Colombians Vote for a President

Voters in Colombia are going to the polls Sunday to elect a new president.

It is the first presidential election since the South American nation signed a peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the former rebel group that has become a political party.

The top candidates are conservative former Senator Ivan Duque and Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla and ex-Bogota mayor.

Duque, a protege of former President Alvaro Uribe, is a leading critic of the FARC peace deal and has promised to alter it.

Petro has promised to overhaul Colombia’s economy. He is the country’s first leftist candidate with a chance of going to the second round of a presidential poll.

Colombia’s political polls can be notoriously off, however, opening up the possibility of an upset from former Medellin mayor Sergio Fajardo or former Vice President German Vargas.

Political analysts agree that none of the candidates will likely have enough votes in the first round to avoid a run-off in June.

The winner of the presidential election will succeed Juan Manuel Santos, the president who signed the 2016 deal with the FARC and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for ending the five-decades-long conflict. Santos leaves office in August.

Runoff Likely in Colombia Presidential Poll

Colombia’s contentious but peaceful presidential election appears headed for a runoff between a leftist former rebel and a conservative who wants to rewrite the peace deal with the rebels.

With nearly all the votes counted, conservative former Senator Ivan Duque is expected to finish far out in front with 39 percent, followed by left-wing Gustavo Petro with 25 percent.

But no candidate will finish with the 50 percent needed to avoid a June 17 runoff.

Election officials say the voting was “normal” with a high turnout in some of the larger cities.

Sunday’s election was the first since Colombia signed a peace deal with Marxist FARC rebels in 2016. The agreement put an official end to more than 50 years of a guerilla uprising that killed more than 220,000 people.

The former rebels have given up their weapons and FARC has transformed itself into a political party, looking for seats in congress.

The right-leaning Duque campaigned on promises to rewrite the peace agreement with FARC, calling it too lenient. He says former guerilla commanders belong in jail, not congress.

Duque is also pro-business, promising to cut corporate taxes as one way to stimulate the economy.

Petro is a former member of the defunct M19 rebel group and a supporter of the peace deal with FARC.

His promises to overhaul the economy, redistribute wealth and steer Colombia away from fossil fuels to renewable energy have endeared himself to the working class but shaken up the elite.

Petro will be the first genuine leftist candidate to make it to the second round of a Colombian presidential election.

The new president will succeed Juan Manuel Santos, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for the deal with FARC.  

 

American, Wife Freed From Venezuelan Prison

Twenty-six-year-old Joshua Holt had been a prisoner in Venezuela since the summer of 2016, but on Saturday he told U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House that he was “overwhelmed with gratitude” for those who had worked for his release. 

Trump said Holt had been “incredibly brave.”

Holt and his Venezuelan wife, Thamara Candelo, arrived in the U.S. Saturday accompanied by Senator Bob Corker, who helped negotiate their release.

Holt, a former Mormon missionary, had traveled to Venezuela in June 2016 to marry Candelo. Police arrested the couple after finding an assault rifle and grenades during a raid on a housing complex where the couple lived. The couple has denied the charge of concealing weapons. 

Senator Orrin Hatch, who represents Holt’s home state of Utah posted on Twitter:

 

Hatch also thanked Corker, the U.S. Senate foreign relations committee chairman, who met with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro Friday in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, to secure the couple’s release.

The White House press secretary’s office released a statement late Saturday, saying Holt’s release “does not change United States policy.” It said, “The Maduro regime must call free, fair, and transparent elections, consistent with its constitution. The election process that occurred on May 20 was illegitimate.” The statement called for “new elections and the democratic process,” the release of all political prisoners and the acceptance of “desperately needed international humanitarian aid for Venezuela’s dying citizens.”

“Very glad that Josh Holt is now back home with his family — where he has always belonged,” U.S. Vice President Mike Pence wrote in a tweet. “Sanctions continue until democracy returns to Venezuela.”

Maduro won a second six-year term in office May 20 in an election that the U.S. and other countries have described as a “sham” after several rivals were prohibited from running. 

 

After his victory, Maduro expelled the two most senior U.S. diplomats for allegedly conspiring to sabotage the election by pushing opposition parties to boycott the election.

Despite the expulsion of the American diplomats, the Venezuelan government has been seeking ways to avoid the threat of harsh U.S. oil sanctions that could further cripple the country’s ailing economy. 

A spokesman for Maduro described the release of the couple as a “gesture” aimed at improving diplomatic relations with the United States.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement Saturday, “U.S. policy toward Venezuela remains unchanged. The United States stands steadfast in support of the Venezuelan people and their efforts to return to democracy.”

Head of Chilean Church’s Anti-Abuse Panel Resigns

The president of the Chilean Catholic Church’s Commission for the Prevention of Abuses has resigned after acknowledging he was slow to investigate allegations of misconduct in his diocese.

The church’s Episcopal Conference announced Saturday it had accepted the resignation by Rancagua Bishop Alejandro Goic. He remains bishop of the diocese.

