If there’s a negotiated settlement to Venezuela’s protracted crisis, it’ll likely be reached with the help of a self-effacing, tight-lipped Scandinavian diplomat with a fondness for distance running.

Dag Nylander is leading the exploratory talks between representatives of Nicolas Maduro and his opponents whose second round wrapped up this week in Norway.

While there’s no date for talks to resume and little is known what was discussed behind closed doors — even the meeting location outside Oslo is a well-guarded secret — the fact that the two sides continue to meet after spending the past five months trying to politically annihilate one another is being taken as a hopeful sign.

Key to the undertaking is Nylander, a Latin America specialist who between 2012 and 2016 served as one of two facilitators in negotiations aimed at ending Colombia’s long armed conflict.

During those grueling talks, Nylander, 49, earned a reputation from the government and rebels alike as an honest broker, careful not to impose his will but who could act decisively when called upon. Just as importantly, he developed many relationships — with communist Cuba, the United Nations and even Maduro himself — that could come handy in overcoming the seemingly insurmountable odds to a deal that avoids further hardships in Venezuela.

In a 2015 interview with Spain’s El Espanol online newspaper he said a successful mediation requires ]the will to enter into the process keeping a very low profile, not looking for any publicity either for the process or for Norway.” True to that outlook, Nylander declined to comment about the Venezuela talks.

Breaking the deadlock will be a lot harder this time. While Colombia’s rebels had largely lost hope of victory after a half-century of conflict and were increasingly isolated politically, Maduro and his foes have both dug in. Maduro controls all institutions of state while Guaido has convinced more than 50 nations to recognize him as the country’s legitimate leader.

“Dag is the ideal interlocutor,” said Sergio Jaramillo, who as Colombia’s peace commissioner was one of the architects of the peace deal ending a half-century of guerrilla fighting. “But even he can’t produce miracles. It’ll have to be the Venezuelans themselves who sort out their own problems.”

Nylander, a lawyer by training, oversees the peace and reconciliation effort at Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. For several decades, ever since the 1993 Oslo Accord between Israel and Palestinian negotiators, Norway has played a leading role trying to end some of the world’s most bitter conflicts through discrete mediation and serious funding of peacemaking efforts on the ground.

In the case of Venezuela, Nylander and diplomats from Norway’s embassy in Bogota, Colombia, began traveling to Caracas and meeting with key figures almost as soon as Colombia’s peace deal was inked at the end of 2016. Last year, the Norwegian Centre for Conflict Resolution, which works with and receives funding from Norway’s foreign ministry, flew in a U.S. mediation expert to try to launch dialogue between the two sides.

Then in March, the same group sponsored a meeting of opposition and government leaders on Venezuela’s Margarita Island, according to someone familiar with the talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they had not been previously disclosed.

Those secret talks were key in breaking an impasse on delivery of humanitarian aid: Shortly after the meeting, the Red Cross was granted permission from both sides to roll out a major relief campaign that effectively acknowledged a humanitarian crisis Maduro had long denied but also scuttled Guaido’s attempts to use the delivery of U.S.-supplied aid to weaken his rival.

“The only way forward is dialogue,” Maduro said Wednesday night celebrating what he sees as a victory for his longstanding call for dialogue. “We want a peace deal.”

The opposition has been less enthusiastic about the talks, fearing it will be burned again as it was in previous dialogue attempts. Since 2017, an array of potential mediators — including Spain’s former president and even Pope Francis — have tried to bring the two sides together with little to show for their efforts. The collapse of talks in the Dominican Republic last year paved the way for Maduro’s easy re-election in a race boycotted by his opponents and in which several leaders were exiled or banned from running.

Reflecting that pessimistic outlook, Guaido sent a lower-level delegation to Oslo, and called for more protests this week as his envoys were still returning from Europe.

But some believe the diplomatic gambit might just work.

Although Guaido enjoys wide international support, he is struggling to maintain his coalition together as the crisis drags on and has so far failed to break the military’s loyalty to Maduro despite leading a small barracks rebellion last month.

Meanwhile Maduro is under intense pressure from U.S. sanctions that squeeze his government’s revenues as he confronts a deepening social crisis marked by hyperinflation and shortages of food, fuel and electricity. Members of his inner circle face the threat of U.S. prosecution on drug or corruption charges.

