Venezuela interim president promises elections under renewed electoral authority

Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez promised on Thursday that all the elections established by the constitution will be held, organized by a renewed electoral authority and with the world as witness, but she gave no date, saying the political horizon is a sequence of objectives, among them fair conditions for all political forces, rather than a day on the calendar. She spoke shortly before opposition leader María Corina Machado, who returned to Venezuela days ago after almost a year in exile, was due to hold her first press conference; the opposition is demanding presidential elections in 2027, and Clarín reports that Washington backs a roadmap under which the Supreme Court and the National Electoral Council would be renewed in the coming months, leading Rodríguez to declare the presidency vacant and open a six month period for calling elections. Rodríguez also said she has instructed the security forces that no person be detained without a judicial order except when caught in the act, and recalled an amnesty law she says has benefited almost 9,000 people, with more than 1,000 released.