Venezuela's major opposition parties agreed on Wednesday to choose single candidates in upcoming gubernatorial and municipal elections in hopes of ending a near monopoly on the control of local governments by allies of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
The agreement was signed the nation commemorated the 50th anniversary of the overthrow of General Marcos Perez Jimenez, the country's last dictator.
Opposition leader Enrique Mendoza called the unity pact "the best tribute to 50 years" of democracy, saying it would help capitalize on Chavez's defeat in a Dec. 2 referendum that would have dropped barriers to his continual re-election.
The opposition agreed use polls and primaries to choose single candidates ahead of November's gubernatorial and municipal elections -- a pact designed to prevent multiple candidates from running for the same office and splitting the anti-Chavez vote, as they have in the past. It remains unclear, however, if individual aspirations will undermine the agreement.
Following the signing the pact, thousands of Chavez's critics then took to the streets waving red, yellow and blue Venezuelan flags to commemorate Jan. 23 -- a date that has underscored the country's political divisions since Chavez took office in 1999.
For years, Chavez has called the anniversary the start of a "fake democracy," preferring instead to celebrate the failed coup he led on Feb. 4, 1992.
Opposition politician Cesar Perez Vivas said the socialist president wants to "remain in power forever," and vowed to challenge any future constitutional changes that could let the president run for re-election in 2012 and beyond.
Chavez's supporters, meanwhile, commemorated the date by laying wreaths at the grave of Fabricio Ojeda, a journalist-turned-guerrilla who helped organize street protests that culminated in the end of Perez Jimenez's regime.
Ojeda's daughter Marianela -- a Chavez supporter -- argued that elected leaders who succeeded Perez Jimenez betrayed democracy by outlawing the Communist Party and imprisoning its leaders.
"It's said that was the beginning of democracy, but it wasn't true democracy," she said.
Ojeda joined Cuban-supported rebels who took up arms against the elected government that followed Perez Jimenez, and died in jail in 1966. The government at the time said it was suicide, but his supporters say Ojeda was murdered.
Chavez-allied candidates have dominated in local elections in recent years, and all but four of 23 state governors are pro-Chavez.
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
RSS