Opposition vows boycott as Venezuela holds divisive new vote
CARACAS: Can Venezuelans be persuaded to return to the polls on Sunday, 10 months after President Nicolas Maduro claimed a third term in elections marred by violence and allegations of fraud?
The issue of voter participation is the big unknown as the sanctions-hit Caribbean country returns to the polls to elect a new parliament and 24 state governors.
The main opposition led by Maria Corina Machado, an engineer and former MP, has urged Venezuelans not to legitimize what they see as yet another sham election by voting.
A small opposition faction led by two-time former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles rejected the boycott call, arguing that previous voter stayaways had merely allowed 62-year-old Maduro to expand his grip on power.
'We must vote as an act of resistance, of struggle,' said Capriles, who is running for parliament.
Tensions were high in the run-up to the election.
More than 400,000 security agents were deployed to monitor the vote.
On Friday, a leading opposition member and close ally of Machado, Juan Pablo Guanipa, was arrested on charges of heading a 'terrorist network' planning to attack Sunday's vote.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello linked Guanipa, a former MP, to a group of 50 people arrested earlier in the week on suspicion of being mercenaries in the pay of foreign powers.
Venezuela, which frequently alleges foreign-backed coup plots, said the suspects entered the country from Colombia and closed the busy border with its neighbor until after the election.
Guanipa is just the latest opposition leader to be targeted by the authorities.
Opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia went into exile in Spain last year after a bounty was put on his head.
A message on Guanipa's X account, shortly after his arrest, declared he had been 'kidnapped by the forces of Nicolas Maduro's regime' but would continue the 'long fight against the dictatorship.'
Many opposition supporters in Venezuela lost any remaining faith they had in the electoral process after the July presidential election.
Maduro claimed to have won a third term, without producing detailed results to back his claim.
The opposition published its own tally of results from polling stations, which appeared to showed a convincing win for Gonzalez Urrutia.
A deadly crackdown on protests that erupted over Maduro's victory claim cemented Venezuela's pariah status on the world stage.
Only a handful of countries, including longtime allies Russia and Cuba, have recognized Maduro as the country's rightful leader.
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Afghan refugees queue outside a distribution and donation center at Liberty Village on Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey, U.S., December 2, 2021. REUTERS/Barbara Davidson/Pool/File photo Listen to article US President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Wednesday banning the nationals of 12 countries from entering the United States, saying the move was needed to protect against "foreign terrorists" and other security threats. The directive is part of an immigration crackdown Trump launched this year at the start of his second term, which has also included the deportation to El Salvador of hundreds of Venezuelans suspected of being gang members and efforts to deny enrollments of some foreign students and deport others. The countries affected by the latest travel ban are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. The entry of people from seven other countries: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela, will be partially restricted. "We will not allow people to enter our country who wish to do us harm," Trump said in a video posted on X. He said the list could be revised and new countries could be added. "We cannot have open migration from any country where we cannot safely and reliably vet and screen... That is why today I am signing a new executive order placing travel restrictions on countries including Yemen, Somalia, Haiti, Libya, and numerous others." –President Trump — The White House (@WhiteHouse) June 4, 2025 The proclamation is effective on June 9, 2025 at 12:01 am EDT (0401 GMT). Who does it apply to? The proclamation states that the full and partial travel bans apply to foreign nationals of the designated countries who: - are outside the United States on June 9, and - do not have a valid visa on June 9 The proclamation also states: No immigrant or non-immigrant visa issued before June 9 "shall be revoked pursuant to this proclamation." Are there any exceptions to the trave bans? Exceptions to the travel ban include: - Any lawful permanent resident of the United States - Dual nationals - Diplomats traveling on valid non-immigrant visas - Athletes or members of an athletic team and immediate relatives, traveling for the World Cup, Olympics, or other major sporting event - Immediate family immigrant visas - Adoptions - Afghan Special Immigrant Visas - Special Immigrant Visas for United States government employees - Immigrant visas for ethnic and religious minorities facing persecution in Iran During his first term in office, Trump announced a ban on travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations, a policy that went through several iterations before it was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018. Former President Joe Biden, a Democrat who succeeded Trump, repealed that ban on nationals from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen in 2021, calling it "a stain on our national conscience." 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The foreign ministry of Laos did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump campaigned on a tough border strategy and previewed his plan in an October 2023 speech, pledging to restrict people from Gaza, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and "anywhere else that threatens our security." Trump issued an executive order on January 20 requiring intensified security vetting of any foreigners seeking admission to the US to detect national security threats. That order directed several cabinet members to submit a list of countries from which travel should be partly or fully suspended because their "vetting and screening information is so deficient."
