Latin American lender CAF and the United Nations are seeking to provide financing to the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to improve electricity supply in the crisis-stricken nation that is suffering from chronic blackouts, the two institutions told Reuters. 
 
Lawmakers in Venezuela’s congress have proposed a financing mechanism under which CAF would provide $350 million to make improvements to the ailing power sector, with the U.N. Development Program carrying out the investments. 
 
But the proposal has created a deep divide within the country’s opposition between those who say the proposal will provide humanitarian assistance and those who oppose it because it will provide new funding for Maduro’s government, which is widely accused of corruption and mismanagement. 
 
“The project is a CAF loan to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela which is requested by the Ministry of Finance and has to be approved by the National Assembly,” a U.N. official wrote in an emailed response to questions from Reuters. 
 
CAF in an emailed response to questions confirmed that the loan would go to Venezuela’s government. System of controls
 
No funds would be transferred to state electrical authorities, the U.N. official said, and the financing mechanism would have a system of checks and balances “to ensure that the resources are only used for this purpose.” 
 
Though the amount would be relatively small, its approval could pave the way for Maduro to receive additional international financing down the road. That could eventually undercut the effects of U.S. sanctions, which block American citizens from lending money to Maduro as part of an effort to push him from power. 
 
Draft legislation for the proposal does not describe the financial conditions of the loan, which are usually provided to the legislature before such financing is approved. 
 
Venezuela’s information ministry, which fields questions on behalf of the finance ministry, did not respond to an email seeking comment.  FILE – Patients with kidney disease and their relatives wait on the street for the return of electricity, in front of a dialysis center during a blackout, in Maracaibo, Venezuela, April 13, 2019.Chronic blackouts around the country have undermined the functioning of everything from routine commerce to hospital emergency rooms. Especially hard hit has been the western state of Zulia, where citizens routinely go 12 hours without power. 
 
“Zulia, #withoutpower and distressed, is demanding solutions,” wrote opposition politician Manuel Rosales on Twitter. “It hasn’t been days or months but years of electrical chaos that have disrupted the lives of the people of Zulia.” 
 
Electricity sector expert Miguel Lara warned that legislators who voted for the project would be adding to the country’s debt burden by providing funds to the government. “It does not make technical or economic sense,” he wrote on Twitter. “All resources given to [state power company] Corpoelec are lost. They are the crisis.” 
 
The legislature on Tuesday postponed discussion of the proposal until next week in order to seek out more support among lawmakers. Opposition legislators opposed to the measure declined to comment, saying they prefer to wait for it to come up for a vote. Complaints of corruption
 
Critics have for years denounced widespread corruption in the ruling Socialist Party’s management of the power sector. 
 
Those complaints focused on a 2010 declaration of an “electrical emergency” that led to the disbursement of billions of dollars in no-bid contracts for generation projects that were never completed. Critics call it one of the largest embezzlement schemes in the country’s history. 
 
Maduro’s government denies misuse of funds and blames power problems on sabotage by the opposition. 
 
It was not immediately evident if or how U.S. sanctions would apply to the proposal in question. 
 