Its statement says “difficulties that have occurred in the diocese he leads have made this determination necessary.”

Fourteen priests in Goic’s diocense have been temporarily suspended over the past week.

A week ago, Goic apologized for failing to promptly investigate a reported case of sexual abuse in his diocese. Every bishop in the South American country has offered to resign over what Pope Francis said was their negligence in protecting children.

OPEC, Russia Could Raise Oil Output After US Prodding

Saudi Arabia and Russia are discussing raising OPEC and non-OPEC oil production by about 1 million barrels a day, sources said, weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump complained about artificially high prices.

Riyadh and Moscow are prepared to ease output cuts to calm consumer worries about supply adequacy, their energy ministers said Friday, with Saudi Arabia’s Khalid al-Falih adding that any such move would be gradual so as not to shock the market.

Raising production would ease 17 months of strict supply curbs amid concerns that a price rally has gone too far, with oil hitting its highest since late 2014 at $80.50 a barrel this month.

Trump tweeted last month that OPEC had “artificially” boosted oil prices.

A need to respond

“We were in the meeting in Jeddah, when we read the tweet,” OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo said, referring to a meeting in Saudi Arabia April 20.

“I think I was prodded by his excellency Khalid Al-Falih that probably there was a need for us to respond. We in OPEC always pride ourselves as friends of the United States,” Barkindo told a panel with the Saudi and Russian energy ministers in St. Petersburg at Russia’s main economic forum.

OPEC officials said by “the need to respond” Barkindo was referring to a tweet he sent the same day, rather than the need to act.

Hitting agreed level

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies led by Russia have agreed to curb output by about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) through 2018 to reduce global stocks, but the inventory overhang is now near OPEC’s target.

In April, pact participants cut production by 52 percent more than required, with falling output from crisis-hit Venezuela helping OPEC deliver a bigger reduction than intended.

Sources familiar with the matter said an increase of about 1 million bpd would lower compliance to 100 percent of the agreed level.

Barkindo also said it was not unusual for the United States to put pressure on OPEC as some U.S. energy secretaries had asked the producer group to help lower prices in the past.

Oil prices fell more than 2 percent toward $77 a barrel Friday as Saudi Arabia and Russia said they were ready to ease supply curbs.

​Near target

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said current cuts were in reality 2.7 million bpd because of a drop in Venezuelan production, somewhere around 1 million bpd higher than the initially agreed reductions.

Novak declined to say, however, whether OPEC and Russia would decide to boost output by 1 million bpd at their next meeting in June.

“The moment is coming when we should consider assessing ways to exit the deal very seriously and gradually ease quotas on output cuts,” Novak said in televised comments.

Initial talks are being led by the energy ministers of OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia and Russia at St. Petersburg this week, along with their counterpart from the United Arab Emirates, which holds the OPEC presidency this year, the sources said. OPEC and non-OPEC ministers meet in Vienna on June 22-23, and the final decision will be taken there.

Compliance at record high

Current discussions are aimed at relaxing record-high compliance with the production cuts, the sources said, in an effort to cool the market after oil hit $80 a barrel.

China has also raised concerns about whether enough oil is being pumped, according to a Saudi statement issued after Energy Minister Falih called China’s energy chief on Friday to discuss cooperation between their countries and to review the oil market.

Nur Bekri, administrator of China’s National Energy Administration, told Falih he hopes Saudi Arabia “can take further substantial actions to guarantee adequate supply” in the crude oil market, the Saudi Energy Ministry statement said.

While Russia and OPEC benefit from higher oil prices, up almost 20 percent since the end of last year, their voluntary output cuts have opened the door to other producers, such as the U.S. shale sector, to ramp up production and gain market share.

The final production number is not set yet as dividing up the extra barrels among deal participants could be tricky, the sources said.

“The talks now are to bring compliance down to the 100 percent level, more for OPEC rather than for non-OPEC,” one source said.

Rally concerns

OPEC may decide to raise oil output as soon as June because of worries over Iranian and Venezuelan supply and after Washington raised concerns the oil rally was going too far, OPEC and oil industry sources told Reuters on Tuesday.

However, it is unclear which countries have the capacity to raise output and fill any supply gap other than Gulf oil producers, led by Saudi Arabia, and Russia, the sources said.

“Only a few members have the capability to increase production, so implementation will be complicated,” one OPEC source said.

So far, OPEC had said it saw no need to ease output restrictions despite concerns among consuming nations that the price rally could undermine demand.

The rapid decline in oil inventories and worries about supplies after the U.S. decision to withdraw from the international nuclear deal with Iran, as well as Venezuela’s collapsing output, were behind the change in OPEC’s thinking.

Russia, Turkey OK Pipeline Deal, End Gas Dispute

Russian state gas giant Gazprom said Saturday it had signed a protocol with the Turkish government on a planned gas pipeline and agreed with Turkish firm Botas to end an arbitration dispute over the terms of gas supplies. 

The protocol concerned the land-based part of the transit leg of the TurkStream gas pipeline, which Gazprom said meant that work to implement it could now begin.

