Venezuela

• 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.

• Saturday, March 25th 2017 - 09:44 UTC

  Maduro asks United Nations to help with supplies of medicines

  

  Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has asked for help from the United Nations to boost the country's supplies of medicines. Maduro said the UN had the expertise to normalize the supply and distribution of drugs in the country.

• Friday, March 24th 2017 - 11:02 UTC

  Maduro desperately selling assets to pay US$ 3.7bn in debts

  

  In an effort to handle its overdue debts, Venezuela is all but giving away oil assets. President Nicolás Maduro is reportedly so desperate to pay the US$ 3.7 billion in debts that he is selling off the assets to Russia.

• Friday, March 24th 2017 - 10:54 UTC

  Venezuela paralyzed because of gasoline shortage: supplies rushed in from Houston

  

  Although Venezuela has 18 refineries throughout the world and six on its own soil, on Thursday most states face a shortage of gasoline that has led to long lines at gas stations around the country. Venezuelans have spent hours in such lines, as they await a product that has been in short supply for several days in different cities across the country.

• Thursday, February 23rd 2017 - 09:35 UTC

  Venezuelan vice-president publishes full page in New York Times rebuking drug trafficking charges

  

  Tareck El Aissami, the recently appointed vice president in Venezuela, took out a full-page in The New York Times on Wednesday to rebuke sanctions against him and other Venezuelan officials leveled by the US government over drug trafficking charges. El Aissami, who was named alongside an alleged associate, was declared by the US Treasury Department to be a specially designated narcotics trafficker for allegedly “playing a significant role in international narcotics trafficking.”

• Thursday, February 16th 2017 - 11:54 UTC

  Trump calls for the immediate liberation of Venezuela's Leopoldo López

  

  US President Donald Trump on Wednesday called on Venezuela to free jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez “immediately,” posting a picture of himself and Vice President Mike Pence with Lopez's wife at the White House.

• Thursday, February 16th 2017 - 11:42 UTC

  Venezuela pulls CNN Spanish off the air; channel accused officials of selling passports to Arab terrorists

  

  Venezuela pulled CNN's Spanish-language television channel off the air on Wednesday, accusing it of spreading “propaganda” about an alleged visa racket at the country's embassy in Iraq. The state National Telecommunications Commission ordered “the immediate suspension of broadcasts by the news channel CNN in Spanish” in Venezuela, a government statement said.