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MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AFP) — The Lima Group of countries seeking a peaceful solution to the spiralling crisis in Venezuela urged President Nicolas Maduro on Monday to cancel weekend elections that the group has denounced as undemocratic. The group “calls for the last time on the Venezuelan government to suspend the general elections” scheduled for Sunday, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray told a press conference after the countries met in Mexico City. The elections were called […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — Leading opponents of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday called on France and other EU nations not to recognise elections set for May, saying the vote was simply a sham aimed at consolidating his grip on power. The country has been gripped by a political and economic crisis for months as Madura has overhauled institutions while sidelining the main opposition coalition, which has been barred from fielding candidates. “We’ve come to […]
CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — President Nicolas Maduro called Wednesday for snap legislative elections in Venezuela, proposing to bring them forward by nearly two years to coincide with a presidential poll set for April 22. Maduro said he was proposing the change to the all-powerful Constituent Assembly “to advance the elections.” The idea of bringing forward the legislative elections to April 22 was already mooted by the number two of Maduro’s ruling socialist party on Tuesday. He also […]
by Maria Isabel SANCHEZ Agence France Presse CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Venezuela will hold presidential elections by the end of April, the ruling Constituent Assembly said Tuesday, pulling forward a vote in which President Nicolas Maduro hopes to triumph over a divided opposition and win a second term. The 55-year-old Maduro, a towering mustachioed former bus driver who was Hugo Chavez’s handpicked successor, said he is ready to run if he receives the party’s nomination. […]
CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro announced Sunday that leading opposition parties will be barred from taking part in next year’s presidential vote after they boycotted mayoral polls, in a move set to further consolidate his grip on power. That includes the groups of key figures who have led street protests against his rule such as Henrique Capriles, Leopoldo Lopez and others, Maduro told reporters after casting his vote in the municipal polls. “That’s what […]
BOGOTA, Colombia (AFP) — Fugitive Caracas mayor Antonio Ledezma, a key opponent of President Nicolas Maduro, traveled to Madrid on Friday after escaping house arrest in the Venezuelan capital. Ledezma, 62, had hours earlier crossed the border into neighboring Colombia, saying he intended to fly to Europe to organize resistance against Maduro’s rule, which has left millions of Venezuelans facing food and medicine shortages. The opposition leader boarded an Avianca flight from Bogota to Madrid, where he […]
CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Four newly-elected opposition governors reluctantly pledged allegiance Monday to Venezuela’s Constituent Assembly, which until now they had dismissed as illegitimate. The assembly was elected July 30 in polls called by unpopular leftist President Nicolas Maduro that were boycotted by the opposition. The Constituent Assembly, packed with government supporters, replaced the opposition-dominated national assembly. Its stated job is to overhaul the constitution of the oil-rich country, but it has been handed sweeping powers to override […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump warned Monday that Venezuela is “collapsing,” suggesting the United States may take additional steps to restore democracy. Trump told Latin American allies gathered on the fringes of the United Nations General Assembly that President Nicolas “Maduro defied his own people” and was guilty of “disastrous rule” that may necessitate further punitive measures. “The Venezuelan people are starving. Their country is collapsing,” he said. Washington has already slapped sanctions […]
CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Tuesday he was prepared to meet the opposition for talks brokered by the Dominican Republic and former Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriquez Zapatero. “Zapatero and President (Danilo) Medina know very well that I have been a promoter of this dialogue and I accept this new day of dialogue,” the president said during a cabinet meeting broadcast on television. © Agence France-Presse
CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro lashed out Monday at the United States for slapping sanctions on him, saying the move smacked of American “imperialism.” “I will not obey imperial orders. I do not obey foreign governments. I’m a free president,” he said after Washington froze his US assets and called him a “dictator” for pushing through a vote for a powerful new assembly that will rewrite the country’s constitution. © Agence France-Presse
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — US envoy to the United Nations Nikki Haley warned Sunday that Venezuela was taking a “step toward dictatorship” in its highly controversial vote championed by beleaguered President Nicolas Maduro to rewrite the nation’s constitution. “Maduro’s sham election is another step toward dictatorship. We won’t accept an illegit govt. The Venezuelan ppl & democracy will prevail,” Haley wrote in a tweet as the voting was marred by an escalation of […]
by Maria Isabel SANCHEZ Agence France Presse CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — A controversial vote in Venezuela on Sunday championed by beleaguered President Nicolas Maduro sparked an escalation of deadly violence, with at least nine people reported killed and troops and protesters attacking each other in Caracas and elsewhere. “This is war!” Caracas resident Conchita Ramirez exclaimed on television as she described troops firing at people and buildings in the capital. The unrest confirmed fears over […]