Turkey had delayed issuing a permit for the Russian company to start building the land-based parts of the pipeline, which, if completed, would allow Moscow to reduce its reliance on Ukraine as a transit route for its gas supplies to Europe.

A source said in February the permit problem might be related to talks between Gazprom and Botas about a possible discount for Russian gas.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said earlier Saturday that Turkey and Russia had reached a retroactive agreement for a 10.25 percent discount on the natural gas Ankara buys from Moscow.

Gazprom said in the Saturday statement, without elaborating, that the dispute with Botas would be settled out of court.

 

Troops Dispatched, but Brazil Truckers Protest Persists

A truckers protest over diesel prices in Brazil that is hurting supplies of fuel, food and medicines continued for the sixth day Saturday despite President Michel Temer’s order for the military to clear blocked roads the day before.

Major cities declared a state of emergency as gas stations and airports ran out of fuel, supermarket shelves went bare and hospitals said they were running out of supplies.

Public transport and trash collection were reduced or halted across the country, and prices for some food items jumped.

The government said there were fewer blockades on major highways across the country on Saturday compared with Friday.

However, the main entity representing truckers, ABCAM, said it had not changed its position that the protests would be called off only after federal taxes on diesel had been scrapped.

Later Saturday, federal forces and police appeared to be gaining an edge on clearing some roads. They were escorting convoys with fuel and other products in some areas in the country, including the airport in the capital, Brasilia.

Negotiators for several trucker groups initially agreed Thursday to suspend the protests as the government promised to subsidize and stabilize diesel prices, which may cost 5 billion reais ($1.4 billion) this year.

But truckers say they want a definitive solution, and that they will end the protest only when a decision to eliminate federal diesel taxes is published in the official gazette.

Some business sectors that depend on daily supplies were suffering.

Lack of animal feed may cause the deaths of 1 billion birds and 20 million hogs, Brazilian meat group ABPA said, adding that more than 150 poultry and pork processing plants had indefinitely suspended production.

Brazil’s sugar industry, the world’s largest, is slowly halting cane harvest operations as machines ran out of fuel.

Blockades continue to prevent trucks from entering the port of Santos, Latin America’s largest, and oilseeds crushing group Abiove said soy exports would halt Saturday if truckers did not allow access to major ports.

Auto production, which contributes about a quarter of Brazil’s industrial output, ground to a halt Friday.

Authorities said even after roads were completely cleared, it would still take several days to normalize supplies.

Italy’s President Pressured to Accept Euroskeptic Minister

Italy’s would-be coalition parties turned up the pressure on President Sergio Mattarella on Saturday to endorse their euroskeptic pick as economy minister, saying the only other option might be a new election.

Mattarella has held up formation of a government, which would end more than 80 days of political deadlock, over concern about the desire of the far-right League and anti-establishment 5-Star Movement to make economist Paolo Savona, 81, economy minister.

Savona has been a vocal critic of the euro and the European Union, but he has distinguished credentials, including in a former role as an industry minister.

Formally, Prime Minister-designate Giuseppe Conte presents his cabinet to the president, who must endorse it. Conte, a little-known law professor with no political experience, met the president on Friday without resolving the

deadlock.

“I hope no one has already decided ‘no,’ ” League leader Matteo Salvini shouted to supporters in northern Italy. “Either the government gets off the ground and starts working in the coming hours, or we might as well go back to elections.”

Later, 5-Star leader Luigi Di Maio said he expected there to be a decision on whether the president would back the government within 24 hours.

5-Star also defended Savona’s nomination. “It is a political choice. … Blocking a ministerial choice is beyond [the president’s] role,” Alessandro Di Battista, a top 5-Star politician, said.

Mattarella has not spoken publicly about Savona, but through his aides he has made it clear he does not want an anti-euro economy minister and that he would not accept the “diktat” of the parties.

Jittery markets

Savona’s criticism of the euro and German economic policy has further spooked markets already concerned about the future government’s willingness to rein in the massive debt, worth 1.3 times the country’s annual output.

The League and 5-Star have said Savona should not be judged on his opinions, but on his credentials. Savona has had high-level experience at the Bank of Italy, in government as industry minister in 1993-94, and with employers lobby Confindustria.

On his new Facebook page, Conte said he had received best wishes for his government in a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron.

European Commissioner for Economic Affairs Pierre Moscovici was not hostile when asked about Savona in an interview with France’s Europe1 radio, saying he would work with whomever Italy named.

“Italians decide their own government,” Moscovici said. “Italy is and should remain a country at the heart of the eurozone. … What worries me is the debt, which must be contained.”

The prospect of Italy’s government going on a spending spree on promised tax cuts and welfare benefits roiled markets last week.

On Friday, the closely watched gap between the Italian and German 10-year bond yields, seen as a measure of political risk for the eurozone, was at its widest in four years at 215 basis points.

The chance that the new government will weaken public finances and roll back a 2011 pension reform prompted Moody’s to say — after markets had closed Friday — that it might downgrade the country’s sovereign debt rating.

