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A6 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 10 sepTember 2024
Venezuelan opposition still hopes to unseat Maduro

despite their candidate’s exile

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) to victory.
— Venezuelan opposition González had never run for
leader Maria Corina Mach- office before the presiden-
ado tried to reassure sup- tial election. The leader-
porters Monday that her ship of the Unitary Platform
coalition still hopes to gain opposition coalition chose
control of the presidency him as candidate after
despite the departure into the government banned
exile of their candidate Ed- Machado from running for
mundo González Urrutia. office and did not allow her
Machado’s group main- hand-picked successor to
tains that it has evidence register for the contest.
that González won the July Machado became his key
28 presidential election surrogate, and they cam-
by a wide margin against paigned together.
Venezuela’s authoritar- González said in a state-
ian incumbent president, ment Monday that he is not
Nicolás Maduro, despite his motived by “personal am-
claim to have won. bition.” He wrote that he
Machado told an online remains committed to “the
meeting Monday of oppo- realization of the popular
sition leaders, reporters and will,” but he did not explain
others that her group still how he intends to continue
hopes to see Maduro leave Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez waves to supporters during a to work toward that goal.
office in January, even if for political event at a square in the Hatillo municipality of Caracas, Venezuela, June 19, 2024. “My commitment is not
voters those hopes seem Associated Press based on personal ambi-
increasingly tenuous since and cracked down on ernment, which days earlier Maduro had lost the con- tion, this decision is a ges-
González’s decision to flee demonstrations throughout had ordered his arrest. test. ture that reaches out to
into exile to Spain over the the country protesting the González had not been Their assertions stunned everyone, and I hope that
weekend. election results. seen publicly since the supporters and critics alike, it will be reciprocated as
She said the former diplo- “Nothing has changed,” week after the vote, when because the National Elec- such,” González said.
mat could fulfill the role of she insisted from an undis- he and Machado an- toral Council had declared Machado told reporters
opposition candidate “with closed location in Venezu- nounced not only that their Maduro the winner hours that González is “Venezu-
much greater protection ela. González, 75, landed campaign had obtained after polls closed, giving ela’s president-elect” re-
and security” from abroad. Sunday at a military airport vote tallies from over two- him a third six-year term set gardless of his location and
She herself has gone into near Madrid, accompa- thirds of the electronic vot- to begin on Jan. 10. The will remain so “until the day
hiding in the weeks since nied by his wife and Span- ing machines used in the panel, stacked with ruling he is sworn in as president.”
the election, while Madu- ish officials. His departure election but also that they party loyalists, never re- She did not offer any details
ro’s government has arrest- was announced late Sat- had published them on- leased detailed vote tallies of the strategy that could
ed more than 2,000 people urday by Venezuela’s gov- line to show the world that to support Maduro’s claim lead to that result.q

U.S. halts plan to remove iconic stray cats from a historic area in

Puerto Rico’s capital

By DÁNICA COTO to remove iconic stray cats announced Monday. Service operates. zation selected would de-
Associated Press that live in a historic district The ruling was cheered by The federal agency warned cide whether the trapped
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) in Puerto Rico’s capital until those fighting a decision by in 2022 that the population cats would be adopted,
— The U.S. government has a lawsuit opposing the proj- the U.S. National Park Ser- of cats had surged and that fostered, kept in a shelter or
temporarily halted a plan ect is resolved, a nonprofit vice to remove an estimat- the felines could transmit ill- face other options.
ed 200 cats that meander nesses to humans, adding Arnoff said in a phone inter-
a seaside fortress that Spain that the smell of urine and view that removing the cur-
built in colonial times. feces enveloped the area. rent cats is an impossible
“It’s a victory for the short In late 2023, the agency an- task since new cats would
term, but long term, these nounced it would contract take their place.
cats are still at risk,” said Yo- an animal welfare organi- “They’re going to have to
naton Arnoff, an attorney zation to remove the cats, keep doing this forever,”
for Maryland-based Alley and if the organization se- he said.
Cat Allies. lected failed to do so within The U.S. National Park Ser-
The cats, which have long six months, officials would vice was scheduled to start
been a tourist attraction, hire a removal agency. removing the cats in Octo-
are both beloved and re- The U.S. National Park Ser- ber, but it agreed to halt
viled by those who visit and vice didn’t immediately those plans until a judge
live in Old San Juan, where respond to a message for rules on a lawsuit that Alley
the 16th-century fortress comment. Cat Allies filed in March. The
known as “El Morro” is lo- The agency held public nonprofit alleges that the
A stray cat rests on a statue in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, Nov. cated. It’s part of the San hearings on the plan that plan violates acts including
2, 2022. Juan National Historic Site became heated, with crit- the National Environmental
Associated Press
that the U.S. National Park ics noting that the organi- Protection Act.q