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Miami Herald
4 days ago
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Maduro pushes Colombia-Venezuela alliance as U.S. doubles bounty for his arrest
Facing the highest reward for a capture ever offered by the United States, Venezuelan ruler Nicolás Maduro is calling on Colombia to join forces against what he describes as escalating aggression from Washington. Maduro offered few details on how his proposed alliance with Colombia's leftist president, Gustavo Petro, would work but suggested enhanced cooperation across both governments, including their armed forces. His comments came days after the U.S. announced a $50 million reward for information leading to Maduro's capture, accusing him of heading one of the world's most dangerous drug trafficking networks. Petro, a former guerrilla fighter, responded swiftly, warning that military aggression against Venezuela would be considered an attack on Colombia. In June, Petro accused U.S. officials—specifically naming Secretary of State Marco Rubio—of leading a plot to overthrow him, a charge he later softened in a letter to President Donald Trump. Maduro reinforced his call for unity during his weekly television program, urging 'cooperation between authorities—governors, mayors, legitimate public officials—to unite two national governments with their ministries, to unite Colombia's military forces with the Bolivarian armed forces.' He argued the union was needed to rid border states of violence and dismantle drug trafficking. Maudro's timing suggested a direct response to Washington's accusations that he is among the top drug kingpins in the world. Flanked by Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino and Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, Maduro emphasized the loyalty of Venezuela's military and security forces, signaling that the $50 million reward would not weaken their support. He praised the armed forces for defending Venezuela's 'peace and sovereignty,' framing them as defenders against foreign aggression. The public display of unity follows intensified pressure from Washington. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau told Donald Trump Jr. in an interview this week that 'new actions' to pressure Maduro's regime were coming in the 'days and weeks' ahead. Maduro appears determined to recast the U.S. bounty on his capture as a rallying cry rather than a threat. Local news reports say his government has launched an expensive propaganda campaign promoting the message that the situation is under control. Millions of dollars are reportedly being spent on posters, rallies, promotional merchandise and anti-U.S. slogans. Public sector employees and members of the armed forces have been instructed to join pro-Maduro demonstrations, which have drawn participants in Caracas and other major cities. Top officials—including Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, National Assembly head Jorge Rodríguez and Caracas Mayor Carmen Meléndez—marched alongside loyalists, public workers, and motorcyclist groups in defiant displays following the U.S. announcement of the unprecedented bounty. In revealing the decision to double the existing $25 million reward, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Maduro leads the Cartel of the Suns—a drug trafficking organization embedded in Venezuela's military—and works with groups including Venezuela's Tren de Aragua gang, Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel and other transnational criminal networks. Bondi called Maduro 'one of the world's biggest drug traffickers and a threat to our national security,' adding that the bounty increase was aimed at tightening the net around him. Bondi also announced the seizure of over $700 million in assets linked to Maduro, including two private jets, nine vehicles, and several properties. A federal indictment in New York outlines Maduro's alleged ascent in the Cartel of the Suns. According to court filings, after the 2013 death of former president Hugo Chávez, Maduro moved from acting as a facilitator to serving as the cartel's leader, integrating its operations with the Venezuelan state apparatus. Prosecutors allege the cartel's strategy went beyond profits, aiming to export cocaine to the United States. While other top leaders in the Venezuelan regime such as Cabello and Tareck El Aissami were often seen as the cartel's figureheads, new evidence suggests Maduro's role was far more significant than previously believed. The indictment claims the purpose of Venezuela's drug trafficking apparatus goes beyond self-enrichment. The cartel, it says, aimed 'to flood the United States with cocaine and inflict the drug's harmful and addictive effects on users in this country.' U.S. intelligence estimates suggest that more than 250 tons of cocaine pass through Venezuela each year, a figure that may have doubled in recent years due to the economic vacuum created by oil sanctions. The U.S. bounty announcement marked the latest escalation in a long-running standoff between Washington and Caracas. Sanctions, diplomatic isolation and repeated calls for Maduro to step down have failed to dislodge him from power. The reward—now at a historic high—signals a shift toward even more aggressive tactics. Maduro, meantime, is working to project confidence. Analysts believe that by aligning himself closely with Petro and other leftists leaders and attempting to frame the U.S. measures as part of a broader assault on Latin America, he seeks to strengthen regional solidarity and paint Washington as an aggressor. 'While we're dismantling the terrorist plots orchestrated from her country, this woman [Bondi] is coming out with a media circus to please the defeated far right in Venezuela,' said Maduro's foreign minister, Yván Gil, soon after the new reward was annnounced. 'It doesn't surprise us, coming from who she comes from.'