“Almost by definition, a negotiated solution needs to have a win-win aspect,” said Bernard Aronson, who was the Obama administration’s special envoy to the Colombia peace talks. “Even if Maduro is ready to throw in a towel, you have to find a formula that for him and his inner circle to feel safe. Nobody is going to give up power just to go to jail.”

Aronson said that Nylander was careful to check his ego at the door and not get in the way during the Colombian negotiations. But he played a critical role saving the talks when a guerrilla ambush killed 11 soldiers in 2015 and triggered the government decision to resume an aerial bombing campaign. Aronson said he and Nylander worked closely with other facilitators — Cuba, Venezuela and Chile — to find a face-saving formula to bring both sides back to the table.

Jaramillo said Nylander’s discipline and professionalism impressed negotiators. To maintain a level head amid the stressful talks, he would go running early in the morning several miles (kilometers) around the manicured, mansion-strewn lawns where the delegations lived.

As the Venezuelan mediation effort moves forward, a major wild card is the U.S.

While the Trump administration is not a party to the talks, it has a virtual veto on any deal so long as crippling oil sanctions remain in place. One of the topics on a six-point agenda discussed in Norway included sanctions relief, according to a person familiar with the talks who requested anonymity because they aren’t authorized to discuss the negotiations.

While the Trump administration publicly has distanced itself from any deal-making, insisting that the only things open to negotiation are the terms of Maduro’s exit, analysts say U.S. officials are likely to become more flexible if a potential deal begins to take shape.

One important stumbling block: whether Maduro, whom the U.S. considers a “dictator,” would be allowed on any ballot for an election to end the standoff.

Sen. Marco Rubio, a major driver of U.S. policy on Venezuela, said in an interview with The Associated Press prior to the latest round of talks that the U.S. backs Guaido’s team and “we’re going to be supportive of whatever they decide.” But as for allowing Maduro on the ballot, “My opinion is that it’s probably a non-starter.”

Trump’s special representative for Venezuela, Elliot Abrams, has been in frequent contact with Nylander. He also recently met in Washington with one of the opposition negotiators most amenable to a dignified exit for the socialists, former electoral council member Vicente Diaz, and has privately told U.S. lawmakers that Norway will play a vital role in settling the dispute, according to two people familiar with the discussions and who requested anonymity because they aren’t authorized to discuss the matter.

If the talks do gain momentum, Nylander can also help bring along the United Nations, which might be called upon to monitor eventual elections. Following the Colombian peace talks, Nylander spent more than a year shuttling between New York and Caracas as U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ special representative on a long-running border controversy between Venezuela and its neighbor Guyana. During that effort he met with Maduro on at least two occasions.

Nylander also has established relations with Cuba, which along with Russia and China is a key Maduro ally and has a big financial and geopolitical stake in keeping an anti-American government in power. Not surprisingly, some in the opposition have taken to social media to criticize Nylander’s perceived coziness with the Cubans.

“Dag can put to good use backchannels that were established by the Colombian peace process and that remain open,” said Jaramillo. “”But they don’t have many cartridges left, so I wouldn’t blow this one. It may be one of the last opportunities for a sensible solution.”
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VOA News Center Associate Producer Jesusemen Oni contributed reporting from Washington. 

WASHINGTON — Mexico’s foreign minister says he has starting negotiating with U.S. officials after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Mexican products related to the migrant surge at the border.

Marcelo Ebrard said on Twitter Friday that he had spoken to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo by phone and said face-to-face talks between the two would take place Wednesday in Washington.

“The summit to resolve the U.S. dispute with our country will be on Wednesday in Washington,” Ebrard said. “We will be firm and defend the dignity of Mexico.”

Earlier Friday, Mexico’s president responded to the U.S. tariff threats with caution urging “dialogue” over “coercive measures.”

“I want to reiterate that we are not going to fall into any provocation; but we are going to be prudent, and we are going to respect the authorities of the United States and President Donald Trump,” said Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

His statement Friday morning followed a two-page letter to Trump made public late Thursday, similar in tone, responding to Trump’s announcement on Twitter earlier in the day that the United States would begin imposing an escalating tax on imports from Mexico.

