CARACAS: A half-dozen masked assailants ransacked the headquarters of Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on Friday in the latest escalation of violence against opponents of Nicolás Maduro following the country’s disputed presidential election.
The raid occurred at around 3 a.m., Machado’s party said, adding that the assailants broke down doors and hauled away valuable documents and equipment. Images published by Machado’s party on social media show several walls covered in black spray paint.
The assault comes as top officials, including Maduro himself, have threatened to arrest the opposition leader, who has gone into hiding as she seeks to rally Venezuelans and the international community to challenge last Sunday’s election results.
The Biden administration has thrown its support firmly behind the opposition, recognizing last minute candidate Edmundo González as the victor, discrediting the official results of the vote proclaiming Maduro the winner.
The US announcement late Thursday followed calls from multiple governments, including close allies of Maduro, for Venezuela’s electoral authorities to release precinct-level vote counts, as it has done during previous elections.
The electoral body declared Maduro the winner Monday, but the main opposition coalition revealed hours later that it had collected copies of 80 percent of the country’s 30,000 voting tallies and that they show González prevailed by a more than 2-to-1 margin.
“Given the overwhelming evidence, it is clear to the United States and, most importantly, to the Venezuelan people that Edmundo González Urrutia won the most votes in Venezuela’s July 28 presidential election,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
Maduro responded with a quick admonishment: “The United States needs to keep its nose out of Venezuela!”
González, whose location is also unknown, posted a message on X Friday thanking the United States “for recognizing the will of the Venezuelan people reflected in our electoral victory and for supporting the process of restoring democratic norms in Venezuela.”
The US government announcement came amid a flurry of diplomatic efforts by Brazil, Colombia and Mexico to convince their fellow leftist to allow an impartial audit of the vote. On Thursday, the governments of the three countries issued a joint statement calling on Venezuela’s electoral authorities “to move forward expeditiously and publicly release” detailed voting data.
But it’s unclear what leverage the countries have over Maduro, who has shown little inkling to rethink his entrenched position.
While no ally or anyone in the armed forces has yet to break with Maduro over the contested elections, he faces huge obstacles righting Venezuela’s economy without the legitimacy that can only come from a credible election result.
Venezuela sits atop world’s largest proven crude reserves and once boasted Latin America’s most advanced economy, but it entered into freefall marked by 130,000 percent hyperinflation and widespread shortages after Maduro took the helm in 2013. More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left the country since 2014, the largest exodus in Latin America’s recent history.
US oil sanctions have only deepened the misery and the Biden administration — which had been easing those restrictions — is now likely to ramp them up again unless Maduro backs down and agrees to some sort of transition.
“He’s counting on being able to wait this out and people will get tired of demonstrating,” said Cynthia Arnson, a distinguished fellow at the Wilson Center, a Washington think tank. “The problem is the country is in a death spiral and there’s no chance the economy will be able to recover without the legitimacy that comes from a fair election.”
On Monday, after the National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner of the election, thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets. The government said it arrested hundreds of protesters and Venezuela-based human rights organization Foro Penal said 11 people were killed. Dozens more were arrested the following day, including a former opposition candidate, Freddy Superlano.
Machado — who was barred from running for president — and González addressed a huge rally of their supporters in the capital, Caracas, on Tuesday, but they have not been seen in public since. Later that day, the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodriguez, called for their arrest, describing them as criminals and fascists.
On Wednesday, Maduro asked Venezuela’s highest court to conduct an audit of the election, but that request drew almost immediate criticism from foreign observers who said the court, which like most institutions is controlled by the government, lacks the independence to perform a credible review.
Asked why electoral authorities have not released detailed vote counts, Maduro said the National Electoral Council has come under attack, including cyberattacks, without elaborating.
In an op-ed published Thursday in the Wall Street Journal, Machado said she is “hiding, fearing for my life, my freedom, and that of my fellow countrymen.” She reasserted that the opposition has physical evidence that Maduro lost the election and urged the international community to intervene.
