The Government of Venezuela has taken several actions this Friday to prevent former presidents and foreign parliamentarians from witnessing this Sunday's elections. The authorities of that country have detained and expelled a delegation from the Popular Party (PP) made up of 10 deputies, senators and European parliamentarians at the Caracas airport, as confirmed by the leader of the party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo. “I demand his immediate release and that the Government of Spain provide the necessary means to this end,” he wrote in along with former leaders of Mexico, Costa Rica, Bolivia and Colombia.
To the rhythm of salsa and reggaeton music on one side, cornets, motorcycle horns and flags on the other, on Thursday Caracas was paralyzed from 10 in the morning. The Venezuelan capital had the massive campaign closings of Nicolás Maduro, who is seeking his third consecutive term, and the opposition candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, always flanked by the popular opposition leader María Corina Machado, disqualified by the Electoral Court.
Piled up on a mountain range, among the lush vegetation, the exposed hollow brick completes the green mosaic of Petare, the most popular neighborhood of Caracas, in the east of the Venezuelan capital. Often stigmatized for its violence, today residents highlight that crime has decreased but they hammer home the economy, in one of the neighborhoods that could give a bitter surprise to President Nicolás Maduro's aspirations for a third six-year term.