The U.S. Treasury did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. 
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Colombian unions and student groups held a third national strike Wednesday amid fraught talks between protest leaders and the government over President Ivan Duque’s social and economic policies. The strike was the latest demonstration in two weeks of protests, which have drawn hundreds of thousands of marchers and put pressure on Duque’s proposed tax reform, which lowers duties on businesses. The protests prompted him to announce a “great national dialogue” on social issues, but government efforts to stop new demonstrations have failed as the union-led National Strike Committee has stuck firmly to demands for one-on-one talks and refused to call off protests. Demonstrators hold flags during a protest as a national strike continues in Bogota, Colombia, Dec. 4, 2019.The demonstrations, while largely peaceful, resulted in damage to dozens of public transport stations and curfews in Cali and Bogota. Protesters have wide-ranging demands, including that the government do more to stop the killing of human rights activists, offer more support for former leftist rebels who demobilized under a peace deal and dissolve the ESMAD riot police, whom marchers accuse of excessive force.”We’re continuing to march to send a message to the president and to Congress: Don’t play with the people,” said student Diana Rodriguez, 23, as she made her way toward Bogota’s Bolivar Plaza late Wednesday morning. “Yesterday they approved the tax reform, and that shows they aren’t taking us seriously,” Rodriguez said, referring to the Tuesday approval of the bill by economic committees in both houses of Congress. The proposal now moves to a floor debate. Five people have died in connection with the demonstrations, which started November 21 and have occurred in tandem with protests in other Latin American countries. “I invite all Colombians to mobilize massively to show the government that there is another opinion in the country, that the other Colombia has the right to be listened to,” Central Union of Workers President Diogenes Orjuela told Reuters by phone early on Wednesday, adding marches must be peaceful. Meetings between Duque’s representatives and the committee are expected to continue on Thursday. The committee has made 13 demands, including that the government reject a rise in the pension age and a cut to the minimum wage for young people, both policies Duque denies supporting. The government has repeatedly said the demands for one-on-one dialogue exclude other sectors and that it cannot meet demands that it refrain from deploying the ESMAD. 
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The self-confessed middleman in the murder of a journalist told a court on Wednesday a wealthy Maltese businessman was the brains behind the killing but also implicated people tied to government in the growing scandal.Melvin Theuma received immunity from prosecution last week for information that would lead to the conviction of alleged plot leader and multi-millionaire entrepreneur Yorgen Fenech.However, his detailed court deposition raised fresh questions over the inner circle of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, with Theuma linking apparent attempts at a cover-up of the 2017 murder to figures inside government headquarters.Fenech has been charged with complicity over the killing of anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia by a car bomb.He has denied the accusations and blamed former government chief of staff Keith Schembri and other senior officials.Schembri was arrested last month but later released. He has denied involvement in the murder which has highlighted allegations of rampant corruption in Malta’s overlapping worlds of politics and business.Maltese businessman Yorgen Fenech, who was arrested in connection with an investigation into the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, leaves the Courts of Justice in Valletta, Malta, Nov. 29, 2019.Theuma gave a detailed account of how the 38-year-old Fenech contacted him in 2017 to organize the hit, providing 150,000 euros ($165,000) for the contract.The plot was put on hold before elections in June 2017 but reactivated the night the ruling Labour party was returned to power, Theuma told a packed courtroom.”I can assure you, Yorgen Fenech was the only mastermind.Only he spoke to me,” said Theuma, a taxi driver with links to the criminal underworld.Fenech wanted Caruana Galizia dead because he thought she was going to publish an incriminating story about his uncle, Theuma said.He said he was called to government headquarters after agreeing to arrange the assassination and that Schembri gave him a tour of the building, where Muscat’s offices are housed.Muscat has denied any wrongdoing but has acknowledged he could have handled the aftermath better and said he will step down next month.Panic
Theuma was subsequently told he had been put on the government payroll and received a paycheck for three or four months. “If you asked me, I wouldn’t know what my job was at the ministry, as I never went,” he said.He said he paid three local men to carry out the killing.Thanks partly to help provided by the U.S. FBI, the trio were later arrested, and are awaiting trial, having pleaded not guilty. They sat in court on Wednesday stony-faced.People hold pictures of slain journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia as they protest outside the office of the Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, calling for his resignation, in Valletta, Malta, Nov. 29, 2019.Theuma recounted his panic after the alleged triggermen were seized and news emerged that one was cooperating with police.He said he was then contacted again by an employee from government headquarters whom he named as Kenneth. In an apparent attempt to buy their silence, Kenneth said the three suspects would be released on bail and given 1 million euros, though the bail did not arrive, Theuma said.Theuma said he asked Fenech whether Schembri had sent Kenneth to him, but got no answer. Scared for his safety, he started making secret recordings of his conversations with the businessman, which he has given police.”I started to think they would either lock me up or kill me,” he said. He also acknowledged writing a note where he said both Schembri and Fenech ordered the hit. In court, he distanced himself from the accusation against Schembri, making clear he had no evidence.A police source later identified Kenneth as Kenneth Camilleri, who used to work in Muscat’s security detail. He was recently transferred to Transport Malta, a government body. The company said on Wednesday it had suspended one of its employees following Theuma’s deposition, without giving details.Camilleri did not respond to a message from Reuters requesting comment.With Malta under scrutiny, the new head of the EU executive, Ursula von der Leyen, urged a thorough investigation without political interference. “It is crucial that all those responsible are put to justice as soon as possible,” she said.A European Parliament delegation, which has spent two days in Malta to review rule of law within the EU’s smallest member, recommended that Muscat go immediately.”There has to be absolute confidence in the (investigation) and I think when he is in office, that confidence is not there,” said Sophie In’t Veld, a Dutch member of parliament who led the mission. 