“On June 10th, the United States will impose a 5% Tariff on all goods coming into our Country from Mexico, until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP,” Trump tweeted. Until “the illegal immigration problem is remedied” tariffs will continue to rise monthly, going as high as 25% by October 1.

U.S. border agents have apprehended an increasing number of people, largely from Central America, who crossed the southern U.S. border without authorization in recent months.

In contrast to previous spikes in arrivals, recent groups have included a large number of children, prompting U.S. officials to scramble to support families and children traveling without parents, some of whom are seeking asylum.

In an indication of the pressing demands at the border, U.S. Customs and Border Protection solicited bids for the purchase of tens of thousands of baby diapers, wipes and bottles this past week, according to documents reviewed by VOA on a government contracting website.

Mexico has the “absolute ability and authority to do a lot more than they’re doing,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters Friday.

Reaction from Mexico

Lopez Obrador posted a letter to Twitter after Trump’s announcement that said, “Social problems are not resolved with taxes or coercive measures.”

Trump’s announcement of the new tariffs came on the same day Mexico began the formal process of ratifying the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (US MCA) on trade.

Mexico’s deputy foreign minister for North America, Jesus Seade, says such tariffs would be disastrous, expressing more alarm than the Mexican president.

“If this threat is carried out, it would be extremely serious,” he told reporters. “If this is put in place, we must respond vigorously.”

For one trade expert, who previously served as Mexico’s ambassador to China, a top trading partner for that country and the U.S., the timing of Trump’s tariff statement raises questions about the future of the US MCA.

“By mixing two things — immigration and now just lately drug flow with trade — I think it confuses the issue,” said Jorge Guajardo, a senior director at the Washington-based international trade consulting firm McLarty Associates.

The trade deal “was a triumph for all three countries, and now of course, that all comes into doubt,” Guajardo added.

Marking progress

Some Republican members of Congress but no Democrats were consulted about White House plan, according to acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney.

Asked in a hastily arranged conference call with reporters about benchmarks Mexico would need to achieve to have the tariffs lifted, Mulvaney said there needs to be significant and substantial reductions in arrivals from Central America crossing into the United States.

“We’re going to take this and look at it on a day-to-day and week-to-week basis,” Mulvaney said. “We are interested in seeing the Mexican government act tonight, tomorrow.”

Trump has repeatedly accused Mexico of not doing enough to stop Central American migrants from traveling through the country on their way to the United States.

The U.S. system, however, is not infallible. While the country has increased its apprehension rate at the border in recent years, U.S. border agents stop an estimated 65% to 80% of people crossing into the country without authorization, according to a 2018 DHS report. 
…

Mexico’s president responded to U.S. tariff threats with caution again Friday, urging “dialogue” over “coercive measures” in the latest conflict over the two countries’ migration policies.

“I want to reiterate that we are not going to fall into any provocation; but we are going to be prudent, and we are going to respect the authorities of the United States and President Donald Trump,” said Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. 

“We think that any conflict and bilateral relations should be solved with dialogue, with communication. The use of coercive measures does not lead to anything good,” he added.

His statement Friday morning followed a two-page letter to Trump made public late Thursday, similar in tone, responding to Trump’s announcement on Twitter earlier in the day that the U.S. would begin imposing an escalating tax on imports from Mexico.

“On June 10th, the United States will impose a 5% Tariff on all goods coming into our Country from Mexico, until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP,” Trump tweeted. Until “the illegal immigration problem is remedied” tariffs will continue to rise monthly, going as high as 25% by October 1. 

U.S. border agents have apprehended an increasing number of people, largely from Central America, who crossed the southern U.S. border without authorization in recent months. 

In contrast to previous spikes in arrivals, recent groups have included a large number of children, prompting U.S. officials to scramble to support families and children traveling without parents — some of whom are seeking asylum.

In an indication of the pressing demands at the border, U.S. Customs and Border Protection solicited bids for the purchase of tens of thousands of baby diapers, wipes and bottles this past week, according to documents reviewed by VOA on a government contracting website.

Mexico has the “absolute ability and authority to do a lot more than they’re doing,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters Friday.

