Venezuela's new parliamentarians set on passing an amnesty law

Venezuelan politicians opposed to the government of President Nicolás Maduro were insisting he could not block an amnesty law the opposition intends to approve in the next parliament, as he threatened to on 8 December. The president's comments were an early indication he was disinclined to cooperate with the opposition-dominated parliament, due to start working on 5 January. But Delsa Solórzano, a member-elect from Un Nuevo Tiempo, one of the parties in the opposition coalition, said the law would be approved soon after parliament starts working, the online daily TalCual reported on 10 December. She said the constitution allowed parliament - where the opposition will have a two-thirds majority - to promulgate laws rejected by the president. The amnesty, she said, would affect 80 detainees and was part of her coalition's bid to bring "reconciliation" to Venezuela; she insisted there would be careful vetting to ensure felons were not freed. The daily cited a leading government opponent, the governor of the state of Miranda Henrique Capriles as saying that the president "could not" block the law. President Maduro maintained in turn his defiant discourse. He declared on 9 December that there would be no "surrender" to the Right, and the "revolution is not over... they are threatening to deprive the people of its benefits. We are going to end this... economic war," state television reported. He also said prosecutors must investigate allegations of vote buying by the opposition, "because there is proof for it." The evidence cited was a tape recording of an opposition politician discussing money for votes with an unnamed individual, dubbed pollo (chicken). Maduro earlier accused the opposition of using "economic warfare" to win the elections, "like the bad guys."

Venezuelan President says "plot" against him hatched in United States

Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro insisted on 26 August that the arrest of two Colombians allegedly sent to assassinate him indicated that a plot was being hatched in the United States, and asked President Barack Obama whether he was ignorant of such machinations or involved. Mr Maduro made his remarks after a children's sporting event in Caracas; he said the Government had "coherently" reported on the plot's origins and President Obama would be "the first" not to know about it if he did not, the official AVN news agency reported. "Is President Obama so weak that they take decisions for him...to kill a Latin American head of state without his knowing?" he asked. Or was he too weak to prevent them he asked again, or "has he decided to physically eliminate me?" Officials earlier cited former US diplomats or officials of past Republican administrations, as well as Colombia's former president Álvaro Uribe, as elements allegedly involved in this and previous "plots." Mr Uribe rejected the latest, "infamous" charges; he said "the Venezuelan dictatorship should permit that country to recover democracy and repeat the elections as the last ones were a fraud," Europa Press reported on 27 August, citing comments he made on television. He was referring to Venezuela's April presidential elections. Mr Maduro said killing him would provoke a civil war and that he had observed "extreme nervousness" among the opposition in spite of its bid to "trivialise" the affair. "I have no doubt the main leaders of the fascist Right agree with this type of incident," he said. The country's leading opponent and former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles dismissed the allegations as a "tale," speaking in public on 26 August. He also wrote on the website Twitter that this was another "distraction" intended to "cover up for insecurity, the hospital crisis, shortages, inflation, corruption." The President he wrote had a "record" number of such plots; "of the 11 conspiracies Maduro has denounced, four were to assassinate personalities. He does not know how to cover his incompetence," El Universal reported, citing Mr Capriles's comments on Twitter.

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.

Colombian Ministry says Venezuela was informed of opponent's visit

Colombia's Foreign Minister said on 12 June that President Juan Manuel Santos had previously informed his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolás Maduro of a planned meeting on 29 May with Venezuela's leading opponent Henrique Capriles, which provoked the public ire of Venezuelan authorities. Opposition forces led by Mr Capriles refused to recognize President Maduro's election last April and the government has since accused them of plotting against the state, allegedly with the help of Colombian conservatives. The visit triggered a recent deterioration of ties between the two states although Colombia has given a muted response to incendiary declarations made in Venezuela. Colombia's Foreign Minister María Ángela Holguín said in a radio interview on 12 June that "the two presidents spoke days before" the visit to Bogotá wherein Mr Capriles met with the President and parliamentarians. She said she did not know what Maduro had said in response, Radio Santa Fe reported. Among charges recently made in Venezuela was that members of its opposition had bought warplanes in the United States, presumably to attack Venezuelan territory. On 10 June the Interior Minister separately revealed that the Government had foiled a plot by "paramilitaries" to assassinate President Maduro. Miguel Rodríguez Torres said nine Colombian citizens were detained on 9 June as they sought to enter Caracas, allegedly as part of a "plan orchestrated in Colombia to assassinate President Maduro and destabilise the Venezuelan government," CNN reported on 10 June, citing a Venezuelan state television report. Mr Capriles dismissed the allegations on 11 June another of the "follies" the Government was "inventing" to distract opinion from Venezuela's problems, Europa Press reported, citing Capriles's comments to an opposition programme.

