Venezuelan assembly approves amnesty bill in principle

Venezuela's National Assembly, a body of legislators loyal to the country's socialist regime, voted unanimously on 5 February to approve in principle a political amnesty bill proposed days earlier by the acting president, Delcy Rodríguez. The bill, touted as a gesture of national reconciliation but likely the fruit of pressure from U.S. authorities now involved in running the country, was conditional and had yet to become a law, CNN reported. It was firstly subject to a process of "public consultation" to determine who would be amnestied, before returning to parliament for a second debate. It excluded various offences like "grave human rights violations," murder or drug trafficking. A parliamentary committee of 19 legislators including Nicolás Maduro Guerra, son of the Venezuelan leader currently facing drug charges in the United States, was to prepare the consultation process. Parliamentary Speaker Jorge Rodríguez told its chairman, Jorge Arreaza, to ensure a rigorous consultation process but also move fast, as "we haven't much time." The bill was proposed on 30 January as an Amnesty Law for Democratic Cohabitation (Ley de amnistía para la convivencia democrática), and applicable to the period since 1999 or entire span of of socialist or Chavista rule, CNN reported.

Venezuela elections may take two years, says U.S. official

Venezuela, currently run by a socialist regime under U.S. tutelage, may not hold a general election for between 18 and 24 months, the Wall Street Journal recently reported, citing the U.S. Energy Secretary Christopher Wright. After capturing the country's last leader, Nicolás Maduro, the United States said it was working to stabilize Venezuela's economy and institutions before activating a transition back to democracy. Wright was speaking in an explanatory meeting with lawmakers and oil executives concerned by the opaque nature of relations between the government of Venezuela's acting president Delcy Rodríguez and the administration of President Donald J. Trump, which wants U.S. firms invest in Venezuelan oil. Observers were worried the regime would seek to drag out reforms and 'wait out' the Trump administration, Colombia's NTN24 reported on 2 February. The broadcaster separately cited Reuters as reporting a rise in Venezuelan oil production under U.S. control to 800,000 barrels a day, from just under 500,000 in December 2025. The oil was heading to the United States, now acting as Venezuela's paymaster. Delcy Rodríguez said in Caracas on 2 February that the United States had so far paid Venezuela U.S. $300 million for oil exported in January, CNN reported, without specifying if the United States was supervising Venezuelan state expenditures.

Honduran president orders a recount of all presidential votes

Xiomara Castro, the socialist president of Honduras set to leave office on 27 January, ordered a recount on 9 January of "every single vote" cast in the presidential elections of 30 November, insisting yet again that the results were not right, Spain's EFE news agency reported. The poll gave the conservative candidate a narrow victory that was confirmed by the country's electoral body, though the Liberal contender and Castro's own administration rejected the final count, suspecting it might have been tweaked to satisfy the Trump administration. By loudly backing the conservative candidate, Castro insisted, the United States had thus meddled in the elections, Mexico's La Jornada reported on 11 January. The recount was approved by parliament on 10 January at a session that excluded more than 70 opposition members, and there were speculations the army might block it , EFE reported.

Colombian government extends native rule over ancestral lands

The Colombian government decreed the formation of eight self-governing territories in the country's Amazonian regions, to be run in part by native authorities in line with the country's 1991 constitution. These would be the first Indigenous Territorial Entities and enact constitutional provisions on native communities exercising partial control of their ancestral territories, the Environment Minister Irene Vélez Torres said in Bogotá on 18 December. There was an historical debt to those communities whose traditional authorities constituted legitimate governments in their own rights, she said. The Colombian state would thus deal with them on a "government to government" basis, and collaborate in safeguarding cultural rights and the rainforest, the public broadcaster RTVC reported. Their powers would encompass administration, planning but also direct receipt and management of funds including foreign aid funds. The government has stressed this was no concession but the enforcement of existing constitutional rights. The government was separately taking steps to legally restore the rights of particular native and Afrocaribbean communities to live in and utilize 294,000 hectares (2,940 square kilometers) of lands from which they had been expelled in past decades, RTVC reported on 22 December.

