and accusations of widespread repression.

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  • Detained Americans Fast Facts | CNN

    Detained Americans Fast Facts | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at some recent cases of foreign governments detaining US citizens. For information about missing Americans, see Robert Levinson Fast Facts or POW/MIA in Iraq and Afghanistan Fast Facts.

    Afghanistan

    Ryan Corbett
    August 2022 – Corbett, a businessman whose family lived in Afghanistan for more than a decade prior to the collapse of the Afghan government, returns to Afghanistan on a 10 day trip. Roughly one week into his visit, he was asked to come in for questioning by the local police. Corbett, his German colleague, and two local staff members were all detained. All but Corbett are eventually released. The Taliban has acknowledged holding Corbett, and he has been designated as wrongfully detained by the US State Department.

    China

    Mark Swidan
    November 13, 2012 – Swidan, a businessman from Texas, is arrested on drug related charges by Chinese Police while in his hotel room in Dongguan.

    2013 – Swidan is tried and pleads not guilty.

    2019 – Convicted of manufacturing and trafficking drugs by the Jiangmen Intermediate People’s Court in southern Guangdong province and given a death sentence with a two-year reprieve.

    April 13, 2023 – The Jiangmen Intermediate People’s Court denies Swidan’s appeal and upholds his death penalty.

    Kai Li
    September 2016 – Kai Li, a naturalized US citizen born in China, is detained while visiting relatives in Shanghai.

    July 2018 – He is sentenced to 10 years in prison for espionage following a secret trial held in August 2017.

    Iran

    Karan Vafadari
    December 2016 – Karan Vafadari’s family announces that Karan and his wife, Afarin Niasari, were detained at Tehran airport in July. Vafadari, an Iranian-American, and Niasari, a green-card holder, ran an art gallery in Tehran.

    March 2017 – New charges of “attempting to overthrow the Islamic Republic and recruiting spies through foreign embassies” are brought against Vafadari and Niasari.

    January 2018 – Vafadari is sentenced to 27 years in prison. Niasari is sentenced to 16 years.

    July 2018 – Vafadari and Niasari are reportedly released from prison on bail while they await their appeals court rulings.

    Russia

    Paul Whelan
    December 28, 2018 – Paul Whelan, from Michigan, a retired Marine and corporate security director, is arrested on accusations of spying. His family says he was in Moscow to attend a wedding.

    January 3, 2019 – His lawyer, Vladimir Zherebenkov, tells CNN Whalen has been formally charged with espionage.

    January 22, 2019 – At his pretrial hearing, Whelan is denied bail. Whelan’s attorney Zherebenkov tells CNN that Whelan was found in possession of classified material when he was arrested in Moscow.

    June 15, 2020 – Whelan is convicted of espionage and sentenced to 16 years in prison.

    August 8, 2021 – State news agency TASS reports that Whelan has been released from solitary confinement in the Mordovian penal colony where he is being held.

    Evan Gershkovich
    March 30, 2023 – Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, is detained by Russian authorities and accused of spying. The Wall Street Journal rejects the spying allegations.

    April 3, 2023 – The Russian state news agency TASS reports Gershkovich has filed an appeal against his arrest.

    April 7, 2023 – Gershkovich is formally charged with espionage.

    April 10, 2023 – The US State Department officially designates Gershkovich as wrongfully detained by Russia.

    April 18, 2023 – The Moscow City Court denies his appeal to change the terms of his detention. Gershkovich will continue to be held in a pre-trial detention center at the notorious Lefortovo prison until May 29.

    Saudi Arabia

    Walid Fitaihi
    November 2017 – Dual US-Saudi citizen Dr. Walid Fitaihi is detained at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Riyadh along with other prominent Saudis, according to his lawyer Howard Cooper. Fitaihi is then transferred to prison.

    July 2019 – Fitaihi is released on bond.

    December 8, 2020 – Fitaihi is sentenced to six years in prison for charges including obtaining US citizenship without permission.

    January 14, 2021 – A Saudi appeals court upholds Fitaihi’s conviction but reduces his sentence to 3.2 years and suspends his remaining prison term. Fitaihi still faces a travel ban and frozen assets.

    Syria

    Austin Tice
    August 2012 – Tice disappears while reporting near the Syrian capital of Damascus. The Syrian government has never acknowledged that they have Tice in their custody.

    September 2012 – A 43-second video emerges online that shows Tice in the captivity of what his family describe as an “unusual group of apparent jihadists.”

    Majd Kamalmaz
    February 2017 – Kamalmaz is detained at a checkpoint in Damascus. The Syrian government has never acknowledged Kamalmaz is in its custody.

    Cuba

    Alan Gross
    December 2009 – Alan Gross is jailed while working as a subcontractor on a US Agency for International Development project aimed at spreading democracy. His actions are deemed illegal by Cuban authorities. He is accused of trying to set up illegal internet connections on the island. Gross says he was trying to help connect the Jewish community to the internet and was not a threat to the government.

    March 12, 2011 – Gross is found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in prison for crimes against the Cuban state.

    April 11, 2014 – Ends a hunger strike that he launched the previous week in an effort to get the United States and Cuba to resolve his case.

    December 17, 2014 – Gross is released as part of a deal with Cuba that paves the way for a major overhaul in US policy toward the island.

    Egypt

    16 American NGO Employees
    December 2011 – Egyptian authorities carry out 17 raids on the offices of 10 nongovernmental organizations. The Egyptian general prosecutor’s office claims the raids were part of an investigation into allegations the groups had received illegal foreign financing and were operating without a proper license.

    February 5, 2012 – Forty-three people face prosecution in an Egyptian criminal court on charges of illegal foreign funding as part of an ongoing crackdown on NGOs. Among the American defendants is Sam LaHood, International Republican Institute country director and the son of US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

    February 15, 2012 – The US State Department confirms there are 16 Americans being held, not 19 as the Egyptian government announced.

    February 20, 2012 – South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham and Arizona Senator John McCain meet with top Egyptian military and political leaders in Cairo.

    March 1, 2012 – Some of the 43 detainees including American, Norwegian, German, Serbian and Palestinian activists leave Cairo after each post two-million Egyptian pounds bail.

    April 20, 2012 – CNN is told Egyptian officials have filed global arrest notices with Interpol for some of the Americans involved in the NGO trial.

    June 4, 2013 – An Egyptian court sentences the NGO workers: 27 workers in absentia to five-year sentences, 11 to one-year suspended jail sentences, and five others to two-year sentences that were not suspended, according to state-run newspaper Al Ahram. Only one American has remained in Egypt to fight the charges, but he also left after the court announced his conviction.

    Iran

    UC-Berkeley Grads
    July 31, 2009 – Three graduates from the University of California at Berkeley, Sarah Shourd of Oakland, California, Shane Bauer, of Emeryville, California, and Joshua Fattal, of Cottage Grove, Oregon, are detained in Iran after hiking along the unmarked Iran-Iraq border in northern Iraq’s Kurdish region.

    August 11, 2009 – Iran sends formal notification to the Swiss ambassador that the three American hikers have been detained. Switzerland represents the United States diplomatic interests in Iran since the United States and Iran do not have diplomatic relations.

    October 2009 – The Iranian government allows a Swiss diplomat to visit the hikers at Evin Prison.

    November 9, 2009 – Iran charges the three with espionage.

    March 9, 2010 – The families of the three detained hikers speak by phone to the hikers for the first time since they were jailed.