Reaction from Mexico

Lopez Obrador posted a letter to Twitter after Trump’s announcement that said, “Social problems are not resolved with taxes or coercive measures.”

Trump’s announcement of the new tariffs came on the same day Mexico began the formal process of ratifying the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade.

Lopez Obrador said he was sending his foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, to Washington to try to negotiate a solution.

Mexico’s deputy foreign minister for North America, Jesus Seade, says such tariffs would be disastrous, expressing more alarm than the Mexican president.

“If this threat is carried out, it would be extremely serious,” he told reporters. “If this is put in place, we must respond vigorously.”

Marking progress

Some Republican members of Congress but no Democrats were consulted about the plan, according to acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney.

Asked in a hastily arranged conference call with reporters about benchmarks Mexico would need to achieve to have the tariffs lifted, Mulvaney said there needs to be significant and substantial reductions in arrivals from Central America crossing into the United States.

“We’re going to take this and look at it on a day-to-day and week-to-week basis,” said Mulvaney. “We are interested in seeing the Mexican government act tonight, tomorrow.”

Trump has repeatedly accused Mexico of not doing enough to stop Central American migrants from traveling through the country on their way to the United States.

The U.S. system, however, is not infallible. While the country has increased its apprehension rate at the border in recent years, U.S. border agents stop an estimated 65% to 80% of people crossing into the country without authorization, according to a 2018 DHS report. 
…

In a surprise announcement that could derail a major trade deal, President Donald Trump says he is placing a 5% tariff on all Mexican imports, effective June 10, to pressure the country to do more to crack down on the surge of Central American migrants trying to cross the U.S. border.

He said the percentage will gradually increase – up to 25% – “until the Illegal Immigration problem is remedied.”

The decision showed the administration going to new lengths, and looking for new levers, to pressure Mexico to take action – even if those risk upending other policy priorities, like the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a trade deal that is the cornerstone of Trump’s legislative agenda and seen as beneficial to his reelection effort. It also risks further damaging the already strained relationship between the U.S. and Mexico, two countries whose economies are deeply intertwined.

Trump made the announcement by tweet after telling reporters earlier Thursday that he was planning “a major statement” that would be his “biggest” so far on the border.

“On June 10th, the United States will impose a 5% Tariff on all goods coming into our Country from Mexico, until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP,” he wrote. “The Tariff will gradually increase until the Illegal Immigration problem is remedied.”

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador responded in a public letter late Thursday, telling Trump that “social problems are not solved with duties or coercive measures” and alluded to the United States’ history as a nation of immigrants. “The Statue of Liberty is not an empty symbol,” he wrote. He also said he was dispatching his foreign relations secretary to Washington on Friday to try to negotiate a solution.

In his growing fury over an increase in border crossings that he has likened to an “invasion,” Trump has blamed Mexico for failing to stop the flow of asylum seekers from countries like El Salvador and Honduras who pass through its territory. And he has been itching to take increasingly radical, headline-grabbing action on the issue, which he sees as critical to his 2020 campaign because it energizes his base.

But the sudden tariff threat comes at a peculiar time, given how hard the administration has been pushing for passage of the USMCA, which would update the North American Free Trade Agreement. It comes less than two weeks after Trump lifted import taxes on Mexican and Canadian steel and aluminum, a move that seemed to clear an obstacle to its passage, and the same day that both Trump and Lopez Obrador began the process of seeking ratification. The deal needs approval from lawmakers in all three countries before it takes effect.

“The tariffs certainly put the USMCA on ice,'”said Gary Hufbauer, an expert in trade law at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, who panned the move but said Trump does have the legal authority to impose the tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act by citing a national emergency.

“The drama is legal, but it’s preposterous,” he said.

Daniel Ujczo, a U.S.-based international trade lawyer, said the threat would likely slow the deal’s progress in Mexico and put U.S. lawmakers who want to vote “yes” in a difficult position because companies in their districts will end up paying the tariffs.

Still, Ujczo and others wondered whether Trump – who has a habit of creating problems and then claiming credit when he rushes in to solve them – would go through with the threat.

