标签： Oceania

In early January 2026, a lightning special forces raid by the United States in central Caracas stunned the world: Venezuela’s long-ruling leftist former president Nicolas Maduro was taken into custody alongside his wife Cilia Flores, and immediately extradited to New York to face federal drug trafficking charges. Four months on, the once-ubiquitous face of Maduro — which for years dominated Venezuelan public life, appearing on everything from nightly state television broadcasts and street murals to public construction signage and even children’s toys — is rapidly being erased from the national landscape.

The interim government led by former Chavismo figure Delcy Rodriguez, which took power following Maduro’s ouster, has overseen this gradual removal of Maduro’s image from public spaces as it pursues a dramatic geopolitical realignment with Washington. To mark its first 100 days in office, Rodriguez’s administration adopted the unapologetic slogan “The beginning of a new chapter” — a clear signal of its break with the Maduro era.

Under intense pressure from the United States, which has threatened further military intervention if its demands are not met, Rodriguez has prioritized sweeping policy changes aligned with U.S. interests: landmark reforms opening Venezuela’s lucrative hydrocarbon and mining sectors to foreign investment, alongside a broad amnesty program that has released hundreds of political opponents imprisoned under Maduro. She has also purged dozens of Maduro-appointed senior ministers from government, systematically weakening the former leader’s remaining ties to state institutions.

Eduardo Valero Castro, a professor of political science at Venezuela’s Central University, explained the deliberate nature of this shift. “We have seen how the figure of former president Nicolas Maduro has been gradually retired from public spaces,” he told AFP. “There is a new intentionality in Venezuelan politics, fully aligned with the new geopolitical alliance frameworks between Caracas and Washington.”

Rodriguez has pushed back hard against accusations of betraying her former mentor, who she insists she remained loyal to “until the last second.” Speaking at a public event in April, she dismissed her critics’ claims as petty and irrelevant. “Those who, out of pettiness, out of irrationality, say what they say about me, I’m going to tell them something: It’s irrelevant compared to what it means to defend Venezuela,” she said.

But the shift has exposed deep internal fractures within the Chavismo movement that Maduro led. Senior former Chavismo figures have openly condemned Rodriguez’s alignment with Washington. “I communicated this internally: we have become a lowly protectorate of the United States,” former pro-Maduro lawmaker Mario Silva wrote in an open letter to Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela’s powerful interior minister and one of Maduro’s closest remaining allies. “No pressure can justify collaborating with an aggressor,” Silva added.

Cabello, who remains in his post under the interim government, recently faced public criticism on his weekly television show over what critics called a “weak campaign” to secure Maduro’s release. He reaffirmed the movement’s official stance: “Our goal from the very beginning, our main objective, is for Cilia and Nicolas to come back.”

Silva’s public critique sparked fierce pushback from other Chavismo members, who deemed his comments out of line — a clear reflection of the growing rifts between hardline pro-Maduro factions and those who have accepted the new political order. Even among rank-and-file Chavismo supporters, many are frustrated that Maduro has largely disappeared from public discourse. At a recent march calling for an end to crippling U.S. sanctions on Venezuela, 64-year-old Chavista Ana Maria Pinto told AFP: “We want people to talk about him more, because that is not happening, he is not being taken into account.”

Alquimedes Rios, a leader of a Chavismo-affiliated community council, argued that activists have continued to organize to demand Maduro’s return from U.S. custody. “Our interim president Delcy Rodriguez continues negotiating, continues talking in order for our president Nicolas Maduro to return,” he said. “Have they not done enough? That could be, but we have been fighting to make that possible.”

For many ordinary Venezuelans, the reality of the situation is more nuanced. Juan Garcia, a 21-year-old fisherman from the coastal Sucre state, acknowledged the overwhelming challenges Rodriguez faces. “They’re acting through diplomacy, because we’re not going to bring him back through force,” he said.

