MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Under pressure from Brazil, Venezuela announces legislative elections for end of the year
“Where are they getting this idea that we won't have elections?” CNE president Tibisay Lucena said in an interview with an official television channel. 
“I insisted that elections should be called as soon as possible and held within the legal time frame,” revealed Brazil's foreign minister Vieira Venezuela will hold parliamentary elections in the last quarter of this year and the exact date will be announced soon, the head of the National Electoral Council (CNE) said on Sunday. The elected lawmakers will be inaugurated for five years on 2016.
Pressure has been mounting on the populist President Nicolas Maduro to set the date for the 2015 parliamentary elections. The scheduled vote comes as a severe economic downturn has eroded Maduro and the chavista regime popularity, leading to speculation in some quarters that the election may not be called at all.
“Where are they getting this idea that we won't have elections?” Tibisay Lucena said in an interview with the Televen television channel.
“From the start of this year, we've said that this is an electoral year. We can say that in the last quarter of this year we'll have the elections. We're going to announce it very soon.”
Regional heavyweight Brazil on Thursday urged elections to be called as soon as possible. In effect Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said he met with Venezuelan government officials last week and told them a date must be set quickly for the National Assembly election that is meant to be held before the end of the year.
“I insisted that elections should be called as soon as possible and held within the legal time frame,” Vieira said at a news conference.
Venezuelan opposition see the parliamentary election as a chance to capitalize on the widespread discontent over the deepening economic crisis and an advance towards ending more than 15 years of the chavista regime. Surveys show Venezuela's opposition leading in projections of voters' intentions.
Vieira spoke to reporters after the wives of Venezuela's two most prominent jailed opposition leaders visited Congress and were applauded by lawmakers, including members of parties in President Dilma Rousseff's governing coalition.
Rousseff and her Workers' Party have faced increasing criticism for maintaining close ties to Maduro. Brazil's Senate last Tuesday passed a resolution criticizing Maduro's government for arbitrarily imprisoning opponents.
“A nation like Brazil that has a president who was once a political prisoner cannot keep silent when it sees a neighboring country keep almost 90 political prisoners,” said Aecio Neves, leader of Brazil's centrist PSDB opposition party.
“It is time the Brazilian government acted in defense of democracy in Venezuela,” he said at a meeting with Mitzy de Ledezma and Lilian Tintori, wives of the jailed Venezuelan opposition leaders.
Rousseff did not agree to meet with them but sent a letter in which she said Brazil was “tirelessly” seeking a peaceful resolution to Venezuela's political crisis.
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Read all commentsCould this be two targets with one shot? I have nothing against Venezuela or Venezuelans, except when they support argieland, but it must be obvious to the most brain-dead sycophant that the bus driver and his clique have to go. Isn't it a matter of actual survival? Here's a list of Venezuelan 'shortages'; Animal feed Appliances, Batteries, Beef, Birth Control Pills, Bleach, Bread, Breast Implants, Butter, Cement, Cheese, Chicken, Coffee, Condensed milk, Condoms, Corn oil,
May 11th, 2015 - 11:48 am 0Corrugated steel, Deodorant, Detergents, Diapers, Eggs, Fabric softeners, Fish, Flour, French fries, Ice cream, Insecticide, Jams, Juice, Lentils, Makeup, Margarine, Marie biscuits, Mayonnaise, Medications, Milk, Mouthwash, Mustard, Napkins, Newsprint, Oatmeal, Olives, Pan de jamón, Pasta, Peas, Pork, Powdered milk, Raisins, Razors, Rice, Sanitary napkins, Sardines, Shampoo, Shoes, Skim milk, Soap, Sodas, Sugar, Sunflower oil, Toilet paper,
Toothpaste, Tyres, Vehicle spare parts.
Those aren't 'shortages'. That's a description of a filthy, unhygienic place beset by famine. Just how many Venezuelans starve every week? And will the Brazilian criminal be paying back the money that just dropped into her lap. Isn't it worth paying back several million US$ as well as suggesting democracy in order to try to recover credibility? She won't of course. People have an incredible memory for corruption, criminality, deceit, fraud, lies. Rousseff might as well resign and go into a convent now. Perhaps the nuns will be able to flog her into giving up her mendacious, terrorist ways. No convent for Brasiliero though. He gets the pit and the pendulum! Swish! Slice! Squelch!
”Rousseff did not agree to meet with the wives of the jailed Venezuelan opposition leaders, but sent a letter in which she said Brazil was “tirelessly” seeking a peaceful resolution to Venezuela's political crisis.
May 11th, 2015 - 06:19 pm 0Typical of fatty Dilma...always sitting on the fence, afraid to call it what it is ; sounds like a well-known world leader who refuses to say 'terrorism' and 'islamic' in the same sentence...
@ 2 Jack Bauer
May 11th, 2015 - 07:43 pm 0“sounds like a well-known world leader who refuses to say 'terrorism' and 'islamic' in the same sentence”
There are more than a few of those: 'call me Dave' Camoron is shit scared of upsetting the groomers, rapists and overall bat shit mad Muslims that infest the cities of the UK, especially in the North.
Obama is of course a Muslim by virtue of his father / grandfather being one. Now before the do-gooders start to decry me, check your facts before you make yourselves look bigger prats than you do now.
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