“This seems more theater and tactics than a strategy to solve the migration crisis and rebalance North American trade,” Ujczo said.

It wouldn’t be the first time Trump has punted on an immigration threat. In late March, Trump threatened to shut the entire U.S.-Mexico border if Mexico didn’t immediately halt illegal immigration. Just a few days later, he backed off the threat, saying he was pleased with steps Mexico had taken in recent days. It was unclear, however, what Mexico had changed.

Indeed, on a briefing call with reporters Thursday evening, administration officials said Mexico could prevent the tariffs from kicking in by securing their southern border with Guatemala, cracking down on criminal smuggling organizations, and entering into a “safe third country agreement” that would make it difficult for those who enter Mexico from other countries to claim asylum in the U.S.

“We fully believe they have the ability to stop people coming in from their southern border and if they’re able to do that, these tariffs will either not go into place or will be removed after they go into place,” said acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.

He also insisted that tariffs were “completely” separate from the USMCA because one pertained to immigration and the other trade.

Still the threat drew a withering response from Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, a usual Trump ally, who slammed it as “a misuse of presidential tariff authority” that would burden American consumers and “seriously jeopardize passage of USMCA.”

Mulvaney said the White House had briefed a number of Republicans on the plan and acknowledged that some – particularly in the Senate – had raised concerns about the president invoking such powers.

The threat comes at a time when Mexico has already been stepping up its efforts to crack down on migrants, carrying out raids and detaining thousands of people traveling through the country en route to the U.S.

The crumbling city of Tapachula, near the Guatemalan border, has become the epicenter of the crackdowns, with thousands of migrants stranded because the Mexican government isn’t providing them visas to travel. In addition, the Mexican government has allowed the U.S. to send back hundreds of asylum seekers from Central America and other countries, forcing them to wait out their cases in Mexico.

But that hasn’t satisfied Trump, whose White House laid out an escalating schedule of tariff increases if his demands are not met: 10% on July 1, 15% on Aug. 1, 20% on Sept. 1 and 25% on Oct. 1.

After that, the White House said,”`tariffs will permanently remain at the 25% level unless and until Mexico substantially stops the illegal inflow of aliens coming through its territory.”

 
…

Tensions are rising again in Nicaragua, more than a year since the start of a political crisis that has rocked the Central American nation. The Organization of American States and opposition groups are calling on Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega to release more than 500 political prisoners. And the U.S. State Department is demanding an investigation of the death of one prisoner, an American citizen. From Masaya, Nicaragua, Donaldo Hernández filed this report narrated by Cristina Caicedo Smit.
…

The Trump administration has renewed a push to overhaul America’s oft-criticized immigration system amid an accelerating surge of Central American migrants and asylum-seekers arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. In one effort to end illegal immigration, President Donald Trump tweeted late Thursday the U.S. would begin imposing a rising tariff on Mexican imports until the “illegal migrants” stop trying traveling through the country to reach America. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports.
…

U.S.-supplied humanitarian aid that was earmarked for Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido will now be distributed in Colombia, officials said Thursday. 

Colombia’s government said it had reached the decision with the U.S. and representatives of Guaido because of Nicolas Maduro’s continued “blocking” of the aid. 

In a statement, the national disaster agency said some of the aid would now be redistributed to some of the 1.2 million Venezuelan migrants who’ve crossed into Colombia fleeing hyperinflation and shortages of food, fuel and medicine.

Poor Colombians will also benefit, it said.

The U.S. in February airlifted several hundreds of tons of food and hygiene kits to Venezuela’s borders with Colombia, Brazil and the Dutch Caribbean in support of Guaido’s campaign to weaken Maduro’s grip on power. 

The so-called “humanitarian avalanche” ended in chaos as violent clashes broke out on a bridge connecting Venezuela with Colombia, where the bulk of aid is warehoused, as troops loyal to Maduro fired tear gas on opposition activists shielding the aid caravan.

Maduro and his allies Russia and Cuba always saw the opposition’s plan to ram the aid across the border as a reckless pretext for ordering a U.S. military intervention.

“We aren’t beggars,” Maduro said at the time.

Shortly afterward, he granted access to the Red Cross, which has mounted a major relief effort in the country comparable to its response to the crisis in Syria. 