    May 20, 2010 – The detainees’ mothers are allowed to visit their children.

    May 21, 2010 – The mothers are allowed a second visit, and the detained hikers speak publicly for the first time at a government-controlled news conference.

    August 5, 2010 – Reports surface that Shourd is being denied medical treatment.

    September 14, 2010 – Shourd is released on humanitarian grounds on $500,000 bail.

    September 19, 2010 – Shourd speaks publicly to the press in New York.

    November 27, 2010 – Two days after Thanksgiving, Fattal and Bauer are allowed to call home for the second time. Each call lasts about five minutes.

    February 6, 2011 – Fattal and Bauer’s trial begins. Shourd has not responded to a court summons to return to stand trial.

    May 4, 2011 – Shourd announces she will not return to Tehran to face espionage charges.

    August 20, 2011 – Fattal and Bauer each receive five years for spying and three years for illegal entry, according to state-run TV. They have 20 days to appeal.

    September 14, 2011 – A Western diplomat tells CNN an Omani official is en route to Tehran to help negotiate the release of Fattal and Bauer. Oman helped secure the release of Shourd in 2010.

    September 21, 2011 – Fattal and Bauer are released from prison on bail of $500,000 each and their sentences are commuted. On September 25, they arrive back in the United States.

    Saeed Abedini
    September 26, 2012 – According to the American Center for Law and Justice, Saeed Abedini, an American Christian pastor who was born in Iran and lives in Idaho, is detained in Iran. The group says that Abedini’s charges stem from his conversion to Christianity from Islam 13 years ago and his activities with home churches in Iran.

    January 2013 – Abedini is sentenced to eight years in prison, on charges of attempting to undermine the Iranian government.

    January 16, 2016 – Iran releases four US prisoners including Abedini, Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, and Jason Rezaian, in exchange for clemency of seven Iranians imprisoned in the United States for sanctions violations.

    Amir Mirzaei Hekmati
    August 2011 – Amir Mirzaei Hekmati travels to Iran to visit relatives and gets detained by authorities, according to his family. His arrest isn’t made public for months.

    December 17, 2011 – Iran’s Intelligence Ministry claims to have arrested an Iranian-American working as a CIA agent, according to state-run Press TV.

    December 18, 2011 – Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency broadcasts a video in which a young man says his name is Hekmati, and that he joined the US Marine Corps and worked with Iraqi officers.

    December 19, 2011 – The US State Department confirms the identity of the man detained in Iran and calls for his immediate release.

    December 20, 2011 – Hekmati’s family says that he was arrested in August while visiting relatives in Iran. The family asserts that they remained quiet about the arrest at the urging of Iranian officials who promised his release.

    December 27, 2011 – Hekmati’s trial begins in Iran. Prosecutors accuse Hekmati of entering Iran with the intention of infiltrating the country’s intelligence system in order to accuse Iran of involvement in terrorist activities, according to the Fars news agency.

    January 9, 2012 – An Iranian news agency reports that Hekmati is convicted of “working for an enemy country,” as well as membership in the CIA and “efforts to accuse Iran of involvement in terrorism.” He is sentenced to death.

    March 5, 2012 – An Iranian court dismisses a lower court’s death sentence for Hekmati and orders a retrial. He remains in prison.

    September 2013 – In a letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry, Hekmati says that his confession was obtained under duress.

    April 11, 2014 – Hekmati’s sister tells CNN that Hekmati has been convicted in Iran by a secret court of “practical collaboration with the US government” and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

    January 16, 2016 – Iran releases four US prisoners including Hekmati, Abedini, and Jason Rezaian, in exchange for clemency of seven Iranians indicted or imprisoned in the United States for sanctions violations.

    Jason Rezaian
    July 24, 2014 – The Washington Post reports that its Tehran correspondent and Bureau Chief Jason Rezaian, his wife Yeganeh Salehi and two freelance journalists were detained on July 22, 2014. An Iranian official confirmed to CNN that the group is being held by authorities.

    July 29, 2014 – Iran releases one of three people detained alongside Rezaian, a source close to the family of the released detainee tells CNN. The released detainee is the husband of an Iranian-American photojournalist who remains in custody with Rezaian and his wife, according to the source.

    August 20, 2014 – The Washington Post reports the photojournalist detained with Rezaian in July has been released. At her family’s request, the Post declines to publish her name.

    October 6, 2014 – According to the Washington Post, Rezaian’s wife, Yeganeh Salehi, has been released on bail.

    December 6, 2014 – During a 10-hour court session in Tehran, Rezaian is officially charged with unspecified crimes, according to the newspaper.

    April 20, 2015 – According the Washington Post, Rezaian is being charged with espionage and other serious crimes including “collaborating with a hostile government” and “propaganda against the establishment.”

    October 11, 2015 – Iran’s state media reports that Rezaian has been found guilty, but no details are provided about his conviction or his sentence. His trial reportedly took place between May and August.

    November 22, 2015 – An Iranian court sentences Rezaian to prison. The length of the sentence is not specified.

    January 16, 2016 – Iran releases four US prisoners including Rezaian, Hekmati, and Abedini, in exchange for the clemency of seven Iranians indicted or imprisoned in the United States for sanctions violations.

    May 1, 2018 – Joins CNN as a global affairs analyst.

    Reza “Robin” Shahini
    July 11, 2016 – San Diego resident Reza “Robin” Shahini is arrested while visiting family in Gorgan, Iran. Shahini is a dual US-Iranian citizen.

    October 2016 – Shahini is sentenced to 18 years in prison.

    February 15, 2017 – Goes on a hunger strike to protest his sentence.

    April 3, 2017 – The Center for Human Rights in Iran says Shahini has been released on bail while he awaits the ruling of the appeals court.

    July 2018 – A civil lawsuit filed against the Iranian government on Shahini’s behalf indicates that Shahini has returned to the United States.

    Xiyue Wang
    July 16, 2017 – The semi-official news agency Fars News, citing a video statement from Iranian judicial spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejheie, reports that a US citizen has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of spying. Princeton University identifies the man as Chinese-born Xiyue Wang, an American citizen and graduate student in history. According to a university statement, Wang was arrested in Iran last summer while doing scholarly research in connection with his Ph.D. dissertation.

    December 7, 2019 – The White House announces that Wang has been released and is returning to the United States. Iran released Wang in a prisoner swap, in coordination with the United States freeing an Iranian scientist named Massoud Soleimani.

    Michael White
    January 8, 2019 – Michael White’s mother, Joanne White, tells CNN she reported him missing when he failed to return to work in California in July, after traveling to Iran to visit his girlfriend.

    January 9, 2019 – Bahram Ghasemi, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, says White “was arrested in the city of Mashhad a while ago, and within a few days after his arrest the US government was informed of the arrest through the Swiss Embassy in Tehran.” Ghasemi denies allegations that White, a US Navy veteran, has been mistreated in prison.

    March 2019 – White is handed a 13-year prison sentence on charges of insulting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and for publicly posting private images, according to his attorney Mark Zaid.

    March 19, 2020 – White is released into the custody of the Swiss Embassy on medical furlough. One condition of his release is that he must stay in Iran.

    June 4, 2020 – White is released, according to White’s mother and a person familiar with the negotiations.

    Baquer and Siamak Namazi
    October 2015 – Siamak Namazi, a Dubai-based businessman with dual US and Iranian citizenship, is detained while visiting relatives in Tehran.

