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00:00In Honduras, the 2025 general elections are underway amid allegations of sabotage and foreign interference by the United States.
00:20Venezuelan executive vice president JosĂ© RodrĂguez condemns the blockade of the country's airspace by the U.S.
00:25and announces the activation of a repatriation plan for Venezuelan citizens in the United States.
00:30And the Israeli army evaluated the ceasefire in Gaza and escalated its military operations in the West Bank.
00:42Hello, welcome to From the South. I'm Luis Alberto Matos from the Tresu Studios in Havana, Cuba. We begin the news.
01:00This Sunday, the Honduran people go to the polls amid allegations of sabotage and foreign interference by the United States.
01:07More than six million Hondurans are called upon to exercise their right to vote to elect the next president, one of 28 members of the National Congress,
01:1520 representatives to the Central American Parliament and other political authorities.
01:19In the last few hours, the National Electoral Council has warned that there are plans to manipulate the will of the people through the system for transmitting preliminary results.
01:27In this regard, they urge citizens to actively participate in monitoring the vote count and to demand the use of biometric readers as required by the country's law.
01:36For more details on Honduras election day, we are going live with our special envoy, Jorge Gestoso.
01:51Gestoso, welcome to From the South. What can you tell us in these four and a half hours of voting?
01:56Voting is underway here in Honduras since two hours and a half the polls has been open and so far everything is running smooth.
02:20The forecast is that by five p.m. polls are going to close by at the most, at the latest at six, if someone is already on the line, so they're going to have the chance to vote.
02:34Two hours later, the exit polls are allowed to be published, not before. If not, they're going to be sanctioned.
02:42Three hours later, the public is going to receive the preliminary results through a system called TREP that has been very much in discussion about their transparency, their clarity.
02:57And most of the experts are announcing that they believe that more of the three candidates, at least two and eventually three, are going to claim in victory as soon as the first results, preliminary results appear.
03:15So after that preliminary results around eight or nine p.m.
03:20This evening are going to start, if you want, that uncertainty are going to be probably questioning about the clarity of it, especially the transmission of the votes from the electoral council.
03:37And probably, according to experts that we were talking, probably before midnight, they're going to have the total of the votes counted.
03:48Here is direct democracy, so there's no runoff, there's no second round.
03:54And most of the experts are going to announce already that the results are going to be questions, are going to be most definitely impugnations about what are the results.
04:10So far, the importance of this historic day here in Honduras is that two model of countries are in dispute.
04:21Here we're talking about the candidate of the official party.
04:26We're talking about Libre. The candidate is Ritzi Moncada. She is a progressive candidate.
04:34She is promising most definitely much more investment in terms of social quality of the Honduras.
04:42And the rivals are two of right and extreme right.
04:48We're talking about they are proposing the shortening or the limitation of the government of the state.
04:57And they are really pro-capitalism.
05:00And the question mark has been that about two, three days before this election, President Trump in the U.S. has endorsed the candidate more of the right of the two of the right, meaning sort of a far right.
05:18We're talking about Nasri Asfura and President Trump in social media has already said that the Honduras should vote for that candidate.
05:30And on the other hand also announced that a former ex-president of Honduras, we're talking about one Orlando Hernandez, that is behind bars in the U.S., serving a 45-year sentence for narco-trafficking and his brother.
05:49Same thing in the U.S. Conde has been sentenced to life in prison.
05:56Probably President Trump said that he he says that he will indict what they call it here.
06:03Ho that means the initials of Juan Orlando Hernandez.
06:08And this is the same party of the candidate that President Trump is endorsing.
06:13So that has created mixed emotions here.
06:16And there are people say that definitely is harming that endorsement, the candidate of the far right.
06:23Other ones, they believe that eventually could give him a hump, a rise.
06:29So mostly we're going to put attention that the six and a half million Honduras are being convoked to vote throughout this day,
06:39are going to be waiting for the initially 10 partial results.
06:45And therefore, nobody exactly knows what is going to be the reaction of the electoral and the reaction of the international community.
06:54There are thousands of international observers watching this process.
06:59Throughout the day, we're going to be sharing it with you.
07:01Here, we have already displayed a special coverage in Telesur.
07:05So we're going to keep you up to date according to what things are coming.