Political analysts say the future of Maduro’s legacy will be tied directly to the success of Rodriguez’s economic agenda. Jesus Castillo-Molleda, a Venezuelan political scientist, noted that Maduro no longer represents a unifying force of stability for the fractured Chavismo movement. The movement, he argued, “is forced to accept this reality” of cooperating with Washington to survive. If Rodriguez can deliver sustained economic improvement for Venezuelans, Castillo-Molleda said, “Maduro will be forgotten more quickly.”

On a busy Saturday in central London that also hosted English football’s iconic FA Cup Final, dual large-scale demonstrations – one organized by high-profile far-right figure Tommy Robinson, and a counter-rally merging pro-Palestine activism and anti-fascism – drew tens of thousands of attendees, requiring one of the largest UK police deployments in recent memory.

London’s Metropolitan Police Service (Met) had prepared extensively for the dueling events, pre-positioning 4,000 officers supported by mounted units, canine teams, surveillance drones and helicopters to separate the rival crowds and prevent public disorder. The force estimates the entire security operation will cost £4.5 million (approximately $6 million), marking an unprecedented investment in protest policing for a domestic demonstration. In a new regulatory move, organizers have for the first time been held legally responsible for ensuring invited speakers do not violate UK hate speech legislation, with police announcing a strict zero-tolerance policy for any violence, harassment or hate speech.

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a former football hooligan turned anti-Islam activist who has gained massive online traction in recent years, organized the event billed as the “Unite the Kingdom” march, which set off from Holborn in central London. Ahead of the rally, the UK government barred 11 foreign far-right agitators from entering the country to attend, including U.S.-based extremist Valentina Gomez, who authorities condemn for repeated inflammatory, dehumanizing rhetoric targeting Muslim communities. Early Saturday morning, officers arrested two men en route to Robinson’s rally who were wanted on suspicion of grievous bodily harm linked to a Birmingham incident where a man was hit by a vehicle; no further details have been released about that case.

Many attendees of Robinson’s rally framed the event as a patriotic gathering centered on British national culture, with multiple participants describing their presence as a stand against current UK immigration policies, which have drawn widespread public anger over the tens of thousands of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats each year. Natasha, a 44-year-old attendee draped in a Union Jack and wearing a Union Jack-patterned bucket hat, told reporters “it’s nice to be around my own culture,” calling the event patriotic and denying any racist intent. Justin, a 56-year-old from Essex who declined to share his last name, echoed that framing, confirming that immigration was a core issue driving attendance. This rally follows a September 2023 event organized by Robinson that drew up to 150,000 people to central London, a shocking turnout for the far-right that featured a video address from X (formerly Twitter) owner Elon Musk. That event ended in clashes that injured dozens of police officers, pushing the far-right’s growing influence into the national spotlight.

Across the capital, the competing counter-demonstration combined three separate initiatives: a commemoration of Nakba Day, which marks the 1948 displacement of Palestinians during the founding of Israel; a pro-Palestine protest; and an anti-fascism rally organized by the group Stand Up to Racism. The Met projected an estimated 30,000 people would attend this combined event, which began in west London before marching toward central London. Simon Ralls, a 62-year-old attendee from Nottingham, explained his participation as a direct response to the growing confidence of far-right groups in the UK. “The right (wing) are emboldened — we’re here to try and counter that, make sure people aren’t ignorant,” he told reporters ahead of the march.

The dual demonstrations come amid heightened domestic security tensions in the UK. Just two weeks prior, the country’s terrorism threat level was raised to “severe” – the second-highest possible level – with security officials citing growing risks from both Islamist extremism and extreme right-wing terrorism. The events also follow a recent string of violent anti-Semitic attacks targeting London’s Jewish community, a wave of violence that some have linked to hostile rhetoric at pro-Palestine rallies across the country. To boost security, police are deploying live facial recognition technology for the first time ever at a UK protest, a move that has sparked debate over privacy and surveillance even as authorities defend it as a necessary public safety measure.

