Venezuela will hold elections as part of a transition toward “full democracy,” interim President Delcy Rodriguez told the UN General Assembly, though she stopped short of setting a date for the vote.
“I want to make this very clear at this General Assembly: There will be elections in Venezuela,” Ms Rodriguez said. She assumed power after US forces captured then-president Nicolas Maduro during a January raid.
- Advertisement -
Ms Rodriguez said her government had opened talks with the opposition and would ensure that all political forces could take part under equal conditions. She also said national institutions were being readied for the electoral process.
“Venezuela has initiated a process of democratic transformation for its rebirth, an orderly, institutional, and verifiable process, to build a country that is freer for all, more prosperous, and more reconciled with itself,” Ms Rodriguez said.
Delcy Rodriguez said talks with opposition groups were already under way
Calls for elections have also come from some US politicians, as criticism grows that the Trump administration has failed to secure meaningful democratic concessions from Ms Rodriguez’s government.
“We have opened a political dialogue with opposition groups aimed at a process with equal conditions for all,” Ms Rodriguez said.
Ms Rodriguez briefly met President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, where she praised him for reviving dialogue with Venezuela.
The two leaders also discussed the restructuring of billions of dollars in sovereign debt owed by the South American nation.
“This is the time to build the nation that many people want to return to,” Ms Rodriguez said, while warning that economic recovery “will take time”.
She appealed to the international community for support as Venezuela moves from “a stage of uncertainty and conflict toward a stage of full democracy.”
Milei brands UN a ‘useless organisation’ packed with ‘arrogant parasites’
Javier Milei said the UN existed ‘only to feed a caste of fatally arrogant parasites disguised as well-intentioned bureaucrats’
Argentine President Javier Milei launched a blistering attack on the UN in his address to the world body, dismissing it as a “useless organisation” populated by “arrogant parasites.”
Mr Milei, a firebrand leader and one of Mr Trump’s closest allies in Latin America, has repeatedly used the UN platform to challenge global governance and denounce what he calls its “woke” agenda.
He said the United Nations had failed to fulfil its responsibility to protect collective security and human rights, allowing “chaos, violence and international terrorism” to spread instead.
“The UN has become a useless organisation, serving only to feed a caste of fatally arrogant parasites disguised as well-intentioned bureaucrats,” he said.
Mr Milei also accused the organisation of “looking the other way” over Argentina’s claim to the Falkland Islands, a British overseas territory known in Argentina as Las Malvinas and claimed by Buenos Aires.
Argentina has accused Britain of ignoring a UN resolution calling on both sides to refrain from unilateral action in the islands, which were the subject of a 1982 war between the two countries.
“Those who follow the rules receive no reward for doing so, while those who break them face no repercussions whatsoever,” Mr Milei said.
The closeness of Mr Milei’s relationship with Mr Trump was underscored yesterday when Argentina and the United States announced a joint initiative to upgrade the Latin American nation’s infrastructure and link it to “vital economic sectors to major Atlantic ports and Western markets.”
The initiative, known as the Andes-Atlantic Corridor, is intended to encourage investment in transport, digital infrastructure, minerals and energy, including Vaca Muerta, a vast hydrocarbon deposit in southern Argentina, according to a joint statement.
