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In shift, Venezuela opposition takes part in vote as foreign teams observe

AFP

With opposition parties participating for the first time since 2017 and European Union observers returning, Venezuela’s Sunday elections represent an early contest for power between the government and rivals in a country mired in economic crisis.

An estimated 21 million Venezuelans will be going to the polls to elect 23 state governors, as well as the mayors and council members of hundreds of cities.

Polling stations opened at 6:00 am (2200 GMT) for 12 hours, with results expected around “two or three in the morning,” a source with the National Electoral Council said. 

Lines formed early.

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“I’ve come to exercise my right to vote in a democratic country,” 74-year-old Jose Casanova, a militant leftist, said after casting his ballot in a working-class neighborhood in eastern Caracas.

He considers Venezuela “a blessed country despite all its problems.”

Leftist President Nicolas Maduro, whose deeply controversial presidency has left the South American nation facing punishing economic sanctions, has been seeking a measure of relief through careful shows of goodwill and democratic intention.

The opposition, which had boycotted elections for the past three years saying they were neither free nor fair, agreed to take part in Sunday’s votes after receiving assurances from the government. 

Opposition leaders hope to raise their profile and gain momentum ahead of presidential elections set for 2024.

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But there seems little doubt about the outcome: experts predict the Chavist movement that Maduro has led since the death of President Hugo Chavez in 2013 should easily prevail over a divided opposition.

– Limited opposition gains –

Henrique Capriles, who lost presidential elections both to Chavez in 2012 and to Maduro a year later, said the opposition’s division will undeniably weigh on it.

“Let’s be honest,” he said: “The PSUV (the governing Socialist Party) is going to win.”

Observers say the opposition stands to win in six states at most: Tachira, Zulia, Lara, Nueva Esparta, Sucre and Anzoategui.

Caracas seeks a loosening of economic sanctions — notably from the United States, which does not recognize Maduro’s presidency — hoping at least for a partial lifting of the measures, said Oswaldo Ramirez, a consultant.

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With hundreds of millions of dollars of its funds frozen abroad, Venezuela wants to be able to sell its petroleum more easily — the US historically is its biggest customer — and to end limits on imports. 

The government has made a calculated series of concessions, opening negotiations with the opposition, and inviting election observers from the EU, the United Nations and the US-based Carter Center.

The EU is sending its first observer mission in 15 years, as Caracas — long prickly about its “sovereignty” — has had to swallow its pride.

“The regime needs this mission” to give its election credibility, one opposition member said.

After sitting out the 2018 presidential election and 2020 legislative votes, the opposition dropped its boycott strategy but has failed to agree on candidate lists.

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Juan Guaido, who is recognized by the US and some 50 other countries as Venezuela’s president after the disputed 2018 election, has said the opposition must “unify the struggle.”

But he said he will not vote, and that “it is certain that Maduro is, and will continue to be, illegitimate.”

Maduro, clearly relishing the opposition’s division, has called for “a great election so that this will be a great victory for democracy.”

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International

China shows at the UN its “condemnation” of Israel for the “violation of Iran’s sovereignty”

The Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, Fu Cong, showed the “condemnation” of his country against the “violation of the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Iran” after the air attack launched by Israel against multiple targets in that country, the official newspaper Diario del Pueblo reports this Saturday.

That media echoes Fu’s speech to the UN Security Council on Friday, in which he demanded that Israel “immediately stop all its military actions.”

“China (…) opposes the expansion of conflicts, and is deeply concerned about the serious consequences that may arise from Israel’s actions. The intensification of regional tensions does not interest any of the parties involved,” said the Chinese emissary.

Beijing called on Tel Aviv and Tehran to “resolve their disputes through political and diplomatic means, and maintain peace and stability at the regional level jointly.”

In Fu’s view, the Israeli attack will have a “negative impact” on the negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program: “China has always been committed to the peaceful resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue through dialogue and consultations, and opposes the use of force, illegal unilateral sanctions and armed attacks on peaceful nuclear facilities.”

This Friday, China had already expressed its willingness to “play a constructive role” to curb the escalation of tensions and facilitate conciliation, in line with its traditional position of active neutrality in the region’s conflicts.

The Israeli attack, which according to Tehran caused dozens of deaths, including senior military commanders and at least six nuclear scientists, targeted key facilities such as the uranium enrichment plant in Natanz. Numerous civilian casualties were also reported.

Israel justified the offensive by claiming that the Iranian regime is secretly developing a program to manufacture nuclear weapons.

For his part, Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, promised a “severe response” and assured that the attack would reveal the “evil nature” of Israel.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres also expressed concern about the bombing, at a time when Iran and the US The United States is holding talks about the Iranian nuclear program.

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International

Donald Trump’s government pauses its program of indiscriminate raides against migrants

The government of US President Donald Trump has decided to pause its campaign of discretionary roundings against migrants in certain areas due to its apparent concern about the growing unpopularity of these methods, according to The New York Times newspaper on Friday.

According to an email to which the newspaper has had access and the confirmation of US officials, the Executive has ordered the Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE) to pause the beatings that affect the agricultural industry and the hospitality industry.

The spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, confirmed in a statement that “the president’s instructions” will be obeyed and the portfolio will also continue to “work to get the worst illegal foreign criminals out of the streets of the United States.”

The decision points out that this campaign of discretionary arrests to try to deport large-scale immigrants is harming industries and electoral constituencies whose support Trump wants to retain for next year’s legislative elections.

The new instructions were transmitted to ICE in an email sent last Thursday asking that “all investigations/law enforcement operations be suspended in work centers in the agricultural sector (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and hotels.”

These new guidelines come in turn after more than a week of intense protests in Los Angeles against this immigration policy and that Trump himself admitted that the raids seem to be affecting the agricultural sector, which in states like California, where beatings have intensified, depend almost exclusively on immigrant labor.

Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has implemented an aggressive policy of hard hand against immigration and as a sample of his Cabinet officials recently held a meeting with the ICE leadership to order them to carry out 3,000 arrests a day, a mandate that seems to be behind the intensification of the raids.

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International

Trump says he knew “everything” about the attack on Iran and assures that the dialogue remains open

US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington “known everything” about the Israeli attack on Iran and that the dialogue on Tehran’s nuclear program “is not dead.”

“We knew everything and I tried to avoid Iran all this humiliation and death. I tried hard to avoid it because I would have loved to see an agreement,” Trump said in an interview with Reuters.

The US president insisted on what he wrote today about the attack on social networks, where he said he gave an ultimatum of 60 days to Tehran to reach an agreement.

“We knew practically everything. We knew enough to give Iran 60 days to reach an agreement and today it is already 61 days,” he explained in the interview, in which he said he did not know what the current situation of the Iranian nuclear program is after the attack launched by Israel, which also ended the lives of key military leaders of the Persian country.

Regarding the dialogue between the US and Iran about the nuclear program of the ayatollahs, Trump assured that “he is not dead”, that “an agreement is still possible” and also recalled that on Sunday a sixth round of dialogue is scheduled in Muscat (Oman) that they consider is now in the air.

“We have a meeting with them on Sunday. Now, I’m not sure if that meeting will take place, but we have a meeting with them on Sunday,” he said.

The United States and Iran have held five rounds of talks on the Iranian nuclear program since April, with Washington demanding that Tehran discard its capabilities both to manufacture an atomic bomb and to enrich uranium, something that the ayatollahs considered unacceptable.

Both Israel and Trump himself had warned of possible preventive attacks on the Persian country due to this refusal by Iran.

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