The president of Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE), Tibisay Lucena, dismissed the idea of holding legislative elections on the same day as the presidential election scheduled for April 22, as the ruling party has proposed.
The National Constituent Assembly (ANC in Spanish) recommended to the Public Prosecutor and the Judicial Branch to release more than 80 political prisoners. At the moment, 13 of them have been released with precautionary measures.
Venezuela pulled CNN's Spanish-language television channel off the air on Wednesday, accusing it of spreading propaganda about an alleged visa racket at the country's embassy in Iraq. The state National Telecommunications Commission ordered the immediate suspension of broadcasts by the news channel CNN in Spanish in Venezuela, a government statement said.
Mercosur foreign ministers will be meeting next March 9 in Buenos Aires in the framework of Argentina's pro tempore chair and following on the Argentine/Brazilian presidents recent meeting when it was decided to give the group a new thrust taking advantage of the new world scenario.
Diosdado Cabello, considered one of the three most powerful persons in Venezuela called Argentine president Mauricio Macri a coward, described the Argentine ambassador in Caracas as an enemy and suggested that if he had any dignity left he should pack his suitcase and leave Venezuela.
On the eve of Argentina becoming the next chair of Mercosur, Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro revealed he held an hour long video conference with his Uruguayan peer Tabare Vazquez and they both agreed in building a path to channel the current conflict, which has Venezuela suspended from the group, but is rejected point blank by Caracas.
Argentina's priority as chair of Mercosur which it will officially take over this week will be to advance negotiations with the European Union for a wide ranging trade agreement which will not include Venezuela, anticipated foreign minister Susana Malcorra .
The founding Mercosur countries Friday suspended Venezuela from full membership of the free-trade bloc in view of its failure to adjust its domestic regulations to economic agreements and human rights and immigration guidelines and principles that are mandatory to all the other members.
Nicolas Maduro's Venezuela has been suspended from the Mercosur regional trade bloc for failing to meet its membership requirements, a Brazilian government source revealed Thursday. And the official announcement is to be made Friday, which could not be corroborated in Buenos Aires' diplomatic circles.
Uruguay's deputy foreign minister Jose Luis Cancela said that if Uruguay had not complied with the other Mercosur three founding members' joint declaration ignoring Venezuela's presidency and demanding it complies with the group's legislation and treaties, Mercosur would have been launched into a period of full paralysis.