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Madrid's ‘Margaret Thatcher': Let's take the testosterone out of politics
Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the conservative leader of Madrid, has much in common with Donald Trump and indeed many of the Right-wing leaders shaping world politics. But there is a noticeable difference that sets her apart: her openness to mass migration. Madrid is having a major moment, topping the charts for economic growth and investment amid a mammoth tourism boom fuelled by her low-tax, business-friendly policies. The city is 'blazing a trail', as she modestly puts it during an interview in the presidential office, where she has ruled the Madrid region for almost six years. 'It is Spain's most fashionable region right now,' she said ahead of a speech on Monday at the Margaret Thatcher Conference in London. So far, so good for those who care to listen from Washington. However, while she has said she would continue to tow a pro-US line, she also wants to provide a safe haven for Latin American migrants, including many who have fled the political and economic decline of Venezuela under Nicolás Maduro, its Bolivarian socialist leader. 'We are the new Miami, an open door between Europe and the American continent where people come not only to find work but to bring their business and families – it's our version of the American dream,' Ms Ayuso said. Last year, most European economies stagnated, but Spain's grew by 3.2 per cent, prompting the government to raise its 2025 growth forecast to 2.6 per cent. The primary factors were mass migration and tourists keeping Spain the world's second most-visited country. Strong growth meant half a million new jobs were added to a record 21.3 million people in employment in 2024, 13.5 per cent of whom were migrants. Madrid is leading the pack. The region Ms Ayuso presides over has overtaken Catalonia to become Spain's biggest regional economy, raking in more than 70 per cent of foreign investment in Spain last year. 'There is unprecedented international investment and global interest in Madrid,' she told The Telegraph, attributing the region's success to her Thatcherite policies of low taxation and removing barriers to enterprise. The 46-year-old conservative firebrand is widely tipped to become Spain's first female prime minister, although she denies such lofty ambitions and pledges loyalty to the current leadership of Spain's People's Party (PP). It is Ms Ayuso who noisily goes head to head with Pedro Sánchez, Spain's Left-wing prime minister, rather than Alberto Núnez Feijóo, the mild-mannered PP leader. The president of the Madrid region contrasts the success of her economically liberal and socially laissez-faire Madrid with what she describes as an 'obsession' with wokery from the socialist-led national government. Spain's regions can apply their own regional taxes on wealth and economic activity, but in 2021 Ms Ayuso announced that she had decided to scrap the lot. One of the last to go was a tax on the installation of gaming machines in bars. 'Madrid is the only place in Spain without its own regional taxes. We have applied low taxation, the right level of taxation. Madrid is the most competitive region, with the most digital employment and highest salaries, and the greatest openness to investment.' Income tax in Madrid is the lowest in Spain across most earnings bands, thanks to a series of cuts made by Ms Ayuso's administration to its regional rates, which are applied on top of national basic levels. By way of contrast, she claimed that Mr Sánchez's governments, backed by hard-Left parties, including Catalan and Basque separatists, have raised taxes 93 times since the socialist leader took power in 2018. Margaret Thatcher is Ms Ayuso's role model in creating a liberalised economy where individuals flourish. But she is quick to deny having radical desires to take a Musk-style chainsaw to the public sector. She insists she is a 'Spanish liberal', suggesting society and state must play some role – or risk chaos. Ms Ayuso welcomed Javier Milei, Argentina's maverick president, to Madrid last year but she says there are significant differences in their political visions. Mr Milei has said that the concept of the state and taxation in general is 'immoral'. Turning to today's trans-Atlantic relations, the Madrid leader expressed concern that tension between the Trump administration and other Western governments could cause a damaging split, as well as a worry that Ukraine will not get the peace deal it deserves. 'International leaders – and I mean all of them – need to apply more diplomacy and less testosterone to resolve this situation. But we mustn't forget that this was an invasion and we need to help Ukraine recover as quickly as possible. 'The lifestyle and values of the West cannot be broken apart in two weeks or a month like a house of cards. I refuse to accept that after centuries together, and especially after building the European Union, the West could fragment after a few weeks of heated rhetoric.' She adds: 'My Madrid government is always pro-US, Nato, EU and especially pro-West. I am a total admirer of Reagan. Whenever I saw the US flag, I always thought these are my people.' She is in good company with Mr Trump and Mr Milei, both of whom have clashed with Mr Sánchez. Ms Ayuso believes Mr Sánchez's government is bent on telling people how to live, with further regulations on unhealthy food, and even whether you can have a pet, including a new qualification that would be required of dog owners. 