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Unknown gunmen killed presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio – running on a strong-on-crime, anti-corruption, anti-China platform – on Wednesday night before a massive crowd outside of a campaign event in Quito, Ecuador. Villavicencio was one of eight candidates vying for the presidency of Ecuador. The election remains scheduled to take place on August 20, the result of current President Guillermo Lasso, a conservative, using a constitutional provision to dissolve the National Assembly (the federal legislature) in May and call for general elections. Lasso claimed the unprecedented measure was necessary because leftist lawmakers’ incessant attempts to impeach him had made the regular...

The experience of Venezuelans under the late President Hugo Chavez offers a cautionary tale to the United States about where packing the Supreme Court can lead. Last fall, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden refused to answer whether he would support adding justices to the Supreme Court and now has established a commission to review the proposal and other issues concerning judicial reform. One need look no further than Venezuela’s recent history for the devastating impact on liberty such a move could have. “In 2004, Chavez’s allies held a majority in Venezuela’s National Assembly (congress), passing a law that increased the number...

French billionaire Olivier Dassault was killed on Sunday in a helicopter crash, a police source said, with President Emmanuel Macron paying tribute to the 69-year old conservative politician. Dassault was the eldest son of late French billionaire industrialist Serge Dassault, whose namesake Dassault Aviation, builds the Rafale war planes and owns Le Figaro newspaper. “Olivier Dassault loved France. Captain of industry, lawmaker, local elected official, reserve commander in the air force: during his life, he never ceased to serve our country, to value its assets. His sudden death is a great loss. Thoughts on his family and loved ones,” Macron...

CARACAS, Venezuela — (AP) — Venezuela's Supreme Court, loyal to President Nicolás Maduro, on Tuesday ordered the takeover of two influential political parties opposed to the socialist government ahead of parliamentary elections expected this year. The court suspended and replaced the board of directors for the Justice First party a day after the same move against the Democratic Action, one of the nation's oldest and largest parties. It was part of a “necessary restructuring process,” the court said in rulings posted on Facebook. No legal action was taken, however, against Popular Will, the party of opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who...

Merida, April 3, 2019 – Venezuela’s National Constituent Assembly (ANC) has lifted the parliamentary immunity of the self-declared “Interim President” Juan Guaido, opening the door for criminal charges to be brought against him. Tuesday’s unanimous decision came following a request from the Supreme Court, and included the “authorisation” of the continuation of investigations into the also deputy and president of the National Assembly. “The investigation [against Guaido] is formally authorised to continue in accordance with our Constitution and laws” said ANC President Diosdado Cabello during the session. Cabello added that justice was “necessary” and what would safeguard peace in Venezuela....

Many of us have praised Pope Francis for his humbleness and for his tolerance toward victims of discrimination who had long been neglected by the Vatican, but it’s time to tell him loud and clear: Get out of Venezuela.The Vatican’s mediation effort in Venezuela has been — to use a word much in vogue in Washington these days — a disaster. It has legitimized that country’s authoritarian ruler Nicolás Maduro, throwing him a lifeline when millions of protesters were demanding his resignation on the streets in October 2016. And it has helped him get back on his feet by further...

The centrist party of French President Emmanuel Macron looks on course to win a landslide victory following the first round of parliamentary elections. As polls closed, projections showed La Republique en Marche (Republic on the Move) set to win more than 400 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly.

Nicholas Maduro, the Venezuelan president declared a 60-day state of emergency on Friday due to what he called plots from within the OPEC country and the United States to topple his leftist government. Mr. Maduro did not provide details of the measure. A previous state of emergency, implemented in states near the Colombian border last year, suspended constitutional rights guarantees in those areas....... Earlier on Friday, U.S. intelligence officials told reporters they were increasingly worried about the potential for an economic and political meltdown in Venezuela and predicted Mr. Maduro was not likely to complete his term.....

The opposition in Venezuela has won a majority of seats in the National Assembly, overturning nearly two decades of dominance by the Socialists of President Nicolas Maduro. Five hours after polling ended, the National Electoral Council announced the opposition had won 99 seats. The Socialists have gained 46 seats, with another 22 yet to be declared. President Maduro has admitted defeat, saying his party recognized 'these adverse results'. The opposition alliance, made up of centre and conservative parties, is confident of ultimately taking 112 seats after 17 years of socialist rule. According to senior figures in the movement, that would...

Leaders of Venezuela's opposition are claiming victory ahead of official results in Sunday's crucial legislative elections that could alter the country's balance of power after 17 years of socialist rule. Hours after polls closed, several opposition leaders took to the Internet to announce that they had won a majority of seats in the National Assembly for the first time since 1998. But with no official results released and the ruling socialist party not commenting, their claims could not be confirmed. "The results are as we expected. Venezuela won," former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles said on Twitter. "With great humility, serenity...