Mexico City wants to "curb HIV" by 2030

Mexico City's mayoress said on 1 December that the city was stepping up its fight against AIDS, especially through prevention, by opening the city's largest clinic yet to treat sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Clara Brugada Molina was speaking on World Aids Day. She said a third branch of the Clinica especializada Condesa would be "completed" through "this year and the next" in the Gustavo A. Madero sector of the city, Once Noticias reported. The city would also open a permanent quick testing facility in the Glorieta de Insurgentes, one of the Mexican capital's busy intersections, and keep urging people to get tested for the HIV virus. The city government says more than 17,500 people had received the PrEP treatment in 2025 "to help significantly reduce HIV infection," and this was becoming more prevalent. Around 360,000 people are thought be HIV-positive across Mexico, with 21% of those in the capital and 30% of all the infected not knowing their HIV status, Once Noticias stated.  

Mexico's tobacco taxes fuel black market in cigarettes

A fifth of all cigarettes smoked in Mexico was "illegal or semi-legal," likely as a result of increasing taxes and curbs on smoking, media reported on 28 October, citing research by the Colegio de México, a public university. Its ongoing study on the causes of social misconduct found that the proportion of black-market cigarettes rose from eight per cent in 2017 to 20% in 2023, the national paper La Jornada reported. The study's coordinator, Manuel Pérez, linked this to rising taxes on smoking, naming 2011 as a turning point when the state hiked them 30%. On 28 October, Mexico's Senate approved another round of taxes on cigarettes, soft drinks and 'violent videogames,' with amendments to the IEPS or Law for a Special Tax on Production and Services. Beside taxes, in January 2023, Mexico banned smoking and vaping in all public spaces including parks and beaches as well as relevant advertising.  The BBC described this then as one of the strictest regimes anywhere governing smoking, effectively confining it to homes, even if enforcement might prove problematic. It could, it observed, prompt police harassment or acts of petty corruption.

New York State bans plastic grocery bags from 2020

The state of New York has banned the distribution of single-use plastic bags after 1 March 2020, media reported on 31 March, becoming the second U.S. state with California, to impose a state-wide ban. The measure passed by its legislature that day was part of the state budget for 2020, and includes other environmental measures like making cars pay to enter mid-town Manhattan. The ban would presumably supercede the bag fee New York city imposed in 2016. A third U.S. state, Hawaii, and a number of districts restrict bags through local legislation.

Bogotá rolls out new, streetside trash containers

The Bogotá city government began placing new trash containers around the capital in late November, and was observing their usage in an initial adaptation phase. The containers, as shown on news websites, were very similar to those used in Spanish cities like Barcelona and Valencia, and require residents to bin their trash outside buildings. The city government believes they are cleaner and will encourage people to separate trash, and intends to place 10,744 containers around the capital. These have either white lids, for recyclables like plastic, paper and cans, or black lids, for all other trash including food remains. The broadcaster Caracol noted on Christmas Day that some residents were already confused by or indifferent to the distinction, as certain bins contained the wrong sort of rubbish. Others had been vandalized or sprayed, though "no more than one per cent," according to the head of trash collection at the Special Administrative Unit for Public Services, the office running various city services, Yanlicer Pérez.

Colombian daily reports fall in plastic sales after bag fee

La Nación, a newspaper from south-western Colombia, reported on 5 August a decline of around 25 per cent in sales of plastic bags in Colombia in the first six months of 2017, after the government decreed earlier people must pay for most types given out in shops. It qualified the move intended to curb pollution, as a problem for the sector, though it observed businesses were already looking at alternatives like providing paper bags. Colombians, it reported, must now pay 20 Colombian pesos (a negligible amount in euros) for a typical supermarket bag, a fee set to rise to 50 pesos by 2020. The government has banned the distribution of the thinnest bags. La Nación cited the head of Agroplásticos, which represents plastic and rubber interests, as saying that bag sales were in July 2017, 25 per cent below those of that month in 2016. But it also cited a manager of Induplast, a regional firm, Miriam Mosquera, as saying that the government seemed to have ignored the impact of restrictions on livelihoods, and "if the state really wants to contribute to the environment, it must promote other types of campaigns." The broadcaster Caracol similarly reported in late July a 27 per cent fall in use of plastic bags, apparently since March 2017. La Nación provided some figures on plastic consumption in Colombia, apparently taken from DANE, the state statistics office. Around 14 million plastic bags were sold in Colombia annually, and the fee was expected to reduce demand overall this year by 30 per cent, it stated.

