Peru and its presidential politics provide the primary themes this week on Latin Pulse. The program discusses the upcoming election in Peru that currently has a crowded field of 19 candidates, including two former presidents.
If the absence of protests or conflict on an election day is an indicator of success, then the success of the Union of South American Nations’ (UNASUR’s) election “accompaniment” of Venezuela’s December 6th legislative elections was smashing.
The big news out of Venezuela’s Dec. 6 legislative elections is the victory of the opposition United Democratic Roundtable (MUD) over the incumbent United Socialist Party (PSUV) of President Nicolás Maduro. But how did the MUD achieve this landslide win in an electoral environment widely regarded as stacked in favor of the PSUV? A variety of factors were at play, and the MUD caught some remarkable breaks.
On December 6th, election laws originally designed by the chavista government to favor it in the allocation of congressional seats worked to the opposition’s advantage.
Religion and politics, the so-called taboo subjects provide the central themes for Latin Pulse this week. The program provides a preview of Cuba’s favorite religious celebration, the feast day of San Lazaro. The program also goes in-depth on reaction to the surprising landslide win of opposition groups in Venezuela in that country’s Congressional elections.
On Sunday, Venezuela held elections for all 167 seats in its National Assembly. The opposition coalition, the United Democratic Roundtable (MUD), captured a majority, but as of midday on Monday, we don’t yet know how big that majority will be because some races were initially declared too close to call.
Venezuela’s political opposition rode a wave of economic discontent in Sunday’s elections to win the majority of legislative seats for the first time in 16 years. It’s a historic shift for the oil-rich nation that’s spent the past nearly two decades under a socialist regime that had few checks on its power.
In the past three weeks Latin American leaders have spoken out expressing their concerns over electoral conditions in Venezuela. While welcome, these individual voices don’t equal a larger institutional voice that can threaten sanctions if things should go awry in Venezuela.
In the run-up to the Venezuelan legislative elections on December 6th, 157 legislators from the United States, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru sent a joint letter to President Nicolas Maduro.
On the campaign trail, Jimmy Morales skillfully avoided any details about his platform or policy plans. That vagueness has left a lot of questions about what President Morales will do in office: chief among them is whether he will continue the prosecutions against the military for human rights abuses.