N.Koreans Gloat Over Scuffles in National Assembly Senior North Korean officials last month enjoyed an hour of edited footage from clashes in South Korea's National Assembly. Some 300 top officials gathered at the People's Palace of Culture in Pyongyang in early October to watch the show. A senior source in North Korea said the video showed scenes familiar to audiences around the world of South Korean lawmakers destroying National Assembly facilities with a hammer and an electric chain saw or kicking each other. A voiceover provided pithy commentary. "Former President Roh Moo-hyun committed suicide because the traitor Lee Myung-bak harassed...

Siege Warfare at National Assembly The members of the ruling party and the opposition party in S. Korea go at each other at the hall of National Assembly. The ruling party intends to pass a legislation which will set up special prosecutor to investigate the stock fraud allegation of Lee Myung-bak, the front-runner for Presidential Election on Dec. 19. The opposition party, having not enough votes to kill it, occupied the podium where the Chairman of National Assembly presides. Nobody to preside over the debate and vote, no passing of legislation. The ruling party member broke through the door locked...

First meeting of the Afghan Parliament since thirty years KABUL - the Afghan Parliament held Monday its first session since nearly thirty years at the time of one ceremony to which the American vice-president Dick Cheney assisted. The meeting inuagurale of the Parliament begin with a reading from Coran, while a strong safety device had assembled to Kabul to prevent any operation of the militants of Ancien Régime of the talibans, reversed four years ago.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19, 2005 – With Vice President Richard B. Cheney and his wife, Lynne, in front-row seats, Afghan President Hamid Karzai opened the first session of his country's new parliament today in Kabul, Afghanistan. "This gathering represents the assumption of full sovereignty by the great people of Afghanistan," said Karzai during his address before the assembly. "Establishment of the parliament completed the main pillar of the government of Afghanistan in light of the constitution." During his hour-long speech to the first elected legislature since 1969, Karzai said "Afghanistan and the United States share common views on combating terrorism." "Terrorism...

KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 18, 2005 (AP Online delivered by Newstex) -- Sayyad Mohammad Muhsin, a former militia fighter, came ready for his new role in parliament with his goals handwritten on both sides of a small sheet of paper. "The people in my province are very poor; they have no roads, they have no good schools," Muhsin read, speaking at an orientation for new parliamentarians earlier this month. "We must put the ethnic arguments and other differences behind us ... Now is the time to sit together and solve the problems of our people." After its inauguration Monday, Afghanistan's first...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 16, 2005 – Just as election activities wrap up in Iraq, the people of Afghanistan are looking toward a historic event in their own country, as its National Assembly convenes Dec. 19 for the first time in more than three decades. http://fifthvirginia.blogspot.com/

WASHINGTON, Dec. 16, 2005 – Just as election activities wrap up in Iraq, the people of Afghanistan are looking toward a historic event in their own country, as its National Assembly convenes Dec. 19 for the first time in more than three decades. Formation of the parliament marks the latest step in Afghanistan' path to democracy and follows the country's Sept. 18 parliamentary elections, a State Department official told the American Forces Press Service on the condition that he not be identified or quoted. Afghan National Army, Afghan National Police and international military forces ensured a relatively safe and secure...

...Since the election, coverage of the violence, as valid as it is, has once again obscured major developments. In political terms, Iraq followed the timeline we envisioned, achieving a string of concrete and unprecedented political successes: the drafting of an interim constitution in February 2004; the formation of a multi-ethnic interim government in June that year; followed by the early hand over of sovereignty the same month; culminating in the dramatic election in January this year. But we also expected the insurgency to progressively dry up as Iraqis became politically empowered and democratic institutions took shape. This hasn't happened, at...

WASHINGTON, May 14 - The Bush administration, struggling to cope with a recent intensification of insurgent violence in Iraq, has received signals from some radical Sunni Arab leaders that they would abandon fighting if the new Shiite majority government gave Sunnis a significant voice in the country's political evolution, administration officials said this week. The officials said American contacts with what they called "rejectionist" elements among Sunni Arabs - the governing minority under Saddam Hussein, which has generated much of the insurgency, and largely boycotted January's elections - showed that many wanted to join in the political system, including the...

Iraq formed its first democratically elected government in more than 50 years on Thursday, ending three months of political stalemate that has crippled efforts to tackle violence. But Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari failed to name permanent ministers to five key portfolios, including oil and defense, and a top Sunni Muslim official criticized the new government as sectarian. The 275-seat parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of the cabinet proposed by Jaafari, ending a power vacuum that had dissipated the optimism created by the Jan. 30 elections. The government's formation coincided with the 68th birthday of former dictator Saddam Hussein, who is...