    February 2016 – Baquer Namazi, a former UNICEF official and father of Siamak Namazi, is detained, his wife Effie Namazi says on Facebook. He is an Iranian-American.

    October 2016 – The men are sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined $4.8 million, according to Iran’s official news channel IRINN. Iran officials say five people were convicted and sentenced for “cooperating with Iran’s enemies,” a government euphemism that usually implies cooperating with the United States.

    January 28, 2018 – Baquer Namazi is granted a four-day leave by the Iranian government, after being discharged from an Iranian hospital. Namazi’s family say the 81-year-old was rushed to the hospital on January 15 after a severe drop in his blood pressure, an irregular heartbeat and serious depletion of energy. This was the fourth time Namazi had been transferred to a hospital in the last year. In September, he underwent emergency heart surgery to install a pacemaker.

    February 2018 – Baquer Namazi is released on temporary medical furlough.

    February 2020 – Iran’s Revolutionary Court commutes Baquer Namazi’s sentence to time served and the travel ban on him is lifted.

    May 2020 – According to the family, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) places a new travel ban on Baquer Namazi, preventing him from leaving the country.

    October 26, 2021 – Baquer Namazi undergoes surgery to clear a “life-threatening blockage in one of the main arteries to his brain, which was discovered late last month,” his lawyer says in a statement.

    October 1, 2022 – Baquer Namazi is released from detention and is permitted to leave Iran “to seek medical treatment abroad,” according to a statement from UN Secretary General spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric.

    March 9, 2023 – Siamak Namazi makes a plea to President Joe Biden to put the “liberty of innocent Americans above politics” and ramp up efforts to secure his release, in an interview with CNN from inside Iran’s Evin prison.

    September 18, 2023 – Siamak Namazi is freed, along with four other Americans as part of a wider deal that includes the United States unfreezing $6 billion in Iranian funds.

    North Korea

    Kenneth Bae
    December 11, 2012 – US officials confirm that American citizen Kenneth Bae has been detained in North Korea for over a month.

    April 30, 2013 – North Korea’s Supreme Court sentences Bae to 15 years of hard labor for “hostile acts” against the country.

    October 11, 2013 – Bae meets with his mother in North Korea.

    January 20, 2014 – A statement is released in which Bae says that he had committed a “serious crime” against North Korea. Any statement made by Bae in captivity is sanctioned by the North Korean government. The country has a long history of forcing false confessions.

    February 7, 2014 – The State Department announces that Bae has been moved from a hospital to a labor camp.

    November 8, 2014 – The State Department announces that Bae and Matthew Miller have been released and are on their way home.

    Jeffrey Fowle
    June 6, 2014 – North Korea announces it has detained US citizen Jeffrey Edward Fowle, who entered the country as a tourist in April. Fowle was part of a tour group and was detained in mid-May after leaving a bible in a restaurant.

    June 30, 2014 – North Korea says that it plans to prosecute Fowle and another detained American tourist, Matthew Miller, accusing them of “perpetrating hostile acts.”

    October 21, 2014 – A senior State Department official tells CNN that Fowle has been released and is on his way home.

    Aijalon Gomes
    January 25, 2010 – Aijalon Mahli Gomes, of Boston, is detained in North Korea after crossing into the country illegally from China.

    April 7, 2010 – He is sentenced to eight years of hard labor and ordered to pay a fine of 70 million North Korean won or approximately $600,000.

    July 10, 2010 – Gomes is hospitalized after attempting to commit suicide.

    August 25-27, 2010 – Former US President Jimmy Carter arrives in North Korea, with hopes of negotiating for Gomes’ release.

    August 27, 2010 – Carter and Gomes leave Pyongyang after Gomes is granted amnesty for humanitarian purposes.

    Kim Dong Chul
    October 2015 – Kim Dong Chul, a naturalized American citizen, is taken into custody after allegedly meeting a source to obtain a USB stick and camera used to gather military secrets. In January 2016, Kim is given permission to speak with CNN by North Korean officials and asks that the United States or South Korea rescue him.

    March 25, 2016 – A North Korean official tells CNN that Kim has confessed to espionage charges.

    April 29, 2016 – A North Korean official tells CNN that Kim has been sentenced to 10 years of hard labor for subversion and espionage.

    May 9, 2018 – Trump announces that Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak-song and Kim Sang Duk, also known as Tony Kim, appear to be in good health and are returning to the United States with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

    May 10, 2018 – The three freed American detainees arrive at Joint Base Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.

    Kim Hak-song
    May 7, 2017 – The state-run Korean Central News Agency reports that US citizen Kim Hak-song was detained in North Korea on May 6 on suspicion of “hostile acts” against the regime. The regime describes Kim as “a man who was doing business in relation to the operation of Pyongyang University of Science and Technology.”

    May 9, 2018 – Trump announces that Kim Hak-song, Kim Dong Chul and Kim Sang Duk, also known as Tony Kim, appear to be in good health and are returning to the United States with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

    May 10, 2018 – The three freed American detainees arrive at Joint Base Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.

    Kim Sang Duk
    April 22, 2017 – US citizen Kim Sang Duk, also known as Tony Kim, is detained by authorities at Pyongyang International Airport for unknown reasons. Kim taught for several weeks at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology.

    May 3, 2017 – State-run Korean Central News Agency reports that Kim is accused of attempting to overthrow the government.

    May 9, 2018 – Trump announces that Tony Kim, Kim Hak-song and Kim Dong Chul appear to be in good health and are returning to the United States with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

    May 10, 2018 – The three freed American detainees arrive at Joint Base Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.

    Euna Lee and Laura Ling
    March 2009 – Journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling are arrested while reporting from the border between North Korea and China for California-based Current Media.

    June 4, 2009 – They are sentenced to 12 years in prison on charges of entering the country illegally to conduct a smear campaign.

    August 4, 2009 – Former US President Bill Clinton travels to Pyongyang on a private humanitarian mission to help secure their release.

    August 5, 2009 – Lee and Ling are pardoned and released.

    Matthew Miller
    April 25, 2014 – North Korea’s news agency reports that Matthew Todd Miller was taken into custody on April 10. According to KCNA, Miller entered North Korea seeking asylum and tour up his tourist visa.

    June 30, 2014 – North Korea says that it plans to prosecute Miller and another detained American tourist, Jeffrey Fowle, accusing them of “perpetrating hostile acts.”

    September 14, 2014 – According to state-run media, Miller is convicted of committing “acts hostile” to North Korea and sentenced to six years of hard labor.

    November 8, 2014 – The State Department announces Miller and Kenneth Bae have been released and are on their way home.

    Merrill Newman
    October 26, 2013 – Merrill Newman of Palo Alto, California, is detained in North Korea, according to his family. Just minutes before his plane is to depart, Newman is removed from the flight by North Korean authorities, his family says.

    November 22, 2013 – The US State Department says North Korea has confirmed to Swedish diplomats that it is holding an American citizen. The State Department has declined to confirm the identity of the citizen, citing privacy issues, but the family of Newman says the Korean War veteran and retired financial consultant has been detained since October.

    November 30, 2013 – KCNA reports Newman issued an apology to the people of North Korea, “After I killed so many civilians and (North Korean) soldiers and destroyed strategic objects in the DPRK during the Korean War, I committed indelible offensive acts against the DPRK government and Korean people.” His statement ends: “If I go back to (the) USA, I will tell the true features of the DPRK and the life the Korean people are leading.”