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A sleepy Amazon town has become the flashpoint for the growing hostility between Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro and environmental groups following the arrest of volunteer firefighters he has said set blazes in the rainforest. The episode prompted leaders of nine nongovernmental organizations on Tuesday to denounce the persecution of activists, academics and scientists since the election last year of Bolsonaro, who has accused many of them of working in the Amazon on behalf of foreigners — including actor Leonardo DiCaprio. The groups have been critical of Bolsonaro’s push to develop the world’s largest tropical rainforest. The government regards the third sector, Brazilian civil society, as the enemy of the country,'' Ricardo Borges, executive coordinator at Pact for Democracy, said on a video call with reporters that also included the Brazilian branches of the World Wildlife Fund and Amnesty International. FILE - A satellite image shows smoke rising from Amazon rainforest fires in Rondonia state, southwest of Porto Velho, Brazil, in the upper Amazon River basin, Aug. 15, 2019. (Satellite image ©2019 Maxar Technologies)Police last month accused several volunteer firefighters of setting forest fires to get funding through local NGOs in Alter do Chao, a town of fewer than 10,000 people on the bank of the Tapajos River in Para state. Federal prosecutors quickly said their investigation found no such evidence, the local police officer leading the investigation was removed from the case, and a judge ordered that the firefighters be released from prison. Still, Bolsonaro, a former army captain, publicly backed the police allegations against the firefighters and NGOs. Television footage of police making arrests and raiding NGO offices served, for some, as confirmation of the claims. Bolsonaro even accused DiCaprio of providing the funds to the NGOs, something the U.S. actor denied. The controversy has cast Alter do Chao, known asThe Caribbean of the Amazon,” into the national spotlight. Speaking at the edge of his verdant yard, Caetano Scannavino, coordinator of Health and Happiness, one of the two nonprofits investigated by local police, told the Associated Press incendiary rhetoric has created a climate of terror, and security consultants have recommended he leave Alter do Chao as soon as possible. Already he’s stopped sleeping at home. FILE – Caetano Scannavino, coordinator of NGO Saude e Alegria, or Health and Happiness, gives an interview outside his home in Alter do Chao, Para state, Brazil, Dec. 1, 2019.Today we're in a war of narratives. The country is polarized and unfortunately we've created an environment of deconstruction instead of construction, in which people shout at each other and don't debate,'' Scannavino said.It’s not justifiable to feed more hatred into an environment already polarized with hate.” The same day, on the other side of Alter do Chao, a group of traveling soy farmers spoke to the AP over breakfast at their hotel and expressed the sort of skepticism about NGOs that Bolsonaro shares. One suggested NGOs outnumber farmers in the surrounding region. Another said most of their funding goes to employee salaries rather than valid projects. The volunteer firefighters and nonprofits deny any wrongdoing and say the investigation is politically motivated. Para state’s government said it won’t comment on the probe until the police inquiry is concluded. The press offices of the president and the environment minister didn’t reply to requests for comments. Bolsonaro has accused NGOs of feeding off the industry of fines'' in the country's environmental sector and vowed to no longer allocate fine-related revenue to nonprofits. Environment Minister Ricardo Salles also announced earlier this year he was suspending funding to NGOs, pending review of contracts and partnerships to catch possible irregularities. Space researcherSuch targeting hasn't been limited to nonprofits. Amid the international outcry over the Amazon fires in August, Bolsonaro accused the then-head of Brazil's space research institute, Ricardo Galvao, of manipulating satellite data on deforestation in order to undermine his administration. Galvao publicly countered the claims and was fired. Brazil's annual deforestation report released last month showed a nearly 30% jump from the prior year. While the government eventually acknowledged logging had increased, the academic community remained shaken by the high-profile dismissal at a scientific institution. In the Bolsonaro government, there is a group that has a clearly negative view of science,” Galvao said in a phone interview. They have this idea that all scientists are on the left.'' In November, a group of international academics published a research paper in the journal Global Change Biology, debunking the Brazilian government's claims that Amazon fires in August were normal. More than one of the paper's authors remained anonymous for fear of reprisal like that Galvao suffered, co-author Erika Berenguer told the AP. It was really tough for them to make that decision,” she said. In Alter do Chao, the arrest of the firefighters wasn’t the first controversy this year to perturb the town’s peaceful vibe. In July, Brazil’s education minister was eating in the central plaza with his family when indigenous activists staged a short demonstration beside his table. The minister responded by taking a nearby microphone to address the crowd. I just want to show the difference between the left and people who aren't on the left,'' he said.I’m here with my family on my vacation, one week of the year, three little kids, and you try to humiliate me in front of my kids. Is that it? Is that what you are?” It quickly escalated into a shouting match, with video of the episode