Socialist Maduro, 61, will seek reelection Sunday to a third six-year term amid accusations of opposition harassment by an increasingly authoritarian regime.

His government agreed with the opposition last year to hold free and fair elections in 2024, with international observers present — winning a temporary easing of sanctions from the United States.

But he since reneged on some of the conditions, and loyalist institutions barred opposition leader Maria Corina Machado from running against him.

On Friday, Panama said its former president Mireya Moscoso, as well as former leaders Miguel Angel Rodriguez of Costa Rica, Jorge Quiroga of Bolivia and Vicente Fox of Mexico, had their plane held up.

The group, which also included former Colombian vice president Marta Lucia Ramirez, got off to allow the plane, with many Venezuelan voters on board, to take off.

  • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Really loving the usual suspects coming in here to immediately play apologist. Fuck Maduro.

    • dan1101@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      Yeah I can’t say I know the political situation that well, but as of the end of 2023 the number of Venezuelans illegally crossing (47,000) had increased to just below the number of Mexicans (56,000.) It is a lot harder trip for the Venezuelans because they must cross the Darien Gap on foot, so something must be wrong in Venezuela.

    • DragonTypeWyvern
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      3 months ago

      You have to admit it’s pretty interesting that OP went with a Voice of America source.

      It’s also pretty interesting that I’ve never seen VOA being posted until the election season decided to really kick off.

      • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        It’s also pretty interesting that I’ve never seen VOA being posted until the election season decided to really kick off.

        Then you haven’t been paying attention.

          • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            Not enough, then, unless you count the entire time from the exodus 'til now as being part of the election season. Which, while not incorrect, would not be particularly useful for identifying trends in sources.

            • DragonTypeWyvern
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              3 months ago

              You’re right. “Never” was a strong choice. “Rarely and definitely not daily in trending.”

              • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                I remember seeing it often enough that there were frequent quarrels over the source in the comments that I was usually involved in.

  • gas@discuss.tchncs.de
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    3 months ago

    Can’t speak for other situations but as spanish I must clarify that the reasons why the Spanish PP party “observers” were kicked out is because they lacked the proper VISA to be officially electoral observers and the proper invitation to act as such from the electoral authorities from Venezuela, which more than 1000 observers from the whole electoral field (some of them far right BTW) managed to get, because they followed the proper bureaucracy to get them. They traveled on a tourist VISA and when they got rejected they claimed in social media as if they were almost being kidnapped by Venezuelan authorities. An embarrassment for my country is what they are…

    • AmidFuror@fedia.io
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      3 months ago

      Comrade, you’re posting this link to every story about this, but ever since Chavez the elections have been rigged. Sometimes socialists think their agenda is so important that no one else should be able to come to power.

      • DancingBear
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        3 months ago

        Had to translate from Spanish but to be honest I don’t know enough about current politics in Columbia to comment, or the reliability of this news site, but thanks for posting this article

        • gedaliyah@lemmy.worldOPM
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          3 months ago

          Well, you do know the reliability because I just told you it’s the paper of record in Colombia, and that’s easy enough to verify with a quick web search. Colombia has a leftist government, and the people generally express a strong kinship with Venezuela.

          The article is about the dozens of arbitrary arrests and election persecution cases alleged since this morning.

          • DancingBear
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            3 months ago

            It’s lost in translation, paper of my ass is not very far off

            Edit: my ass has many shitty papers if you need time to read them

    • gedaliyah@lemmy.worldOPM
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      3 months ago

      I can’t tell if you’re actually joking about election interference, or if you have some bizarre critique of the source

    • catloaf@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      It’s “Voice of America”, not “Voice of TokenBoomer”, so I don’t see an issue.

      Also, it’s called that because it’s the official mouthpiece of the United States Government.

    • Maeve@kbin.earth
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      3 months ago

      Yes, I’d like to hear from less USA/Western (USA bootlickers)-centric sources, myself. If this is true, winning by cheating isn’t a win, and may prove to have unfortunate consequences. Of course, socialist or Communist winning anything may also have unfortunate consequences, especially when we (USA) send in the jackals.