Adding to the strain on policing resources, the FA Cup Final – one of the biggest dates on the UK football calendar – kicked off at Wembley Stadium at 4 pm GMT, drawing tens of thousands of football fans to the capital just miles from the protest routes. Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke out a day before the demonstrations, issuing a strong warning that “anyone who sets out to wreak havoc on our streets, to intimidate or threaten anyone… can expect to face the full force of the law.” Starmer explicitly condemned organizers of Robinson’s rally, accusing them of “peddling hatred and division.” For his part, Robinson has urged attendees to avoid masks, excessive alcohol, and any disruptive behavior, calling on supporters to remain “peaceful and courteous.” Police have nonetheless voiced concerns about potential unrest from known football hooligan groups that have a history of supporting Robinson’s events.

In a move that underscores the steady deepening of Moscow-Beijing ties, the Kremlin announced Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin will embark on a two-day official visit to China starting May 19, arriving just days after U.S. President Donald Trump concluded his groundbreaking trip to Beijing — the first visit to China by a sitting U.S. president in almost a decade.

According to an official statement from the Kremlin, the core agenda of Putin’s visit will center on advancing the comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation between Russia and China. During high-level talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the two leaders will exchange detailed perspectives on pressing international and regional issues of shared concern, with a joint declaration set to be signed at the conclusion of their discussions. Putin is also scheduled to hold a separate meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, where the pair will focus on expanding bilateral economic and trade cooperation, a cornerstone of the increasingly robust relationship between the two nations.

The timing of Putin’s visit announcement comes immediately on the heels of Trump’s Friday departure from China, a trip marked by ceremonial grandeur that masked the persistence of unresolved trade disputes and geopolitical rifts, chief among them the lingering conflict between Russia and Ukraine. During his talks with Xi, Trump raised the ongoing Ukraine conflict, which has stretched into its fifth year, as well as the stalled U.S. standoff with Iran that began when hostilities broke out between the U.S.-Israeli bloc and Iran on February 28. However, Trump departed China without securing any visible breakthrough on either issue, despite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s pre-summit request that Trump push for progress on ending the conflict during his discussions with Beijing.

Moscow has repeatedly made clear that it will not accept a ceasefire or enter into full negotiations with Kyiv unless Ukraine concedes to the Kremlin’s sweeping territorial and political demands. For its part, China has maintained a formal position of neutrality: it has consistently called for diplomatic negotiations to end the fighting, but has never condemned Russia’s 2022 full-scale incursion into Ukraine, and denies Western accusations that it supplies weapons or military components to Russia’s defense industry. Beijing has instead pinned blame for the conflict, the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II, on Western nations, arguing that their ongoing arms shipments to Kyiv have prolonged the violence.

As the world’s largest importer of Russian fossil fuels, China has emerged as Russia’s most critical economic partner, a role that has expanded dramatically since Western powers imposed sweeping sanctions on Russian oil and gas exports following the 2022 invasion. That close alignment has been repeatedly emphasized by top Russian officials, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who spoke on the sidelines of an event in New Delhi just one day after the China-U.S. summit.

Lavrov welcomed the outcome of the China-U.S. talks, noting that “if the agreements reached or to be reached by Beijing and Washington are in the interests of our Chinese friends, we can only be delighted.” But he was quick to underscore the unique strength of Moscow’s relationship with Beijing, emphasizing that Russia and China are “bound to China by ties… that are deeper and stronger than traditional political and military alliances.”

The contrast between the outcomes of Trump’s Beijing visit and the upcoming Putin trip is already drawing attention from global observers. Following his departure, Trump claimed he had secured “fantastic” new trade deals with China, including a purported commitment from Beijing to purchase 200 Boeing aircraft along with increased volumes of U.S. crude oil and soybeans. But the details of these agreements remain sparse and vague, and Chinese officials have not released any formal public confirmation of the trade deals. Beijing’s overall response to the Trump-Xi summit was also far more muted than Trump’s own glowing descriptions of his interactions with Xi, whom Trump called a “great leader” and “friend.”