going viral nationwide. Names circulatedTwo days later, a list with names of NGOs, activists and professors from the region allegedly responsible for the mistreatment of the minister'' started circulating in local WhatsApp chat groups, according to a local journalist who writes under the name Hellen Joplin, who also works with local activists. She found herself on the list, described as being anti-Bolsonaro and aleftist of the worst kind.” It was a total witch hunt: get them and punish them,'' Joplin said in an interview. That night, four police officers drove to her home with red lights flashing as she hosted a meeting of indigenous activists. Terrified attendees hopped Joplin's back fence and hid in the jungle, while officers standing at Joplin's doorway warned her about supposed motorcycle theft in the area and peered into her home, she said at the AP's Rio de Janeiro office. She skipped town with her two toddlers and plans to return only to move her things out permanently. For now, the volunteer firefighters and nonprofits remain under investigation in Alter do Chao. For Ana Torrellas, who helps run a restaurant in the town's plaza, the process looks like arbitrary persecution. Boom, it was their turn, as can happen with me, as can happen with you,” said Torrellas, who moved to town from Venezuela two years ago. “I don’t need glasses to see the plan. They don’t want people who think differently.” 
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A proposal to rebuild Venezuela’s collapsed power grid with the help of the United Nations is proving a political hot potato for Nicolas Maduro’s opponents.On Tuesday, the opposition-controlled National Assembly at the last minute scratched a schedule debate on a $350 million credit from a regional development bank to address an electricity emergency that has left much of western Venezuela in the dark from blackouts for months.Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro gestures as he speaks during a news conference in Caracas, Venezuela, Sept. 30, 2019.The project’s promoters accuse opposition hardliners of playing politics with Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis while ignoring the plight of millions of Venezuelans who urgently demand solutions to everyday travails as the fight to remove Maduro drags on.“We can’t condemn millions of Venezuelans to life without power while we wait for Maduro to give up power,” said Oscar Rondero, an opposition lawmaker from Nueva Esparta state, one of the most impacted by the blackouts.The proposed loan agreement with the Development Bank of Latin America, or CAF, enjoys the backing of Maduro but still requires the National Assembly’s approval. The funding would be used to reconnect 1,206 megawatts of power — about half of its current output from diesel and gas-powered facilities — in four hard-hit areas as well as backup generators for hospitals nationwide.The proposal puts the opposition, which considers the Maduro administration corrupt and illegitimate, in a difficult spot, said David Smile, a Venezuela expert at Tulane University. It also lays bare divisions that have grown more embittered as the U.S.-backed campaign to oust Maduro loses its momentum, with many of his opponents exiled for fear of arrest.“Supporting it would require tacit recognition of the Maduro government,” said Smilde, who is also a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America. “But opposing it would mean denying Venezuelans a significant opportunity to improve the terrible conditions they are living in.”To address those concerns, the U.N.’s development agency would be responsible for administering the funding in conjunction with an independent board comprised of representatives of Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido. No funds would be provided directly to the state-run utility Corpoelec, which is run by Maduro loyalists and widely blamed for the grid’s collapse.If approved, Smilde says it could help foster closer cooperation between the two feuding sides to stem a crisis that has led more than 4.6 million Venezuelans to flee the country, including support for an “oil for food” deal that is increasingly being floated by policymakers and analysts.Still, for some in the opposition, any attempt at cooperation with Maduro to address the country’s humanitarian crisis, however modest, smacks of treason.“Is the legislative branch going to pretend everything is normal approving funding for an executive power that’s supposedly usurping power?” Pedro Urruchurtu, the national coordinator for the Vente Venezuela movement, said on Twitter following Tuesday’s legislative session.The loan proposal dates from March, when moderate opposition lawmakers gathered with their socialist counterparts at a forum sponsored by what’s known as the Boston Group.The informal group came about in the wake of a 2002 coup as a way for Venezuelan lawmakers across the ideological spectrum, as well as Democrats and Republicans in the U.S., to rebuild trust following Hugo Chavez’s brief removal from power. Maduro was among its founding members.More recently, the group was activated to secure the release of Joshua Holt, a Utah man arrested and held for almost two years on what were widely seen as trumped-up weapons charges.Guaido, who leads congress and is recognized as Venezuela’s rightful president by more than 50 countries, including the U.S., has yet to publicly comment on the debate.But Rondero said that members of his Popular Will party have expressed misgivings, while the Justice First party — which controls the largest bloc in congress — opposes the bill outright.In removing a scheduled debate on the loan deal from Tuesday’s legislative session, lawmaker Enrique Marquez said more time was needed to build consensus.
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Sweden’s prison board says U.S. rapper A$AP Rocky won’t be able to perform in the Swedish prison where he was held until convicted of assault in a June street brawl in Stockholm.Citing logistical and security issues, Vilhelm Grevik of Sweden’s Prison and Probation Service told the Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet on Wednesday that the prison board won’t be able to organize a concert in the Kronoberg prison.In August, A$AP Rocky, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, was convicted of assault. The rapper and his two bodyguards were given “conditional sentences,” meaning they won’t serve prison time unless they commit a similar offense in the future.Mayers, who wanted to entertain inmates at the Kronoberg prison, is due to perform Dec. 11 at Stockholm’s Ericsson Globe arena.
 
