By Agencies
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Venezuela’s high court on Monday suspended the opposition’s entire primary election process, including its result, and ordered organizers to hand in documents identifying millions of voters, in the latest challenge by the government of President Nicolás Maduro to its adversaries ahead of the 2024 presidential vote.
The court ruled the opposition’s Oct. 22 contest may be in violation of the law. It was not immediately clear whether the suspension would effectively result in the nullification of the primary vote.
Jesús María Casal, head of the National Primary Commission, could not immediately explained the decision as he entered the attorney general’s office minutes after the ruling was issued.
The commission is an independent body that formed to organize the opposition’s primary.
“All effects of the different phases of the electoral process conducted by the National Primary Commission are suspended,” the court said in its ruling issued shortly before Casal and other organizers were set to be interviewed by prosecutors regarding the primary.
Maduro and his allies have ridiculed and minimized the primary all year, but they escalated their attacks after the election exceeded participation expectations.
More than 2.4 million Venezuelans in the country and abroad voted, including in areas once considered strongholds of the ruling party.
The court ordered organizers to hand over all ballots, tally sheets and, crucially, so-called voting notebooks, which were signed by every voter after poll workers verified their identity.
It also ratified the bans imposed by Maduro’s government on three candidates, including winner María Corina Machado, on running for office.
Voters waited in line for hours either under the scorching sun or a downpour to cast ballots at voting centers set up in schools, homes and businesses volunteered by their owners as well as parks and plazas.
They downloaded apps to circumvent internet censorship and find their voting center, and they improvised when one ran out of ballots and another did not have enough tables.
At least 2.3 million people voted within Venezuela and more than 132,000 did so abroad.
Machado, a former lawmaker and longtime government foe, obliterated the competition and was officially declared the winner Thursday after earning more than 90% of the vote.
The court’s ruling issued Monday was in response to an appeal filed before the primary took place by a virtually unknown lawmaker, José Brito, who claimed he was not allowed to participate in the contest.
Tamara Adrián, an attorney, law professor and primary candidate, said the court should not have admitted the appeal in the first place because it did not meet legal requirements, and now the ruling “does not preserve any of Brito’s rights.”
“It is more or less as if I said, I ask that you suspend the demolition of the house, and then the court, without hearing the other party, prohibits the demolition, subject to a series of elements being subsequently proven in the main trial,” Adrian said. “But what if they already knocked down the house? An action of this nature should never have been granted.”
CHILE
A magnitude 6.6 earthquake struck off the coast of northern Chile on Tuesday morning and was felt in several provinces of neighboring Argentina, but there were no immediate reports of damage and authorities said there was no tsunami risk.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake struck at 9:33 a.m. local time and its epicenter was 26 miles southwest of Huasco, a city in Chile’s Atacama region. The quake had a depth of 22 miles.
Chile’s national emergency office did not report any damages or injuries, and the Chilean navy dismissed the possibility of a tsunami.
The quake was felt in several provinces in neighboring Argentina, including western Mendoza and San Juan provinces, which border Chile, as well as central Cordoba province, according to local media reports.
Chile is located in the so-called “Ring of Fire” in the Pacific and experiences frequent earthquakes.
In 2010, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake and subsequent tsunami claimed 526 lives.
PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico police arrested at least 380 people on Tuesday in the department’s biggest crackdown on crime in recent years.
Police Commissioner Antonio López said 12 gangs dedicated to the sale of drugs and weapons were targeted after receiving tips from residents who had complained about violence in their communities.
Police also seized 78 firearms, more than 50 vehicles and nearly $100,000 in cash, along with a variety of unspecified drugs.
Among the arrested are couples, families and women who ran criminal organizations linked to various killings, said Police Col. Carlos Cruz.
The FBI and other federal agencies were involved in the operation.
COLOMBIA
Allies of President Gustavo Petro lost by wide margins in municipal and provincial elections Sunday, in what analysts called a sign of growing discontent with Colombia’s first left-wing government.
Candidates for the president’s Historical Pact party failed to win mayorships in any of the nation’s main cities and won governorships in only two small provinces along Colombia’s southern border, according to results released on Sunday night by election officials.
Races for governorships were won mostly by candidates from traditional parties on the center and the right, which were beaten by Petro in last year’s presidential election and lost to independent candidates in the last regional elections four years ago.
Some analysts said Sunday’s outcome threatens Petro’s efforts to get the congress to make significant changes to the nation’s health system and its labor laws.
“This sends a message to some lawmakers who were perhaps on the fence about returning to the government, that it’s not going to be in their electoral interests” to support Petro’s proposals, said Will Freeman a fellow for Latin American Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. “The winds are changing in Colombia.”
But others argue the president has leverage to get his social and economic changes through congress. Pedro Medellin, a political analyst in Bogota, said Petro could withold funds earmarked for cash-strapped municipal and provincial governments to pressure governors into guaranteeing their parties’ congressional members vote for his proposals.
“Colombia is a very centralized nation, where the president has monumental powers” Medellin said.
Petro won the presidential election after campaigning to make far-reaching economic and social changes that would give the government a greater role in the provision of services like health care, education and public transport.
