The Critical Hour

Maduro's Alliance Wins Control of Legislature in Venezuelan Election

President Nicolás Maduro's allies came out ahead in the Venezuelan parliamentary elections on Sunday, gaining control of the National Assembly in a contest boycotted by the main opposition parties.
Sputnik

Leo Flores, Latin America coordinator for Code Pink, joins us to discuss the Venezuelan elections. Maduro's allies won a majority in the National Assembly, with 31% voter turnout, even as the United States and more than 50 additional countries still support opposition leader and self-declared interim President Juan Guaidó. Maduro is backed by Russia, China, Cuba, and Turkey. 

Garland Nixon, co-host of The Critical Hour, joins us from Venezuela to discuss the United States and other countries' attempts to destabilize the Venezuelan government through sanctions and direct efforts at regime change, as well as what the latest election results mean moving forward.

Dr. Linwood Tauheed, associate professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, joins us to discuss a possible US economic stimulus package. "A bipartisan group of US senators will unveil legislation as early as Monday for additional fiscal stimulus worth $908 billion, in an effort to speed up aid to an economy at risk of a further dip due to a record spike in coronavirus cases," the Financial Times reported Sunday.

Immigration attorney Carlos Castaneda joins Dr. Wilmer Leon to talk about Friday's decision by a US federal judge to restore the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to its original 2012 status. The ruling was a blow to the current administration's campaign to kill the Obama-era program.  According to Common Dreams, "US District Judge Nicholas Garaufis of Brooklyn ordered the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to post a public notice by Monday that it is accepting new applications for DACA, which enables Dreamers to live and work in the country legally."

James Carey, editor and co-owner of Geopolitics Alert, joins us to discuss the long history of excessive force used by Israeli police after the killing of Iyad al-Hallaq, a 31-year-old man with autism. They also talk about a recent MintPress News article by Miko Peled that discusses the Zionist actions of destroying critical historical sites and monuments to present a fractured vision of Palestinean history.

Journalist and founder of Ghionjournal.com Teodrose Fikre joins us to discuss the fighting between Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's federal army and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). A Reuters report noted that the government said it would capture the opposition group's leaders within days. However, the outlet noted that Debretsion Gebremichael, the TPLF's leader, said over the weekend that fighting was still ongoing outside the regional capital of Mekelle.

Dave Lindorff, investigative reporter and founder of This Can't Be Happening, joins us to talk about projected President-elect Joe Biden's nomination of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra for health and human services secretary. Becerra is the second Latino pick for the Cabinet after Alejandro Mayorkas was nominated for homeland security secretary. The selections come as Biden faces pressure to pick more Latinos for Cabinet positions.

KJ Noh, peace activist, writer and teacher, returns to discuss the US Navy's plans to send a new fleet to the Indo-Pacific region to counter China's warships. Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite said in November that the US wants to place that fleet "in the crossroads between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and we're really going to have an Indo-Pacom footprint."

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