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The meeting of NATO leaders in London to mark the alliance’s 70th anniversary got off to a difficult start Tuesday as the leaders of the United States, France and Turkey clashed over burden sharing and the future direction of the alliance. The official summit is set to take place Wednesday, where the various threats to NATO are due to be discussed – but as Henry Ridgwell reports, the biggest challenge could be keeping a lid on tensions within the organization
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U.S. President Donald Trump accused Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of being “two-faced” after Trudeau and other NATO leaders appeared to have been gossiping about him.A recording of a reception Tuesday night in London’s Buckingham Palace shows Trudeau huddling with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Britain’s Princess Anne, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rute and French President Emmanuel Macron.Trudeau was overheard apparently commenting on Trump’s lengthy impromptu exchange with journalists, during which Trump said Trudeau was perturbed over his remarks that Canada is not fulfilling its NATO financial commitments.Shortly after Trump’s comments about Trudeau, he tweeted NATO has made “Great progress” since he won the presidency nearly three years ago.Great progress has been made by NATO over the last three years. Countries other than the U.S. have agreed to pay 130 Billion Dollars more per year, and by 2024, that number will be 400 Billion Dollars. NATO will be richer and stronger than ever before….— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) The two leaders met hours after Trump criticized Macron for his recent statement describing NATO as experiencing a “brain death,” due to diminished U.S. leadership. Trump called it a “nasty statement.”  As the two sat down for talks, Trump warned that NATO member countries who do not meet NATO’s guideline of spending 2% of GDP on collective defense could be dealt with “from a trade standpoint” referring to tariffs on products, including French wine.This prompted Macron, who is currently contributing 1.9% of France’s GDB towards NATO’s defense, to push back.”It’s not just about money,” Macron said. “What about peace in Europe?” he asked Trump.”It’s impossible just to say we have to put money, we have to put soldiers, without being clear on the fundamentals of what NATO should be,” Macron said.Islamic State fightersTrump and Macron argued about how to deal with Islamic State after the October withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria, a move Trump made without consulting the alliance. The withdrawal paved the way for Turkey to launch an offensive against the U.S.-allied Kurdish militia in northern Syria and triggered fear among allies of a potential IS resurgence.In response to a question on whether France should do more to take Islamic State fighters captured in the Middle East, Trump asked Macron if he would like “some nice ISIS fighters.”Macron countered that the main problem is IS fighters in the region. Referring to the abrupt U.S. withdrawal from northern Syria, Macron said “you have more and more of these fighters due to the situation today.”Macron is “more on the side of those who want to actually face up to the crisis and talk about it,” said Hans Kundnani of Chatham House. He is the sort of “disruptive factor” compared to other leaders who may choose to paper over disagreements, Kundnani said.The summit came as Trump faces an impeachment investigation back home. He repeated his criticism Tuesday of Democrats who control the House of Representatives, saying it is unfair to hold hearings while he is attending the summit.Trump is not the first U.S. president to attend a NATO summit under the cloud of impeachment. In 1974, Richard Nixon went to NATO’s 25th anniversary meeting in Brussels while the U.S. House of Representatives was concluding its impeachment inquiry. Nixon stepped down a few weeks later.
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Three years had passed since the Colombian government signed a peace agreement with the revolutionary armed forces FARC. After years of conflict, Colombians thought this agreement would change the country for the better. Nevertheless, the process is still ongoing and a new wave of violence against local leaders and journalists is erupting in different parts of the country. VOA’s Celia Mendoza reports in Bogota, Colombia
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The Organization of American States (OAS) should avoid “extreme” positions when confronting regional crises like Venezuela’s social and economic collapse and instead promote dialogue, a challenger for the body’s top job said on Tuesday.Hugo de Zela, a longtime Peruvian diplomat and his country’s ambassador to the United States, is running to unseat the organization’s secretary-general, Luis Almagro, who is seeking a second five-year term. Almagro’s current term is set to end next May.The OAS must push for problems to be solved within its member countries by facilitating dialogue between different factions, de Zela told Reuters on the sidelines of a diplomatic meeting in Bogota.”If the organization puts itself on one of the extremes, it stops being effective at solving problems, it stops being present in the solution and it becomes part of the problem,” said de Zela. “That cannot happen.”Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro gestures as he speaks during a news conference in Caracas, Venezuela, Sept. 30, 2019.Venezuela’s economic and political crisis – which has led to widespread shortages of food and medicine and an exodus of people – has dominated recent OAS meetings, with some member states denouncing President Nicolas Maduro as a dictator, while others back him.Member states have also tussled over the admittance to meetings of a representative sent by Venezuela’s opposition leader, Juan Guaido, who argues Maduro’s 2018 re-election was illegitimate. Guaido this year invoked the constitution to assume an interim presidency.Almagro, a Uruguayan whose re-election bid is backed by the United States, Colombia and Brazil, has sought to ramp up pressure on Maduro, including refusing to rule out the use of force against his government last year.”It’s evident that in Venezuela, there is an interruption of the democratic process, it’s evident that the Maduro regime lacks legitimacy, that’s not under discussion. But at the same time, to actively promote the use of force to solve the case of Venezuela is unreal and doesn’t help,” said de Zela.”That is putting ourselves on an extreme. Talking constantly about the use of force to solve the issue of Venezuela is not an effective contribution or a realistic contribution.”Venezuelans must solve their own problems through dialogue, de Zela added, saying free and fair elections must be held urgently in the oil-producing country.”The OAS is not having, as it once did, an active role in cooperation to solve these things,” de Zela said. “There is a lack of dialogue between the member countries and the general secretariat.” 
