Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Biodun Iginla, BBC News
Showing posts with label Jorge Rodriguez. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jorge Rodriguez. Show all posts

Friday, May 17, 2019

Maduro government welcomes Norway 'dialogue' efforts


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The government of President Nicolas Maduro expressed gratitude to Norway and its support for "dialogue," after Maduro said Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez was "on a very important mission for peace" in Europe
The government of President Nicolas Maduro expressed gratitude to Norway and its support for "dialogue," after Maduro said Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez was "on a very important mission for peace" in Europe Venezuelan Presidency/AFP
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Caracas 
by Renee Celeste and Biodun Iginla, France24
The government of President Nicolas Maduro on Friday thanked Norway for its mediation efforts to build a "dialogue" with the Venezuelan opposition after both sides sent delegations to Oslo.
"President Nicolas Maduro and the Bolivarian Revolution express their gratitude to Norway and their support for dialogue for peace and sovereignty," Venezuela's Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza tweeted.
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It was the first official confirmation from Caracas of its involvement in what Norway referred to as exploratory discussions in Oslo.
The mediation bid comes after a months-long power struggle between National Assembly leader Juan Guaido and the socialist president, with sometimes deadly street clashes.
Maduro on Thursday made no direct reference to the meetings, but said Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez was "on a very important mission for peace in the country... in Europe".
So far details of the exact process underway in Oslo have been scant, but US-backed opposition leader Guaido -- recognized as interim president by dozens of countries -- denied on Thursday that any direct negotiations had taken place.
Norway's foreign ministry said in a statement it had had "preliminary contacts with representatives of the main political actors of Venezuela."
These were "part of an exploratory phase, with the aim of contributing to finding a solution to the situation in the country."
Rodriguez and Miranda state governor Hector Rodriguez represented the regime in the discussions, according to media reports.
The opposition said it was being represented by National Assembly vice president Stalin Gonzalez and former lawmaker Gerardo Blyde.
Maduro has been shunned by much of the international community for presiding over elections widely-dismissed as a sham and the oil-rich Latin American country's economic collapse as well as for brutally suppressing dissent.
Shortages of basic goods have forced millions to flee Venezuela.

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Sunday, August 5, 2018

Analysis: Timeline of Venezuelan president 'drone attack'


by Renee Celeste and Biodun Iginla, France24 News Analysts, Caracas


    © AFP | Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (C) gestures between his wife Cilia Flores (L) and Defence Minister General Vladimir Padrino during a ceremony to honor the National Guard in Caracas

    CARACAS  - 
    Six people have been arrested, accused of "terrorism" and attempting to assassinate Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro with explosive-laden drones. Here is a look at how the alleged attack unfolded.
    - Military Parade -
    Maduro was speaking at a military parade to honor the National Guard, a body the opposition accuses of being primarily responsible for the 125 deaths during four months of civil unrest in 2017.
    The president was warning citizens that those who failed to register their cars in a national census would miss out on subsidized fuel when an explosion above his head took away his attention.
    "What happened?" said Maduro looking upwards worriedly, his wife Cilia Flores flinching as bodyguards jumped in to shield the president, with someone shouting "shelter him!"
    Maduro was heard saying "let's go to the right" as television pictures cut away from him to the lines military personnel.
    But the National Guardsmen then scattered in panic after a second explosion was heard, the state television broadcast quickly cutting away from that too.
    Photos and videos published later showed soldiers protecting the president with plastic shields while a uniformed officer was evacuated with blood pouring from a head wound.
    - 'Shockwave' -
    Marco Salgado, a foreign correspondent who's been working in Venezuela for a decade, was close to Maduro at the time of the first explosion and took the picture of the bloodied soldier, one of seven injured according to the government, three of them seriously.
    "I had my back to the stage when I felt the shockwave. I thought a rocket had exploded very close to me. When I looked at the stage, I saw they were sheltering the president," he told us at France24. 
    The obscure National Movement of Soldiers in T-shirts group claimed responsibility for the attack that Interior and Justice Minister Nestor Reverol said was carried out using two drones, each packed with a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of plastic explosive C4.
    The first became "disoriented by signal inhibiting equipment" and was thus "activated outside the assassins' planned perimeter," Reverol said.
    The second drone lost control and crashed into an adjacent building, letting off a plume of smoke, he added.
    That's when armed forces and spectators alike ran for cover.
    "There was chaos. People running in every direction but many not knowing where to go. Everyone was confused, the spectators as well as the National Guard," added Salgado.
    A commanding voice telling the troops to stand firm had no effect as panic gripped those fleeing.
    Maduro, though, kept his calm, believing the explosions to be from the kind of fireworks often set off at officials events.
    - 'Serenity' -
    Thereafter there was absolute silence from the government for one hour before Communication and Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez appeared in front of state cameras stating that the president had come under "attack."
    "Don't worry, he's completely unhurt," added Rodriguez, speaking of a president against whom thousands regularly take to the streets to protest.
    Three hours after the dramatic episode, Maduro appeared on television to denounce an attempt "to assassinate me," while talking of how he'd reacted with "serenity."
    "This drone was looking at me," he said, before launching into a series of accusations against the opposition, Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos and the United States, those he calls the "ultra-right.
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    Saturday, May 26, 2018