Moody’s has a Baa2 long-term rating with a negative outlook on Italy. A downgrade to Baa3 would take the country’s debt to just one notch above junk.

Despite the recent surge, Italian yields are well below the peaks they reached during the eurozone crisis of 2011-12, thanks mainly to the shield provided by the European Central Bank’s bond-buying program.

Putin, Abe Discuss Kuril Islands, WWII Treaty

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met in Moscow on Saturday for talks on such matters as resolving a dispute over four Pacific islands and eventually signing a peace treaty.

Abe has been pushing for a way forward in the dispute that centers on the four most southern of the Kuril Islands, which Japan calls the Northern Territories.

The Soviet Union took the islands in the closing days of World War II. The dispute has kept the two countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending World War II hostilities.

Japan is seeking to implement joint business projects on the Kuril Islands as a way to gain momentum to resolve the dispute.

“The Japanese and the Russians will be able to reap the fruits of the joint work on the islands,” Abe said. “If we cooperate, we can achieve great results that bring mutual benefit.” 

Putin said after the meeting that a Japanese business delegation would visit the islands this year.

Thousands Across France Protest Macron’s ‘Brutal’ Policies

Thousands of protesters marched under tight security in eastern Paris on Saturday after French labor unions, left-wing political parties and civil rights groups called for “floods of people” to oppose the economic policies of President Emmanuel Macron.

Marches and rallies also were held in dozens of other French cities as part of the joint action against Macron’s economic policies that organizers consider “brutal” and unbalanced

At the Paris event, Philippe Martinez, head of leading French union CGT, advised the president to “look out the window of his palace to see real life.”

Police estimated that 21,000 people took part in the Paris protest, while CGT put the number at 80,000.

More than 1,500 police officers were mobilized in the French capital to prevent activists not associated with the official protest from disrupting the march and causing damage, which has happened during previous recent demonstrations.

Police said they detained 39 people in Paris before and after the march started, including 26 who were taken into custody. Most of them were preemptively taken in for questioning after officers searched their bags and found “equipment” that could be used to cause damage or to hide their faces.

A few others, mainly youths dressed in black with their faces covered, were detained on the sidelines of the main protest for breaking a window at a business or damaging bus shelters. Police used tear gas canisters to push them back. Seven officers were slightly injured mainly by thrown debris.

Legal overhaul

Unions, opposition parties and other groups are particularly denouncing a Macron-led legal overhaul aimed at cutting worker protections and increasing police powers.

They allege that Macron supports tax reform that favors France’s wealthiest and is working to tear down public services. They also oppose a government plan making it harder for students to attend the public universities of their choice, more restrictive immigration laws, and police methods in underprivileged neighborhoods that protesters consider “repressive.”

In the southern port city of Marseille, Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the far-left Defiant France party, also addressed Macron while speaking to demonstrators.

“In the name of the poor, the humiliated, the homeless and the jobless, we are telling you, ‘Enough, enough of this world,’ ” Melenchon said.

Macron, a centrist former investment banker, says his economic changes are meant to increase France’s global competitiveness. In an interview with BFM TV on Friday, the French leader said that those who protested would not manage to “block the country.”

“No disorder will stop me, and calm will return,” Macron said.

Senator, Trump Say Utah Man Released From Venezuela Jail

President Donald Trump said U.S. citizen Josh Holt was released from a Venezuelan jail Saturday after being detained for two years without a trial. 

“Should be landing in D.C. this evening and be in the White House, with his family, at about 7:00 P.M.,” the president wrote on Twitter. “The great people of Utah will be very happy!”

Senator Orrin Hatch, who represents Holt’s home state of Utah, posted on Twitter he helped secure the release of Holt and his wife, Thamy.

“Over the last two years I’ve worked with two Presidential administrations, countless diplomatic contacts, ambassadors from all over the world, a network of contacts in Venezuela, and President Maduro himself, and I could not be more honored to be able to reunite Josh with his sweet, long-suffering family …”

Hatch also thanked U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, who met in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas Friday with President Nicolas Maduro in an attempt to secure the release of Holt. Holt has been in a Caracas jail without a trial for two years on what he has said are false weapons charges.

The 26-year-old Holt traveled to Venezuela in June 2016 to marry a woman he met online. Police arrested Holt after finding an assault rifle and grenades during a raid on a housing complex where the couple lived. Holt has denied the charges.

After Corker’s meeting with Maduro, there was speculation on social media platforms in Venezuela that the couple would be released as a goodwill gesture to improve U.S.-Venezuelan relations. 

Maduro won a second six-year term in office Sunday in an election that the U.S. and other countries have described as a “sham” after several rivals were prohibited from running. 

After his victory, Maduro expelled the two most senior U.S. diplomats for allegedly conspiring to sabotage the election by pushing opposition parties to boycott the election.

Despite the expulsion of the American diplomats, the Venezuelan government has been seeking ways to avoid the threat of harsh U.S. oil sanctions that could further cripple the country’s ailing economy. 

