By Alessandra Freitas, CNN

In the weeks following the US military capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the world’s attention turned to who was best placed to run a country that had spent 13 years under his authoritarian regime.

Since Maduro’s unceremonious ouster at the hands of US special forces on January 3, the right to succeed him has been claimed by: Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s former deputy, currently sworn in as acting president with the apparent support of US President Donald Trump; Trump himself, who has previously claimed to be “in charge” of Venezuela; and the Venezuelan opposition, with leader María Corina Machado saying last month that her coalition should lead the country. Machado won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for fighting a tumultuous election that landed her at the top of Maduro’s most-wanted list.

Yet one key voice has been absent from the center stage: Edmundo González Urrutia – the man who stood in for Machado in the 2024 presidential election after she was barred from entering and who, according to both the opposition and several Western nations including the United States, actually won the vote.

Since that disputed election, Machado’s international profile has skyrocketed – thanks not only to her daring escape from Venezuela when she traveled to Norway to collect her Nobel Prize, but her subsequent gifting of the award to Trump when she met him at the White House in January. She is the one who has been engaging directly with US officials as the opposition tries to secure its position in post-Maduro Venezuela.

González, meanwhile, has stayed largely out of public view altogether. So, what happened to him?

A man of few words

Living in exile in Spain since late 2024, González has remained largely quiet since the US operation that ousted Maduro. He released a statement the day after the attack — when Machado was still silent — saying the moment was “an important step, but not enough” and calling for the release of political prisoners.

Since then, he hasn’t said much on the power transitions in Venezuela, instead focusing on the freeing of those prisoners – a matter close to his heart as his son-in-law, Rafael Tudares, was arrested and sentenced to 30 years in prison by Venezuelan authorities during Maduro’s presidency.

Following Tudares’ release alongside dozens of other political prisoners, on the orders of Rodríguez in what the Venezuelan government said was a “peace” gesture, González made one of his few public comments on the 2024 election in an interview with Fox Noticias, in which he said, “More than 7 million Venezuelans voted for our candidacy, and it is from that reality that the process of democratic normalization in Venezuela must begin.”

That aside, since the election, he has been a man of few words – as, indeed, he always has been.

A retired diplomat who served as Venezuela’s ambassador to Algeria and Argentina, he is far more comfortable negotiating behind the scenes. In fact, he was not the first, second, or even third choice of the opposition coalition known as the Democratic Unitary Platform. After the Maduro regime barred Machado, both academic Corina Yoris and former presidential candidate Manuel R

By Tal Shalev, Tim Lister, CNN

Tel Aviv (CNN) — The Israeli government has advanced the registration of territory in the occupied West Bank as state land in a move that Palestinians have decried as “de facto annexation.”

For the first time since Israel occupied the territory in 1967, the government will create a mechanism to officially register large swaths of land under the state.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry defended the move as an “administrative measure” which would “bring order” to land registration. But government ministers made clear the intent was to increase settlement and entrench Israel’s grip on the land.

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalal Smotrich said the land registry would continue “the settlement and governance revolution across all parts of our land” as he referenced Judea and Samaria, the biblical term for the West Bank. And Justice Minister Yariv Levin said Israel is “committed to strengthening its hold over all parts of our land, and this decision expresses that commitment.”

The government’s new measure will apply to what is known as Area C of the West Bank, about 60% of the territory and home to an estimated 180,000-300,000 Palestinians and to a settler population of at least 325,500, according to Israeli human rights group Btselem.

The Palestinian Presidency said the decision violated international law and amounted to “de facto annexation of occupied Palestinian territory.” In a statement, the president’s office warned that the move was a “declaration of the annexation plans aimed at entrenching the occupation through illegal settlement activity.”

Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 war and subsequently began establishing Jewish settlements there, which are considered illegal under international law, by the United Nations and by much of the international community. The UN also regards the West Bank and East Jerusalem as occupied territory, which the Palestinians seek for a future state.

Peace Now, an Israeli settlement watchdog, described the government’s move as “a massive land grab in the West Bank … completely against the will of the people and contrary to Israel’s best interests.”

The Israeli government approved the measure despite US President Donald Trump’s stated opposition to annexation of the West Bank.

“We warn President Trump – Netanyahu is deceiving you! You said you wouldn’t allow annexation, but he’s carrying it out right under your nose,” Peace Now said, adding that the move would lead to the dispossession of thousands of Palestinians from their land.

“The process requires landowners to prove ownership in ways that are almost impossible for most Palestinians to do; if they fail, the land will be automatically registered as state land,” Peace Now asserted.

This latest measure comes after Israel’s security cabinet approved a move last week that expanded Israeli rule and governance over the West Bank. The move drew international condemnation, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calling it as a flagrant violation of international law and the European Union saying it is a “step in the wrong direction.”

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Por Logan Schiciano y Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN

El Departamento de Justicia envió el sábado al Congreso una lista de “personas políticamente expuestas” que aparecen en los millones de archivos publicados en relación con sus investigaciones sobre el delincuente sexual condenado Jeffrey Epstein.

La carta de seis páginas, de la que CNN obtuvo una copia, incluye los nombres de muchas figuras prominentes que aparecen en los archivos, independientemente del contexto, y no especifica el grado en que esas personas estaban vinculadas o en contacto con Epstein. La carta está firmada por el vicesecretario de Justicia, Todd Blanche, y dirigida a los principales miembros de las Comisiones Judiciales de la Cámara de Representantes y el Senado.

El Departamento de Justicia se vio obligado a elaborar la lista en virtud de la Ley de Transparencia de los Archivos de Epstein aprobada por el Congreso.

Si bien algunas de las personas que figuran en la lista tienen vínculos bien documentados con el delincuente sexual condenado, de otras no se sabe que hayan interactuado personalmente con Epstein. La lista incluye presidentes, iconos culturales, líderes empresariales y funcionarios gubernamentales.

Nadie de la lista, salvo Epstein y su cómplice Ghislane Maxwell, ha sido acusado en relación con los delitos de Epstein.

La lista recién publicada enojó a varios miembros del Congreso, entre ellos el representante Ro Khanna, coautor de la ley que obligó a publicar los archivos. Afirmó que el Departamento de Justicia está “confundiendo deliberadamente quién era un depredador y quién fue mencionado en un correo electrónico”.

La representante republicana Nancy Mace, una aliada activa de las víctimas de Epstein, criticó duramente al Departamento de Justicia en una publicación en redes sociales el sábado por la noche, alegando que “faltan nombres en la lista divulgada esta noche”.

Al igual que en sus anteriores cartas al Congreso, el Departamento de Justicia enumera las razones para censurar información en los archivos que van más allá de lo que exige la ley aprobada por el Congreso, incluidos documentos que muestran el proceso deliberativo, el producto del trabajo y las comunicaciones entre abogados y clientes que serían privilegiadas.

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