    December 7, 2013 – Newman returns to the United States, arriving at San Francisco International Airport. North Korea’s state news agency reports Newman was released for “humanitarian” reasons.

    Eddie Yong Su Jun
    April 14, 2011 – The KCNA reports that US citizen Eddie Yong Su Jun was arrested in November 2010 and has been under investigation for committing a crime against North Korea. No details are provided on the alleged crime.

    May 27, 2011 – Following a visit from the US delegation which includes the special envoy for North Korean human rights, Robert King, and the Deputy Assistant Administrator of the US Agency for International Development, Jon Brause, to North Korea, Yong Su Jun is released.

    Otto Frederick Warmbier
    January 2, 2016 – Otto Frederick Warmbier, a University of Virginia college student, is detained in North Korea after being accused of a “hostile act” against the government.

    February 29, 2016 – The North Korean government releases a video of Warmbier apologizing for committing, in his own words, “the crime of taking down a political slogan from the staff holding area of the Yanggakdo International Hotel.” It is not known if Warmbier was forced to speak.

    March 16, 2016 – Warmbier is sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for crimes against the state, a North Korean official tells CNN.

    June 13, 2017 – Warmbier is transported back to the United States via medevac flight to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. There, doctors say that he has suffered severe brain damage. Doctors say Warmbier shows no current signs of botulism, which North Korean officials claim he contracted after his trial.

    June 19, 2017 – Warmbier’s family issues a statement that he has died.

    April 26, 2018 – Warmbier’s parents file a wrongful death lawsuit against the North Korean government charging that the country’s regime tortured and killed their son, according to lawyers for the family.

    December 24, 2018 – A federal judge in Washington awards Warmbier’s parents more than half a billion dollars in the wrongful death suit against the North Korean government. North Korea did not respond to the lawsuit – the opinion was rendered as a so-called “default judgment” – and the country has no free assets in the US for which the family could make a claim.

    Russia

    Trevor Reed
    2019 – While visiting a longtime girlfriend, Trevor Reed is taken into custody after a night of heavy drinking according to state-run news agency TASS and Reed’s family. Police tell state-run news agency RIA-Novosti that Reed was involved in an altercation with two women and a police unit that arrived at the scene following complaints of a disturbance. Police allege Reed resisted arrest, attacked the driver, hit another policeman, caused the car to swerve by grabbing the wheel and created a hazardous situation on the road, RIA stated.

    July 30, 2020 – Reed is sentenced to nine years in prison for endangering “life and health” of Russian police officers.

    April 1, 2021 – The parents of Reed reveal that their son served as a Marine presidential guard under the Obama administration – a fact they believe led Russia to target him.

    April 27, 2022 – Reed is released in a prisoner swap.

    June 14, 2022 – Reed tells CNN that he has filed a petition with the United Nations (UN), declaring that Russia violated international law with his detention and poor treatment.

    Brittney Griner
    February 17, 2022 – Two-time Olympic basketball gold medalist and WBNA star Brittney Griner is taken into custody following a customs screening at Sheremetyevo Airport. Russian authorities said Griner had cannabis oil in her luggage and accused her of smuggling significant amounts of a narcotic substance, an offense the Russian government says is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

    July 7, 2022 – Griner pleads guilty to drug charges in a Russian court.

    August 4, 2022 – Griner is found guilty of drug smuggling with criminal intent and sentenced by a Russian court to 9 years of jail time with a fine of one million rubles (roughly $16,400).

    October 25, 2022 – At an appeal hearing, a Russian judge leaves Griner’s verdict in place, upholding her conviction on drug smuggling charges and reducing only slightly her nine-year prison sentence.

    November 9, 2022 – Griner’s attorney tells CNN she is being moved to a Russian penal colony where she is due to serve the remainder of her sentence.

    December 8, 2022 – US President Biden announces that Griner has been released from Russian detention and is on her way home.

    Turkey

    Serkan Golge
    July 2016 – While on vacation in Turkey, Serkan Golge is arrested and accused of having links to the Gulenist movement. Golge is a 37-year-old NASA physicist who holds dual Turkish-US citizenship.

    February 8, 2018 – Golge is sentenced to 7.5 years in prison.

    September 2018 – A Turkish court reduces Golge’s prison sentence to five years.

    May 29, 2019 – The State Department announces that Golge has been released.

    Andrew Brunson
    October 2016 – Andrew Brunson, a North Carolina native, is arrested in Izmir on Turkey’s Aegean coast, where he is pastor at the Izmir Resurrection Church. Brunson, an evangelical Presbyterian pastor, is later charged with plotting to overthrow the Turkish government, disrupting the constitutional order and espionage.

    March 2018 – A formal indictment charges Brunson with espionage and having links to terrorist organizations.

    October 12, 2018 – Brunson is sentenced to three years and one month in prison but is released based on time served.

    Venezuela

    Timothy Hallett Tracy
    April 24, 2013 – Timothy Hallett Tracy, of Los Angeles, is arrested at the Caracas airport, according to Reporters Without Borders. Tracy traveled to Venezuela to make a documentary about the political division gripping the country.

    April 25, 2013 – In a televised address, newly elected President Nicolas Maduro says he ordered the arrest of Tracy for “financing violent groups.”

    April 27, 2013 – Tracy is formally charged with conspiracy, association for criminal purposes and use of a false document.

    June 5, 2013 – Tracy is released from prison and expelled from Venezuela.

    Joshua Holt
    May 26, 2018 – Joshua Holt and his Venezuelan wife, Thamara Holt, are released by Venezuela. The two had been imprisoned there since 2016. The American traveled to Venezuela to marry Thamara in 2016, and shortly afterward was accused by the Venezuelan government of stockpiling weapons and attempting to destabilize the government. He was held for almost two years with no trial.

    “Citgo 6”

    November 2017 – After arriving in Caracas, Venezuela, for an impromptu business meeting, Tomeu Vadell and five other Citgo executives – Gustavo Cardenas, Jorge Toledo, Alirio Zambrano, Jose Luis Zambrano and Jose Angel Pereira – are arrested and detained on embezzlement and corruption charges. Citgo is the US subsidiary of the Venezuelan oil and natural gas company PDVSA. Five of the six men are US citizens; one is a US legal permanent resident.

    December 2019 – The “Citgo 6” are transferred from the detention facility, where they have been held without trial for more than two years, to house arrest.

    February 5, 2020 – They are moved from house arrest into prison, hours after Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido met with US President Donald Trump

    July 30, 2020 – Two of the men – Cárdenas and Toledo – are released on house arrest after a humanitarian visit to Caracas by former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and a team of non-government negotiators.

    November 27, 2020 – The six oil executives are found guilty and are given sentences between 8 to 13 years in prison.

    April 30, 2021 – The men are released from prison to house arrest.

    October 16, 2021 – The “Citgo 6,” all under house arrest, are picked up by the country’s intelligence service SEBIN, just hours after the extradition of Alex Saab, a Colombian financier close to Maduro.

    March 8, 2022 – Cardenas is one of two detainees released from prison. The other, Jorge Alberto Fernandez, a Cuban-US dual citizen detained in Venezuela since February 2021, was accused of terrorism for carrying a small domestic drone. The releases take place after a quiet trip to Caracas by a US government delegation.

