Here is your Monday Sociedad Media Now newsletter on recent events in Venezuela, the upcoming Colombian presidential election (May 31), and recent U.S. sanctions on Nicaragua’s Ortega-Murillo regime.
María Corina Machado Vows to Run For President in Venezuela — Is Washington Ready?
MIAMI — María Corina Machado — the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who won Venezuela’s opposition primary with 92.4% of the vote and holds a 72% approval rating among Venezuelans — announced on Saturday in Panama that she will run for president. The problem: there is no election date, the constitutional window has already passed without a vote being held, and the Trump administration has spent four months working around her — dealing directly with Delcy Rodríguez while sidelining the candidate Venezuelans actually chose.
Machado says free and fair elections need seven to nine months to organize, that she plans to return to Venezuela before the end of 2026, and that the transition is not finished until Venezuelans vote.
Washington has not responded.
Colombia Anxiously Awaits Election — Six Days Away
Colombia enters the final six days before its May 31 presidential election with the race in a state of genuine uncertainty — the last poll authorized before election day shows De la Espriella in a near-tie with front-runner Iván Cepeda at 38.7% to 37.3%, with the poll projecting De la Espriella would defeat Cepeda in a runoff.
Two weeks ago, Valencia was in second place. Campaigns closed on Sunday. The country now enters the mandatory silence period before voting — no advertising, no events, no new polling — with three candidates who have made their final arguments and 39 million registered voters who will decide whether Colombia gets a Cepeda-De la Espriella runoff, a Cepeda-Valencia runoff, or a first-round victory that ends it all on May 31.
Washington Turns Up Heat on Managua as Ortega Calls Trump “Unhinged.” What Comes Next In Nicaragua?
Washington’s Latin America pressure campaign now has a third target: Nicaragua.
Secretary of State Rubio sanctioned Nicaragua’s Vice Minister of the Interior last month — the man who oversees the regime’s prisons, police, and repressive apparatus — on the anniversary of the 2018 massacre that killed more than 300 Nicaraguans.
The designation is part of a pattern of escalating U.S. pressure that has included sanctions on Nicaragua’s gold sector and multiple other regime officials throughout 2026.
Ortega called Trump “unhinged” in response.
It now appears the “forgotten dictatorship” — compared by analysts to North Korea for its information restrictions and political prisoner treatment — is no longer being forgotten.
