Stories we're watching

1. The UN has concluded that Venezuela's elections cannot be classified as free or fair, adding a relevant international voice to calls for the regime of Nicolás Maduro to back up its claims that he won a third straight term.

• The brief from UN experts who were in Venezuela during the July 28 elections comes as the country's Supreme Court, led by Maduro allies, is close to certifying the alleged results despite the outcry.
• The International Criminal Court also announced this week that, following its case into probable human rights violations in Venezuela, it is monitoring the reports of mass arbitrary arrests and the torture of protesters.

2. The Guatemalan attorney general's office, whose leadership has been accused of corruption and anti-democratic actions by the U.S. and other countries, this week arrested Ligia Hernández, head of the government's advocacy program for criminal victims.

• It's an escalation of the rift between the attorney general's office and the presidency of Bernardo Arévalo, who was elected last year with a campaign that honed in on anti-corruption pledges.
• Prosecutors have been claiming Arévalo's party, Movimiento Semilla, to which Hernández belongs, committed campaign finance crimes. Semilla says the charges are fabricated with the intention of stopping anti-corruption efforts.