Swelling crowds of demonstrators carrying flags and blowing whistles gathered in Venezuela’s capital Saturday, led by opposition politician Juan Guaidó, who was urging masses into the streets to force President Nicolás Maduro from power.
Guaidó called nationwide demonstrations to re-ignite a campaign against Maduro launched in January that has lost steam in recent months. Maduro’s supporters are also gathering for a rival demonstration.
“Our victory today is coming together in this struggle and demanding freedom,” Guaidó tweeted.
An opponent to President Nicolas Maduro walks along a highway in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2019. Opposition leader Juan Guaido has called on Venezuelans across the nation to flood the streets for protests nearly a year after he launched his campaign to push Maduro from power. (AP PhotoMatias Delacroix)
Lisbeth Guerra said she closed her two electronics shops in Caracas to join the march because she is fed up with two decades of socialist rule that have ruined the economy and driven 20 of her relatives from the country.
“More than anything, I want other nations in the world to take note of our crisis,” she said, joining hundreds of Guaidó supporters at a plaza in the opposition stronghold of Altamira.
Guaidó, 36, leaped to the center of Venezuela’s political fray when the opposition-dominated National Assembly appointed him as its leader. On Jan. 23, arguing that Maduro’s reelection was illegitimate, he declared that he was assuming presidential powers pending new elections.
A crowd carrying flags and blowing whistles gather in a demonstration led by opposition politician Juan Guaido, who’s urging masses into the streets to force President Nicolás Maduro from power, in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2019. Guaido called nationwide demonstrations to re-ignite a campaign against Maduro launched in January that has lost steam in recent months. (AP PhotoMatias Delacroix)
The United Nations Human Rights office urged Venezuelan authorities to allow peaceful protests without any acts of intimidation and violence. Few security forces were visible on Caracas’ streets early in the day.
Maduro’s socialist party also called its members to demonstrate in solidarity with Bolivia’s Evo Morales, who resigned the presidency and fled into exile in Mexico on Nov. 10, claiming a coup d’etat following massive protests accusing him of engineering a fraudulent reelection.
Maduro backers wearing red shirts boarded buses with blaring salsa music for a rally scheduled to culminate at the presidential palace in the center of the capital.
The ounce-wealthy nation is gripped by crisis, which critics blame on years of failed socialist rule, while Maduro frequently blames right-wing forces backed by the United States set on overthrowing him to steal Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.
“The streets of Caracas are filled with joy with people defending their right to democracy,” Maduro tweeted. “Let’s tell the world Venezuela is strong, in peace and building a socialist homeland.”
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NCAA athletes will be immediately eligible to play no matter how many times they transfer — as long as they meet academic requirements — after the association fast-tracked legislation Wednesday to fall in line with a recent court order.
The NCAA announced the Division I Council's decision becomes official Thursday when its meeting adjourns. The change still needs to be ratified by the DI Board next week, but that is expected.
The new rules will go into effect immediately, though in reality they have already been enacted through a lawsuit filed late last year.
Transfer windows, which are sport-specific, remain in place and require undergraduate athletes to enter their names into the portal at certain times to be immediately eligible at a new school. Graduate students can already transfer multiple times and enter the portal outside the windows while maintaining immediate eligibility.
A coalition of state attorneys general late last year sued the NCAA, challenging rules that forced athletes that wanted to transfer multiple-times as undergraduates to sit out a season with their new school.
A judge in West Virginia granted the plaintiffs a temporary injunction, lifting requirements for multiple-time transfers to request a waiver from the NCAA to be immediately eligible to compete.
The NCAA quickly requested the injunction be kept in place throughout the remaining school year to clear up any ambiguity for athletes and schools. The association has had to issue guidance to its members to clarify what that means for next season. Now the rules match the court ruling.
By eliminating the so-called year-in-residence for transfers, an athlete must be academically eligible at the previous school and not subject to any disciplinary suspension or dismissal to compete immediately at a new school. Transferring athletes must also meet progress-toward-degree requirements before competing.
“We hope that this practical approach to transfer eligibility requirements will encourage student-athletes to make well-informed decisions about transferring and the impacts such a move could have on their ability to graduate on time in their degree of choice, particularly as it relates to transferable credits,” Florida deputy athletic director and council chairwoman Lynda Tealer said in a statement.
The board will ask the committee on academics to explore creating a new metric — similar to the NCAA's Academic Progress Rating — that would hold schools accountable for graduating the transfers they accept.
The portal windows are currently open for both football and basketball, and the lifting of restrictions on multiple-time transfers has led to an uptick in athletes looking to switch schools.
In a notable move that would not have been permissible without a waiver under previous rules, Alabama offensive tackle Kadyn Proctor entered the portal in January after Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban retired, committed to Iowa, but then changed his mind during the spring and has reentered the portal with the intention to reenroll at Alabama.
The DI Council also moved forward on legislation that would allow schools to be more actively involved in securing sponsorship deals for their athletes. Schools could still not directly pay athletes, but they could facilitate NIL opportunities between third parties and athletes.
AP Sports Writer John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia, contributed to this report.
Follow Ralph D. Russo at https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP and listen at http://www.appodcasts.com
AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
FILE - South Carolina players work out during a practice at the Women's Final Four NCAA college college basketball tournament, Saturday, April 2, 2022, in Minneapolis. NCAA athletes will be immediately eligible to play no matter how many times they transfer — as long as they meet academic requirements — after the association fast-tracked legislation Wednesday, April 17, 2024, to fall in line with a recent court order. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
FILE - Wachovia Center operations manager Jim McDonald, left, and carpenter foreman Tim Allen remove the protective film covering the NCAA logo at mid-court on the center's basketball court, Wednesday, March 15, 2006, in Philadelphia. NCAA athletes will be immediately eligible to play no matter how many times they transfer — as long as they meet academic requirements — after the association fast-tracked legislation Wednesday, April 17, 2024, to fall in line with a recent court order. (Ed Hille/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP, FIie)