 

Colombia Becomes NATO’s First Latin American Global Partner

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announced Friday that his country will formally become NATO’s first Latin American “global partner,” beginning next week.

In a televised address from the presidential Narino Palace and on Twitter, Santos said: “We will formalize in Brussels next week — and this is very important — the entry of Colombia into NATO in the category of global partner. We will be the only country in Latin America with this privilege.”

Santos, the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who made peace with FARC rebels, said the move would improve Colombia’s image on the world stage.

Colombia and NATO reached a partnership deal in May 2017 following the conclusion of the peace accord with FARC, now a political party.

Areas of cooperation include cybersecurity, maritime security, terrorism and its links to organized crime, and building the capacities and capabilities of the Colombian armed forces, according to a statement posted on NATO’s website.

In addition to Colombia, NATO lists Afghanistan, Australia, Iraq, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand and Pakistan as “partners across the globe” or simply “global partners.”

Each country “has developed an Individual Partnership Cooperation Program” with the 29-country U.S.-led alliance. Many of them are actively contributing to NATO missions.

Barbados Elects First Female PM in Opposition Landslide

Barbados elected its first female prime minister as the opposition inflicted a crushing defeat on the ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP), winning all the seats in the Caribbean island’s parliament, election results showed Friday.

Mia Mottley’s victory in Thursday’s elections returns the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) to power on the island of some 285,000 people for the first time in a decade.

Parliament sweep

The Electoral and Boundaries Commission said the BLP had elected all 30 members of the parliament, delivering the first clean sweep in the history of the legislature. The DLP had previously held a slim majority with 16 seats.

“This victory is the people of Barbados’ victory,” Mottley, 52, told supporters outside the BLP’s Bridgetown headquarters early Friday, calling the result a vote for a more inclusive and transparent kind of leadership for Barbados.

“This must be our legacy to the people of Barbados: to give you back your government and your governance,” said Mottley, a former minister and attorney general who was sworn in later Friday.

The result means the Barbadian House of Assembly is without an official opposition, despite the fact that an unprecedented 135 candidates ran for office across nine parties.

Stuart concedes

Outgoing Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, who had served since 2010, congratulated Mottley, conceding that the DLP had suffered an “overwhelming defeat.”

“In campaigning, whenever there is success, success is shared by all those who succeed and by those with whom they are associated, but when there is failure, failure points to one man,” he told reporters at his party headquarters. “I think that there was some hurt in the society in respect of some of the decisions that had to be made.”

The U.S. State Department issued a statement commending Mottley’s “stated intent to address fiscal transparency” and saying the United States looked forward to working with Barbados to enhance economic partnerships and private sector investment.

The Barbadian economy has struggled since a sharp contraction in 2009 after the global financial crisis.

Weak growth has put strains on Barbados’ public debt, pressuring foreign exchange reserves and helping to spark repeated downgrades of the island’s credit rating.

The DLP’s economic record dogged Stuart in the campaign.

Many voters expressed frustration at the party’s failure to reduce debt and the cost of living even as their taxes rose.

US Sen. Corker Meets with Venezuela’s President Maduro

The chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee met with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Friday, less than a week after the embattled socialist leader was re-elected in a vote the U.S. condemned and he kicked out the top American diplomat in the country.

The visit appeared to be an attempt by Sen. Bob Corker to push for the release of Joshua Holt, a U.S. citizen who has been held for two years in a Caracas jail without a trial on what he has called trumped-up weapons charges.

Corker, a Republican from Tennessee, was seen live on state TV shaking hands with Maduro and being greeted by first lady Cilia Flores as he entered the presidential palace. He left an hour later, and neither the senator nor the president made any statements.

Maduro easily won a second, six-year term in Sunday’s election, which was criticized by the U.S. and other nations as a “sham” after several of his key rivals were barred from running. After his victory, Maduro expelled U.S. charge d’affaires Todd Robinson and his deputy for allegedly conspiring to sabotage the vote by pressuring opposition parties to boycott the election, which had the lowest voter turnout in decades.

Corker was accompanied by an aide, Caleb McCarry, who led backchannel talks earlier this year with a close associate of Maduro aimed at securing the release of Holt.

Speculation on social media

Holt, a 26-year-old from Utah, traveled to Venezuela in June 2016 to marry a woman he had met online while looking for Spanish-speaking Mormons to help him improve his Spanish. He was arrested after police said they found an assault rifle and grenades during a raid on the public housing complex where the couple lived. He has denied the charge.

Shortly after Corker’s meeting with Maduro, social media in Venezuela lit up with speculation that Holt and his wife, Thamara Caleno, would be released as a good will gesture to improve relations, much as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did by freeing three American detainees.

In a previous visit to Caracas in 2015, Corker was shunned by Maduro after having been promised a meeting with the president. Upon his return to Washington, Corker blasted Maduro’s government, saying its “flawed economic policies and political system” had put Venezuela on a “destructive path.”

There was no immediate comment from Corker’s office about the nature of his latest visit.

​Other senators 

Last month, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, also met with Maduro to press for Holt’s release.