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Representatives from over a dozen nations that are signatories to a Cold War-era defense treaty for the Americas moved Tuesday to further isolate close allies of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with economic sanctions.The 1947 Rio Treaty signatories concluded a meeting in Bogota by vowing to cooperate in pursuing sanctions and travel restrictions for Maduro government associates accused of corruption, drug trafficking, money laundering or human rights violations.”The political, economic and social crisis in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela represents a threat for the peace and security of the continent,” Colombian Foreign Minister Claudia Blum said in the meeting’s final remarks.While the United States and the European Union have targeted Maduro associates with economic sanctions, Latin American nations who are supporting opposition leader Juan Guaido have largely resorted to diplomatic pressure – and it will be up to each individual nation to decide how to move forward.The promise of enhanced economic pressure against Maduro comes at a time when Venezuela’s opposition is faltering. Guaido has struggled to mobilize supporters onto the streets and dipped in popularity. Meanwhile, fissures within the opposition are coming to light amidst recent controversies involving alleged abuses of power.David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America, said the Rio Treaty’s resolution Tuesday marks a “small victory” for the opposition but “not enough to really put them in a different place.””Their strategy of maximum pressure seems to be stalling,” he said.The 19 Rio Treaty member nations have been treading cautiously in pursuing economic restrictions against Venezuela while vowing not to invoke a provision in the accord that authorizes them to pursue a military intervention. The accord instructs signatories to consider a threat against any one of them a danger to all.Colombian President Ivan Duque contends that Maduro is offering a safe haven to rebel factions of the National Liberation Army and dissidents with the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, an assertion the Venezuelan leader denies. Duque urged that nations embark on tougher sanctions going forward.”Here there’s no invitation for use of force,” he said.Despite repeated remarks from Rio Treaty members indicating they will not pursue a military response, Venezuelan leaders contend the signatories are plotting to overthrow Maduro and warning citizens that an intervention could be imminent.”The people should be prepared and alert on the streets,” Diosdado Cabello, head of Venezuela’s all-powerful National Constitutional Assembly, said Tuesday.
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The far-right Vox party won a seat on the committee responsible for running Spain’s parliament on Tuesday, raising its national profile as the Socialists struggled to form a government following an inconclusive national election last month.The Socialists, meanwhile, again held talks with a Catalan separatist party in a bid to gain support.Vox became the third-largest party in a fragmented parliament in the election, more than doubling its seats to 52 after campaigning on a platform of staunch nationalism and an anti-feminist and anti-immigrant stance.Amid some chaotic scenes and scuffles in the parliamentary chamber as the new legislature was sworn in, Vox lawmaker Ignacio Gil Lazaro was elected as one of the oversight committee’s four vice presidents.The nine-strong committee decides when bills are admitted for debate and its members represent parliament overseas, giving it considerable influence.Founded in 2013, Vox won two dozen seats in an inconclusive election in April, the first time a far-right party had won more than one seat since Spain returned to democracy in the 1970s after four decades of dictatorship.In the November election, Spain’s fourth in four years, the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) won most seats but fell short of a majority.Despite reaching a coalition pact with the left-wing Unidas Podemos, it is still scrambling to drum up enough support from other parties to control the 350-seat parliament.Hours after the oversight committee election was picked, the Socialists sat down with Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) in its second formal conversation aimed at securing the Catalan separatist party’s backing for a Socialist-led government.Afterwards, the two parties avoided any mention of support but said in a joint statement they would meet again on Dec. 10.Ahead of the meeting, acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez had sought to temper expectations that Spain could have a government in place by December.”I don’t want to put a date on it,” Sanchez told reporters on Monday. “It could be December 12, December 20 or January 8.I don’t know. But what’s important to highlight is that Spain needs a government as soon as possible.”Prior to Tuesday’s vote on the oversight committee ballot, a scuffle broke out between a Vox member and a deputy from centre-right Ciudadanos. Socialist party spokeswoman Adriana Lastra twisted her ankle and had to receive medical attention.After the vote, in which Socialist Meritxell Batet was elected committee president, Catalan separatist politicians used the swearing-in process as a platform to demand freedom for jailed Catalan separatist leaders.They also refused to take the traditional oath to uphold Spain’s constitution, instead pledging to campaign for an independent Catalan republic. 
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Hungary has stifled its independent media and imposed a level of control over journalists that is unprecedented in an EU country, according to a joint report from six international press watchdogs that calls on EU leaders to take action.The report was compiled ahead of a meeting next week at which EU leaders will discuss punishing Hungary for eroding democratic norms under maverick Prime Minister Viktor Orban.”The Hungarian government has systematically dismantled media independence, freedom and pluralism, distorted the media market and divided the journalistic community in the country, achieving a degree of media control unprecedented in an EU member state,” the report says.FILE – The spokesman of the Hungarian government, Zoltan Kovacs, speaks to reporters at the Hungarian Embassy in Paris, Dec.19, 2018.Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs rejected the criticisms in a posting on Twitter.”Fact: TV outlet with largest audience, news portal with largest readership, largest weekly (are) clearly pro-opposition,” Kovacs wrote. “But report says: opposition media under constant threat, being muted. What?”Hungary and Poland’s ruling nationalist parties have tightened control over the media, academics, courts and advocacy groups, spurring the European Parliament to launch a so-called Article 7 legal process against both the EU countries.The European Council, which brings together leaders of EU member states, will hold a hearing with EU affairs ministers on Dec. 10 to discuss the proceedings against both countries.Fact-finding mission Ahead of that meeting, the six organizations, which include the International Press Institute (IPI), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), sent a fact-finding mission to Hungary last month.”Hungary’s situation does not get the attention it should,” IPI deputy director and mission leader Scott Griffen told Reuters. “It is important that the EU public and its institutions understand what is going on in Hungary.”The report said some prominent independent outlets remained in Hungary, but their market weight was dwarfed by pro-government publications.It said Budapest has “a clear strategy to silence the critical press (and operate) a pro-government media empire as a vast propaganda machine.”Critics say that under Orban, state media have become an obedient mouthpiece of his Fidesz party, while the rest of the media landscape is dominated by a conglomerate created by pro-Fidesz businessmen.Orban’s government has denied undermining press freedom.
 