“We have voted Mr. Maduro out,” she wrote. “Now it is up to the international community to decide whether to tolerate a demonstrably illegitimate government.”
Machado later posted a video on social media calling on supporters to gather Saturday across the country.
Masked assailants ransack Venezuela opposition leader’s headquarters as post-election tensions mount
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Masked assailants ransack Venezuela opposition leader’s headquarters as post-election tensions mount
- The raid occurred at around 3 a.m., Machado’s party said, adding that the assailants broke down doors and hauled away valuable documents and equipment
- Images published by Machado’s party on social media show several walls covered in black spray paint
Bangladesh to seek extradition of ousted leader from India
Weeks of student-led demonstrations in Bangladesh escalated into mass protests last month, with Hasina quitting as prime minister and fleeing by helicopter to old ally India on August 5, ending her iron-fisted 15-year rule.
“As the main perpetrator has fled the country, we will start the legal procedure to bring her back,” Mohammad Tajul Islam, chief prosecutor of Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), told reporters on Sunday.
The ICT was set up by Hasina in 2010 to probe atrocities during the 1971 independence war from Pakistan.
Hasina’s government was accused of widespread human rights abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killing of her political opponents.
“Bangladesh has a criminal extradition treaty with India which was signed in 2013, while Sheikh Hasina’s government was in power,” Islam added.
“As she has been made the main accused of the massacres in Bangladesh, we will try to legally bring her back to Bangladesh to face trial.”
Hasina, 76, has not been seen in public since fleeing Bangladesh, and her last official whereabouts is a military air base near India’s capital New Delhi. Her presence in India has infuriated Bangladesh.
Dhaka has revoked her diplomatic passport, and the countries have a bilateral extradition treaty which would permit her return to face criminal trial.
A clause in the treaty, however, says extradition might be refused if the offense is of a “political character.”
Interim leader Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who took over after the uprising, last week said Hasina should “keep quiet” while exiled in India until she is brought home for trial.
“If India wants to keep her until the time Bangladesh wants her back, the condition would be that she has to keep quiet,” Yunus, 84, told the Press Trust of India news agency.
His government has been under public pressure to demand her extradition and trial over the hundreds of demonstrators killed during the weeks of unrest that ultimately toppled her.
More than 600 people were killed in the weeks leading up to Hasina’s ouster, according to a preliminary United Nations report, suggesting the toll was “likely an underestimate.”
Bangladesh last month opened an investigation led by a retired high court judge into hundreds of enforced disappearances by security forces during Hasina’s rule.
Stop-gap US budget bill planned by Republicans will hurt thousands of military programs, defense chief warns
- Congress will have to pass some type of temporary measure by Sept. 30 in order to avoid a shutdown of the federal government
- Austin said a temporary bill would stall research and development projects, and slow progress key nuclear, ship-building, high-tech drone and other weapons programs
WASHINGTON: Passage of a six-month temporary spending bill would have widespread and devastating effects on the Defense Department, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said in a letter to key members of Congress on Sunday.
Austin said that passing a continuing resolution that caps spending at 2024 levels, rather than taking action on the proposed 2025 budget will hurt thousands of defense programs, and damage military recruiting just as it is beginning to recover after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Asking the department to compete with (China), let alone manage conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, while under a lengthy CR, ties our hands behind our back while expecting us to be agile and to accelerate progress,” said Austin in the letter to leaders of the House and Senate appropriations committees.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has teed up a vote this week on a bill that would keep the federal government funded for six more months. The measure aims to garner support from his more conservative GOP members by also requiring states to obtain proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate or passport, when registering a person to vote.
Congress needs to approve a stop-gap spending bill before the end of the budget year on Sept. 30 to avoid a government shutdown just a few weeks before voters go to the polls and elect the next president.