07:10We get back to you now.
07:13Thank you, Jorge, for all the details as Honduras continue to vote
07:17and as they are going to the polls in Sunday's key general elections,
07:20let's now welcome international analyst Hermelinda Malkot to go deeper in the analysis of this electoral day.
07:26Welcome, Hermelinda, to From the South.
07:29Hello. Thank you very much for inviting me.
07:31As always, it's a pleasure.
07:33Hermelinda, Hondurans are voting in these key general elections.
07:36What are the key factors to take into account for this Sunday's election day?
07:40Well, there are lots of key factors because the Latin American continent is under lots of pressure
07:49from the United States, so there are lots of key factors.
07:52The main one is that the actual government in Honduras is aligned with progressive and leftist policies,
08:02and so it's aligned with Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, and also all the progressive countries of Latin America.
08:10So following that path, it would be extremely important in the face of the crisis that the United States is pushing Latin America towards.
08:20The second incredibly important factor is, of course, the intermission of the United States into Honduras elections.
08:27For example, one representative of the Congress, Maria Elvira Salazar from Florida, she's a Republican,
08:36she said that elections in Honduras was the main topic of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Congress.
08:44So there are lots of risk of intermission of the United States in those elections.
08:48So it's first facing the crisis within a light in Honduras and then secure that the elections are democratic
08:56and express the will of the people of Honduras and not the will of the United States.
09:01We are seeing, as you were saying, the interference of the U.S. in this electoral process,
09:05which, of course, goes entirely against international law.
09:08And we saw the President Donald Trump issue a threat.
09:12We can say that if the candidate that he endorses does not win, he will cut off any kind of international aid
09:19and international cooperation with the Honduran people.
09:22What would be the impact if Donald Trump follows through with that threat of trying to impose his candidate
09:29and his will on Honduras?
09:33Well, there will be lots of effects.
09:37First of all, of course, for Honduras, because United States and their programs of United States,
09:44of course, are flowing a lot of money to foreign countries in order to develop some aspects they want to see developing there.
09:53But it also helps a lot of civil society organization.
09:57It's a very difficult process to evaluate.
10:02So, of course, that will have an impact.
10:04But we also can foresee that he will act on tariffs and so on to pressure Honduras if the result of the election doesn't go the way he wants.
10:15And of course, if he can't transform the election as the way he wants, because information can also be on the result of the election.
10:23So this is one thing that is very, very important.
10:26The second thing is that the Central American region is also fearing a lot of, I mean, they are not close to Venezuela geographically, but still they are not that far.
10:41And they are really fearing that what would happen to Venezuela if the United States decide to go one step further and they say they would go that step further.
10:51They are very, very, very worried about what could happen to them.
10:55It's difficult to foresee what it could be because with Donald Trump you can never understand it.
11:01It's not easy.
11:02But they know that pressure will go on and go on.
11:06And that would happen whatever the result of the election, because the Monroe Doctrine that has been reactivated with Donald Trump would go whatever president is there.
11:16But, of course, a progressive president like Rixi Moncala will align with other country, progressive country.
11:24And that would give some force to that progressive countries in the Latin American continent.
11:33Speaking of Rixi Moncala, before casting her ballot early in the morning, she offered statements.
11:40And she said that Honduras today have two options.
11:43To go back to the drug dictatorship that existed before 2021, from 2009 when the coup d'etat happened against former president Manuel Zelaya until 2021.
11:52Or to vote for the future of the country to vote and put their trust in the Refoundation Project, which is continuing to provide results.
11:59How do you think the vote will favor in this election day and how do you think the turnout will happen in this context?
12:05There have been during the whole presidential campaign, there have been lots of allegations of sabotage attempts, especially with the early transmission system.
12:13Yes, the transmission system has shown some failure in the tests that they have been doing in the past.
12:22And those failures are not technical failures, but they were probably showing some kind of interference from the right wing party and with the help of the United States.
12:32So this is something that is really preoccupying.
12:36On the other hand, there are lots of polls that have been issued on Honduras and they give very different results and are difficult to trust them.
12:46But there is one polling institute that has given very good results on the previous election.
12:53And they are saying now it's tea research poll institute and they say that Moncada has 44 percent of intention of votes.