    October 1, 2022 – US President Biden announces the release and return of Toledo, Vadell, Alirio Zambrano, Jose Luis Zambrano, and Pereira.

    Matthew Heath

    September 2020 – Is arrested and charged with terrorism in Venezuela.

    June 20, 2022 – Family of Heath state that he has attempted suicide. “We are aware of reports that a US citizen was hospitalized in Venezuela,” a State Department spokesperson says. “Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment.”

    October 1, 2022 – US President Biden announces the release and return of Heath.

    Airan Berry and Luke Denman

    May 4, 2020 – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says two American “mercenaries” have been apprehended after a failed coup attempt to capture and remove him. Madura identifies the captured Americans as Luke Denman, 34, and Airan Berry, 41. On state television, Maduro brandishes what he claims are the US passports and driver’s licenses of the two men, along with what he says are their ID cards for Silvercorp, a Florida-based security services company.

    May 5, 2020 – Denman appears on Venezuelan state TV. He is shown looking directly at the camera recounting his role in “helping Venezuelans take back control of their country.”

    August 7, 2020 – Prosecutors announce that Berry and Denman have been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

    December 20, 2023 – It is announced that the US has reached an agreement to secure the release of 10 Americans, including Berry and Denman, held in Venezuela.

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  • Venezuela's oil-backed cryptocurrency Petro to shut down

    Venezuela's oil-backed cryptocurrency Petro to shut down

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    The Venezuelan government will reportedly shut down Petro (PTR), its state-issued, oil-backed crypto, which was subject to controversy and did not see mass adoption by citizens in the country. 

    According to reports, crypto wallets on the Patria website, the trading platform for Venezuela’s Petro, will cease operations on Monday, Jan. 15, with the remaining Petro converted to bolivar, the country’s fiat currency. 

    Petro’s demise comes nearly six years after its official launch in 2018. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said at the time that the crypto will help to circumvent harsh sanctions by the US government and also help the country’s collapsing economy.

    However, the state-issued cryptocurrency which was an ambitious project, failed to see widespread adoption among citizens, with the country’s legislators labeling the token as unconstitutional in 2018 before its official launch. 

    Despite criticism from within and outside Venezuela, Maduro’s administration continued to forge ahead with Petro, stating that passport fees would be paid in PTR. In 2020, the President stressed that the token will play a critical role in Venezuela’s economic recovery. 

    While Petro may not have enjoyed mass adoption, Venezuelans embraced other cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin. 

    Opposition leader Leopoldo López reportedly endorsed crypto, saying it helped Venezuela’s citizens preserve their savings from the continuous devaluation of the bolivar.


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  • “Fat Leonard” makes first court appearance after extradition from Venezuela

    “Fat Leonard” makes first court appearance after extradition from Venezuela

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    “Fat Leonard” makes first court appearance after extradition from Venezuela – CBS News


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    Former fugitive Leonard Francis, who goes by the nickname “Fat Leonard,” on Thursday made his first appearance in a U.S. courtroom since he was extradited from Venezuela as part of a prisoner exchange that also saw 10 other Americans released. Francis had pled guilty to masterminding a bribery scheme involving Navy officers, but he escaped the U.S. while awaiting sentencing.

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  • Could Venezuela’s diaspora hold the key to its opposition primary race?

    Could Venezuela’s diaspora hold the key to its opposition primary race?

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    Bogota, Colombia – Ever since Gisela Serrano fled Venezuela in 2018, the 53-year-old has felt like she has one foot in her adopted home of Colombia and another in her native country, where she hopes to one day return.

    For that to happen, though, the country’s humanitarian crisis would need to improve. So Serrano, a migrant rights activist, follows the political situation in Venezuela closely.

    But until recently, she has been unable to vote in Venezuelan elections. A migrant herself, she has no valid passport, and the Venezuelan embassy in Bogota, where she currently resides, had been shuttered until September.

    “It’s unfair,” said Serrano. “You feel helpless, watching everything happening from afar.”

    On Sunday, however, Serrano and thousands of other Venezuelans from the diaspora will vote for the first time in a presidential primary. In the independently organised election, voters will choose a single candidate to challenge President Nicolas Maduro in the 2024 general elections.

    Organisers of the opposition primary have sought to widen out-of-country voting by allowing Venezuelans abroad who are listed in voter rolls to update their information and cast a ballot.

    “We want to highlight that there are millions of Venezuelans abroad that are being denied their fundamental right to vote,” said Ismael Pérez, a member of the National Primary Commission (CP).

    A social media post shows polling locations in cities across Colombia for Sunday’s opposition election [Christina Noriega/Al Jazeera]

    More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left the country in recent years, fleeing political turmoil and an economic crisis spurred by government mismanagement, falling oil prices and United States sanctions.

    Within that diaspora, 4.5 million Venezuelans could be eligible to vote, Perez said. That number could prove decisive in future elections.

    In the lead-up to the October 22 primary, the CP paired with thousands of local volunteers to set up 80 polling sites across Latin America, Europe, the US, Canada and Israel.

    It also held a months-long drive to update voting rolls for Venezuelans abroad, bringing the total number of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees eligible to cast a ballot up to 397,000.

    That is a significant jump from the previous count of about 86,000 voters abroad, Perez said.

    One of those voters is Serrano, who — despite having left Venezuela five years ago — is determined to help shape the future of her country. Before she migrated, she volunteered as an electoral observer and voted in every election since she turned 18.

    But her commitment to free elections ultimately made it difficult for Serrano to stay in Venezuela.

    In the 2017 regional vote, a local coordinator for the United Socialist Party of Venezuela warned Serrano that, if she returned to the polling station where she volunteered, she would not leave the site alive.

    Fearing for her life, she escaped to neighbouring Colombia, where she was granted political asylum.

    Her safety, however, came at the expense of her suffrage: From across the border, she could no longer vote.

    “It’s the robbery of your freedom, of your right to express your approval or disapproval,” said Serrano of the elections.

    Two hands cup a Venezuelan passport, embossed with gold lettering.
    Gisela Serrano’s passport has expired since she fled Venezuela, and with her local embassy closed, she was unable to renew it [Christina Noriega/Al Jazeera]

    While many diasporas are not politically active at a high rate, the Venezuelan diaspora could be an exception, according to Eugenio Martinez, a Venezuelan political analyst. After all, many fled the country due to political pressures.

    “That this presidential election may serve to resolve the causes that forced them to leave the country is a more than sufficient reason to encourage voting,” said Martinez.

    But Venezuelans abroad face a series of challenges to voting, starting with the fact that many are not registered in the official voting rolls overseen by the National Electoral Council.

    Perez, the CP member, said the problem is made worse by the fraught diplomatic relations Venezuela has with many countries, which limits the number of Venezuelan embassies around the world.

    Another issue is that Venezuelans must have permanent legal residence in their adopted country to vote, something many have yet to attain.

    Jonathan Noguera, a refugee and migrant rights activist in Lima, Peru, also fears his fellow Venezuelans may be discouraged from voting in Sunday’s primary due to the fact that they are still unable to cast a ballot in the general elections.

    “It’s a contradiction. They ask why they should vote in the primary if they can’t vote in the general election,” said Noguera.

    Still, over the past week, Venezuela has taken some modest steps towards allowing a fair election in 2024.

