CARACAS: The latest developments in Venezuela’s political crisis have dealt a severe blow to President Nicolas Maduro — severe, but not fatal, for one key reason: the military still backs him.
The National Bolivarian Armed Forces of Venezuela pointedly reiterated their loyalty to Maduro on Thursday, a day after opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself the country’s acting president.
In a statement read out to the press by Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, the military top brass called the leftist leader the “legitimate president” and Guaido’s move a “coup.”
Following Padrino’s lead, eight other top generals declared their “absolute loyalty and subordination” to Maduro, live on state television.
Guaido, the 35-year-old speaker of Venezuela’s opposition-controlled legislature, was “inaugurated” as acting president Wednesday before thousands of demonstrators, declaring that Maduro’s re-election in a widely-condemned vote was illegitimate.
The United States and a string of Latin American countries quickly backed Guaido.
But his move did little to change the calculus of power on the ground. Maduro, who has presided over a spiraling political and economic crisis, still controls both the army and the Supreme Court.
Guaido has offered an amnesty to soldiers who break ranks with Maduro, in an effort to win over potential defectors, including both officers and rank-and-file troops who may be weary of cracking down on their own people.
He may stand a chance of getting a critical mass of soldiers to break ranks, some experts say.
“When you take the kind of step that he’s taken, you have to know what kind of support you have, especially within the military,” political scientist Luis Salamanca told AFP.
But it will not be easy to break the military monolith.
“Maduro relies on the military, and they rely on him, to enrich themselves and avoid facing trial if the regime ultimately falls,” said Salamanca.
Chavez's legacy
Doubling down on one of the strategies of his late mentor, the leftist firebrand Hugo Chavez, Maduro has given the military vast power.
Chavez gave 25 percent of the posts in the executive branch to the military. Under Maduro, that figure rose to as high as 44 percent — though it has recently fallen again, to 26 percent, according to the watchdog group Control Ciudadano.
“Being a minister isn’t the source of wealth it once was,” said the group’s director, Rocio San Miguel, adding that generals today would rather get rich presiding over things like subsidized food imports — which are rife with corruption, amid a devastating crisis that has left supermarket shelves practically bare.
Still, nine of Maduro’s 32 ministers are from the military, which also controls powerful institutions including state oil company PDVSA and the intelligence services. The list also includes a TV network, a bank, an auto manufacturer, and a mining, oil and gas company.
The more unpopular Maduro gets, the more the military’s power grows, according to many analysts.
The president has called the army the “backbone” of the country. He also relies heavily on the National Guard and the country’s 1.6 million civilian militia members.
Anti-Maduro plots
But as even the defense minister admits, the “devil” has crept into Venezuela’s barracks — his word for anti-Maduro plots.
On Monday, 27 soldiers stole a cache of weapons and staged a brief mutiny before being arrested at the Caracas barracks where they were entrenched.
Two generals are also among those jailed for an alleged assassination attempt on August 4, when a pair of drones exploded near Maduro at a military procession.
Last year, another 180 troops were arrested on conspiracy charges, according to San Miguel. Many of them were tortured, says Human Rights Watch.
The New York Times reported in September that US officials had met with Venezuelan military officers about a coup plot that was ultimately aborted.
Maduro’s claims the United States has a $120-million fund for “buying” Venezuelan officers.
And there are signs of cracks in what was once the security forces’ steadfast loyalty. More than 4,300 National Guards members deserted in 2018, according to San Miguel.
Most military top brass are torn between “following Maduro at the risk of going down with him” and “saving their own skins,” said Salamanca.
Venezuelan military: the muscle behind Maduro
Venezuelan military: the muscle behind Maduro
- The National Bolivarian Armed Forces of Venezuela pointedly reiterated their loyalty to Maduro on Thursda
- Doubling down on the strategies of his leftist mentor Hugo Chavez, Maduro has given the military vast power
Shock in Jakarta, MPs demand action after Israel assassinates Indonesian hospital director
- Dr. Marwan Al-Sultan, renowned cardiac surgeon, was killed in targeted Israeli airstrike
- Israel has killed at least 492 doctors and health workers in Gaza since October 2023
JAKARTA/DUBAI: Israel’s assassination of Dr. Marwan Al-Sultan, director of the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza, has sparked shock in Jakarta, with parliamentarians calling for new international accountability mechanisms to hold Israel legally responsible for its crimes in Gaza.
A renowned cardiac surgeon and one of Palestine’s most senior doctors, Dr. Al-Sultan graduated from Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences in Hyderabad, Pakistan, in 2001.
He was killed along with his wife and children in an Israeli airstrike on their temporary residence in northern Gaza on Wednesday.
