Venezuela

• Wednesday, August 5th 2015 - 08:47 UTC

  US State Department calls on Venezuela to lift ban on opposition candidates

  

  The United States on Tuesday called on Venezuela to reverse a ban on opposition members from holding office and participating in the 6 December parliamentary elections. Washington made the request after opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said she had tried to register on Monday as a candidate but her application was rejected.

• Tuesday, August 4th 2015 - 06:06 UTC

  Repsol makes first shipment from offshore gas field in the Gulf of Venezuela

  

  The first shipment to onshore facilities has been made from the offshore gas field discovered in 2009 in the Gulf of Venezuela by Spain's Repsol and Italy's Eni, Venezuelan officials said.President Nicolas Maduro called the arrival of the gas a “historic” event during a ceremony on Saturday to mark the completion of the first shipment.

• Tuesday, August 4th 2015 - 05:59 UTC

  Venezuelan government bans opposition leader from running in congressional election

  

  Venezuelan election officials rejected a high-profile opposition leader's attempt to register as a candidate Monday for upcoming congressional elections. Former congresswoman Maria Corina Machado announced that the National Elections Council had rejected her attempt to register to run in the Dec. 6 elections and called it a grotesque violation of her rights.

• Tuesday, August 4th 2015 - 05:49 UTC

  ExxonMobil rig concludes exploration offshore Guyana: resumes seismic studies

  

  An ExxonMobil rig that re-ignited a maritime boundary dispute between Guyana and Venezuela has now left the area, a Guyanese official said on Monday, but denying it was because of Venezuelan pressure.

• Saturday, August 1st 2015 - 09:42 UTC

  Food riots in Venezuela leave one person killed and tens of arrests

  

  One person was killed and dozens were detained on Friday following looting of supermarkets in Venezuela's southeastern city of Ciudad Guayana, the state governor has said, amid the ongoing food shortages in the Mercosur-Unasur nation.

• Friday, July 31st 2015 - 06:41 UTC

  Maduro takes over brewers complex as Venezuela runs out of beer because of lack of barley

  

  Venezuela's largest food distributor on Thursday denounced the government occupation of a Caracas warehouse amid accusations that the company is hoarding goods. Soldiers took over the warehouse complex used by Empresas Polar late Wednesday just as Venezuela's federation of brewers announced that Polar's beer manufacturing subsidiary is shutting two of its six plants because of a lack of imported barley.

• Wednesday, July 29th 2015 - 06:43 UTC

  Maduro formally requests UN mediation in border dispute with Guyana

  

  Venezuela's president Nicolas Maduro said he asked U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for U.N. mediation in his country's century-old border dispute with neighboring Guyana. The controversy was discussed by Maduro and Ban at a meeting Tuesday morning in New York.

• Monday, July 20th 2015 - 07:47 UTC

  Guyana to 'stoutly resist' Venezuela plans to issue IDs to disputed Essequibo residents

  

  Guyana on Sunday warned it would “stoutly resist” plans by Venezuela to register residents in Essequibo and issue them identification cards for the neighbouring Spanish-speaking nation. Venezuela claims the region and has launched an aggressive campaign at domestic and international level calling president David Granger a 'provocateur”.

• Wednesday, July 15th 2015 - 05:35 UTC

  Guyana declines UN good offices since they have only 'helped Venezuela'

  

  Guyana is no longer interested in the UN Good Offices Process as a means to settle its century-old border dispute with Venezuela, Foreign Minister Carl Greenidge said on Monday in a news briefing live-streamed online.

• Monday, July 13th 2015 - 09:21 UTC

  Venezuela will stop buying Guyana rice amid escalating border dispute

  

  Venezuela has decided to stop buying much of Guyana's rice crop amid an escalating border dispute between the two neighboring countries, the Guyanese finance minister said. The administration of president Nicolas Maduro has in the past four years purchased about 40% of Guyana's rice production, about 200,000 tons, paying for it with oil that amounts to about half of Guyana's daily supply needs.