    A woman in a grey hoodie reaches out and puts a hand on the shoulder of a man looking toward her.
    Opposition frontrunner Maria Corina Machado has been banned from holding public office in her native Venezuela [File: Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters]

    On Tuesday, the Maduro government and the opposition signed a pledge allowing political parties to select their own candidates. Those candidates would have equal access to media coverage and international observers would be allowed to monitor the vote.

    In exchange for the election concessions, the US agreed to ease some of its sanctions against Venezuela. But many advocates say the agreement did not go far enough.

    Martinez argued that the terms for a free and fair election should include the right to vote for the diaspora, which represents about one-third of the total voting population.

    “That such a significant number of people cannot decide whether they want to vote or not because of bureaucratic red tape has consequences for the democratic quality of the election,” said Martinez.

    The agreement is also vague about the prospect of banned candidates participating in the general election. Some of the leading opposition figures, including primary frontrunner Maria Corina Machado, have been barred from holding public office, due to their critical stance towards the Maduro government.

    Machado is on Sunday’s ballot, as the primary is being organised without state sponsorship. But if she or another banned candidate were to emerge as the primary winner, they would likely be blocked from running in the general election.

    That leaves the opposition with a choice, Perez explained. Either it could mobilise support for the barred candidate or choose an alternative to run.

    Serrano, who is voting for primary frontrunner Machado, knows her candidate may be unable to compete in the general election. But she insists on voting in the primary, saying that it symbolises her ongoing struggle for a better future in Venezuela.

    “It means that there is still hope, that we haven’t given up,” she said.

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  • ICC to continue investigation of human rights abuses in Venezuela

    ICC to continue investigation of human rights abuses in Venezuela

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    ICC has ruled that efforts within Venezuela to hold officials accountable for alleged abuses have fallen short.

    The International Criminal Court (ICC) has ruled that its prosecutors can resume an investigation into alleged human rights abuses in the South American country of Venezuela.

    The court’s decision came after the investigation into torture, extrajudicial killings and other abuses was suspended at Venezuela’s request in April 2022, to allow the country to conduct its own probe.

    But in a statement on Tuesday, the ICC concluded that Venezuela had fallen short in its investigation of government officials.

    “The Chamber concluded that, whilst Venezuela is taking some investigative steps, its domestic criminal proceedings do not sufficiently mirror the scope of the Prosecution’s intended investigation,” the court said in a press release.

    It noted “periods of unexplained investigative inactivity” in Venezuela’s probe, as well as failures to sufficiently address questions of persecution and crimes of a sexual nature.

    The court also included concerns that the Venezuelan investigation focused primarily on “lower level perpetrators”, rather than the senior-level officials ICC prosecutors had hoped to scrutinise.

    Tuesday’s announcement was welcomed by Human Rights Watch, an international human rights monitoring group.

    “With today’s decision, ICC judges have greenlighted the only credible pathway to justice for the victims of abuses by [Venezualan President] Nicolas Maduro’s government,” Juanita Goebertus, the group’s Americas director, said in a statement.

    “The decision confirms that Venezuela is not acting to bring justice for the crimes likely to be within the ICC’s investigation. Impunity remains the norm.”

    This is not the first time the court has heard doubts about Venezuela’s internal probe, however.

    In November, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan argued that Venezuela’s efforts “remain either insufficient in scope or have not yet had any concrete impact on potentially relevant proceedings”. He called for the court to resume its investigation.

    On Tuesday, the court seemed to accept that argument, finding that legal reforms carried out by Venezuelan authorities have been inadequate to justify further delay.

    Earlier this month, Khan met with President Maduro in Caracas to sign an agreement to establish an office for ICC prosecutors inside the country. Khan called it a “significant step”.

    The Maduro administration had previously indicated it did not believe the investigation was warranted.

    In recent months, however, Maduro has seen his administration enjoy renewed international ties, after several countries refused to recognise his re-election in 2018.

    In August, Colombia restored full diplomatic relations with Maduro’s government, and in January, Brazil followed suit.

    But his administration continues to face criticism within the region for its alleged abuses. At a summit this month of Latin American leaders, Chilean President Gabriel Boric dismissed assertions that questions about Venezuela’s human rights record are part of a “narrative” to smear the country.

    “It’s not a narrative construction. It is a reality. It is serious,” Boric said, adding that Chile considers human rights “basic and important”.

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  • Colombia hosts international conference to discuss Venezuela

    Colombia hosts international conference to discuss Venezuela

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    President Gustavo Petro calls on leaders from 19 countries and the EU to ‘rebuild the path of peace’ in Latin America.

    Colombian President Gustavo Petro has hosted world leaders in Bogotá for a one-day conference to discuss the political situation in Venezuela, where critics accuse the administration of Nicolás Maduro of stifling opposition.

    Representatives from 19 countries and the European Union met in the San Carlos Palace on Tuesday, where Petro opened the meeting with a speech.

    In it, he called on the international community to lift sanctions against Venezuela, but he also pressed for Maduro to schedule democratic elections in the country.

    “The history of Latin America is in our hands,” Petro, Colombia’s first left-wing president, told the diplomats.

    He depicted Latin America at a crossroads: Either the attendees could “mark a path that leads toward war and the deconstruction of democracy, or we can rebuild the path of peace and democracy”.

    President Gustavo Petro leads a conference of world leaders to discuss Venezuela at the San Carlos Palace in Bogotá, Colombia [Luisa Gonzalez/Reuters]

    Representatives from Argentina, Brazil, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States attended the conference, which was meant to reignite stalled talks between Maduro’s administration and Venezuela’s political opposition.

    The two sides had previously met in Mexico City to negotiate a resolution to the country’s political impasse, but those talks sputtered last December.

    Neither of the opposing parties was in attendance at Tuesday’s conference. But the opposition coalition, the Democratic Unitary Platform, voiced support for the meeting, though some factions questioned Colombia’s role as mediator.

    Since its 2018 presidential elections, Venezuela has faced a divided government. Maduro was overwhelmingly reelected for a second six-year term — but only after some of Venezuela’s most prominent opposition parties were barred from participating.

    That led critics of Maduro’s socialist government to declare the election illegitimate. After Maduro’s inauguration in January 2019, Juan Guaidó, the opposition leader and then-president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, issued a declaration establishing a state of emergency. He also named himself “interim president” in place of Maduro.

    Some countries, like the US, chose to recognise the opposition government over Maduro’s and impose heavy sanctions against Venezuela.

    However, in recent months, Latin America has seen a wave of left-wing leaders elected to top positions in government, leading some countries to resume relations with Maduro’s government.

    They include Colombia, which restored diplomatic ties under Petro, and Brazil, which renewed ties under leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was inaugurated in January.

    Guaidó himself has lost much of the opposition’s support, and in December, members of the opposition voted to dissolve his government and remove him from the position of “interim president”.

    Nevertheless, on Monday, Guaidó crossed the border from Venezuela into Colombia “on foot” in an attempt to meet with the diplomats at Tuesday’s conference.

    Colombia’s foreign ministry, however, announced that migration authorities had escorted Guaidó to Bogotá’s El Dorado airport, as he had crossed the border “irregularly”.

    On board a plane to the US city of Miami, Guaidó denounced his treatment as an extension of the repression he allegedly received under the Maduro government. “The persecution of the dictatorship unfortunately spread to Colombia today,” he said in a video posted to Twitter.

    But on Tuesday, Petro issued a rebuke of the former opposition leader’s statements.