Austin said the stop-gap measure would cut defense spending by more than $6 billion compared to the 2025 spending proposal. And it would take money from key new priorities while overfunding programs that no longer need it.
Under a continuing resolution, new projects or programs can’t be started. Austin said that passing the temporary bill would stall more than $4.3 billion in research and development projects and delay 135 new military housing and construction projects totaling nearly $10 billion.
It also would slow progress on a number of key nuclear, ship-building, high-tech drone and other weapons programs. Many of those projects are in an array of congressional districts, and could also have an impact on local residents and jobs.
Since the bill would not fund legally required pay raises for troops and civilians, the department would have to find other cuts to offset them. Those cuts could halt enlistment bonuses, delay training for National Guard and Reserve forces, limit flying hours and other training for active-duty troops and impede the replacement of weapons and other equipment that has been pulled from Pentagon stocks and sent to Ukraine.
Going forward with the continuing resolution, said Austin, will “subject service members and their families to unnecessary stress, empower our adversaries, misalign billions of dollars, damage our readiness, and impede our ability to react to emergent events.”
Noting that there have been 48 continuing resolutions during 14 of the last 15 fiscal years — for a total of nearly 1,800 days — Austin said Congress must break the pattern of inaction because the US military can’t compete with China “with our hands tied behind our back every fiscal year.”
Johnson’s bill is not expected to get support in the Democratic-controlled Senate, if it even makes it that far. But Congress will have to pass some type of temporary measure by Sept. 30 in order to avoid a shutdown.
Putin loyalists set to win local elections in war-affected Russian regions
- Results of the tightly controlled elections are already being interpreted in Russia as a vote of confidence in Putin
Supporters of President Vladimir Putin and his war in Ukraine were set to win gubernatorial races across Russia, according to early vote counts on Sunday, including in Kursk where Ukrainian forces have seized control of some towns and territory.
Russia’s three-day local and regional elections came to an end on Sunday evening, with voters expected to elect Kremlin-backed candidates in all 21 gubernatorial races, as well as legislative assembly members in 13 regions and city council officials across the country.
Results of the tightly controlled elections are already being interpreted in Russia as a vote of confidence in Putin and his operation in Ukraine, now in its third year — just as was the election in March that extended his presidential term and voting a year ago.
“Let’s be honest: there is a war going on. Our task is to defeat our enemy,” Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president and now the chairman of the ruling United Russia party said on Sunday, as cited by the TASS state news agency.
“It is extremely important not to lose the trust of the citizens of Russia, our comrades, during this period.”
In the border Kursk region, which together with the Kremlin was caught by surprise in August by an ongoing incursion by Ukrainian forces, the acting governor leads the race with more than half of the vote counted.
Alexei Smirnov, who has led the region since May, has received nearly 66 percent of the vote so far, according to data from the Russian Central Election Commission.
In the Lipetsk region in Russia’s southwest — a frequent target of Ukrainian drone attacks — the current governor and United Russia candidate, Igor Artamonov, has received 80 percent of votes with nearly all votes counted.
Former Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin, also of United Russia, is leading in the by-election to the lower-house State Duma, in the border Bryansk region, another area frequently affected by Ukrainian air attacks.
Ethiopia PM issues warning over sovereignty
- Ethiopia is currently a major contributor to ATMIS, which is helping Somali forces in the fight against the Al-Shabab jihadist group
NAIROBI: Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed warned Sunday that his country would “humiliate” any nation that threatens its sovereignty, as tensions spiral in the volatile Horn of Africa.
Africa’s second most populous nation is locked in a dispute with neighboring Somalia over a maritime deal it signed with the breakaway region of Somaliland. Relations with Egypt are also fraught over Ethiopia’s mega-dam on the Blue Nile.
“We will not be touched! However, we will humiliate anyone who dares to threaten us in order to dissuade them,” Abiy said at a Sovereignty Day ceremony in the capital Addis Ababa.
“We won’t negotiate with anyone on Ethiopia’s sovereignty and dignity,” he was quoted as saying by the official Ethiopian News Agency.