The Maduro government has been seeking contacts in the U.S. to stave off the threat of crippling oil sanctions that could further damage an economy already staggering from hyperinflation and widespread shortages.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, an outspoken critic of Maduro who has President Donald Trump’s ear on Venezuela, played down Corker’s visit.

“Any U.S. Senator can meet with whoever they want,” Rubio tweeted. “But no matter how many senators dictator (at)NicolasMaduro gets to meet with him, U.S. sanctions will go away when Maduro leaves & democracy returns.”

Venezuelan Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez described Maduro’s conversation with Corker as “very good meeting, good news for the Venezuelan people” but gave no details of what the two discussed.

A close Maduro ally, socialist party boss Diosdado Cabello, accused Holt of being the CIA’s spy chief in Latin America after the prisoner appeared in a video last week pleading for help, saying his life had been threatened during a riot by inmates in the Caracas jail where he and dozens of Maduro’s opponents are being held.

Before he left Venezuela on Thursday on Maduro’s orders, Robinson had been pushing unsuccessfully to see Holt.

However, on Friday, U.S. officials were allowed entry to the prison, according to a message posted by Holt’s mother, Laurie Holt, on her Facebook page. She said her son “was in good spirits,” except for discomfort from dozens of mosquito bites. She said his visitors gave him bug repellant.

Brazil Truckers Maintain Blockades, Cripple Key Economic Sectors

A truckers protest over diesel prices that has crippled key sectors of Latin America’s biggest economy dragged into Friday night, putting drivers in a standoff with Brazilian President Michel Temer who authorized military force to clear highways.

The protest will stretch into its sixth day on Saturday.

South America’s largest city and economic hub Sao Paulo decreed a state of emergency, as did Rio de Janeiro.

Gas stations and airports across the nation ran out of fuel, supermarket shelves went bare and hospitals said they were running out of supplies. Public transport and trash collection was reduced or halted across the country, and many schools canceled classes as teachers could not get to work.

Lack of feed supplies may cause one billion birds and 20 million hogs to die, Brazilian meat group ABPA said.

“Those blocking the highways and acting in a radical manner are hurting the population,” Temer said in a televised address. “We will not allow hospitals to run out of supplies to save lives. We will not allow children to be harmed by the closure of schools.”

Yet Friday night, much of the country remained paralyzed.

In response to the threat of military action, Abcam, a Brazilian truckers association that says it represents 600,000 drivers, called on them to no longer block roads. 

However, it encouraged the drivers to keep protesting and not deliver goods, meaning it was likely the situation would remain critical.

Accord, little action

Negotiators for several trucker groups agreed late on Thursday to suspend their blockages for 15 days after the government vowed to subsidize and stabilize diesel prices, which may cost 5 billion reais ($1.4 billion) this year.

To win over truckers the government promised to extend for 30 days a 10-percent diesel price cut announced by state-led oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA.

Shares of Petrobras, as the company is known, closed down nearly 1.4 percent on Friday after plunging 19 percent in the prior two days, as the blockades continued.

But the Abcam trucking association that ignited the strike was not among the parties that signed the accord and insisted on Friday it would not do so until Congress puts diesel tax cuts into law, which would take several days at the quickest.

No trucks were able to enter the port of Santos, Latin America’s largest, and oilseeds crushing group Abiove told Reuters that soy exports would halt on Saturday if truckers did not allow access to major ports.

Meat group ABPA said 152 poultry and pork processing plants had indefinitely suspended production.

Auto production in Brazil, which contributes about a quarter of industrial output, ground to a halt on Friday in the latest blow to a fragile economic recovery following the worst downturn in decades.

Canada’s Trudeau Raises US Auto Import Probe Concerns with Trump

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday and raised “strong concerns” about a U.S. probe into car and truck imports that was launched this week, the prime minister’s office said.

The two leaders also discussed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations and bringing talks to a timely conclusion, Trudeau’s office said.

The Trump administration earlier this week began a national security investigation into auto imports that could lead to new U.S. tariffs similar to those imposed on imported steel and aluminum in March.

The move was seen as adding pressure to the ongoing NAFTA negotiations, where auto provisions have become a critical part of the talks.

Trudeau “raised strong concerns about the U.S.’s Section 232 investigation on automobile imports, given the mutually beneficial integration of the Canadian and American auto industries,” his office said in a statement.

In an interview with Reuters on Thursday, Trudeau said the investigation was based on flimsy logic and part of pressure from Washington to renegotiate the NAFTA trade pact.

Mexico’s economy minister said on Friday there was about a 40 percent chance of concluding the NAFTA talks before Mexico’s presidential election on July 1.

 

FBI: Foreign Hackers Have Compromised Home Router Devices

The FBI warned on Friday that foreign cybercriminals had compromised “hundreds of thousands” of home and small-office router devices around the world which direct traffic on the internet by forwarding data packets between computer networks.

In a public service announcement, the FBI has discovered that the foreign cybercriminals used a VPNFilter malware that can collect peoples’ information, exploit their devices and block network traffic.

