Page 11 - Aruba Today
P. 11
WORLD NEWS A11
Thursday 31 December 2015
Santos looking Venezuela’s socialists dispute 8 opposition swins
ahead to White
House meeting JORGE RUEDA Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro gestures to supporters from the top of a car in the popu-
Associated Press lar neighborhood of Petare, in Caracas, Venezuela. Allies of President Maduro are disputing the
Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) election of eight opposition candidates to the National Assembly, a move the opposition says
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — — Allies of Venezuelan seeks to undermine its landslide victory in legislative elections.
President Barack Obama President Nicolas Maduro
will host his counterpart are disputing the election (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
from Colombia in February of eight opposition candi-
to stand with his staunch- dates to the National As- the Venezuelans’ electoral of a liquor store than the reveal at an appropriate
est ally in South America as sembly, a move the oppo-
peace talks with leftist reb- sition says seeks to under- wishes. elections tribunal of the Su- time evidence of vote-buy-
els enter a critical phase mine its landslide victory in
that may require addi- legislative elections. “You can’t use legal tricks preme Court.” ing and other types of poll
tional U.S. support. Officials Earlier this week, the Su-
said the Feb. 4 meeting preme Court said it had to steal something the vot- Maduro and his allies have fraud by the opposition.
announced Tuesday is in- received motions by losing
tended to commemorate candidates to overturn the ers didn’t want to give been defiant in the face of “They’re playing dirty,”
15 years since the start of results in several districts. It
the U.S.-funded Plan Co- didn’t say on what grounds you,” proclaimed Jesus Tor- defeat, vowing to deepen Maduro said during his
lombia, which is credited the challenges were made
with forcing the Revolu- and nobody from the high realba, secretary general the revolution started by weekly television program.
tionary Armed Forces of court would comment.
Colombia, or FARC, to en- But if the court were to of the opposition coalition. Chavez and overrun what Instead, he used special
ter peace talks in 2012. overturn the results it would
In thanking Obama for deprive the opposition al- “We’re not living in a func- they refer to as the “bour- decree powers to extend
the invitation, President liance of the two-thirds
Juan Manuel Santos said “supermajority” it won this tional democracy,” Torre- geois parliament.” for three years a longstand-
he hopes he’ll be joined month by a single seat and
at the White House by two which greatly enhances alba said in a press confer- On Tuesday, the embat- ing ban on firing workers,
conservative predeces- its power to rein in Madu-
sors, Alvaro Uribe and An- ro, sack Cabinet ministers ence with several leaders tled leader briefly and only a move he said would
dres Pastrana, who laid the and even convoke an as-
framework for the battle- sembly to rewrite Hugo of the incoming congress. obliquely referred to the protect the poor from the
field success. But their pres- Chavez’s 1999 constitution.
ence is unlikely, as both Many in the opposition are “We’re living in a country emerging dispute over the “economic war” being
are fierce critics of Santos denouncing the move by
and accuse him of being the government-stacked where you can be surer election results, saying that waged by his enemies at
too lenient in talks with reb- court as a guise to rob the about the operating hours if authorities don’t he would home and abroad..q
el leaders behind scores opposition of the full fruits
of war crimes. A major of its victory. They’re also
breakthrough in the Cuba- calling on the international
based talks came in Sep- community to condemn
tember when negotiators the move and safeguard
announced a framework
for rebels who confess their Release from jail of Colombian warlord hits snag
crimes to avoid jail time
and instead serve out sen- L. CARDONA eight-year sentence grant- The Associated Press later Old Man), has defended
tences helping war-torn ru- Associated Press ed to thousands of para- in the day that Isaza’s re- himself by saying he suffers
ral communities rebuild. BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) military fighters who sur- lease was being held up by from memory loss.
While momentum toward — A last-minute judicial rendered and confessed a pending investigation by Isaza was one of the origi-
a deal is building fast, sev- review has blocked the re- their crimes under a 2005 a court in northwestern Co- nal leaders of the right-wing
eral obstacles remain, two lease of a longtime para- peace accord. Local net- lombia. militias formed by ranchers
of which are in Obama’s military warlord in Colom- works showed images of Victims and prosecu- in the late 1970s to combat
hands: the FARC’s de- bia who was sentenced to a pick-up truck with tinted tors have questioned the leftist rebels.
mand that the U.S. stop 40 years in prison for order- windows and escorted by grounds for Isaza’s release, In the 1990s he battled Pab-
classifying the insurgency ing hundreds of murders. armed guards leaving a saying he has not cooper- lo Escobar’s Medellin co-
as a foreign terrorist organi- Early on Tuesday, Bogota prison supposedly ated with investigations caine cartel for control of
zation and release from jail the lawyer for Ramon Isa- ferrying the militia leader to into massacres commit- lucrative drug routes in the
a veteran rebel known by za said his client was pa- freedom. ted by his fighters. Isaza, lawless Magdalena Valley
his alias Simon Trinidad who roled by a Bogota court But the office of the Inpec a 74-year-old who goes where his fighters were long
is serving out a 60-year sen- after serving the maximum prisons administrator told by the alias “El Viejo” (the dominant.q
tence on drug charges.q