13:03And it is 14 percent up, upper than the second one, which is Nasrallah.
13:09So if we if that polling institute polling institute is quite trustful and they say that she would win the election.
13:18But we cannot know what would happen because there were some audios that has been the general attorney of Honduras has has said that he has the opportunity to hear some audio with the right wing members of the national electoral council that were speaking about interfering in the electoral process.
13:45So there this is a high risk in Honduras, given the first the intermission of the United States and the fact that they say that it's a very important issue for them.
13:57And second, because right wing doesn't play the democratic game there.
14:01So, yes. And of course, the third thing is that President Donald Trump of the United States has just pardoned one of the biggest narco trafficker of Honduras, which is the ex-president Jose Orlando Hernandez, which is from the National Party, which he endorsed for those elections, not the candidate, but the party.
14:22So it's a very, very complicated game.
14:25Thank you very much, Merlinda, for your time here from the South. Unfortunately, we don't have time for more, but we will stay tuned in our coming news brief to continue debating on the issue.
14:34Thank you very much for the invitation.
14:37Oh, it's always a pleasure. Let's now continue with other news happening in the region.
14:41We are going to Venezuela, where the Bolivarian National Armed Forces strengthen the defense of its coast, where maneuvers are being conducted to guarantee the country's sovereignty.
14:51The objective is to carry out the coastal defense exercise within the framework of Operation Independence 200.
14:56In the state of Anzuategui, the integral defense operational zone deployed air defense systems to protect the territory.
15:02Meanwhile, on the coast of Puerto Cabello, Carabobo State, the positions of the field artillery were reviewed,
15:08while in Miranda state territorial defense plans were adjusted.
15:12The organized people's power and local authorities are actively participating in the work,
15:16reaffirming that the protection of the nation is a shared responsibility.
15:26And Venezuelan Executive Vice President, Delsis Rodriguez, condemns the blockade of the country's airspace by the U.S.
15:32and announces the activation of a repatriation plan for Venezuelan citizens in the United States.
15:37In a statement, the Vice President said the U.S. government has granted Maria Machado's request to attempt to block Venezuela's airspace.
15:44In response to this aggression, President Nicolás Maduro has ordered a special plan for the return of Venezuelans stranded in other countries,
15:51as well as to facilitate the departure itineraries of those who must travel outside our territory.
15:56Venezuela has activated all multilateral mechanisms, in accordance with international law,
16:01for the immediate cessation of this illegitimate and illegal action. Venezuela will always prevail.
16:08And the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America expressed through a communique in their website and profile on social media,
16:17ex their condemnation of U.S. President Donald Trump threats against Venezuela's airspace sovereignty.
16:22The statement says, this announcement, which is deeply hostile, disproportionate and incompatible with international law,
16:29constitutes an act of political aggression that reaffirms Washington's imperial behavior against the free peoples of Latin America.
16:36ALBA also denounces that this threat is part of a geopolitical plan aimed at eroding the self-determination of Latin American and Caribbean states
16:43through military, economic and diplomatic pressure.
16:47The organization also stated that attempting to exercise extraterritorial jurisdiction over Venezuelan territory,
16:53imposing instructions or conditioning the integrity of its airspace,
16:56is not only legal but also constitutes an arrogant provocation against the entire region.
17:01It is the reaffirmation of an old pattern,
17:03the one of those who still believe they have the right to impose rules on our skies, our borders and our destiny.
17:13We now have our second break coming up.
17:15Before we invite you to visit our Facebook page at Telestool English,
17:18that you will be able to watch our top stories, special life coverage and much more.
17:22Follow our page and activate the notification button to stay up to date on the world's monsters and events.
17:26A final break, don't go away.
17:43Welcome back.
17:57In Palestine, the Israeli army attacked several areas of the Gaza Strip,
18:00violating the ceasefire in effect since October 10th,
18:03while intensifying its military operations in the occupied West Bank.
18:06The attacks included helicopter gunfire and combat aircraft bombing of the southern cities of Handounis and Rafa,
18:14as well as intense fire near the Morag Axis and airstrikes against the Al-Burais refugee camp.
18:20Moreover, a large-scale operation to demolish Palestinian structures was added during the night of Sunday.
