MercoPress https://en.mercopress.com/ South Atlantic News Agency en Copyright 2026, MercoPress. https://en.mercopress.com/web/img/en/mercopress-logo.gif MercoPress http://en.mercopress.com/ <![CDATA[Venezuela names Oliver Blanco, a former opposition aide, as foreign minister]]> A graduate in International Studies, Blanco was an aide to Henry Ramos Allup, a leader of the opposition Democratic Action party, when he presided over the National Assembly elected in 2015 Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez has appointed Oliver Blanco, a 35-year-old diplomat who began his political career alongside a veteran opposition leader, as foreign minister in a reshuffle of her government’s international team. Blanco replaces Félix Plasencia, whom Rodríguez has tasked with moving to the United Kingdom to recover Venezuelan gold held at the Bank of England.

]]> Fri, 30 Oct 2026 17:00:00 GMT <![CDATA[“I am the right person”: Delcy Rodríguez casts herself as guarantor of Venezuela’s transition]]> “There will be elections, all those our Constitution requires, organised by a renewed electoral authority and with the world as witness,” Rodríguez said in an address to the nation Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez on Thursday presented herself as the guarantor of democratic change in the country and promised elections organised by a “renewed” electoral authority, though she set no date. “This process can only be led by someone who knows the inner workings of the Venezuelan state deeply. I know this state and I am the right person to carry this process forward,” she said.

]]> Thu, 29 Oct 2026 17:42:00 GMT <![CDATA[Trump suggests Venezuela become the 51st US state and elect a governor]]> “We’re bringing out a lot of oil for ourselves, a lot. It will become a prosperous country, and who knows? Maybe someday soon it will become a prosperous 51st state. That’s possible,” Trump said US President Donald Trump suggested on Tuesday that Venezuela become the 51st US state and that its citizens elect a governor instead of a president, at a rally at the port of Corpus Christi, Texas, where he announced the arrival of the first shipment of one million barrels of Venezuelan oil obtained under an agreement between Washington and Caracas.

]]> Wed, 28 Oct 2026 03:36:00 GMT <![CDATA[María Corina Machado returns to Venezuela after ten months abroad and seven failed attempts]]> Machado returns to a country transformed since Nicolás Maduro’s removal from power following the US military operation in January Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado returned to Venezuela on Sunday after nearly ten months abroad and at least seven failed attempts to go back. “I am here. With you,” she wrote on X, shortly before reappearing at a Mass at the Divina Pastora sanctuary in Barquisimeto, Lara state, surrounded by supporters.

]]> Sun, 25 Oct 2026 17:08:00 GMT <![CDATA[Inter-American Court hears case over the April 11, 2002 killings in Caracas]]> The only people convicted over the events were Metropolitan Police officers, released this year, and police commissioner Iván Simonovis, who escaped house arrest in 2019 and lives in exile The Inter-American Court of Human Rights held this week in San José, Costa Rica, the first public hearing in the case over the killings of April 11, 2002 in Caracas, when an opposition march came under gunfire near the Miraflores Palace. Nineteen people died and dozens were wounded that day, in the run-up to the coup that removed then-president Hugo Chávez from power for two days.

]]> Fri, 16 Oct 2026 09:59:00 GMT <![CDATA[US lifts sanctions on Jorge Rodríguez, president of Venezuela’s National Assembly]]> The US Treasury Department on Wednesday removed from its sanctions list Jorge Rodríguez, president of Venezuela’s National Assembly and brother of acting president Delcy Rodríguez. The Treasury did not explain the reasons for the decision.

]]> Wed, 14 Oct 2026 22:02:00 GMT <![CDATA[Lubetkin warns Flávio Bolsonaro that “it is not easy to leave Mercosur”]]> “It is not easy to leave Mercosur. There are too many interrelated agreements in the business sphere, and that would cause major losses for the Brazilian economy,” Lubetkin said Uruguay’s Foreign Minister Mario Lubetkin has warned Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro that “it is not easy to leave Mercosur”, in response to his criticism of the bloc during the campaign for the October 25 runoff. In the same interview, with the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, he said Uruguay would not restore diplomatic relations with Venezuela while Delcy Rodríguez governs.

]]> Tue, 13 Oct 2026 14:52:00 GMT <![CDATA[US charges Maduro and Cilia Flores with torture and repression in Venezuela]]> Maduro and Flores, held since January 3 following a US operation in Caracas and detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, have pleaded not guilty to all charges US federal prosecutors on Thursday brought new torture and repression charges against former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, adding to the drug trafficking and narco-terrorism case both face in a New York court. The same day, the judge denied a request by Flores for house arrest on health grounds.

]]> Fri, 09 Oct 2026 07:35:00 GMT <![CDATA[Former Venezuelan Supreme Court justice says she was coerced into barring Machado]]> “My relatives' lives were used to force me to sign key decisions that affected the democratic course of the country,” said César Siero Former Venezuelan Supreme Court justice Bárbara César Siero has alleged that the detention of two of her brothers and her sister-in-law in late 2023 was used to force her to sign the rulings that kept opposition leader María Corina Machado barred from office. She made the claims in a 43-minute video posted on YouTube on Tuesday.

]]> Wed, 07 Oct 2026 07:11:00 GMT <![CDATA[Delcy Rodríguez tells the UN there will be elections in Venezuela, without setting a date]]> It was the first address by a Venezuelan head of state to the body's plenary since 2018, when Nicolás Maduro spoke Venezuela's acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, announced on Wednesday before the United Nations General Assembly that her country will hold elections, without specifying when, and thanked US President Donald Trump for "his willingness to return to the path of diplomatic relations and cooperation".

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