'These laws go way beyond the normal sphere of government. There is a move toward judging people according to what you eat, what you wear, whether you are the right kind of man, the right kind of woman… They don't respect the space of the individual.' Over the past year, Ms Ayuso's conflict with Mr Sánchez's national government has reached a new level after media revelations that Alberto González Amador, her partner, was being investigated by a Madrid court for alleged tax evasion. Ms Ayuso and her team have argued that the case was deliberately leaked by Spain's attorney general, who is now himself the subject of a court probe for allegedly revealing secrets. 'There is a concerted state operation against me. The tax office opened an inspection against my partner, when he was not my partner, and what should have just ended up as a fine has now been a national issue for a year, fuelled by media outlets that are fed directly by government ministries.' Ms Ayuso accused Mr Sánchez of using the case involving Mr González Amador to deflect from the fact that the prime minister's wife and brother are both being investigated for alleged corruption. 'They generate hatred to bolster their support. These cases are not comparable. My partner did not come to the table to do business like the wife of the prime minister. I have not used my position to benefit my partner with a single contract.' Alleging a dirty tricks campaign by Spain's government, Ms Ayuso claimed that the recent robbery of a computer belonging to her partner's lawyer was 'not done by amateurs' and that the homes of friends and family had also been broken into. 'Watergate was a joke compared to this. Nixon was a good president with an international reputation, so it's wrong to compare him with Sánchez.' Turning back to her home city, the 'new Miami', she points out that it will next year host its first Formula 1 Grand Prix and see another influx of visitors when Spain co-hosts the 2030 men's football World Cup with Portugal and Morocco. 'Madrid is the defence of freedom in all its forms. We saw this during the pandemic, and now in everyday life; the streets are buzzing, day and night, and everyone can find the lifestyle they want.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
17-03-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Madrid's ‘Margaret Thatcher': Let's take the testosterone out of politics
Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the conservative leader of Madrid, has much in common with Donald Trump and indeed many of the Right-wing leaders shaping world politics. But there is a noticeable difference that sets her apart: her openness to mass migration. Madrid is having a major moment, topping the charts for economic growth and investment amid a mammoth tourism boom fuelled by her low-tax, business-friendly policies. The city is 'blazing a trail', as she modestly puts it during an interview in the presidential office, where she has ruled the Madrid region for almost six years. 'It is Spain's most fashionable region right now,' she said ahead of a speech on Monday at the Margaret Thatcher Conference in London. So far, so good for those who care to listen from Washington. However, while she has said she would continue to tow a pro-US line, she also wants to provide a safe haven for Latin American migrants, including many who have fled the political and economic decline of Venezuela under Nicolás Maduro, its Bolivarian socialist leader. ' We are the new Miami, an open door between Europe and the American continent where people come not only to find work but to bring their business and families – it's our version of the American dream,' Ms Ayuso said. Last year, most European economies stagnated, but Spain's grew by 3.2 per cent, prompting the government to raise its 2025 growth forecast to 2.6 per cent. The primary factors were mass migration and tourists keeping Spain the world's second most-visited country. Strong growth meant half a million new jobs were added to a record 21.3 million people in employment in 2024, 13.5 per cent of whom were migrants. Madrid is leading the pack. The region Ms Ayuso presides over has overtaken Catalonia to become Spain's biggest regional economy, raking in more than 70 per cent of foreign investment in Spain last year. 'There is unprecedented international investment and global interest in Madrid,' she told The Telegraph, attributing the region's success to her Thatcherite policies of low taxation and removing barriers to enterprise. The 46-year-old conservative firebrand is widely tipped to become Spain's first female prime minister, although she denies such lofty ambitions and pledges loyalty to the current leadership of Spain's People's Party (PP). It is Ms Ayuso who noisily goes head to head with Pedro Sánchez, Spain's Left-wing prime minister, rather than Alberto Núnez Feijóo, the mild-mannered PP leader. The president of the Madrid region contrasts the success of her economically liberal and socially laissez-faire Madrid with what she describes as an 'obsession' with wokery from the socialist-led national government. Spain's regions can apply their own regional taxes on wealth and economic activity, but in 2021 Ms Ayuso announced that she had decided to scrap the lot. One of the last to go was a tax on the installation of gaming machines in bars. 