Colombia’s disaster relief agency said it would distribute the aid in undisclosed locations where the need is greatest. It said whatever remaining amounts of aid not distributed inside Colombia or directly controlled by USAID would continue to be stored on behalf of Guaido, who Colombia, the U.S. and 50 other nations recognize as Venezuela’s rightful leader.

“This is the right thing to do,” said David Smilde, a Tulane University professor who has spent decades studying Venezuela. “The aid was never all that relevant given the scope of need in Venezuela, and it can help migrants in Colombia.”
…

In a surprise announcement that could compromise a major trade deal, President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he is slapping a 5% tariff on all Mexican imports to pressure the country to do more to crack down on the surge of Central American migrants trying to cross the border.

He said the percentage will gradually increase “until the Illegal Immigration problem is remedied.”

Trump made the announcement by tweet after telling reporters earlier Thursday that he was planning “a major statement” that would be his “biggest” so far on the border.

“On June 10th, the United States will impose a 5% Tariff on all goods coming into our Country from Mexico, until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP. The Tariff will gradually increase until the Illegal Immigration problem is remedied,” he wrote, “at which time the Tariffs will be removed.”

Trump has accused the Mexican government of failing to do enough to crack down on the surge of Central American migrants who have been flowing to the U.S. in search of asylum from countries including El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.

Trump’s tariff threat comes at a time when Mexican authorities have been carrying out migrant raids and detaining thousands more who are traveling through the country on the way to the U.S.

The crumbling city of Tapachula, near the Guatemalan border, has become the epicenter of the crackdowns. Thousands of migrants have been stranded in the city because the Mexican government isn’t providing them visas that allow them to travel. Authorities this week have been clearing out parks of camping migrants and raiding hotels where immigrants were staying.

Mexican authorities raided and largely broke up the last major migrant caravan, detaining hundreds of immigrants from Central America.

And the Mexican government has allowed the U.S. to return hundreds of asylum seekers from Central America and other countries to force them to wait their cases out in Mexico — in one of only a few immigration policies that have not been immediately struck down by the courts.

The White House said Trump would be using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to implement the tariff.

“If the illegal migration crisis is alleviated through effective actions taken by Mexico, to be determined in our sole discretion and judgment, the Tariffs will be removed,” the White House said in a statement.

But if Trump is not satisfied, the 5% figure will increase to 10% on July 1, to 15% on Aug. 1, to 20% on Sept. 1 and to 25% on Oct. 1, the White House said.

“Tariffs will permanently remain at the 25 percent level unless and until Mexico substantially stops the illegal inflow of aliens coming through its territory,” the statement read.

Deal with Mexico, Canada

The announcement comes as the administration has been pushing for passage of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement that would update the North American Free Trade Agreement.

During a visit to Canada on Thursday, Vice President Mike Pence vowed the deal would be passed this year.

“Our administration is working earnestly with leaders in the Congress of the United States to approve the USMCA this summer,” he said. Asked by reporters about the new tariff consideration, Pence said that both Mexico and Congress need to do more and that Trump is determined to use his authority to call on them to do so.
…

The sound of furniture being dragged across the floor disrupted the silence inside Haiti’s parliament at 7:30 a.m. Thursday.

Four opposition senators and some helpers dragged chairs, desks and other furniture out of the Senate chamber and into the yard just 30 minutes before the Senate was due to begin debating the nomination of Prime Minister-designate Jean Michel Lapin.

The proceedings were canceled Thursday after the Senate furniture was removed. A new vote is planned for June.

On Wednesday, Senate leader Carl Murat Cantave had announced his intention to move forward with the process, at a standstill since March 18, when former Prime Minister Jean Henry Ceant resigned amid corruption allegations. 

Lapin’s initial appearance before the Senate ended in chaos last month when a fight broke out between two senators who hurled insults and threw punches before calm was restored. 

The opposition has dug in its heels and vowed to block the process until all former members of the Ceant Cabinet are removed from Lapin’s proposed new government. 

“What we did was a [deliberate] strategy,” Sen. Antonio Cheramy, one of the opposition leaders who masterminded the furniture protest, told VOA Creole. He alleged that Cantave “violated various parliament regulations” during the process, which led to more drastic measures on their part. 