His surviving daughter, Lubna, told the media that the missile “targeted his room exactly, right where he was.” Her testimony confirmed statements from the Gaza Ministry of Health and the Jakarta-based Medical Emergency Rescue Committee — which funded the Indonesia Hospital in Beit Lahia — that the attack was a targeted assassination.
“The attack on Dr. Marwan was utterly savage and barbaric,” Dr. Sarbini Abdul Murad, chairman of MER-C’s board of trustees, told Arab News.
“It was a shock to hear the news. I couldn’t believe it. He was the only heart specialist left in the north. This is a huge loss.”
The Indonesia Hospital in Beit Lahia, one of the biggest health facilities in Gaza, was one of the first targeted by Israel when it started its deadly war on the Palestinian enclave in October 2023.
Dr. Al-Sultan had never left his post, remaining with patients through multiple Israeli offensives on the hospital and personally overseeing repairs to restore essential services, MER-C said in a statement recalling how in December 2024, he evacuated the facility while under Israeli siege.
The moment was recorded on a mobile phone, showing Dr. Al-Sultan leaving only after he had ensured the safety of every patient.
The Indonesia Hospital opened in late 2015. Coordinated by MER-C, its construction and equipment were financed from donations of the Indonesian people, with dozens of engineers and builders volunteering to design and build the facility and to prepare its operations.
The killing of Dr. Al-Sultan has spurred outcry in Indonesia, with the government issuing an official condemnation and lawmakers from the Committee for Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation calling on parliamentarians around the world to “push for international accountability mechanisms” to ensure that “crimes against humanity be immediately brought to international forums, including global parliamentary bodies, so that Israel can be held legally and morally accountable for its actions in Gaza.”
Israel has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 133,000 others, since October 2023. The true death toll is feared to be much higher, with research published in The Lancet medical journal in January estimating an underreporting of deaths by 41 percent.
The study says the death toll may be even higher, as it does not include deaths caused by starvation, injury and lack of access to health care, caused by the Israeli military’s destruction of most of Gaza’s infrastructure and the blocking of medical and food aid.
Data from the UN and international health organizations shows that Israel has killed at least 492 doctors and medics in Gaza since October 2023.
Dr. Al-Sultan is the 70th health care worker to be killed in the last 50 days, according to Healthcare Workers Watch.
“He was a prominent medical figure, both as a heart specialist and director of the Indonesia Hospital,” Dr. Hadiki Habib, chairman of MER-C’s executive committee, told Arab News.
“We had feared that this could happen, but he had said that he would remain in Gaza and, if he were to be martyred, it would be in his homeland.”
Russian strikes kill eight in Ukraine
The Ukrainian army reported there were “dead and wounded” at a recruitment office in Poltava
KYIV: Russia launched a wave of attacks on Ukraine on Thursday, killing at least eight people and wounding dozens of others, Ukrainian officials said.
Among the sites hit were a military enlistment office in the eastern city of Poltava and port infrastructure in the southern city of Odesa.
Moscow has stepped up its drone and missile bombardment of Ukraine in recent weeks, with peace talks stalling and Kyiv’s key ally Washington signalling it could cut military support.
The warring sides last met for direct talks more than a month ago and no further meeting has been organized.
The Ukrainian army reported there were “dead and wounded” at a recruitment office in Poltava.
Emergency services posted images of buildings on fire and rescue workers at the scene of the strike.
“Two people were killed,” the emergency services said. The region’s police added 47 people were wounded.
In Odesa, two people were killed when “an Iskander missile” struck the seaport, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said on Telegram.
He added that six people had been wounded in the strike.
In Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, strikes killed four people, the regional prosecutor’s office said.
“At least nine apartment buildings, three garages, a shop facade and a power line were damaged in the settlements,” it added.
In Russia’s Lipetsk region, debris from a Ukrainian drone killed a woman and wounded two other people, its governor said Thursday.
The debris fell on a building in Lipetsk, which lies about 400 kilometers (250 miles) southeast of Moscow, killing a woman in her seventies, Igor Artamonov wrote on Telegram.
Austria deports Syrian convict in EU first since Assad fall
- “The deportation carried out today is part of a strict and thus fair asylum policy,” Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said
- It was the first deportation of a Syrian directly to Syria in about 15 years
VIENNA: Austria on Thursday deported a Syrian criminal convict back to Syria, becoming the first EU country to do so officially “in recent years,” the interior ministry said.
Austria has been pushing to be able to deport Syrians back since the ouster of Syria’s leader Bashar Assad in December.
“The deportation carried out today is part of a strict and thus fair asylum policy,” Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said in a statement sent to AFP.
The ministry said it was the first deportation of a Syrian directly to Syria in about 15 years, and Austria was the “first European country to officially deport a Syrian criminal directly to Syria in recent years.”
