The government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is blocking US citizens in the country from leaving, rebuffing efforts by Washington to arrange humanitarian evacuation flights, a State Department spokeswoman said on Thursday.
The US administration has suspended all private charter flights between the United States and Cuba, to increase economic pressure on Havana. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted that the Castro regime uses tourism and travel funds to finance its abuses and interference in Venezuela.
Dario Vivas, the governor of Venezuela's Caracas capital district and a strong ally of President Nicolas Maduro, died on Thursday of Covid-19 at 70 years old, officials said.
A Venezuelan court sentenced two former US soldiers to 20 years in prison for their role in a failed incursion aimed at ousting President Nicolas Maduro in early May, chief prosecutor Tarek Saab said over the weekend.
The United States warned on Tuesday that elections planned in Venezuela later this year would be deeply fraudulent, accusing leftist leader Nicolas Maduro of seeking to manipulate the outcome.
The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on two former officials of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government, barring them from traveling to the United States over accusations they were involved in significant corruption.
Venezuela's government blasted a US$5 million US reward offer for information leading to the arrest of the country's Supreme Court president, likening it to something out of the Wild West.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law ratifying the protocol to the intergovernmental agreement on providing a loan to Venezuela by Moscow, which guarantees timely debt repayment to Russia.
The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on Venezuelan Chief Justice Maikel Moreno and announced a US$ 5 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction for allegedly participating in transnational organized crime.
Some gold, diamond and bauxite mines in the Venezuelan Amazon are largely controlled by criminal gangs who exploit, beat, and even kill workers, a United Nations investigation has found. Venezuelan security and military forces fail to prevent crimes and have participated in some violence against miners, the UN human rights office said in a report on Wednesday.