Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro has said he will travel to New York this week for his debut appearance as president at the United Nations General Assembly despite racist editorials against him in major US newspapers.
Venezuela’s populist government has quietly secured the backing of Latin America and the Caribbean to obtain a diplomatic trophy that long eluded the late Hugo Chavez: a seat on the United Nations Security Council.
The original Mercosur is over; it has been reduced to a political block with a three member board, Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela, according to Demetrio Magnoli a renowned Folha de Sao Paulo columnist who added that the 'political' Mercosur has helped the Alliance of the Pacific to advance.
Members of Venezuela's Socialist Party have rolled out a variation of the classic Christian “Lord's Prayer” to implore beloved late leader Hugo Chavez for protection from the evils of capitalism.
“Our Chavez who art in heaven, the earth, the sea and we delegates,” red-shirted delegate Maria Estrella Uribe recited at the PSUV party Congress.
Venezuela’s shipments of crude oil and fuel to its allies have fallen to a five-year low as a weak economy hits its ability to uphold accords that former president Hugo Chávez struck to lower energy costs for friends and expand his diplomatic clout.
Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA has started using China Citic Bank to collect money from crude and fuel sales instead of Portugal’s Banco Espirito Santo, according to media reports in Caracas.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has reminded the Venezuelan government that if it fails to settle debts with international airlines, the country would be isolated from the world; hence, the association urged Venezuela to reach agreements, and above all, to fulfill such agreements.
The United States is imposing travel restrictions on a number of Venezuelan officials. Washington did not specify how many people would be affected, but said those who have been responsible for or complicit in human rights abuses would not be welcome in the US.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) called on the Venezuelan government to honor the commitment it made in March to permit airlines to repatriate in full and at fair exchange rates airline funds being blocked in the country.
Venezuela's state-run oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) is considering offers to sell its U.S. downstream subsidiary Citgo, industry research group Argus Media reported on its website last Friday.