The announcement did not provide any details about where the criminals might be based, or what their motivations could be.

“The size and scope of the infrastructure by VPNFilter malware is significant,” the FBI said, adding that it is capable of rendering people’s routers “inoperable.”

It said the malware is hard to detect, due to encryption and other tactics.

The FBI urged people to reboot their devices to temporarily disrupt the malware and help identify infected devices.

People should also consider disabling remote management settings, changing passwords to replace them with more secure ones, and upgrading to the latest firmware.

Amazon’s Alexa Accidentally Tapes, Shares Family Chat With Contact

A Portland, Oregon, family has learned what happens when Amazon.com Inc’s popular voice assistant Alexa is lost in translation.

Amazon on Thursday described an “unlikely … string of events” that made Alexa send an audio recording of the family to one of their contacts randomly. The episode underscored how Alexa can misinterpret conversation as a wake-up call and command.

A local news outlet, KIRO 7, reported that a woman with Amazon devices across her home received a call two weeks ago from her husband’s employee, who said Alexa had recorded the family’s conversation about hardwood floors and sent it to him.

“I felt invaded,” the woman, only identified as Danielle, said in the report. “A total privacy invasion. Immediately I said, ‘I’m never plugging that device in again, because I can’t trust it.'”

Alexa, which comes with Echo speakers and other gadgets, starts recording after it hears its name or another “wake word” selected by users. This means that an utterance quite like Alexa, even from a TV commercial, can activate a device.

That’s what happened in the incident, Amazon said. “Subsequent conversation was heard as a ‘send message’ request,” the company said in a statement. “At which point,

Alexa said out loud ‘To whom?’ At which point, the background conversation was interpreted as a name in the customer’s contact list.”

Amazon added, “We are evaluating options to make this case even less likely.”

Assuring customers of Alexa’s security is crucial to Amazon, which has ambitions for Alexa to be ubiquitous — whether dimming the lights for customers or placing orders for them with the world’s largest online retailer.

University researchers from Berkeley and Georgetown found in a 2016 paper that sounds unintelligible to humans can set off voice assistants in general, which raised concerns of exploitation by attackers. Amazon did not immediately comment on the matter, but it previously told The New York Times that it has taken steps to keep its devices secure.

Millions of Amazon customers have shopped with Alexa. Customers bought tens of millions of Alexa devices last holiday season alone, the company has said. That makes the incident reported Thursday a rare one. But faulty hearing is not.

“Background noise from our television is making it think we said Alexa,” Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said of his personal experience. “It happens all the time.”

In New York, Living Next Door to MS-13

In a marshy section of Cow Meadow Park in Freeport, Long Island, longtime resident Cory Brewer bikes through the thick air and stops to take in the greenery before continuing on to the waterfront.

Trailing nearby, a flock of baby geese, supervised by a parent, crosses a dirt path and plops into the water. A Latino father and his two kids watch the birds swim.

But somewhere across the vast 171-acre park, a reminder of Freeport’s history of deadly gang violence lingers. There, in October, FBI authorities found the remains of a missing teenager, Javier Castillo, believed to be a victim of the violent street gang known as Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13.

In a span of two years, there have been more than two dozen MS-13-linked deaths across Long Island, New York. But as disturbing and alarming as the gang’s gruesome murder methods are to residents, some feel the focusing of the national spotlight on their community is curious, following President Donald Trump’s visit Wednesday, his second gang-related event in Long Island since taking office.

Cory Brewer, who grew up in Freeport, lost several acquaintances to MS-13 murders dating back to 2000.

“Trump gets into office, and now there’s a big whoop-dee-doo about it, when — what I know about this situation — people have been dying from these situations with the MS-13 gang for quite some time,” Brewer said.

A publicity stunt?

Since taking office, Trump has used the machete-wielding criminal network with Salvadoran roots as part of a larger push to crack down on illegal immigration.

During Wednesday’s roundtable discussion in Bethpage, Nassau County, he used a controversial reference for MS-13 gang members for the third time in a week — “These are not people, they’re animals” — to the cheers of attendees and local supporters.

Long Island resident Patricia Dwyer, who had donned a “Women for Trump” T-shirt for a small rally in Bethpage, said she is concerned about her immigrant neighbors, who are most often the targets.

“They come here. They think they’re safe. They’re gonna work through and try to get citizenship or whatever, and they’re terrorizing their own communities,” Dwyer said, “and they’re like, ‘We came all this way to experience the same thing?’ That’s not what America is.”

“We’re Long Islanders, so we’re in this together,” Dwyer added.

But others wonder why more attention isn’t paid to other community safety issues.

“I don’t understand why people are not as concerned when we talk about shootings and other stuff. Is it about race? That’s what I’m feeling now,” said Gabriela Andrade, an Ecuadorian immigrant and community organizer with Make the Road New York in Brentwood, Long Island, a hamlet with a heavily concentrated Salvadoran community.

“Is it because we’re Latinos and we’re brown?” she asked.