Venezuelan cabinet reshuffled, parliament orders Chávez portraits removed

The broadcaster Globovisión listed on 7 January the names of the new Venezuelan cabinet formally sworne in the day before before President Nicolás Maduro. The reshuffle was in response to the socialist government's defeat in the 6 December parliamentary elections, but also a bid to address the country's economic problems. A former Caracas mayor and state governor Aristóbulo Isturiz was named Executive Vice-President. One newly-elected opposition parliamentarian criticized the addition of four ministries to the government "bandwagon," at a time of dire economic conditions for ordinary Venezuelans and reduced government revenues. The newly elected, opposition-dominated parliament in turn began its legislative term to 2021 on 5 January. The assembly formalized its roster of members with 112 opposition members and 54 pro-government parliamentarians, in spite of court action by the government to have disqualified three opposition MPs, allegedly for their fraudulent election. Removing the three would reduce the size of the opposition's majority and could curb its legislative powers. The new Speaker of parliament, Henry Ramos Allup, insisted on Twitter that the opposition was standing firm against this challenge whose outcome was not yet clear. His predecessor, the socialist legislator Diosdado Cabello, effecively accused the new majority of breaking the laws and "doing what they want," by holding onto the three seats. The country's Supreme Court - which the opposition denounces as obedient to the president - had ordered the seats provisionally suspended on 30 December. Parliament caused a stir with one of its first acts on 6 January, the removal of portraits of the late socialist leader Hugo Chávez Frías, and a computerized portrait of the 19th century revolutionary Simón Bolívar from the building. The latter was a "reconstruction" of Bolívar's face, which Chávez had made and printed out in 2012.

Bogotá police to confiscate sharp items on streets, to curb attacks

Authorities in Bogota will confiscate knives and sharp items found in public, and admonish and possibly fine people found with potentially harmful items, in response to a reported rise in armed attacks in Bogotá. The city issued a decree on 11 June instructing police to detain anyone found with such items for six hours and explain to them how these could be dangerous even if carried in self-defence, El Tiempo reported on 12 June. Detained persons would have to sign a pledge of good conduct up to two times, then face a fine if found a third time with such items, Radio Santa Fe reported. The Metropolitan Police chief Humberto Guatibonza was cited as saying that police were seeing more attacks with blunt instruments in the capital, attributed to the unrestricted sale of potentially dangerous artefacts and a clampdown on carrying firearms since 2012. That had effectively forced criminals to use blunt weapons in violent thefts, he said. Police declared they had confisctated 180,000 blunt weapons of various types so far this year, and would proceed to look for such items in parks and public transportation, El Tiempo reported. The city government separately reported on 12 June that it was carrying out security checks on the city's Transmilenio bus network, and had so far detained 10 people for thefts and 18 for jumping onto buses without paying.

Michelle Bachelet becomes Chile's President again

The socialist Michelle Bachelet Jeria formally became Chile's President on 11 March, after winning her second term in the second round of presidential elections held in Chile in December 2013. She was as media observed the first woman to be elected Chilean President twice. Spain's El Mundo observed that her second mandate was expected to usher in changes and policies to reduce the social inequalities that have accompanied Chile's economic growth in recent years. She was immediately introducing an emergency program of 50-56 measures to be implemented within the first 100 days of her administration and intended to provide financial help to some Chilean households, Europa Press reported. Government spokesman Álvaro Elizalde Soto said on 12 March that these first measures were a "clear signal" of its intention to fulfill election promises and the President's promise after her inauguration that she would work to improve the lives of Chileans, El Mercurio reported on its website. The President had already signed a "March bonus" bill to be presented to parliament, intended to help lower-income families, and the Government would also restore a "winter bonus" to some families, Mr Elizalde said. Ms Bachelet was President in 2006-10 and beat the conservative Evelyn Matthei Fornet in December to win her second presidential term. She revealed her cabinet members in January 2014.