Electoral body to start partial "audit" of Venezuelan polls

Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE) was preparing on 29 April a partial audit of votes cast in the 14 April presidential elections, in spite of stating earlier that this would likely not overturn the results and re-election of President Nicolás Maduro, which the opposition has firmly contested. The former opposition candidate Henrique Capriles alleged there had been electoral fraud and has demanded a full recount of votes. The CNE was to audit between 6 May and 4 June a random selection of ballot boxes from the 46 per cent of voting stations not audited automatically on 14 April, the daily El Universal reported on 28 April, citing comments by the CNE head, Tibisay Lucena. This was apparently an expanded audit to which the authorities had agreed, though the opposition remained dissatisfied, having demanded an audit with all documents evidencing the voting process including lists of those who voted, El Universal reported. The opposition coalition Table of Democratic Unity (MUD) decided on 28 April that its technicians would not attend the start of the random audit, suspecting authorities did not want a full verification using voter lists and fingerprints. A MUD spokesman said the opposition had specific evidence of irregularities required to back any legal challenge it might launch against the elections, El Nacional reported on 29 April.

Venezuela's Capriles says state "stole" elections, writer chides "complicit" neighbours

Venezuela's former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles Radonsky accused the socialist government of President Nicolás Maduro of "stealing" the 14 April elections, a bitterly fought contest whose results the opposition had yet to accept. The Table of Democratic Unity (Mesa de Unidad Demócratica, MUD) led by Capriles has demanded a recount of all votes and Capriles said on 24 April that the opposition would not settle for less. "We won't let them mock us, we will not accept a partial audit or some absurdity, and if there is no response we shall tell the country what our next steps will be," El Nacional reported. He said to the government, "you stole these elections...and you are the ones who must explain to the world what hapened." He accused the government of intimidating opinion, citing in particular a video of the Venezuelan Labour Minister Ricardo Molina posted online, wherein he seemingly threatens to dismiss civil servants who voted for the opposition. Molina later said his words were taken "out of context, they always do this." One Venezuelan academic claimed on 25 April that public-sector employees were indeed being dismissed, apparently for having voted for Capriles. Ligia Bolívar, director of the Human Rights Centre at the Andrés Bello Catholic University (Ucab) in Caracas said "there is a disconcerting and massive situation of dismissals of civil servants for exercising the right to vote;" she suggested state agents had tapped people's telephones and were also checking what people had scribbled on websites like Twitter and Facebook, Globovisión reported. Separately, the Peruvian novelist and Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa rebuked Latin American leaders for rushing to recognise the new Venezuelan government, calling them "accomplices against the Venezuelan people," EFE and other media reported on 23 April. Spèaking to the Brazilian publication Epoca, Vargas Llosa urged regional leaders not to legitimize "a possible electoral fraud" by attending Maduro's inauguration. Maduro was duly sworn in as president on 19 April before foreign officials including all Latin American presidents bar those of Chile, Ecuador and Paraguay. The latter presently has no ties with Venezuela. Vargas Llosa singled out Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff in this "deplorable" act of recognition, but said "she is not the only case." He observed that the close results and transfer of millions of votes to the opposition in spite of the government's "disproportionate" resources "clearly" meant Venezuelans were turning against the socialist ideology of late President Hugo Chávez.

Seven die in post-election protests in Venezuela

Seven were reported to have died in protests in Venezuela on 15-16 April, which followed the refusal of the opposition to recognize Nicolás Maduro's proclamation as the newly elected President and his apparent refusal to order a recount of votes. The chief prosecutor of Venezuela Luisa Ortega identified one of the dead as a policeman and said 135 people were, Spain's RTVE and agencies reported. Maduro blamed the violence on "fascist mobs" and the opposition candidate Henrique Capriles accused Maduro of ordering the violence to avoid a recount. Maduro declared on 16 April that he would not permit protests scheduled for 17 April and a planned march in Caracas toward the National Electoral Council (CNE), which oversaw the elections. He said "you will not go to central Caracas to fill it with death and blood. I will not allow it. Do what you want to do. I will use a firm hand with fascism and intolerance...if they want to overthrow me let them come. I am here with the people and the" army, Globovision reported. The Speaker of the National Assembly Diosdado Cabello blamed five opposition politicians including Capriles for the deaths and indicated they could be taken to court. A "small, fascist group" he said was trying to undermine "order," Globovision reported on 16 April. Maduro was to be sworn in as President on 19 April, the state news agency AVN reported.