One of 33,000 gangs

With an estimated 10,000 gang members across the country, MS-13 accounts for just a fraction of the 1.4 million members of “criminally active” violent gangs, according to FBI statistics, and is one of 33,000 gangs in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

Migrants fleeing El Salvador’s 12-year civil war in the 1980s, flocked to Long Island, which by 2012 had grown to 100,000, according to U.S. Census data.

During Wednesday’s roundtable, Nassau County Police Department Commissioner Patrick Ryder said there are about 500 MS-13 members in the county, half of them active.

“In 2017 we had six kids that were murdered in Nassau County by MS-13,” Ryder said. “Of those six, one was shot in the face. One was shot in the back of the head. Four of them were violently butchered by machetes and buried in shallow graves throughout our county,” he said.

“If he (Trump) can do something, God bless him. But I don’t see how anybody is going to stop this,” said Dave Pinero, a lifelong resident of the area. “I know a lot of people from El Salvador, but they’re not MS-13, you know? They’re hard-workers, how do you weed ’em out?”

Separating gang members from immigrants

“To me, it’s a war on immigrants,” Cory Brewer said.

“It’s just another way to use an excuse to invade people’s privacy, so that you can look into them and see if you can basically deport them out of the country in some form or matter,” he said.

Yet, immigrants among the town’s residents welcome the idea of eliminating the gang.

“When immigrants do bad things, I think that each country takes care of that and tries to fix the situation,” said Javier Lechuga, a 26-year resident of Freeport. “I don’t think the U.S. is any exception.”

Originally from Barranquilla, Colombia, Lechuga, who has worked as a waterfront restaurant cook and handyman on Woodcleft Avenue since he arrived in the U.S., feels the MS-13 gang has become less menacing in recent years, to his relief as the father of two, including a 17-year-old son.

But across Long Island, he says any solution to eradicate a violent group without placing targets on law-abiding Latinos — like his own family — is complicated. He looks to his son as an example of the success that comes from hard-working immigrant families.

“My son received honors in school, and one of his certificates has the signature of President Trump,” said Lechuga, holding back tears.

“That makes me very proud, because if they’re talking about my community, I believe my son exceeds the bad reputation sometimes attributed to immigrants.”

Spanish Service reporter Celia Mendoza contributed to this report.

Ireland Holds Referendum on Abortion

Voters in Ireland are going to the polls Friday to decide whether to keep or repeal a constitutional amendment banning abortions in most cases.

The existing amendment has been in place since 1983 and originally banned all abortions before a change was made five years ago to allow abortions in cases where the mother’s life is in danger.

If voters decide in Friday’s referendum to further loosen the rules, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar’s government intends to put forth legislation by the end of the year allowing abortions with no restrictions up to 12 weeks into a pregnancy.

Recent opinion polls indicate most people surveyed favor lifting the abortion ban.

Currently thousands of women travel each year from Ireland to Britain in order to have abortions.

The counting of votes gets underway Saturday morning.

15 Hurt, 2 Suspects Sought in Canadian Restaurant Blast

An explosion caused by “improvised explosive device” ripped through an Indian restaurant in a mall in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga, wounding 15 people, Canadian police said. 

 

Peel Region Sergeant Matt Bertram said two suspects with their faces covered to conceal their identity entered the Bombay Bhel restaurant and dropped some sort of IED device and fled. 

 

“We have no indication to call it a hate crime or any kind of terrorism act,” Bertram said. 

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Peel Region paramedic Joe Korstanje said three people suffered critical injuries and were taken to the hospital while the remaining 12 victims suffered what he described as minor and superficial injuries. 

 

The explosion happened just after 10:30 p.m. Thursday, and the plaza where the restaurant is located was still sealed off Friday. 

 

“Nothing was said by these individuals,” Bertram said. “It appears they just went in, dropped off this device, and took off right away.” 

 

Bertram said they couldn’t say what the device was yet. 

 

“Different callers called in and said it was firecrackers or some said gunshot sort of noises. I don’t think it was an explosion that was rocking anything,” he said. “Until we can get in there and analyze the material after the search warrant we won’t be able to say what it was.” 

 

Andre Larrivee, who lives in a nearby condo, said he was watching television and heard a loud explosion

 

“It was really loud,” he said, comparing the noise to an electric generator that had exploded at a nearby construction site recently. 

 

Police asked for the public’s help and released a photo of the suspects, with dark hoodies pulled over their heads and their faces covered. 

 

Peel region police, in a tweet, described the first suspect as in his mid-20s, 5-foot-10 to 6-feet with a stocky build, wearing dark blue jeans, a dark zip-up hoodie and a baseball cap with a light gray peak. 

 

The second suspect is described as a little shorter with a thin build, wearing faded blue jeans, a dark zip-up hoodie pulled over his head, gray T-shirt and dark colored skate shoes.

 

Hours after the incident, the Indian consulate in Toronto tweeted it had opened a helpline for those seeking assistance following the explosion 

 

The restaurant describes itself online as an authentic, yet casual, Indian dining experience.