Venezuela

• Saturday, October 22nd 2016 - 09:20 UTC

  Diphtheria outbreak in Venezuela; CIA “germ warfare” claims the Chavista government

  

  Diphtheria, an extremely contagious disease that has been mostly eradicated worldwide through vaccination, has reappeared in Venezuela and so far has killed four children with another twenty cases reported in just one month. The reappearance of diphtheria, a disease not seen in Venezuela in more than 20 years, is yet the worst symptom of the country's collapsed health system.

• Tuesday, October 11th 2016 - 04:11 UTC

  Hugo Chavez Peace Prize awarded to Vladimir Putin by Maduro

  

  Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Friday announced the creation of peace prize in honor of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, and said he was awarding it to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The announcement comes on the same day that the Nobel Committee awarded its annual Peace Prize to Juan Manuel Santos, president of neighboring Colombia, for his role in negotiating a peace agreement with Marxist FARC rebels.

• Tuesday, October 4th 2016 - 11:55 UTC

  Macri and Temer reaffirm commitment to strengthen Mercosur

  

  Argentine President Mauricio Macri and his Brazilian counterpart, Michel Temer, agreed on Monday on the need to strengthen Mercosur and to make its rules more “flexible” to ”give a certain autonomy to the (member) states in their international relations.”

• Thursday, September 15th 2016 - 10:40 UTC

  Uruguay admits “consensus support” to remove Venezuela from Mercosur rotating chair

  

  Uruguay's deputy foreign minister Jose Luis Cancela said that if Uruguay had not complied with the other Mercosur three founding members' joint declaration ignoring Venezuela's presidency and demanding it complies with the group's legislation and treaties, “Mercosur would have been launched into a period of full paralysis”.

• Wednesday, September 14th 2016 - 08:28 UTC

  Venezuela could lose Mercosur membership if it does not comply with the block's rules

  

  Mercosur full members are working on a resolution calling on Venezuela to comply with all rules, regulations and international treaties of the block, which should be incorporated by next December, and if not the country could lose its membership, according to Uruguayan foreign minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa.

• Friday, September 2nd 2016 - 15:01 UTC

  Brazil reacts to Maduro's statements and calls its ambassador in Caracas

  

  The impeachment process that led to the removal of Dilma Rousseff from office on Wednesday, August 31, increased the gap among the continent's governments. While the U.S. said that the definite ousting of the now-former president of Brazil followed constitutional proceedings, the so-called Bolivarian governments – Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia – reacted by calling their ambassadors back.

• Friday, September 2nd 2016 - 11:21 UTC

  A million Venezuelans take to the streets peacefully to protest against Maduro

  

  Opponents of President Nicolas Maduro flooded Venezuela's capital on Thursday in one of the biggest mass protests against socialist rule for more than a decade. Dressed in white and chanting “this government will fall,” hundreds of thousands rallied across Caracas to demand a recall referendum against Maduro and decry a deep economic crisis in the oil rich country.

• Thursday, September 1st 2016 - 10:29 UTC

  Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia freeze relations with Brazil in support of Rousseff

  

  Venezuela on Wednesday withdrew its ambassador from Brazil and froze ties in response to president Dilma Rousseff's removal from office.

• Tuesday, August 30th 2016 - 04:38 UTC

  Mercosur members who disagree and don't accept consensus “can walk out”...

  

  Paraguay said Mercosur will continue to function and is waiting for a reply from Uruguay to confirm a collegiate presidency of the block, until Argentina takes the helm at the end of the year. If not, “Mercosur members are well aware that the the same way they decided to belong to the group, they can walk away...”

• Monday, August 29th 2016 - 04:11 UTC

  Venezuela and Iran announce new “dynamic bilateral relations”

  

  Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro named Chief General Jesus Gonzalez as the country's new ambassador to Iran on Saturday, while announcing the beginning of a new dynamic era in Caracas-Tehran bilateral relations.