South America
Nicolás Maduro declares victory in disputed Venezuelan presidential election
LGBTQ activists join opposition in denouncing irregularities
Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) on Sunday announced President Nicolás Maduro won a third term with 51.2 percent of the votes, compared to the 44.2 percent it said opposition leader Edmundo González received.
Fifty-nine percent of Venezuelans voted in the election that took place peacefully in most of the country, aside from reports of unrest in Táchira state that borders Colombia.
Authorities announced the results six hours after polling places closed, with CNE President Elvis Amoroso attributing the delay to a “terrorist” attack that affected data transmission. Maduro backed this explanation, suggesting a massive hacking of the electoral system took place.
The opposition, however, denounced irregularities and questioned the process’s transparency. Opposition leader María Corina Machado said she and her supporters have minutes that indicate González received 70 percent of the votes.
“There is a new president-elect and he is Edmundo González, and everybody knows it,” said Machado.
González entered into a political partnership with Machado, who Maduro’s government disqualified from holding public office. Machado backed González, a former diplomat.
“All regulations have been violated,” said González. “Our struggle continues.”
Maduro, for his part, called on his adversaries to abide by the results.
“This constitution must be respected,” said Maduro while speaking to supporters outside Miraflores Palace in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, after the CSE declared him the winner. “The referee must be respected and no one must try to tarnish this beautiful day.”
In this regard, Tamara Adrián, the country’s first transgender congresswoman who ran in the presidential primary earlier this year, told the Washington Blade that “according to the information we have from the minutes that witnesses were able to obtain in approximately 40 percent of the polling stations, Edmundo González won with a percentage higher than 65 percent of the votes in all the states and in all the social sectors.”
The former congresswoman added “that is the result we had around 8 o’clock at night, when they started to issue instructions from the National Electoral Council for two things: One, to prohibit the entrance of Edmundo González’s witnesses in the vote counting room, something that continued during the whole night.”
“That is to say they never had any oversight from González in the computations,” Adrián told the Blade.
“And two, they prohibited the table chiefs from printing the minutes that the law says,” she added.
The elections took place amid widespread distrust of the CNE, whose board of directors includes figures linked to the ruling party.
The opposition questioned the electoral body’s impartiality and lack of recognized international observers. Reports indicate people in several areas of Caracas on Sunday used pots and pans to protest the CNE announcement.
LGBTQ activist Richelle Briceño told the Blade “the electoral participation in favor of change in the country was a majority and that will has been undoubtedly twisted by those who have dominated the electoral power and the armed forces of the nation.”
“They gave official results that do not adjust to reality and consequently are unverifiable,” said Briceño.
Chilean president, Biden-Harris administration question election results
Chilean President Gabriel Boric and other regional leaders expressed skepticism about the results.
American Secretary of State Antony Blinken also expressed concern about the count’s validity. Cuba and Honduras, on the other hand, congratulated Maduro after the CNE declared him the winner.
“The Maduro regime must understand that the results it publishes are hard to believe,” wrote Boric on his X account. “The international community and above all the Venezuelan people, including the millions of Venezuelans in exile, demand total transparency of the minutes and the process.”
“We are seriously concerned that the announced result does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people,” said Blinken.
The situation in Venezuela remains uncertain, and the next few hours could define a new chapter in the country’s tumultuous political history.
“There is no certain formula for Maduro to leave the presidency while the other powers and institutions of the country are at his service,” said Briceño. “Venezuelans did what was in our hands, which was to express ourselves massively. Now we must continue to demand audited and verified results so that the truth is imposed before the world.”
“The support of the international community is fundamental for these purposes,” added Briceño.
Chile
Far-right José Antonio Kast elected Chile’s next president
Advocacy group declares ‘state of alert’ over president-elect’s opposition to LGBTQ rights
José Antonio Kast on Sunday won the second round of Chile’s presidential election.
Kast is the far-right leader of the Republican Party who was a member of the country’s House of Deputies from 2002-2018. He defeated Jeannette Jara, a member of the Communist Party of Chile who was former labor and social welfare minister in outgoing President Gabriel Boric’s government, by a 58.2-41.8 percent margin.
The election’s first round took place on Nov. 16.
Kast and Jara faced each other in the runoff after no candidate received at least 50 percent of the vote in the first round. Kast will take office on March 11.