18:25The evaluation of the ceasefire has had a devastating human cause according to official data.
18:30More than 350 Palestinians have been killed and more than 900 injured since the deal came into effect.
18:42In France, thousands of people gathered in Paris in solidarity with the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip,
18:47more than a month after the ceasefire was declared.
18:50Under heavy police presence, the demonstration in Paris denounced the genocide in Gaza,
18:55demanding Palestinian self-determination and recognition as an independent state.
18:59In this context, participants urged the French government to stop supplying weapons to Israel
19:04and to go beyond formal condemnations.
19:06Demonstrators also called for real peace and the implementation of international criminal court orders,
19:11emphasizing the importance of unity among French solidarity groups to enhance their influence.
19:16And Palestine's ambassador to Cuba, Amar Sorba, urged the international community on Sunday to promote the cessation of Israel's attacks on Gaza
19:29and the end of the occupation of its country.
19:31The inevitable right of the Palestinian people to choose their own path must be respected,
19:36Sorba asserted during a meeting with members of the International Democratic Federation of Women.
19:41The ambassador also denounced the Israeli forces have killed more than 70,000 Palestinians in the last two years,
19:47most of them women and children.
19:49Furthermore, he reported that during the same period, more than 160,000 have been injured, thousands have been arrested,
19:58and millions are living in famine.
20:00As of today, more than 90% of the Gaza Strip is destroyed, as are several camps in the West Bank.
20:06In the northwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, at least 20 people died and several remained missing
20:19after a boat capsized on Lake Maidombe.
20:22According to present testimonies, the boat, which was traveling from the town of Kiri to Kinshasa,
20:27capsized between the villages of Bobeni and Lobeke on Thursday night.
20:31In this scenario, the local diocese confirmed that among the dead is a newly ordained Catholic deacon.
20:36So far, the governor of Maidombe, Kevani in Koso,
20:40has stated that the government has not yet issued an official figure for the victims or survivors,
20:45as it is waiting for details from the rescue teams.
20:48Boat capsizing is common in Central African countries where poor road conditions forced the population
20:53to use cheap, overloaded wooden boats with a shortage of life jackets.
21:01And in the Philippines, thousands of protesters, including members of the Catholic Church clergy,
21:08took to the streets of Manila to demand the prosecution and resignation of officials
21:12implicated in corruption cases related to flood control.
21:15The main protest took place at the People Tower Monument on the Etza Highway
21:19with the support of Catholic churches that coordinated anti-corruption actions at the district level.
21:24Meanwhile, other groups demanded the resignation and prosecution of officials involved in corruption
21:28associated with flood control projects that were never completed or proved defective.
21:34In this context, more than 17,000 wild police officers were deployed in the Manila metropolitan area due to the demonstrations.
21:40In Germany, thousands of protesters took to the streets to reject the creation of the new youth wind for the far-right party alternative for Germany.
21:58While the demonstrations were peaceful, several confrontations with the police occurred.
22:01In this scenario, nearly 5,000 agents were deployed who confronted the protesters with water cannons.
22:07It is estimated that the number of attendees exceeded 25,000 people who denounced the new youth section of the radical right-wing party in the country.
22:15It is recalled that Alternative for Germany was forced to dissolve its previous youth wind after the German authorities declared an extremist organization.
22:23And airports around the world experienced flight disruptions after European company Airbus announced the review of 6,000 A320 aircraft for an urgent control software update.
22:44The announcement was made after an incident in the United States where a JetBlue A320 aircraft suffered a malfunction during a flight between Cancun and Newark.
22:53The pilots had to make an emergency landing in Tampa, injuring some passengers.
22:58According to Airbus, the 6,000 aircraft will receive an urgent update to their control software due to their exposure to possible risks from solar radiation.
23:06The company explained that intense solar radiation could corrupt data vital to the operation of the aircraft's control systems,
23:13adding that the software update could take weeks for just 1,000 aircrafts.
23:18We have come to the end of this news brief. You can find this and many other stories on our website at www.telesorenglish.net.
23:27So join us on social media, Facebook, X, Instagram, Telegram and TikTok.
23:32For Telesor English, I'm Alberto Matos. Thank you for watching.
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