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China will help build several major infrastructure projects in El Salvador including a stadium and water treatment plant, the two countries said Tuesday, signaling China’s growing role in the region after El Salvador cut ties with Taiwan.Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who met with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in China this week, said the investment represented a “gigantic, non-refundable cooperation” for the small Central American nation.He did not disclose the planned investment amount.Under the agreement, China will help build a large sports stadium, multi-story library and water treatment plant.China, the world’s second biggest economy, will also assist at coastal tourist sites, including building streets, parks and a water system along the beaches known as Surf City, and restaurants and shops on the Puerto de la Libertad pier.The projects offer the strongest signal yet of El Salvador’s embrace of close relations with China.El Salvador “adheres to the principle of one China, categorically rejects any act that goes against this principle and any form of ‘independence of Taiwan,'” El Salvador and China said in a joint statement.El Salvador broke off diplomatic relations with Taiwan in August last year, following the Dominican Republic and Panama in switching sides to China.
 
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Surging violence by criminal gangs in Central America has led to an increase of asylum seekers at the southern U.S. border.  As local authorities in Honduras and El Salvador struggle to counter the gangs and drug smugglers, the U.S. military is trying to help. VOA Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb visited the troops working to improve security in Honduras and El Salvador.
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Talks between the Colombian government and the unions and student organizations that are planning major protests this week ended without advances on Tuesday, as the country prepares for its third national strike since late November.Hundreds of thousands of Colombians have participated in protests against President Ivan Duque’s social and economic policies since Nov. 21, imperiling the government’s tax reform proposal and leading Duque to announce a “great national dialogue.”Five people have died in connection with the demonstrations, including a young man killed by homemade explosives on Monday in the city of Medellin during a protest at a public university.On Monday, the government asked the unions and student groups that make up the National Strike Committee to call off the Wednesday protest and agreed to a parallel dialogue with them.FILE – Members of the Indigenous Guard and students march in an anti-government protest in Bogota, Colombia, Nov. 29, 2019.The committee rejected the request to halt the strike, continuing to demand the government meet only with them instead of including business groups and others in talks.Diogenes Orjuela, the head of the Central Union of Workers (CUT), told Reuters early on Tuesday the strike would go ahead and that his organization would continue to seek dialogue without “conditions on our plan of action which we have through December 10.”The CUT is the country’s main union, with more than 500,000 members.13 demandsThe committee has made 13 demands of the government, including that it reject a rise in the pension age and a cut in the minimum wage for young people, both policies Duque denies ever supporting.A meeting between the committee and the government ended without progress Tuesday, with presidency official Diego Molano telling journalists that certain committee demands could not be met.”What they have requested can’t be fulfilled, particularly if we only maintain the exclusive and independent negotiations,” Molano said, adding the committee’s demand that the ESMAD riot police not be present during demonstrations was also inviable.The death last week of 18-year-old protester Dilan Cruz has helped fuel anger at the ESMAD, which protesters accuse of using excessive force during crowd dispersion efforts. Cruz was fatally injured on the third day of protests by an ESMAD projectile.Orjuela told journalists following Tuesday’s meeting that the negotiations will move forward while protests continue.
 