“Under his leadership, we are confident Chile will advance shared priorities to include strengthening public security, ending illegal immigration, and revitalizing our commercial relationship,” said U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday in a statement. “The United States looks forward to working closely with his administration to deepen our partnership and promote shared prosperity in our hemisphere.”
The Washington Blade has previously reported Kast has expressed his opposition to gender-specific policies, comprehensive sex education, and reforms to Chile’s anti-discrimination laws. The president-elect has also publicly opposed the country’s marriage equality law that took effect in 2022.
The Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation, a Chilean LGBTQ and intersex rights group known by the acronym Movilh, in a statement acknowledged the election result. Movilh also declared a “state of alert, given this leader’s (Kast’s) public and political trajectory, characterized for decades by systematic opposition to laws and policies aimed at equality and nondiscrimination of LGBTIQ+ individuals.”
“We urge the president-elect and far-right sectors that follow him to understand and internalize (the fact) that the rights of LGBTIQ+ people are inscribed in the universality of human rights, and they are not built upon an ideology or a political trend,” said Movilh in its statement. “This is not, and never has been, a left-wing or right-wing issue, although some on both sides have gone to great lengths to suggest otherwise, without any basis other than their own partisan or electoral aspirations.”
Organizado Trans Diversidades, a group that advocates on behalf of trans and nonbinary Chileans, on social media said it will “continue the fight for our community’s human rights.”
Colombia
Colombia anunció la inclusión de las categorías ‘trans’ y ‘no binario’ en los documentos de identidad
Registraduría Nacional anunció el cambio el 28 de noviembre
Ahora los ciudadanos colombianos podrán seleccionar las categorías ‘trans’ y ‘no binario’ en los documentos de identidad del país.
Este viernes la Registraduría Nacional del Estado Civil anunció que añadió las categorías ‘no binario’ y ‘trans’ en los distintos documentos de identidad con el fin de garantizar los derechos de las personas con identidad diversa.
El registrador nacional, Hernán Penagos, informó que hizo la inclusión de estas dos categorías en los documentos de: registro civil, tarjeta de identidad y cédula de ciudadanía.
Según la registraduría: “La inclusión de estas categorías representa un importante avance en materia de garantía de derechos de las personas con identidad de género diversa”.
Estas categorías estarán en el campo de ‘sexo’ en el que están normalmente las clasificaciones de ‘femenino’ y ‘masculino’ en los documentos de identidad.
En 2024 se inició la ejecución de diferentes acciones orientadas implementar componentes “‘NB’ y ‘T’ en el campo ‘sexo’ de los registros civiles y los documentos de identidad”.
Las personas trans existen y su identidad de género es un aspecto fundamental de su humanidad, reconocido por la Corte Constitucional de Colombia en sentencias como T-236/2023 y T-188/2024, que protegen sus derechos a la identidad y no discriminación. La actualización de la Registraduría implementa estos fallos que ya habían ordenado esos cambios en documentos de identidad.
Por su parte, el registrador nacional, Penagos, comentó que: “se trata del cumplimiento de unas órdenes por parte de la Corte Constitucional y, en segundo lugar, de una iniciativa en la que la Registraduría ha estado absolutamente comprometida”. Y explicó que en cada “una de las estaciones integradas de servicio de las más de 1.200 oficinas que tiene la Registraduría Nacional se va a incluir todo este proceso”.
Brazil
Black transgender singer from Brazil wins three Latin Grammy Awards
Liniker performed at Las Vegas ceremony
A Black transgender singer and songwriter from Brazil on Nov. 13 won three Latin Grammy Awards.
Liniker, who is from Araraquara, a city in São Paulo State, won for Best Portuguese Language Song for her song “Veludo Marrom,” Best Portuguese-Language Urban Performance for her song “Caju” from her sophomore album of the same title, and Best Portuguese Language Contemporary Pop Album for “Caju.”
She accepted the awards during the Latin Grammy Awards ceremony that took place in Las Vegas. Liniker also performed.
“I’ve been writing since I was 16. And writing, and poetry, have been my greatest form of existence. It’s where I find myself; where I celebrate so many things I experience,” said Liniker as she accepted her first Latin Grammy on Nov. 13. “And being a composer … Being a trans composer in Brazil — a country that kills us — is extremely difficult.”
Liniker in 2022 became the first openly trans woman to win a Latin Grammy.
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