Representatives from the Republic of Mauritius and the United Kingdom held further productive discussions in London this week on the future of the Chagos Archipelago.
Uruguay's President-elect Yamandú Orsi will undergo cataract surgery in the next few days, due to which he will be pausing his transition agenda, it was reported Monday in Montevideo. According to Orsi's press team, the former Mayor (Governor) of Canelones had been postponing these procedures until it was decided to have them performed between Tuesday and Thursday. Orsi is expected to recover soon, so as to resume his activities leading up to his March 1 inauguration.
Venezuela's Bolivarian regime Monday reopened the borders with Colombia and Brazil it had closed ahead of Friday's inauguration of Nicolás Maduro as President for a third consecutive six-year term. The measure had been adopted due to an alleged international conspiracy following the controversial July 28, 2024, elections the Opposition Unitarian Democratic Platform (PUD) of retired diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia also claimed to have won.
Despite approving Argentine President Javier Milei's management in a broad way, the International Monetary Fund suggested the South American country should pay more attention to exchange rate arrears and the increasing poverty.
An explosive device went off late Saturday at Venezuela's consulate in Lisbon. Nobody was injured because at the time of the attack which local media said consisted of a Molotov cocktail, the offices were closed. “The Portuguese government strongly condemns the attack on the Venezuelan consulate in Lisbon,” Portugal's Foreign Ministry posted on X.
Isaías Rodríguez, Venezuela's first vice president as per the 1999 Constitution under Bolivarian leader Hugo Chávez, passed away Sunday at the age of 82, President Nicolás Maduro announced in Caracas. Rodríguez also served as Venezuela's Attorney General as well as Ambassador to Italy, and vice president of the Constituent Assembly.
Presidents Emmanuel Macron of France and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil were reported Friday to have spoken on the telephone with Veenezuela's Nicolás Maduro to persuade him to resume talks with the opposition after being inaugurated for a third consecutive six-year term following the controversial July 28, 2024, elections.
Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia, for many the legitimate winner of the July 28, 2024, elections even after Nicolás Maduro's inauguration for a new six-year term, said he was close to return to the country and called on the Armed Forces to disregard illegal orders from the Bolivarian de facto regime.
Argentine President Javier Milei Friday signed the decree summoning Congress to extraordinary sessions between Jan. 20 and Feb. 21 to debate the suppression of the Mandatory, Open, and Simultaneous Primary (PASO) elections, the clean record requirement for candidates, and other initiatives that, according to the Executive, cannot wait until the new Legislature starting on March 1.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said Nicolás Maduro carried out a coup d'état by swearing in as President on Friday instead of Edmundo González Urrrutia who failed to return to Caracas for the occasion as he had promised.