{"id":55783,"date":"2019-12-21T12:58:29","date_gmt":"2019-12-21T04:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=55783"},"modified":"2019-12-21T12:58:31","modified_gmt":"2019-12-21T04:58:31","slug":"us-accuses-venezuela-of-bribes-to-rig-opposition-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=55783","title":{"rendered":"US accuses Venezuela of bribes to rig opposition vote"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/www.journalducameroun.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/15768608473800-780x440.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"> US Special Representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams (right) and Charge d\u2019Affaires for Venezuela James Story<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>WASHINGTON, Dec 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; The United States on Friday promised further sanctions to pressure Venezuela&#8217;s leader Nicolas Maduro, accusing him of bribing lawmakers to block the re-election of his opponent Juan Guaido.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The National Assembly will vote on Jan 5 on whether to give a new term to Guaido, the 36-year-old engineer considered interim president by most Western and Latin American countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The regime is using a combination of threats, arrests and bribes &#8211; up to US$500,000 per vote, we have been told &#8211; to stop the re-election of Juan Guaido,&#8221; Elliott Abrams, the US envoy leading efforts to oust Maduro, told reporters in Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;That is Step One. Step Two will be to try to grab control of the National Assembly by preventing free elections in 2020,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;That is why we will continue our sanctions and strengthen them,&#8221; Abrams said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He declined to preview the sanctions. The US has already sought to end Venezuela&#8217;s shipments of oil, its vital money-maker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Abrams and the top US diplomat accredited for Venezuela, James Story, declined to say how the US would react if Guaido lost but voiced confidence he would prevail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s clear that the majority of the National Assembly continue to support interim president Juan Guaido, as does the vast majority of the Venezuelan people,&#8221; said Story, who has been stationed in Colombia since Washington suspended embassy operations in Caracas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;He is by far the most popular politician in the country.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More than 50 countries say that Guaido is the legitimate president, citing the credibility of National Assembly elections and wide reports of irregularities in Maduro&#8217;s re-election last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Maduro has defied nearly a year of pressure and enjoys the support of Venezuela&#8217;s military, Russia and China despite a crumbling economy that has sent millions of Venezuelans fleeing. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US Special Representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams (right) and Charge d\u2019Affaires for Venezuela James Story WASHINGTON, Dec 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; The United States on Friday promised further sanctions to pressure Venezuela&#8217;s leader Nicolas Maduro, accusing him of bribing lawmakers to block the re-election of his opponent Juan Guaido. The National Assembly will vote on Jan [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55783"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55783\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}