Ethiopia last month accused unnamed actors of seeking to “destabilize the region” after Egypt sent military equipment to Somalia following the signing of a military cooperation pact between Cairo and Mogadishu.
Egypt has also offered to deploy troops to Somalia under a new African Union-led mission that will replace the current peacekeeping force known as ATMIS next year.
Ethiopia is currently a major contributor to ATMIS, which is helping Somali forces in the fight against the Al-Shabab jihadist group.
But Mogadishu is furious over a deal signed in January between Ethiopia and Somaliland that gives Addis Ababa long-sought after access to the sea, saying it was an attack on its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Under the pact, Somaliland agreed to lease 20 kilometers (12 miles) of its coast for 50 years to Ethiopia, which wants to set up a naval base and a commercial port on the coast.
In return, Somaliland has said Ethiopia would give it formal recognition, although this has never been confirmed by Addis Ababa.
Turkiye has been mediating indirect talks between Ethiopia and Somalia to try to resolve the dispute, but they have made no significant breakthrough.
Somaliland, a former British protectorate of 4.5 million people, declared independence in 1993 but the move is rejected by Mogadishu and not recognized by the international community.
Cairo and Addis Ababa have been at loggerheads for years, trading incendiary words over Ethiopia’s massive hydroelectric dam project, which Egypt says threatens its fragile water security.
NATO members Romania, Latvia report Russian drones breach airspace
- Romanian lawmakers plan to consider legislation at their current session on enabling Romania to shoot down drones invading the country’s airspace in peacetime
BUCHAREST: Romania and Latvia, both NATO members and supporters of Ukraine in its 2 1/2-year-old war with Russia, on Sunday were investigating instances of Russian drones that crashed after breaching their airspace, authorities in both countries said.
The incidents prompted officials to call for measures to act jointly to counter Russia air incursions.
NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana denounced the incidents as “irresponsible and potentially dangerous,” while saying there was no indication of a deliberate attack on Alliance member-states.
The Romanian defense ministry said the “radar supervision system identified and tracked the path of a drone which entered national airspace and then exited toward Ukraine.”
Romania scrambled two F-16 fighter jets to monitor the incursion. Residents of the southeastern Romanian counties of Tulcea and Constanta were warned to take cover.
“From existing data, the possibility of an impact zone on national territory was identified, in an uninhabited area near the village of Periprava,” the ministry added.
Ministry personnel were searching the area of impact.
In Latvia, which borders both Russia and its close ally Belarus, President Edgars Rinkevics posted on social media platform X that his government sought a common NATO response.
“The number of such incidents is increasing along the Eastern flank of NATO and we must address them collectively,” Rinkevics wrote.
The LETA news agency quoted the defense ministry as saying initial investigation showed that the drone had entered Latvian airspace from Belarus and crashed near the city of Rezekne.
Leonids Kalnins, Commander of Latvia’s Joint Headquarters, said experts believed the drone “did not have a specific purpose to fly into Latvia.”
Defense Minister Andris Spruds, quoted by LETA, said the incident was “confirmation that we need to continue the work we have started to strengthen Latvia’s eastern border, including the development of air defense capabilities and electronic warfare capabilities...”
Ukraine’s newly-appointed Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, wrote on X that the two cases were “a stark reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions extend beyond Ukraine” and called for maximum support from Ukraine’s allies.
Romania shares a 650-km (400-mile) border with Ukraine and has had Russian drone fragments stray into its territory repeatedly over the past year. Romanian territory lies a few hundred meters from Ukrainian Danube River ports, frequent Russian targets.
“There weren’t serious issues on the ground,” Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu told reporters on Sunday after consulting with the defense minister.
“(Attacks) will continue. That is it, we have a war on the border.”
Romanian lawmakers plan to consider legislation at their current session on enabling Romania to shoot down drones invading the country’s airspace in peacetime.
