International
Electoral abstention, the route to which the majority opposition in Venezuela clung again
The majority opposition of Venezuela resumed the route of abstention by deciding not to participate in the regional and legislative elections of last May 25, as it did 20 years ago, when it withdrew from the contest to elect deputies, although this time in a scenario in which it questions the legitimacy of President Nicolás Maduro.
“When the adversary withdraws from the field, from the field, one advances and takes the ground and exercises it,” Maduro said after the votes a week ago, in which only a group of opponents participated who ignored the guideline of the anti-Chavista majority, sheltered by the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), headed by María Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia.
Maduro brought up what happened in 2005, when, he said, the opposition called for “total abstention.”
“And well,” added the Chavista leader, “they gave us the National Assembly (AN, Parliament) and the National Assembly 2005-2010 was the most fruitful there was.”
20 years ago, Chavismo took the 167 seats of Parliament before the complete withdrawal of the main opposition parties, which expressed distrust in the voting system.
This time, the PUD refused to attend these elections by denouncing fraud in the presidential elections of July last year, in which the National Electoral Council (CNE) proclaimed the victory of the president, of which the disaggregated results have not yet been disseminated. The anti-chavismo insists that the winner was its candidate, González Urrutia.
Machado and González Urrutia see the abstention of May 25 as an “act of dignity”.
The former deputy considered the abstention as a fourth “victory” of the opposition, after the 2023 primaries, of which she described as “crushing” the election of González Urrutia as – she said – “president” in 2024 and of the so-called ‘Operation Guacamaya’, in allusion to the departure from the country this month of five anti-Chavistas who were refugees, since March last year, in the residence of the Argentine Embassy in Caracas.
Despite the majority call, an opposition group detached itself from the PUD and ran in the May 25 votes, in which it achieved 11 deputies to Parliament compared to 253 of 285 with which the ruling party remained.
In this regard, the political scientist and deputy director of the Gumilla Center, Piero Trepiccione, told EFE that the 2005-2025 scenarios are “very different.”
“At that time, the forces that politically supported those in power in Venezuela had a lot of popular support, they controlled Venezuelan public opinion, they had superior support, even 60%, the polarization environment was much greater, more tense, harder,” he described.
In his opinion, the country was in the process of consolidating the “hyper-leadership” of then-President Hugo Chávez (1999-2013) and the opposition “was trying to understand that dynamic, those new power dynamics that emerged in the country from 1999, with the electoral victory of Hugo Chávez”.
“Of course,” said this expert, “that it was a decision that (with) time proved to be a mistake, because it was effectively not possible to obtain a minimum participation that would have been important at that time and that would have served as a tribune for the necessary institutional counterweights.”
And that wasn’t the only time. Anti-Chavism also withdrew from the 2018 presidential elections and the 2020 parliamentary elections, with which the ruling party regained the majority of the House after having lost it in 2015.
For the five-year period 2026-2031, Chavismo ensured, in addition to the parliamentary majority, 23 of 24 governors in the country.
Trepiccione considers that the majority anti-Chavism has, in terms of leadership, a “great reference” in the figure of Machado, but “it has again fallen into a rather serious process of fragmentation and dispersion.”
Therefore, he believes that a process of reorganization, restructuring and reunion is necessary “in terms of recovering positioning in the territory” and taking advantage of “those great expectations that there are in the country”.
“If the opposition manages to articulate forces, realign itself with that desire for change, give political directionality to that desire for change; without a doubt, it can quickly become an important counterweight in the political process that is being lived in the country,” he added.
The political scientist clarifies that the discussion must go beyond an election. “Here the issue is how to unify a strategy, how to build a joint strategy and how not to fall into the provocation of fragmentation,” he reflected.
International
U.S. issues new environmental waivers to speed border wall construction in Arizona and New Mexico
The U.S. government announced on Thursday three new environmental waivers that will fast-track construction of the border wall with Mexico in Arizona and New Mexico—adding to a similar waiver granted in April for work in California.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the waivers will speed up the building of about 36 miles (roughly 58 kilometers) of new barrier in the Yuma and Tucson sectors of Arizona and in the El Paso sector of neighboring Texas.
The exemptions lift requirements to comply with several environmental laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which would ordinarily apply to new roads or physical barriers in these areas. According to DHS, the projects “will close critical gaps in the border wall and enhance border-security operations in the El Paso, Tucson, and Yuma sectors of U.S. Border Patrol.”
“These waiver-backed projects are crucial steps toward securing the southern border and reinforcing our commitment to border security,” the department said.
The secretary’s authority to issue such waivers comes from Section 102 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, signed into law by President Bill Clinton. Secretary Noem invoked the same authority in April to accelerate wall construction in California.
U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended 23,912 migrants along the Mexican border between February and April 2025, following Donald Trump’s return to the White House on January 20.
International
Sheinbaum calls for bilateral effort to combat cross-border criminal activity
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum stated on Thursday that her administration is seeking to collaborate with the Colombian government to address the activities of criminal groups operating in both countries. This follows reports suggesting the involvement of Colombian nationals in an attack that left eight members of Mexico’s National Guard dead last week in the western part of the country.
“We are looking to collaborate with the Government of Colombia to address any criminal activity involving members of criminal groups in Colombia or, in turn, any member of a Mexican criminal group,” Sheinbaum said during her morning press conference.
Her remarks came in response to statements made by Colombian President Gustavo Petro earlier this week. On Tuesday, Petro claimed that former Colombian soldiers were involved in the deadly attack near the border between the Mexican states of Michoacán and Jalisco, where several armed forces personnel were killed.
“A bomb just exploded against the Mexican army in Michoacán, leaving several dead. The army responded by arresting the suspected perpetrators. Most of them are former Colombian soldiers, and some are still active. The press knows about this, but it hasn’t been widely reported. We are exporting mercenaries to the mafia,” Petro stated.
International
Woman publicly whipped 100 times under Sharia law in Indonesia’s aceh province
A woman was publicly whipped 100 times on Wednesday after being sentenced by an Islamic court in Indonesia’s Aceh province, where Sharia law has been enforced since 2001.
The young woman was flogged in front of dozens of onlookers by an executioner whose face remained covered throughout the punishment, according to reports by EFE.
She pleaded for the whipping to stop at least twice and was comforted by other women who offered her food and water before the flogging resumed until all 100 lashes had been administered.
In addition to her, four men were also publicly whipped the same number of times for other violations of Sharia law, which punishes consensual same-sex relations, alcohol consumption, and sexual activity outside of marriage.
Aceh is the only province in Indonesia—home to the world’s largest Muslim population—where Sharia law is officially implemented. The country also ranks among the highest globally for female genital mutilation, often tied to religious beliefs.
Public floggings are common in Aceh. On February 27, two young men, aged 18 and 24, were also whipped for engaging in consensual sex.
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