    Venezuela releases American, wife from jail


    by Renee Celeste and Biodun Iginla, France24, CARACAS


      © AFP / by Jim Mannion with Margioni Bermudez in Caracas | Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (L) greets US senator Bob Corker (R) during the latter's visit to the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas on May 25, 2018

      CARACAS - 
      Venezuela released American Joshua Holt and his wife Saturday after nearly two years in jail, in what its leftist government said was a gesture aimed at fostering dialogue with Washington to avert US "aggressions."
      Officials in both countries said the couple were on their way to Washington, where US President Donald Trump said Holt would be received with his family at the White House.
      Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, met in Caracas Friday with President Nicolas Maduro, paving the way for the release.
      Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, who led a two-year effort to win the freedom of Holt and his wife Thamara Caleno, praised Corker's "pivotal efforts."
      "Good news about the release of the American hostage from Venezuela," Trump tweeted. "Should be landing in D.C. this evening and be in the White House, with his family, at about 7:00 P.M. The great people of Utah will be very happy!"
      Maduro ordered the couple's release as a "gesture" aimed at promoting dialogue between Caracas and Washington, Venezuelan Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez told reporters in Caracas.
      He said it was part of "efforts to maintain a respectful dialogue, diplomatic relations of respect, that permit gates to be opened to avoid the aggressions to which (Venezuela) has been subjected."
      He apparently was referring to US sanctions, which Washington has tightened since Maduro was re-elected earlier this month in elections that the US rejected as a "sham."
      - Marriage, then arrest -
      Holt, a 26-year-old Mormon missionary from Utah, had traveled to Venezuela in June 2016 to marry Thamara, whom he had met on the internet.
      Shortly after they married, however, the couple was arrested by the Venezuelan intelligence service Sebin, and accused of possessing weapons and plotting to destabilize the Maduro government.
      Top officials in the Socialist regime labeled Holt a US spy. In December, the Justice Ministry decided to bring the couple to trial, and rejected a petition for his conditional release.
      Holt and his wife were being held at a prison in Caracas known as the Helicoide where the Sebin keeps political prisoners.
      Earlier this month, he surfaced during a protest by opposition activists jailed in the massive hilltop structure, and appealed for US help in a video posted on Twitter.
      "I'm calling on the people of America. I need your help to get me out of this place," Holt said in the video.
      He also appeared in a photo taken of a group of prisoners inside the detention center.
      "As announced by the president, our son and his wife will be released today," read a family statement issued by Holt's lawyer in Venezuela, Carlos Trujillo. "We thank you for your collaboration during this time of anguish we have been through."
      The statement expressed gratitude "to everyone who participated in this miracle."
      - Sanctions bite -
      Holt's release comes as Maduro moves to ease tensions that have spiked since the May 20 elections, which were boycotted by most opposition parties and denounced as illegitimate by the US, EU, Canada and at least a dozen Latin American countries.
      The Trump administration tightened financial sanctions on cash-strapped Venezuela after the vote.
      The Venezuelan president then retaliated by giving the two top US diplomats in the country 48 hours to leave, accusing them of conspiring against his government.
      On Friday, however, human rights monitors reported the release of 20 activists who had been jailed in the western state of Zulia for protesting against the government.
      In taking the oath of office on Thursday, Maduro acknowledged that the sanctions are biting.
      "I can't deceive anybody, they are going to create grave difficulties, painful difficulties," he said.
      "A profound rectification is needed, things have to be done anew and better. We are not doing things well and we have to change this country."
      The Venezuelan economy is in shambles, with hyperinflation expected to hit 13,000 percent this year and dire shortages of food that have driven hundreds of thousands of citizens to pour into neighboring Colombia and Brazil.
      Maduro has blamed the US for his country's woes, but most economists point to years of destructive policies and corruption as well as a period of plunging oil prices.
      Venezuela -- once one of Latin America's most prosperous countries -- has the world's largest oil reserves but oil production has fallen sharply in recent years as corruption, disinvestment and the loss of skilled workers take their toll.

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