    “Mr Guaidó was not expelled,” he wrote on Twitter. “It is better that lies do not appear in politics. Mr Guaidó had an agreement to travel to the US. We allowed it for humanitarian reasons despite the illegal entry into the country.”

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  • US hostage envoy quietly traveled to Venezuela to see detained Americans | CNN Politics

    US hostage envoy quietly traveled to Venezuela to see detained Americans | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    The US State Department’s top official for hostage and detainee issues quietly traveled to Venezuela last month as efforts to bring home Americans wrongfully detained there continue.

    Roger Carstens, the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, visited the Venezuelan capital of Caracas shortly before Christmas, a US official and family members of detainees told CNN.

    According to the US official, the December 2022 trip – which hasn’t been previously reported – was focused on checking on the Americans who remain imprisoned in Venezuela. Carstens was accompanied by US consular officials.

    The United States no longer has official relations with the government of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and does not have diplomats posted in the country, meaning that access to Americans there is extremely limited.

    There are at least four Americans currently detained there: Luke Denman, Airan Berry, Eyvin Hernandez, and Jerrel Kenemore. The latter two have been designated by the US State Department as wrongfully detained.

    Kenemore’s sister Jeana Tillery told CNN that Carstens was able to visit her brother and Hernandez for about 30 minutes. They brought him vitamins and Bibles at his request, and his family was able to send him tuna as a Christmas gift.

    “When he first saw the tuna, he asked for a moment of silence, he was so happy,” said Tillery, who told CNN she is able to speak with her brother a few times a week.

    Hernandez’s brother Henry Martinez said that Carstens was able to deliver some goodies from the family such as vitamins, soap, honey and chocolate.

    “They were able to tell him they’re working on his release and that they haven’t forgotten about him,” Martinez said.

    Martinez told CNN he is able to speak with Hernandez about twice a week for about five to 10 minutes, and he is worried that his brother is starting to lose hope as he approaches a year of detention in March.

    Carstens has traveled multiple times to the Venezuelan capital to see Americans detained there – many of whom the Biden administration secured the release of last year.

    In March 2022, Carstens brought two Americans from Venezuela – one of the “Citgo 6,” Gustavo Cárdenas, as well as Cuban-US dual citizen Jorge Alberto Fernandez. However, another trip in June ended without a prisoner release.

    At the beginning of October, the administration was able to free seven Americans – Jose Pereira, Jorge Toledo, Tomeu Vadell, Alirio Zambrano and Jose Luis Zambrano, Matthew Heath and Osman Khan – in a prisoner swap with the Maduro government.

    Carstens told CNN in exclusive interview late last November that the US has “an ongoing conversation with the other side.”

    “So while we have work to do, I’m left feeling optimistic,” he said at the time.

    Although the Biden administration has engaged with the Maduro government on the prisoner issue, it continues to officially recognize the opposition in Venezuela, which recently ousted Juan Guaido as its leader. The US has loosened some sanctions against the Maduro government, however, announcing an easing of oil sanctions in November after the opposition and the Maduro government resumed stalled talks and reached an agreement on humanitarian relief.

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  • US judge rejects Maduro ally’s claim of diplomatic immunity

    US judge rejects Maduro ally’s claim of diplomatic immunity

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    MIAMI — A federal judge in Miami on Friday rejected attempts by a close ally of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to shield himself from criminal charges, ruling Alex Saab isn’t entitled to diplomatic immunity in the U.S. and must stand trial on accusations of money laundering.

    The l egal fight over Saab’s purported diplomatic status was being closely watched by Maduro’s socialist government, which has demanded the release of the Colombian-born businessman as part of furtive negotiations with the Biden administration.

    The U.S. in 2019 stopped recognizing Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate leader, and Judge Robert Scola cited that determination as a basis for rejecting Saab’s motion to dismiss the criminal charges.

    He also sided with prosecutors who raised doubts about the legitimacy of several official Venezuelan credentials that Saab relied on to bolster his claim to diplomatic status — and questioned why he never mentioned his purported diplomatic status in several secret meetings with U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents.

    “The evidence suggests that the Maduro regime and its accomplices have fabricated documents to cloak Saab Moran in a diplomatic dress that does not befit him, all in an effort to exploit the law of diplomatic immunities and prevent his extradition to the United States,” the judge wrote.

    For more than two years, almost since the time of his arrest in Africa on a U.S. warrant, Saab has insisted he is a Venezuelan diplomat targeted for his work helping his adopted homeland circumvent American economic sanctions.

    Saab, 51, was pulled from a private jet in the summer of 2020 during a stop in Cape Verde en route to Iran, where he was heading to negotiate oil deals on behalf of Maduro’s government.

    He is charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering tied to a bribery scheme that allegedly siphoned off $350 million through state contracts to build affordable housing for Venezuela’s government.

    At a hearing Tuesday, Scola pressed Saab’s legal team of seven attorneys to explain why he should depart from the position taken by the U.S. State Department, which said Saab isn’t entitled to diplomatic immunity in the U.S.

    The U.S. since 2019 has recognized opposition lawmaker Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s legitimate leader — a position repeatedly affirmed by U.S. federal courts in numerous lawsuits brought by unpaid creditors seeking to seize the country’s overseas oil assets.

    Scola likened Saab’s situation to a hypothetical situation in which former President Donald Trump — who hasn’t recognized his loss in the 2020 election — were to issue passports with the supposed imprimatur of the U.S. government.

    “It is clear that the United States does not recognize the Maduro regime to represent the official government of Venezuela,” Scola wrote. “Accordingly, any claim to diplomatic immunity asserted by a representative of the Maduro regime must also be considered illegitimate.”

    Saab’s attorney’s presented as evidence what they claim are diplomatic notes exchanged between Iran and Venezuela discussing what was to be Saab’s third trip to Iran. At the time of his arrest, Saab was also purportedly carrying a sealed letter from Maduro to Iran’s supreme leader seeking his full support for a planned deal to import fuel at a time of long gas lines in Venezuela.

    “It’s like if you were to kidnap someone, bring them to your home and then charge them with trespassing,” Lee Casey, one of Saab’s attorney, said at this week’s hearing.

    But prosecutors presented evidence that some of the documents bolstering Saab’s claim — among them a Venezuelan diplomatic passport and a presidential decree published in Venezuela’s Official Gazette — were possibly falsified.

    “At best he was a courier,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex Kramer said during proceedings. “But being a courier of diplomatic letters does not make one a diplomat.”

    Scola seemed to agree. He also found that even if Saab was a properly appointed special envoy, he would not be entitled to in-transit immunity under international treaties and conventions that protect only members of permanent diplomatic missions. Doing so would make a defendant automatically “untouchable” in the U.S. so long as he had a free pass from another country making him the head of a temporary mission, he said.

    “To immunize heads of temporary missions in the way Saab Moran suggests would open the door to the abuse of diplomatic immunities in a way that could seriously frustrate cross-border law enforcement activities,” Scola wrote.

    Saab was initially held up as a trophy by the Trump administration, which made no secret of its efforts to oust Maduro, who himself is wanted on U.S. drug trafficking charges.

    But the criminal case has become a major sticking point as the Biden administration seeks to improve relations with Venezuela and tap new oil supplies to make up for a loss of exports from Russia following sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine

    The tug of war has been further complicated by the revelation that Saab, prior to his arrest, had been signed up as an informant by the DEA and had been providing it with information about corruption in Maduro’s inner circle.

