International
How Latin America has reacted: from the rejection of Chile and Argentina waiting for Brazil and Mexico
After knowing the results announced by the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela on the presidential elections that, according to the entity, was won by President Nicolás Maduro, there have been various reactions in Latin America from the request for transparency of Chile and Argentina to the caution of Brazil and Mexico.
One of the first to react was the president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, who at first said that the results “are difficult to believe” and on Monday he claimed that it is necessary to deliver all the electoral records to both independent international observers and the opposition.
“As long as that is not done, we as a country are going to refrain from recognizing what the National Electoral Council has pointed out,” Boric said.
“I have stated, and I have also discussed it with the chancellor and with different people in Latin America and in the world, that the elections, and elections that generate as much expectation as this, have to be absolutely transparent and verifiable by international observers who are not dependent or supporters of the Government,” added the Chilean leader.
The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, described on Monday the results of this Sunday’s presidential elections in Venezuela as an “electoral scam” and ignored the announcement of the National Electoral Council (CNE) of that country, which gave Nicolás Maduro as the winner, results that the opposition denounced for irregular.
“Not even he believes the electoral scam that celebrates. Neither does the Argentine Republic,” the Argentine president wrote about Maduro on his profile on the social network X.
“We do not recognize fraud, we call on the international community to unite to restore the rule of law in Venezuela, and we remind the Venezuelan people that the doors of our homeland are open to every man who chooses to live in freedom,” added the publication of the ultraliberal politician.
“Condemn the electoral fraud perpetrated by the regime of dictator Nicolás Maduro in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Argentina demands total transparency in the counting of votes. We are not going to consolidate any results without the support of international observers; of course, that they are not puppets of the Chavista regime,” the presidential spokesman, Manuel Adorni, said earlier.
The Government of Brazil celebrated on Monday the “peaceful character” of the elections in Venezuela, but ratified that it will wait for all the results to pronounce on the victory attributed by the electoral authorities to Nicolás Maduro.
In an official statement, the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs “reaffirms” that “the principle of popular sovereignty must be observed through the impartial verification of the results” and adds that Brazil “waits, in that context,” the publication of all the data “detailed by a polling station.”
That last requirement, according to the statement, is “an indispensable step for the transparency, credibility and legitimacy of the result of the electoral lawsuit.”
In the same waiting line, the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, spoke out, who said that he will recognize Maduro’s triumph, if Venezuela’s CNE “confirms the trend” after Sunday’s elections, although he asked to “wait for the count.”
“We are going to wait for the result, and when the count has been carried out, see what the legal process is and then we are going to pronounce, if the electoral authority confirms this trend, we are going to recognize the Government elected by the people of Venezuela,” López Obrador said in his morning conference.
The Mexican ruler assured that “they cannot ignore any result” of the CNE, which during the night announced that Maduro won with 51.2% of the votes compared to 44.2% by Edmundo González Urrutia of the opposition Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) of Venezuela.
The president of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, announced that he “suspends” diplomatic relations and announces the withdrawal of his diplomatic corps in Venezuela “until a complete review of the minutes” of the votes is carried out after rejecting the results of the elections.
Mulino, who pointed out the “deterioration” during the last years of diplomatic relations between the two countries, said: “I make this decision out of respect for the history of Panama, the millions of Venezuelans who chose our homeland to live, and my democratic convictions, I cannot allow my silence to turn into complicity.”
“I believe, and I hope I am wrong, that the flow of Venezuelans will increase for obvious reasons and we have to take the appropriate decisions to safeguard their life and integrity,” Mulino said.
At the same time, the Government of Peru denounced the attempt of the Venezuelan authorities to “consolidate a fraud” and detailed that it remains “in active observation” in the face of the possible “migratory effects” of the announcement of the re-election of Nicolás Maduro.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that, along with other competent authorities, it is “in a state of active observation in anticipation of migratory effects as a result of the seriousness of the course of Venezuelan electoral events.”
The president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, was one of the first leaders in the region to react and considered that Maduro’s “victory” is a “great way” to remember the late leader Hugo Chávez on his birthday.