Venezuelan opposition scoffs at "another plot" to kill President

As if in the grip of the Cold War, Venezuela's socialist rulers have denounced yet another foreign-backed plot against Venezuela, this time in the form of a plan - foiled in time - to assassinate either the President or the Speaker of Parliament. On 26 August the Interior Minister Miguel Rodríguez Torres revealed that two Colombians aged 18 and 22, said to be members of a 10-man squad sent from Colombia, were arrested in a Caracas hotel on 15 August, their hotel room revealing an incriminating paraphernalia of guns, binoculars, army badges and pictures of "targets." The Minister said the plan was to kill President Nicolás Maduro, and failing that the Speaker of Parliament Diosdado Cabello Rondón, Cuba's Prensa Latina agency reported. The country's leading opponent Henrique Capriles Radonsky said the claims were laughable. Not for the first time the detained were linked to Colombia's former conservative president Álvaro Uribe Vélez. Mr Uribe, who had precarious ties at best with Venezuela's late leader Hugo Chávez, has become a bête noire for the Maduro administration, which accuses him of conniving with Venezuelan opponents to undermine the regime. Mr Rodríguez suggested Mr Uribe was involved because "he has relations with and is connected to a group of drug traffickers...he is undoubtedly informed of what is happening," Europa Press reported. Mr Capriles told a gathering in Caucagua in the state of Miranda that day that "nobody believes this tale...people merely laugh at these announcements," though he cautioned the incident's "impact" should be observed, Venezuela's El Universal reported. How many times he asked, "have they spoken of plots to kill leaders (magnicidio)...does anyone really believe these lies?" President Maduro in turn thanked "the Government of Colombia for all its cooperation in identifying the gunmen...and the...hired gang," writing on the website Twitter. He added that "the Right's immediate reaction to the gunmen's capture showed these fascist groups' lack of scruples." On 24 August Mr Maduro warned Venezuelans to expect the opposition's "psychological campaign" and "dirty war" ahead of municipal elections set for 8 December, the official AVN news agency reported.

Ecuador's President begins second "and last" term

Rafael Correa Delgado began on 24 May his second term as President of Ecuador in ceremonies attended by foreign dignitaries and some heads of state, and after saying he would not aspire to a third term, agencies reported. The official website El Ciudadano observed that the Government would seek in the 2013-17 term a "qualitative leap" in Ecuador's productive model to turn the state from an exporter of raw materials to one of added-value goods including oil-derived products. The new Vice-President Jorge Glas Espinel was expected to coordinate the implemention of these and other policies in "strategic" sectors. He would replace Lenín Moreno Garcés, the outgoing vice-president who sought not to show emotion while given a standing ovation by the assembly at the event. Leaders who attended Correa's inauguration were the presidents of Bolivia, Chile, Honduras and Venezuela; the Prince of Asturias represented Spain and Vice-President Amado Boudou Argentina, while Mexico sent its foreign minister, José Antonio Meade, El Universo reported. In contrast with other Leftists leaders of Latin America, Correa earlier ruled out running for a third presidential term in 2017, saying it would be a "failure" if his movement the Alianza PAIS (Patria Altiva i Soberana) could not designate a successor. Even in that case he said he would not repeat as President; he would apparently seek work as an academic in Belgium, the homeland of his wife, Perú 21 reported on 23 May. He was cited as saying that "we have worked these years to be as unnecessary as possible. We are all necessary, but nobody should be indispensable." Voters elected Correa with a clear majority in general elections on 17 February 2013.

Ministers change in Peru, court orders Lima mayoress dismissed

Rafael Roncagliolo resigned on 15 May as Peru's foreign minister, ostensibly for health reasons, to be replaced by the outgoing justice minister Eda Rivas Franchini who became Peru's first female Foreign Relations Minister, media reported. Officials denied charges that the change was for Roncagliolo's badly-received observations about the results of the 14 April presidential elections in Venezuela. The Peruvian Prime Minister Juan Jiménez Mayor dismissed as calumny on 16 May allegations that Venezuela had pressured Peru to drop Roncagliolo, La República reported, citing news agencies. Eda Rivas, who was Minister of Justice since 23 July 2012, was in turn succeeded by her former deputy-minister Daniel Figallo Rivadeneyra. Both stressed no policy changes were presently envisaged in their ministries. Mr Figallo commented to Perú TV on 16 May about the issue he would soon have to handle: the decision on whether or not to pardon the jailed former president, Alberto Fujimori Fujimori. Fujimori was jailed in 2009 after being convicted of charges relating to killings and rights abuses while he was President in 1990-2000. The state waged war at that time on the Maoist Shining Path rebellion. Fujimori's children formally requested on 10 October 2012 that he be freed on health grounds, following several surgeries for cancer, most recently on 21 August 2012, Europa Press reported on 16 May. Figallo said a report on the dossier would be ready by the end of May. Separately, a Lima court ordered dismissed the Lima mayoress Susana Villarán de la Puente for thrice ignoring an order to remove obstacles placed before one of the city's markets, Europa Press reported on 17 May. The issuing judge Malzón Urbina told a radio interview that Ms Villarán must leave office immediately even if she appeals the decision. The municipality decided last October to shut the La Parada market, placing cement blocks to bar access to the premises. Urbina told Radio Programas del Perú that Villarán "was given three opportunities" to implement an "order to remove the cement blocks from La Parada...I have restricted myself to implementing the provisions of...Article 8 of the Procedural Code, which states that if there is failure to implement, the judge orders a dismissal," Europa Press reported.