Karner traveled to Syria with his German counterpart Nancy Faeser in April to discuss deportations, among other topics.
Karner, from the governing conservative People’s Party (OeVP), on Thursday vowed to “continue this chosen path with hard work and determination.”
Austria was among European Union nations that suspended all Syrian asylum applications after Assad’s ouster. It also stopped family reunifications.
Some 100,000 Syrians live in Austria, one of the biggest diaspora in Europe.
Austria’s anti-migration far right topped national elections in September though they were unable to find partners to govern, leaving the runner-up conservatives to form a new government.
Indonesian rescuers search for dozens of missing passengers after ferry sinks off Bali
- Authorities dispatched a helicopter, 9 boats, 13 underwater rescuers to find missing passengers
- KMT Tunu Pratama Jaya is second passenger ferry to sink off Bali in the past few weeks
JAKARTA: Rescuers were racing on Thursday to search for dozens of people missing after a ferry sank overnight near Indonesia’s resort island of Bali, leaving at least five people dead.
The KMP Tunu Pratama Jaya, which carried 53 passengers, 12 crew members and 22 vehicles, sank about half an hour after leaving Ketapang port on Indonesia’s main island of Java for a 50-km trip to Bali’s Gilimanuk port late on Wednesday.
Crew members on the ferry sent a distress call around 20 minutes after departure, but sank about 15 minutes later, said Mohammad Syafii, chief of the National Search and Rescue Agency.
As of Thursday afternoon, 31 people had been rescued as search operations continued for 29 others who were missing.
“Identities of the victims are still under data collection and verification by our team members on the field,” Syafii said during a press conference.
The agency has dispatched a helicopter, nine boats and a team specializing in underwater rescue to search for survivors, with assistance from local fishermen.
“Rescue efforts are facing challenges in the form of strong waves between 2 to 2.5 meters, and strong winds and currents,” the Indonesian Ministry of Transport said in a statement.
The ferry from Java to Bali usually takes about an hour and is often used by people crossing between the islands by car.
Authorities have yet to disclose whether any foreigners were onboard when KMP Tunu Pratama Jaya sank.
It is also common for the actual number of passengers on a boat to differ from the manifest in Indonesia, so there may be other passengers who are unaccounted for.
Some families were gathered at Ketapang port, located in the East Java city of Banyuwangi, for updates on the missing passengers, while survivors were taken to nearby medical facilities, including the Jembrana Regional Hospital in Bali.
Ferries are a common mode of transport in Indonesia, an archipelagic country comprising more than 17,000 islands.
However, they are prone to accidents due to bad weather and lax safety standards that allow vessels to be overloaded and operated without adequate lifesaving equipment.
In 2023, a small ferry capsized near Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, killing at least 15 people.
KMT Tunu Pratama Jaya was the second passenger ferry to sink off Bali in the past few weeks.
A fast boat carrying 89 tourists, including 77 foreign travelers, capsized in early June after it was hit by a big wave upon leaving a port on a smaller island off Bali. All the passengers aboard were rescued.
Danish police deploy to Israeli embassy in Copenhagen to examine a suspicious package
- Danish public broadcaster DR showed photos of several police and emergency vehicles near the embassy
- Police wrote on X that they had blocked roads near the embassy
COPENHAGEN: Danish police said Thursday they have deployed officers to the Israeli embassy in the Nordic country’s capital to examine a suspicious package.
Copenhagen police wrote on X that “we are present at the Israeli embassy, where we are investigating a shipment received.”
They added that “we currently have no further information.”
Danish public broadcaster DR showed photos of several police and emergency vehicles near the embassy, including what they reported was a hazmat emergency response team vehicle.
Police wrote on X that they had blocked roads near the embassy.
Anders Frederiksen, duty chief at the Copenhagen Police, told Danish daily Ekstra Bladet that “ordinary citizens in the area should not be worried.”
Security officials in many European countries have increased surveillance and protection of Israeli and Jewish institutions after a 12-day war broke out between Israel and Iran in June.
Last week, security officers arrested a man in the Danish city of Aarhus on suspicion of gathering information on Jewish locations and individuals in Germany for Iranian intelligence.
Prosecutors said the man was tasked by an Iranian intelligence service early this year with gathering information on “Jewish localities and specific Jewish individuals” in Berlin. They didn’t elaborate.
He spied on three properties in June, “presumably in preparation of further intelligence activities in Germany, possibly including terrorist attacks on Jewish targets,” prosecutors said.
German Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig said that “if this suspicion is confirmed, we are dealing with an outrageous operation,” adding in a statement that “the protection of Jewish life has the highest priority for the German government.”
Germany has requested the extradition of the suspect.
