Despite opposition protests demanding a ballot recount, congratulations are pouring in for Venezuela’s proclaimed President Nicolas Maduro: Brazil, Argentina, Russia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Cuba, Unasur, although the OAS and the US have adopted a more cautious attitude.
Venezuela's election authority on Monday formally proclaimed Nicolas Maduro the winner of Sunday's presidential vote, despite insistence by the opposition that the ceremony be suspended until a complete recount of votes was carried out given the very tight result.
Denouncing election irregularities, Venezuelan opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski demanded a recount and said early Monday that he will not recognize the country's presidential results ”until every vote is counted”. His comments came less than an hour after officials said the man former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez handpicked to be his successor had won the country's presidential vote.
Following five hours of a long recount process Venezuela’s National Electoral Council announced early Monday morning that acting president Nicolas Maduro is the new head of state, having defeated Henrique Capriles by less than a two percentage point difference.
In his closing massive campaign rally in Caracas, Thursday evening incumbent candidate Nicolas Maduro pledged that next Sunday he will win the Venezuelan presidential election and later will take over the presidency of Mercosur.
Argentina’s football legend Diego Maradona was present on Thursday afternoon in down-town Caracas at the closing campaign rally of Venezuelan incumbent presidential candidate Nicolas Maduro but with a special touch: a red t-shirt promoting the re-re-election of Cristina Fernandez in 2015.
Venezuelan incumbent presidential candidate Nicolas Maduro’s closing campaign rally will have a special guest on Thursday with football legend Argentine Diego Maradona giving a celebrity boost to the colourful presidential elections that will test Hugo Chavez’s populist legacy.
The opposition candidate in Venezuela’s next Sunday’s presidential again pounded on his country’s foreign policy and claimed that Argentina has a pending debt of 13 billion dollars arising from oil contracts.
A clear majority of Montevideo residents support Uruguayan president Jose Mujica controversial comments on Argentine President Cristina Fernandez and her deceased husband Nestor Kirchner, “the old lady is worse than the one eyed man”, according to an opinion poll made public on Tuesday by a local broadcasting station.
A tough criminal and labor lawyer who helped win Hugo Chavez's release from prison after a failed coup two decades ago, Venezuela's former attorney general Cilia Flores has since never been far from the circle of power around the late populist leader.