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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s lawmaker son Eduardo, once considered for the post of ambassador to the United States, was suspended by his party on Tuesday and could lose the chair of the lower house’s foreign affairs committee.The conservative Social Liberal Party (PSL) suspended Eduardo Bolsonaro for one year for trying to oust its founder Luciano Bivar last month in a battle for control of the party that led to President Bolsonaro leaving to start his own party.The split has left the far-right president without a formal base in Congress for which to push through his agenda of bills aimed at reducing the size of government, fighting graft, loosening gun laws and asserting Christian family values.The small PSL party surged from nowhere to become the second largest in Brazil’s Congress by serving as the platform for Bolsonaro’s successful presidential run last year riding on a wave of conservative sentiment in the country.The party said it punished 18 members for siding with the Bolsonaros in a bitter struggle for control of the party and its large election campaign war chest lost by the president.The PSL will seek to have Eduardo Bolsonaro removed as chairman of the foreign relations committee arguing that the position was assigned to the party according to its number of seats. 
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U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump attended a reception late Tuesday at Buckingham Palace hosted by Queen Elizabeth on the sidelines of the NATO summit, where leaders are marking 70 years of the alliance.This is the third time the Trumps have met the monarch. They met at a Buckingham Palace banquet during a state visit in June, and during a tea at Windsor Castle in July of 2018.Prior to Tuesday’s palace reception, the president and the first lady briefly met with the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall at their official residence at Clarence House.As in his previous visits to Britain, anti-Trump protests broke out. Protesters marched from London’s Trafalgar Square towards the palace as the evening reception took place. Among the protesters led by the Stop Trump Coalition, are doctors, nurses and staff of the country’s National Health Service concerned about the potential risks to the British health service system raised by a U.S. – Britain trade deal.Election meddlingBut earlier on Tuesday, Trump promised to stay out of Britain’s general election, scheduled to be held on December 12.“I have no thoughts on it.  It’s going to be a very important election for this great country, but I have no thoughts on it,” Trump said, speaking alongside NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.But the U.S. president could not resist giving his opinion about British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, saying, “Boris is very capable and I think he’ll do a good job.”In a recent interview, Johnson warned Trump against giving him an endorsement, saying it was best “for neither side to be involved in the other’s election campaigns.”In October, Trump praised the prime minister as “the exact right guy for the times” and said that the Labour Party’s Jeremy Corbyn would be “so bad” as prime minister.Donald Trump is trying to interfere in Britain’s election to get his friend Boris Johnson elected.
It was Trump who said in June the NHS is “on the table”. And he knows if Labour wins US corporations won’t get their hands on it.
Our NHS is not for sale.pic.twitter.com/AUhht3pCgL
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) October 31, 2019World leaders rarely violate diplomatic norms and wade into other countries’ elections.Trump also said the United States has no interest in Britain’s National Health Service.“We have absolutely nothing to do with it and we wouldn’t want to if you handed it to us on a silver platter,” he said.Trump’s interest in the privatization of the NHS has been a key focus of the British election, with Corbyn accusing Johnson and the Conservative Party of including it in a post-Brexit deal with the United States. Johnson has denied the accusation.Protesters hold a placard at a demonstration during U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit for NATO summit, in London, Dec. 3, 2019.Trump and the British prime minister are meeting in group events with other NATO leaders including at Buckingham Palace and a meeting afterwards at 10 Downing Street, but it is still unclear whether the two will have a one-on-one meeting during the two-day summit. Other than his meeting with Stoltenberg, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday, Trump is scheduled to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel Wednesday.In between meetings with leaders, the U.S. president also met with supporters in a closed press event. Tuesday’s fundraiser was expected to raise $3 million for his re-election campaign.Prince AndrewPrince Andrew did not join the Royal Family during the reception with NATO leaders. The queen’s son stepped back from his royal duties last month due to his association with Jeffrey Epstein, the American financier found dead in a jail cell in August after being held on sex trafficking charges.Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who said she was trafficked by Epstein, claimed that she was directed to have sexual encounters with Prince Andrew.FILE – President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump accompanied by John Hall, the Dean of Westminster, right, and Britain’s Prince Andrew leave after a tour of Westminster Abbey in London, June 3, 2019.Trump declined to weigh in on the controversy, saying Tuesday, when asked by a reporter, “I don’t know Prince Andrew. It’s a tough story.”????On Day 2 of the #USStateVisit, The Duke of York & Prime Minister @TheresaMay welcome President Donald Trump @POTUS to St James’s Palace for a UK/US Senior Business Leaders Group Breakfast Meeting. pic.twitter.com/NfvniwmQKX
— The Duke of York (@TheDukeOfYork) June 4, 2019Since Trump’s statement, old photos of Donald Trump and Prince Andrew at Trump’s Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, have resurfaced.Trump also met Andrew during his last U.K. visit in June. 
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President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he supports the demonstrations in Iran and urged the world to watch the Iranian government’s violent effort to quash protests that he says have killed “thousands of people.”Speaking in London, where he is attending the NATO leaders summit, Trump said, “Iran is killing thousands and thousands of people right now as we speak.”He added they were killed “for the mere fact that they’re protesting,” and he called it a “terrible thing.”Trump was mum on what, if anything, the U.S. could do in response to the violence, but he said, “I think the world has to be watching.”Later, during a meeting, Trump misheard a question when he said he did not support the protesters. The president also sent out a tweet that said: “The United States of America supports the brave people of Iran who are protesting for their FREEDOM. We have under the Trump Administration and always will!”Amnesty International said on Monday it believes at least 208 people were killed in the protests and the crackdown that followed. Iranian state television on Tuesday acknowledged for the first time that security forces shot and killed what it described as “rioters” in multiple cities amid recent protests over the spike in government-set gasoline prices.The protests are viewed as a reflection of widespread economic discontent gripping the country since Trump reimposed nuclear sanctions on Iran last year.Trump encouraged reporters “to get in there and see what’s going on,” noting that the Iranian government has curtailed internet access to limit the spread of information about the violence.
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Russia on Tuesday accused a former U.S. Marine it has held for almost a year on spying charges of faking health problems in custody and lying about his ill-treatment to stir up noise around his case.Paul Whelan, who holds U.S., British, Canadian and Irish passports, was accused of espionage after agents from Russia’s Federal Security Service detained him in a Moscow hotel room on Dec. 28. Whelan, who is being held in pre-trial detention, denies Moscow’s allegations and says he was set up in a political sting.He has alleged at court hearings that he is being subjected to ill treatment in custody and that his complaints are systematically ignored. In October, he said a prison guard had forced him to his knees and threatened him with a gun.In August, Whelan’s lawyer said his client was suffering from a groin hernia that prison authorities were aggravating, prompting the U.S. embassy to demand immediate access to Whelan.A U.S. diplomat met him last week in jail and called for his immediate release. The U.S. embassy described Whelan’s treatment as “shameful”, said Moscow had refused permission for an outside doctor to examine him.On Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Whelan’s allegations of ill-treatment had not checked out and that diplomats were being granted regular access to him in custody.”They (the diplomats) know perfectly well that the public statements by the accused about certain abuses and even threats (made to his) life in pre-trial detention – are nothing more than the defence’s provocatory line to help artificially create noise around his person,” the ministry said in a statement.It said Whelan had received qualified medical treatment from the detention facility’s doctors as well as a special clinic and that they had not found him to have any serious ailment.”So there is no threat to Whelan’s health, and the pretending which he is periodically resorting to is apparently part of the training for U.S. intelligence officers,” the ministry said.The U.S. embassy and lawyers for Whelan did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. 
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