“We congratulate the Venezuelan people and President @NicolasMaduro for the electoral victory of this historic July 28. Great way to remember Commander Hugo Chávez,” Arce wrote on the social network X, where earlier he recalled in another message the 70th anniversary of the birth of the former Venezuelan president.
Arce, who has a political affinity with Maduro, also maintained that he followed “closely” the “democratic party” in Venezuela and greeted “that the will of the Venezuelan people has been respected at the polls.”
The congratulations were also joined by the president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, and his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo, who described the result as a “great victory that that heroic people” delivers to Chávez, while the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel considered it as a “triumph of dignity.”
For its part, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) congratulated Maduro, for what he sees as an “unobjectible triumph” in the presidential elections.
“The member states of the ALBA congratulate the people and government of the sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, for the unobjectionable triumph of President Nicolás Maduro Moros in the presidential elections this Sunday, July 28, 2024,” the bloc said in a statement published on its website.
International
El Chapo’s son Joaquín Guzmán López pleads guilty to U.S. drug trafficking charges
Joaquín Guzmán López, one of the sons of notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, pleaded guilty on Monday to drug trafficking charges in a U.S. court, months after his brother Ovidio reached a similar plea agreement, according to local media reports.
The defendant appeared before a federal court in Chicago early Monday afternoon and changed his previous plea in the case, the Chicago Tribune reported. U.S. authorities accuse him of forming, together with his three brothers, the cartel faction known as “Los Chapitos.”
The group is believed to have continued the operations of El Chapo, who has been serving a life sentence in the United States since 2019.
Guzmán López, 39, was arrested after landing in Texas in a small aircraft alongside cartel co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
International
Venezuela authorizes return flights as U.S. continues deportations amid rising tensions
The arrival of U.S. aircraft carrying undocumented Venezuelan migrants continued regularly despite rising tensions between Washington and Caracas over President Donald Trump’s military deployment in the Caribbean.
Trump maintains that the deployment is part of an anti-narcotics operation, while Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro insists the true objective is to remove him from power and seize the nation’s oil resources.
Venezuela’s aviation authority has “received a request from the United States government to resume repatriation flights for Venezuelan migrants from that country to Venezuela,” the Ministry of Transportation said in a statement .
“Under the instructions of President Nicolás Maduro, authorization has been granted for these aircraft to enter our airspace,” it added.
Caracas will permit two Eastern Airlines flights to land on Wednesday and Friday.
Migration remains one of the Trump administration’s flagship issues. On Monday, the U.S. president held a meeting with his National Security Council to discuss the situation in Venezuela, a day after confirming he had spoken with Maduro by phone, without offering further details.
According to the Venezuelan government, roughly 75 deportation flights have been carried out this year, returning at least 13,956 Venezuelans from the United States.
International
20,000 rounds stolen from german army after driver leaves cargo unattended
The German army confirmed the theft of a shipment of ammunition that occurred a week ago while it was being transported by a civilian delivery driver, a military spokesperson told AFP, confirming earlier media reports.
According to Der Spiegel and the regional broadcaster MDR, around 20,000 rounds of ammunition were stolen from an unguarded parking lot near Magdeburg, in eastern Germany, while the driver was asleep in a nearby hotel. No information has been released regarding the identity of the suspects, and the military declined to specify the exact type or amount of ammunition taken.
Authorities have also not indicated how the perpetrators knew the cargo would be left unattended.
“The theft was discovered upon delivery at the barracks,” the German army spokesperson said.
A police spokeswoman confirmed to AFP that an investigation has been opened but refused to provide further details “for tactical reasons.”
Sources close to the German military, cited by Der Spiegel, believe it is unlikely the theft was a coincidence. They suspect the thieves waited for the driver to stop for the night before striking.
Der Spiegel also reported that the Defense Ministry normally requires two drivers for this type of transport to ensure the cargo is constantly monitored. However, in this case only one driver was assigned, meaning the civilian transport company failed to comply with the security protocols.
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