'Madrid is the only place in Spain without its own regional taxes. We have applied low taxation, the right level of taxation. Madrid is the most competitive region, with the most digital employment and highest salaries, and the greatest openness to investment.' Income tax in Madrid is the lowest in Spain across most earnings bands, thanks to a series of cuts made by Ms Ayuso's administration to its regional rates, which are applied on top of national basic levels. By way of contrast, she claimed that Mr Sánchez's governments, backed by hard-Left parties, including Catalan and Basque separatists, have raised taxes 93 times since the socialist leader took power in 2018. Margaret Thatcher is Ms Ayuso's role model in creating a liberalised economy where individuals flourish. But she is quick to deny having radical desires to take a Musk-style chainsaw to the public sector. She insists she is a 'Spanish liberal', suggesting society and state must play some role – or risk chaos. Ms Ayuso welcomed Javier Milei, Argentina's maverick president, to Madrid last year but she says there are significant differences in their political visions. Mr Milei has said that the concept of the state and taxation in general is 'immoral'. Turning to today's trans-Atlantic relations, the Madrid leader expressed concern that tension between the Trump administration and other Western governments could cause a damaging split, as well as a worry that Ukraine will not get the peace deal it deserves. 'International leaders – and I mean all of them – need to apply more diplomacy and less testosterone to resolve this situation. But we mustn't forget that this was an invasion and we need to help Ukraine recover as quickly as possible. 'The lifestyle and values of the West cannot be broken apart in two weeks or a month like a house of cards. I refuse to accept that after centuries together, and especially after building the European Union, the West could fragment after a few weeks of heated rhetoric.' She adds: 'My Madrid government is always pro-US, Nato, EU and especially pro-West. I am a total admirer of Reagan. Whenever I saw the US flag, I always thought these are my people.' She is in good company with Mr Trump and Mr Milei, both of whom have clashed with Mr Sánchez. Ms Ayuso believes Mr Sánchez's government is bent on telling people how to live, with further regulations on unhealthy food, and even whether you can have a pet, including a new qualification that would be required of dog owners. 'These laws go way beyond the normal sphere of government. There is a move toward judging people according to what you eat, what you wear, whether you are the right kind of man, the right kind of woman… They don't respect the space of the individual.' Over the past year, Ms Ayuso's conflict with Mr Sánchez's national government has reached a new level after media revelations that Alberto González Amador, her partner, was being investigated by a Madrid court for alleged tax evasion. Ms Ayuso and her team have argued that the case was deliberately leaked by Spain's attorney general, who is now himself the subject of a court probe for allegedly revealing secrets. 'There is a concerted state operation against me. The tax office opened an inspection against my partner, when he was not my partner, and what should have just ended up as a fine has now been a national issue for a year, fuelled by media outlets that are fed directly by government ministries.' Ms Ayuso accused Mr Sánchez of using the case involving Mr González Amador to deflect from the fact that the prime minister's wife and brother are both being investigated for alleged corruption. 'They generate hatred to bolster their support. These cases are not comparable. My partner did not come to the table to do business like the wife of the prime minister. I have not used my position to benefit my partner with a single contract.' Alleging a dirty tricks campaign by Spain's government, Ms Ayuso claimed that the recent robbery of a computer belonging to her partner's lawyer was 'not done by amateurs' and that the homes of friends and family had also been broken into. 'Watergate was a joke compared to this. Nixon was a good president with an international reputation, so it's wrong to compare him with Sánchez.' Turning back to her home city, the 'new Miami', she points out that it will next year host its first Formula 1 Grand Prix and see another influx of visitors when Spain co-hosts the 2030 men's football World Cup with Portugal and Morocco. ' Madrid is the defence of freedom in all its forms. We saw this during the pandemic, and now in everyday life; the streets are buzzing, day and night, and everyone can find the lifestyle they want.'
