SAN JOSE: Authorities in Nicaragua have arrested at least 60 people for reportedly celebrating or expressing support for the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, a human rights watchdog group and local media outlets said Friday.
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo are staunch allies of Maduro, who was captured by US military personnel in Caracas last Saturday and taken to New York to face trial on drug and weapons charges.
Since the arrest of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, “at least 60 arbitrary arrests” have occurred over alleged support for the operation, the NGO Blue and White Monitoring, which compiles reports of human rights violations in Nicaragua, said in a post on X.
The group said 49 people remained in detention Friday “without information about their legal status,” while nine people have been released and three others were temporarily detained.
“This new wave of repression is carried out without a judicial order and is based solely on expressions of opinion: comments on social media, private celebrations, or not repeating official propaganda,” the group said.
According to Confidencial, a Nicaraguan newspaper published outside the country, the arrests took place under a “state of alert” ordered by Murillo following Maduro’s capture — including surveillance in neighborhoods and on social media.
La Prensa, another local newspaper, said the arrests occurred due to “posts in favor” of the US operation.
Nicaragua arrests dozens for reportedly supporting capture of Maduro
https://arab.news/jfts4
Nicaragua arrests dozens for reportedly supporting capture of Maduro
- According to Confidencial, a Nicaraguan newspaper published outside the country, the arrests took place under a “state of alert” ordered by Murillo following Maduro’s capture
TikTok finalizes deal to form new American entity
TikTok has finalized a deal to create a new American entity, avoiding the looming threat of a ban in the United States that has been in discussion for years.
The social video platform company signed agreements with major investors including Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX to form the new TikTok US joint venture. The new version will operate under “defined safeguards that protect national security through comprehensive data protections, algorithm security, content moderation and software assurances for US users,” the company said in a statement Thursday. American TikTok users can continue using the same app.
Adam Presser, who previously worked as TikTok’s head of operations and trust and safety, will lead the new venture as its CEO. He will work alongside a seven-member, majority-American board of directors that includes TikTok’s CEO Shou Chew.
The deal marks the end of years of uncertainty about the fate of the popular video-sharing platform in the United States. After wide bipartisan majorities in Congress passed — and President Joe Biden signed — a law that would ban TikTok in the US if it did not find a new owner in the place of China’s ByteDance, the platform was set to go dark on the law’s January 2025 deadline. For a several hours, it did. But on his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to keep it running while his administration sought an agreement for the sale of the company.
In addition to an emphasis on data protection, with US user data being stored locally in a system run by Oracle, the joint venture will also focus on TikTok’s algorithm. The content recommendation formula, which feeds users specific videos tailored to their preferences and interests, will be retrained, tested and updated on US user data, the company said in its announcement.
Oracle, Silver Lake and the Emirati investment firm MGX are the three managing investors, who each hold a 15 percent share. Other investors include the investment firm of Michael Dell, the billionaire founder of Dell Technologies. ByteDance retains 19.9 percent of the joint venture.