Conservative becomes Paraguay's President

Paraguayans voted in Horacio Cartes of the conservative Colorado party as president on 21 April, in general elections expected to end the diplomatic isolation provoked by parliament's dismissal in 2012 of the elected, Leftist president, Fernando Lugo. the Liberal candidate Efraín Alegre was runner-up while Aníbal Carrillo, candidate of the Frente Guasu formation of former president Lugo obtained a small percentage of votes, Europa Press reported. Unasur - the Union of South American Nations - recognized the results and Cartes reportedly began contacts to hasten Paraguay's return to the southern trading block Mercosur, from which it was excluded after Lugo's dismissal. Venezuela's socialist President Nicolás Maduro spoke by phone to Cartes, discussing Paraguay's return to Mercosur and a normalization of bilateral ties, Europa Press reported on 24 April. The two states effectively severed ties after Lugo's fall, while their deteriorating relations recently degenerated into bitter verbal exchanges between Venezuelan officials and Paraguay's provisional government led by the conservative Federico Franco. Franco was to hand over power on 15 August, Europa Press reported. Cartes meanwhile named a transitional government team that included: Juan Carlos López Moreira, a businessman and close associate as the team's general coordinator, Leila Rachid Lichi, Paraguay's foreign minister in 2003-6, in charge of foreign affairs and the former Central Bank governor Germán Rojas Irigoyen as a provisional economy minister, ICN Diario reported on 24 April.

Chief prosecutor says Honduras overwhelmed by crimes

The head of the state prosecution service in Honduras (Fiscalía-General) told parliament on 10 April that 80 per cent of homicides went unpunished as the state was unable to investigate them all, while one of the country's crime observers said over 80 per cent of those killed in Honduras were shot dead. The chief prosecutor of Honduras Luis Rubí told Congress "the country is not prepared for this criminal wave and is totally overwhelmed. Investigating organs do not have the capacity to respond...we are faced with an 80-per-cent impunity in Honduras," the daily El Heraldo reported. Rubí was one of several officials summoned to parliament to account for the country's exceedingly high crime rates. Others who appeared were the Security Minister Pompeyo Bonilla, the national police chief Juan Carlos Bonilla and the jurist Eduardo Villanueva, a presidential appointee tasked with coordinating the purging of the police force of corrupt or criminal elements. Police chief Bonilla said investigations were "in a state of collapse." Separately 70-80 senior police officials including Bonilla may sit through confidence tests applied to other policemen in recent months, as part of President Porfirio Lobo's police purge and after Police agreed their chiefs should take the tests, El Heraldo reported on 11 April. The daily cited the jurist Villanueva as saying that the tests were being planned and could begin in a month. One of the country's crime and rights observer bodies separately revealed in a recent report that 84 per cent of homicides in Honduras were caused by firearms and that someone was shot dead there every 87 minutes, El Heraldo reported on 9 April. The National Commission for Human Rights (Conadeh, Comisionado Nacional de Derechos Humanos) urged legislation and effective mechanisms to reduce more than 650,000 illegal firearms it estimated were circulating in the country. The Conadeh's report counted 20,515 violent deaths in Honduras in the 2010-12 period, presumably from the start of 2010 to the end of 2012, of whom 17,190 were shot to death.

Mexican leader sees results of anti-crime strategy in a year

Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto said in Rome on 20 March that a year was needed before Mexicans could see the incipient results of his government's anti-crime strategy, even as reports indicated crime-related deaths remained high since he took over in December 2012. A "balance" could be made in a year, he said speaking at the Mexican embassy, and "favourable results, a palpable reduction" in violence and murders expected, though he added this did not mean an end to violence that has killed some 70,000 since 2006, when the previous government began to wage war on drug cartels. Peña Nieto said his government's security plan included the entire national territory while considering its regional variations, Europa Press reported, citing the Mexican daily El Universal. The Peña government's anti-crime plan includes dividing Mexico into five security regions, and consultations between state governors and the armed forces, currently involved in fighting crime, El Universal has reported. A recent Mexican interior ministry report indicated that average monthly deaths from criminal incidents were equivalent to those of 2009, three years into the war begun by the then president, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, Proceso reported on 14 March. Calderón was much criticized for "militarizing" law enforcement and often blamed for the thousands of deaths his government's policy was said to have provoked directly and indirectly. Yet the interior ministry recently reported that the average monthly homicides rate in the first three months of the Peña government stood at 1,052, compared to 879 for the first year of the Calderón presidency. It was not immediately clear if the comparison was with a similar three-month period or a year. A ministry report issued on 8 March counted 3,157 victims of homicides from December 2012 to, presumably, the end of February 2013. As reports indicate murder rates differ across the country, and violence shifts from one zone to another in response to policing. The Public Security chief for the south-western state of Oaxaca declared on 20 March for example that reported homicides in Oaxaca fell 29 per cent from March 2012 to March 2013, and kidnappings 30 per cent. Marco Tulio López Escamilla said Oaxaca had become one of the country's safer states, in spite of sitting between two particularly crime-ridden states, Guerrero and Veracruz, Milenio reported. Likewise the head of the US Northern Command, General Charles Jacoby, was reported as telling the House Armed Services Committee that drug violence had fallen in northern Mexico and shifted toward the country's interior states, Proceso reported on 20 March.