Miami Herald
07-03-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Likening him to Zelensky, Maduro accuses Guyana president of seeking war with Venezuela
Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro is accusing Guyanese President Irfaan Ali of seeking to provoke an armed conflict, likening him to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whom Maduro claims caused the war with Russia. Maduro's comments followed the incursion last week of a Venezuelan patrol vessel into waters that Guyana claims are part of its territory, threatening ExxonMobil's offshore operations in the area and triggering a response from the U.S. government. 'The Government of Guyana has adopted a war plan against Venezuela. They believe that they will do well' in an armed conflict, Maduro said Thursday afternoon on state television. 'That is why it is correct to call the president of Guyana the 'Zelensky of the Caribbean'. He is a true Zelensky.' The reference to the Ukrainian president was previously used this week by Maduro's Foreign Ministry, which in a strongly worded statement accused Ali of spreading 'baseless' and 'blatant lies,' concerning the incursion of the Venezuelan vessel near the ExxonMobil offshore operations. 'Venezuela categorically repudiates the unsubstantiated statements of the President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, Irfaan Ali, who blatantly lies in asserting that units of the Bolivarian Navy of Venezuela are violating the maritime territory of Guyana,' the Foreign Ministry said in a press release. 'In the face of the threats of conflict launched by the Caribbean Zelensky... Venezuela denounces this aggression and ratifies that it will deploy its Bolivarian diplomacy firmly in defense of peace, the sovereignty and dignity of its people,' it added. Guyana said Saturday that a Venezuelan coast guard patrol entered its waters and approached an ExxonMobil vessel in an offshore oil block. This incident heightened tensions between the two countries, which are involved in a century-old dispute over the Essequibo region, a Florida-sized area that comprises more than two-thirds of Guyana. The naval incursion triggered a stern response from the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, which warned that 'further provocation will result in consequences for the Maduro regime.' The Zelensky reference appears to have been aimed at the United States, following the tense meeting between the Ukrainian President and President Donald Trump last week at the White House, as experts suspect that the Caracas regime deliberately moved towards escalating tensions with Guyana to trigger a shift in U.S. policy towards Venezuela. In an analysis published this week by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Washington think-tank said several indicators suggest Maduro has focused on the Essequibo dispute both to consolidate support internally and to test the geopolitical waters externally as the Trump administration moves towards hardening Washington's stance on the regime. The new administration shift towards readopting a policy of maximum pressure against Maduro became evident last week, when President Trump suddenly announced that his administration would suspend the license that allows Chevron to produce and sell oil out of Venezuela, in what experts agree provides a substantial financial blow to the regime's finances. 'Maduro's return to the Essequibo dispute comes at a particular crossroads in the evolution of the United States' approach to Venezuela, and it is an effort to show Washington that it too can threaten U.S. interests in the region,' the center's report said. 'Maduro's assertiveness might be intended to demonstrate that should there be a shift in U.S. policy to a harder stance, that he can sow regional instability that impacts the United States.' The conflict between the two South American countries over the resource-rich Essequibo region has been going for over a century. Tensions escalated after a December 2023 referendum, in which Maduro sought authorization to use military force against the neighboring nation and seize the Essequibo if necessary. Maduro claimed to have received approval from 98% of voters, despite clear evidence that the regime had tampered with the election results. Throughout the following year, Maduro repeatedly asserted on TV that the regime would not yield Venezuela's claim over the Essequibo region, which has been under Guyanese control since 1899, thereby keeping the issue alive in Venezuela. Maduro also issued laws declaring the region as the country's newest state, boosted Venezuela's military presence near the border and has announced plans to include the Essequibo in the upcoming regional elections to chose its first governor. Guyana requested on Thursday that the International Court of Justice order Venezuela to cancel the election.