“We’ve always said that we will not be bullied [by the ruling party],” Cheramy said. “I think everyone can agree that we need a government that defends the right of the people.” 

Haitians cheered Cheramy in the streets as his car made its way through downtown after leaving the Senate.

‘The beginning of the revolt’

Meanwhile, outside the gates of parliament, dozens of protesters gathered in a show of support for the opposition’s actions.

“Lock them up!” they chanted, referring to corrupt politicians. 

Downtown, tires burned in the middle of Rue Pave, a main thoroughfare, and cars that risked navigating the road were met with a shower of rocks, VOA Creole’s reporter said. The reporter also saw two Ministry of Public Works tractors parked in the middle of the road.

“The people decided to put these here because we’re done, we’ve had enough,” said a young man standing near the tractors. “We can’t let our country become a nation of thieves.” 

Asked where they got the equipment, the protester claimed he didn’t know.

“We don’t know how they got here, but what is important is that the people are watching. We know who is our enemy and who isn’t. This is the beginning of the revolt,” the protester said. 

In another neighborhood of the capital, protesters dropped large rocks in the middle of the road, rendering it virtually impassible. 

“We can’t take it anymore,” a protester yelled. “We want Jovenel [Moise, the president] to resign. Today we say, ‘No, we can’t take it. We are done.’ ” 

The young man told VOA Creole that protesters would stay in the streets until their demands are satisfied. 

​Reactions online

On social media, reaction to the events were mostly negative. 

“These four people, I’d like them to search Google for the definition of opposition. Then analyze your actions and see if you should call yourselves something else,” @jeffdenis3451 commented on VOA Creole’s Instagram page. 

“These guys should be fined for what they did and then jailed,” @otoniel_lafortunajean.j said. 

But @elgetseycharles3 applauded the move, saying, “Bravo.”
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El Salvador’s maverick new president takes office Saturday pledging to battle violence, poverty, corruption and mass migration to the United States — but will have to do all that without a congressional majority.

Nayib Bukele, a 37-year-old former mayor of San Salvador, ended 30 years of bipartisan rule by the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) and the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) with his election victory in February.

But the electoral coalition the former FMLN politician forged with right-wing allies for the five-year term won just 11 of 84 seats in Congress, forcing Bukele to promise to work with “all the political forces.”

“His strength is that he has awakened a lot of popular enthusiasm and that’s what he’s counting on,” said Jose Maria Tojeira, a political analyst and director of the Human Rights Institute of the Central American University in San Salvador.

“The traditional parties risk being swept away in the next elections if they fight the president or hinder government.”

Crime, gangs

Rampant crime is the main headache for most of El Salvador’s 6.6 million population. Bukele will inherit one of the most violent countries in the world, although under the outgoing FMLN government murders fell 15 percent in 2018.

At around 51 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, the murder rate is still about 10 times higher than the United States.

Much of the blame is pinned on El Salvador’s “maras” — international criminal gangs involved in drug trafficking and extortion that have some 70,000 members. Previous governments have tried, but failed, to broker lasting truces between them.

Recently the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), the largest gang, floated the possibility of stopping violence through dialogue.

“We trust in God and in the new president Nayib,” a MS-13 spokesman told the Central American magazine Factum.

Gang violence has helped fuel mass migration from Central America and created tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Bukele said he will push ambitious public works to help contain migration, including plans for a Pacific railway, though he has given little indication of how he hopes to fund them.

Poverty, corruption

El Salvador’s dollarized economy has not grown by more than 3% annually in the past decade and the government faces a steep challenge to shoulder external debts of over $9.5 billion without paring back welfare spending, analysts say.

The incoming president has used social media to burnish his profile, scoring a hit on Twitter earlier this year by ironically describing El Salvador as a “Mexican country” after Fox News in the United States had earlier made reference in an on-screen caption to “3 Mexican countries.”

Of Palestinian descent, the bearded Bukele capitalized on discontent toward the two established parties with his motto: “There’s enough money when no one steals.”

Promising to end widespread graft, he wants to create an international commission against corruption, similar to schemes once adopted by neighboring Guatemala and Honduras.
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