Venezuelan President fears "plot" against rival

Venezuela's Acting President Nicolás Maduro said on 13 March that the state would assure the security of his electoral rival Henrique Capriles Radonsky ahead of 14 April presidential elections, against unspecified plots being hatched against him by the "extreme Right" or the "Roger Noriega and Otto Reich group in the United States," the government news agency AVN reported. Noriega and Reich are conservative diplomats and were Assistant secretaries of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs between 2002 and 2005, under President George W. Bush. He said "we want him to have all his absolute guarantee and we alert our people and...the world about conspiracies...against the peace and stability" of Venezuela. Maduro said police and security services had been given pertinent instructions, but was not reported to have elaborated about the alleged plot. On 11 March the United States expelled two Venezuelan diplomats, apparently in retaliation for the expulsion on 5 March of two US military attachés from Caracas accused of "engaging in destabilizing manoeuvres" against the regime, Globovisión reported on 12 March. The two states do not have ambassadors with each other. The opposition candidate Capriles in turn apologized on a radio programme on 14 March for any earlier comments he said may have been misinterpreted and offended relatives of the late president Hugo Chávez. He insisted however that "Nicolás has been campaigning since President Hugo Chávez went for treatment." Capriles has repeatedly urged the government not to seek political capital in Venezuelans' grief. He said that meanwhile Venezuelans' problems had "taken a back seat," and urged Maduro to debate about "insecurity, the economy, electricity, water, jobs, transport, health. About problems," El Nacional reported. Maduro he said was "Raul Castro's candidate," and wondered aloud if Venezuelans wanted their resources sent to Cuba, El Universal reported. Cuba has been a recipient of aid from Venezuela under Chávez. Capriles said that Venezuela was being governed by elements Chávez had deemed "incompetent," adding "we have had 100 days of Nicolas's government and look where our country is going."

Venezuela swears in acting leader, elections called

After heads of state paid their respects on 8 March to Venezuela's late President Hugo Chávez, his designated successor and former vice-president Nicolás Maduro Moros took the oath as Acting President and immediately instructed election authorities to call general elections as the constitution demands, to allow Venezuelans to "know democratically who their President will be." He resigned as vice-president as laws required, and appointed the Science and Technology Minister Jorge Arreaza, son-in-law of the late president, as Executive Vice-President. Maduro asked the National Electoral Council (CNE) to implement "corresponding evaluations" before setting a date for general elections, and urged the opposition to present its candidates, Venezuela's state news agency AVN reported. The opposition politician and governor of the state of Miranda Henrique Capriles Radonsky had earlier objected to Maduro becoming a candidate while remaining Executive Vice-President, calling this an abuse of authority; he observed at a press conference on 8 March that the people would give their opinion at the polls on "how they have used the death of President Hugo Chávez for electoral and propaganda purposes," El Universal reported. An unspecified number of people were heard to have started banging pots and pans - this being one of the forms in which Latin Americans like to protest - on balconies in Caracas, in an apparent and anticipated objection to Maduro's inauguration as Acting President, Spain's ABC reported. Earlier that day some 30 heads of state gathered to pay their respects to the late president, at a ceremony in the Military Academy in Caracas where Chávez's body was on display in a glass casket. The dignitaries included the presidents of Mexico, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Cuba, as well as prominent friends and admirers like the former Colombian senator Pilar Córdoba, who wept before the coffin and was comforted by Maduro and the late president's daughter. She has intermittently played the role of an intermediary between Venezuela, Colombia and FARC guerrillas, facilitating the release of certain hostages in Colombia.