Latin America

The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) backed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday in his confrontation with the Organization of American States (OAS). The meeting of the ALBA Political Council was held behind closed doors in Havana.

The Mexican government has begun a process to regulate and grant residence permits to 588 Cubans who were stranded in the border state of Tamaulipas with the United States, after that country changed its immigration policy for Cubans.

The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) approved today by consensus a resolution in which it expressed “its deep concern about the serious unconstitutional alteration of the democratic order” in Venezuela, which was opposed by that country and Bolivia.

A group of 18 countries today protested the decision of Bolivia, the current president of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS), to suspend the extraordinary meeting convened for Monday to address the Venezuelan crisis without consulting the rest of the Member States.

The governing party candidate, Lenin Moreno, is close to becoming the new Ecuadorian president, according to preliminary data released by the National Electoral Council (CNE) with 94.18 percent of the votes counted today, dpa reported. The CNE indicated that 51.07 percent of valid votes correspond to Moreno and 48.93 so far to the conservative Guillermo Lasso.

Lenin Moreno, a socialist, and Jorge Glas, Ecuador’s current vice president, form the ticket supported by the governing Alianza País movement, proposes a continuity of the policies implemented in 10 years under the administration of President Rafael Correa. Guillermo Lasso, a conservative, and Andres Paez, a Social Democrat, is the formula supported by the right-wing groups, which advocate change in all orders in the Andean country.

Venezuela’s Supreme Court has overturned two of its own rulings that limited legislators’ immunity and stripped the National Assembly of its powers. President Maduro had urged the Supreme Court to deal severely with the rebel National Assembly, where the opposition has a large majority, but then realized that it may have gone too far.

Lenin Moreno, a socialist, and Jorge Glas, Ecuador’s current vice president, form the ticket supported by the governing Alianza País movement, which proposes a continuity of the policies implemented in 10 years of the administration of President Rafael Correa. Guillermo Lasso, a conservative, and Andres Paez, a Social Democrat, are the formula supported by right-wing groups, which advocate major change in all orders in the Andean country.

Venezuelan Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz said today that the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) to take over the functions of the National Assembly represents a constitutional rupture.