    For months, speculation had been swirling that Saab could walk free as part of some sort of prisoner swap for several Americans detained in Caracas. A similar deal for two nephews of Maduro convicted in New York on drug charges secured the release in October of seven other Americans detained in Venezuela. The Biden administration has insisted that no such negotiations are taking place.

    ———

    Joshua Goodman on Twitter: @APJoshGoodman

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  • Biden turning to Trump-era rule to expel Venezuelan migrants

    Biden turning to Trump-era rule to expel Venezuelan migrants

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Two years ago, candidate Joe Biden loudly denounced President Donald Trump for immigration policies that inflicted “cruelty and exclusion at every turn,” including toward those fleeing the “brutal” government of socialist Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.

    Now, with increasing numbers of Venezuelans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border as the Nov. 8 election nears, Biden has turned to an unlikely source for a solution: his predecessor’s playbook.

    Biden last week invoked a Trump-era rule known as Title 42 — which Biden’s own Justice Department is fighting in court — to deny Venezuelans fleeing their crisis-torn country the chance to request asylum at the border.

    The rule, first invoked by Trump in 2020, uses emergency public health authority to allow the United States to keep migrants from seeking asylum at the border, based on the need to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

    Under the new Biden administration policy, Venezuelans who walk or swim across America’s southern border will be expelled and any Venezuelan who illegally enters Mexico or Panama will be ineligible to come to the United States. But as many as 24,000 Venezuelans will be accepted at U.S. airports, similar to how Ukrainians have been admitted since Russia’s invasion in February.

    Mexico has insisted that the U.S. admit one Venezuelan on humanitarian parole for each Venezuelan it expels to Mexico, according to a Mexican official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke condition of anonymity. So if the Biden administration paroles 24,000 Venezuelans to the U.S., Mexico would take no more than 24,000 Venezuelans expelled from the U.S.

    The Biden policy marks an abrupt turn for the White House, which just weeks ago was lambasting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, both Republicans, for putting Venezuelan migrants “fleeing political persecution” on buses and planes to Democratic strongholds.

    “These were children, they were moms, they were fleeing communism,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at the time.

    Biden’s new policy has drawn swift criticism from immigrant advocates, many of them quick to point out the Trump parallels.

    “Rather than restore the right to asylum decimated by the Trump administration … the Biden administration has dangerously embraced the failures of the past and expanded upon them by explicitly enabling expulsions of Venezuelan migrants,” said Jennifer Nagda, policy director of the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights.

    The administration says the policy is aimed at ensuring a “lawful and orderly” way for Venezuelans to enter the U.S.

    Why the turnaround?

    For more than a year after taking office in January 2021, Biden deferred to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which used its authority to keep in place the Trump-era declaration that a public health risk existed that warranted expedited expulsion of asylum-seekers.

    Members of Biden’s own party and activist groups had expressed skepticism about the public health underpinnings for allowing Title 42 to remain in effect, especially when COVID-19 was spreading more widely within the U.S. than elsewhere.

    After months of internal deliberations and preparations, the CDC on April 1 said it would end the public health order and return to normal border processing of migrants, giving them a chance to request asylum in the U.S.

    Homeland Security officials braced for a resulting increase in border crossings.

    But officials inside and outside the White House were conflicted over ending the authority, believing it effectively kept down the number of people crossing the border illegally, according to senior administration officials.

    A court order in May that kept Title 42 in place due to a challenge from Republican state officials was greeted with quiet relief by some in the administration, according to officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions.

    The recent increase in migration from Venezuela, sparked by political, social and economic instability in the country, dashed officials’ hopes that they were finally seeing a lull in the chaos that had defined the border region for the past year.

    By August, Venezuelans were the second-largest nationality arriving at the U.S. border after Mexicans. Given that U.S. tensions with Venezuela meant migrants from the country could not be sent back easily, the situation became increasingly difficult to manage.

    So an administration that had rejected many Trump-era policies aimed at keeping out migrants, that had worked to make the asylum process easier and that had increased the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. now turned to Title 42.

    It brokered a deal to send the Venezuelans to Mexico, which already had agreed to accept migrants expelled under Title 42 if they are from Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador.

    All the while, Justice Department lawyers continue to appeal a court decision that has kept Title 42 in place. They are opposing Republican attorneys general from more than 20 states who have argued that Title 42 is “the only safety valve preventing this Administration’s already disastrous border control policies from descending into an unmitigated catastrophe.”

    Under Title 42, migrants have been expelled more than 2.3 million times from the U.S. after crossing the country’s land borders illegally from Canada or Mexico, though most try to come through Mexico.

    The administration had announced it would stop expelling migrants under Title 42 starting May 23 and go back to detaining and deporting migrants who did not qualify to enter and remain in the U.S. — a longer process that allows migrants to request asylum in the U.S.

    “We are extremely disturbed by the apparent acceptance, codification, and expansion of the use of Title 42, an irrelevant health order, as a cornerstone of border policy,” said Thomas Cartwright of Witness at the Border. “One that expunges the legal right to asylum.”

    A separate lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union also is trying to end Title 42, an effort that could render the administration’s proposal useless.

    “People have a right to seek asylum – regardless of where they came from, how they arrive in the United States, and whether or not they have family here,” said ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt.

    00:00

    <p>AP correspondent Julie Walker reports on Biden Immigration</p>

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    Long reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.

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    Follow AP’s coverage of immigration at https://apnews.com/hub/immigration

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  • UN renews mandate for human rights mission in Venezuela

    UN renews mandate for human rights mission in Venezuela

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    Human rights groups welcome two-year extension of UN mission, which Caracas condemns as ‘designed for interventionism’.

    The United Nations Human Rights Council has renewed the mandate of its fact-finding mission in Venezuela, an initiative Caracas considers an aggressive tool for interfering in domestic matters.

    The mandate to extend the International Independent Fact-Finding Mission for Venezuela (FFM) for two more years was approved by 19 votes to five against and 23 abstentions during a Council session in Geneva on Friday.

    The UN mission was first created in 2019 to look into alleged human rights violations in the country.

    Those opposed were Cuba, Bolivia, China, Eritrea and Venezuela itself, whose representative to the Council, Ambassador Hector Constant Rosales, dubbed the resolution “hostile”.

    Venezuelan Foreign Minister Carlos Faria said on Twitter that the FFM’s extension was “a new attack against Venezuela”.

    The mission “is designed for interventionism and for the falsification of reality. This commission is a political instrument for the most brazen defamation on issues of human rights“, he added.

    In September, the mission’s third report found that state intelligence agencies under President Nicolas Maduro’s helm had suppressed the opposition through arbitrary detentions and torture that amounted to crimes against humanity.

    The intelligence agencies “made use of sexual and gender-based violence to torture and humiliate their detainees” since at least 2014 and “the violations and crimes … continue to this day”, the report said.

    The Venezuelan government responded that the report’s accusations were “false and unfounded”.

    Venezuela is a “democratic and social state, based on the rule of law and justice, which is committed to the promotion, respect and protection of human rights”, the government said.

    Human rights groups welcomed the FFM’s extension.

    The renewal is a “sign of support for the countless victims of grave human rights violations that have been, and continue to be, committed in the country,” Amnesty International’s Americas Director Erika Guevara Rosas said on Twitter.

    Human Rights Watch called the FFM’s extension “extremely important” and said it plays “an early warning role in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential elections”.

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