Venezuela

• Friday, April 21st 2017 - 09:32 UTC

  Venezuela opposition announced three more days of protests

  

  Venezuela's opposition renewed nationwide protests on Thursday to pressure President Nicolas Maduro to hold elections and improve a collapsing economy, and vowed to keep up pressure by staging three more protests in the next four days.

• Thursday, April 20th 2017 - 23:21 UTC

  Russian shipping conglomerate suing Venezuela's oil giant PDVSA for unpaid fees

  

  Venezuela's state-run oil company, PDVSA, sent a tanker in October to the Caribbean with the expectation that its cargo of crude would fetch about US$20 million - money the crisis-stricken nation desperately needs. Instead, the owner of the tanker, the Russian state-owned shipping conglomerate Sovcomflot, held the oil in hopes of collecting partial payment on US$30 million that it says PDVSA owes for unpaid shipping fees.

• Thursday, April 20th 2017 - 00:51 UTC

  Two students killed in massive marches in Venezuela; “the anti-Christs have been defeated” blasts Maduro

  

  Two Venezuelan students died on Wednesday after being shot during protests against unpopular populist President Nicolas Maduro, increasing turmoil in the volatile nation amid a crippling economic crisis. Opposition supporters protested in Caracas and other cities in what they called “the mother of all marches,” denouncing Maduro for eroding democracy and plunging the oil-rich economy into chaos.

• Wednesday, April 19th 2017 - 06:03 UTC

  “Mother of all marches” in Venezuela; Maduro reacts by pledging 500.000 civilian militias

  

  As Venezuela’s center-right opposition prepares to stage “the mother of all marches” this Wednesday to protest President Nicolas Maduro’s efforts to consolidate power, the besieged leader has called for a countermarch and declared plans to expand the country’s civilian militias.

• Friday, April 7th 2017 - 10:39 UTC

  Mercosur and Pacific Alliance summit will address potential convergence and Trump's protectionism

  

  Mercosur and Pacific Alliance foreign ministers are scheduled to meet this Friday in Buenos Aires, on an Argentine initiative to advance in a possible political and trade confluence with the prospect of a regional alliance in the near future. The controversial Venezuela case will also be on the table, but attendants have anticipated that they won't let this issue dominate the agenda or cast a shadow on the purpose of the summit.

• Thursday, April 6th 2017 - 06:08 UTC

  Maduro blows up last bridge with Mercosur and causes deep rift in Uruguayan ruling coalition

  

  Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro seems to have blown up the last bridge to Mercosur when he launched a barrage of accusations against Uruguay's foreign minister which triggered an immediate reaction from president Tabare Vazquez, who demanded evidence of the charges or a public retraction from the embattled Maduro. But the conflict has also openly exposed the deep rift inside the Uruguayan ruling coalition regarding the Bolivarian revolution “anti imperialist” regime.

• Tuesday, April 4th 2017 - 09:55 UTC

  Maduro gained his true objective: sweeping authority to cut oil deals on behalf of PDVSA

  

  Venezuelan Supreme Court reversal decision to take over the opposition-led congress seems to have yielded to domestic and international pressure, but it still gives embattled populist President Nicolas Maduro broad new powers over the country´s vast oil wealth, which now appears to have been his true target.

• Saturday, April 1st 2017 - 23:12 UTC

  Domestic (military) and foreign pressure force Maduro to revoke annulment of Congress

  

  Venezuela's pro-government Supreme Court on Saturday revoked its controversial annulment of the opposition-led Congress amid international condemnation and protests against populist president Nicolas Maduro. Unprecedented pressure from other Latin American nations and dissent within its own ranks, and the military, appear to have been the catalyst for the court reversing its Wednesday ruling.

• Saturday, April 1st 2017 - 09:09 UTC

  Chavism divided: Chief prosecutor says there has been a ”rupture of constitutional order

  

  Venezuela's chief prosecutor broke with the government on Friday and rebuked a Supreme Court decision stripping Congress of its last vestiges of power, showing a crack in the unity of the embattled populist government of President Nicolas Maduro as it came under a torrent of international condemnation over what many decried as a major step toward dictatorship.

• Friday, March 31st 2017 - 07:20 UTC

  Venezuelan Supreme Court closes Legislative gives all power to Maduro: world condemnation

  

  The Venezuelan Supreme Court's decision late Wednesday to take control of the opposition-controlled legislature has set off a wave of outrage, with some hemispheric neighbors, including the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Peru and Argentina, denouncing the measure as a threat to democracy.