Venezuela

• Friday, November 1st 2013 - 21:17 UTC

  Paraguayan congress should vote Venezuela's incorporation to Mercosur before December summit

  

  Foreign minister Eladio Loizaga revealed that the Paraguayan congress must first approve Venezuela's protocol of incorporation to Mercosur before the country can attend the coming bloc's summit scheduled for next 17 December in Caracas.

• Thursday, October 31st 2013 - 21:35 UTC

  Mercosur calls special meeting in November to consolidate trade proposal before the EU

  

  Mercosur will be holding a special meeting of foreign ministers next 15 November in Caracas to consolidate “Mercosur presentation before the European Union”, according to a release from the Argentine Foreign ministry.

• Wednesday, October 30th 2013 - 07:22 UTC

  In a further step to normalize relations Paraguay names new ambassador to Venezuela

  

  Paraguay has named veteran diplomat Enrique Jara as new ambassador in Venezuela, giving a further step towards the full normalization of relations that had been interrupted since July 2012 when the two countries expelled their respective accredited staff.

• Friday, October 25th 2013 - 14:21 UTC

  Guyana-Venezuela: The consequences of ideology and avarice

  

  By Sir Ronald Sanders - BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - The internal politics of Venezuela is playing a big part in the sudden deterioration of that country’s relations with its smaller neighbor Guyana after a period of steady improvement.

• Friday, October 25th 2013 - 14:07 UTC

  Feeling unhappy, try Orwellian Venezuela: Maduro creates the “Supreme Happiness” office

  

  Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced the creation of the “Supreme Happiness Under Secretary” to address social debt shortcomings and which was in honor of the late Commandant and president Hugo Chavez and the country's liberator, Simon Bolivar.

• Monday, October 21st 2013 - 06:21 UTC

  Venezuela clamps down on 'currency tourism' with random checks at airports

  

  The 'dollar-scarce' Venezuelan government is trying to clamp down on what it calls “currency tourism” with random checks of passengers leaving the country. The officials at the country's main airports are not guards or police but bureaucrats at state currency board Cadivi investigating whether travelers' documents match their requests for hard-to-get dollars.

• Monday, October 21st 2013 - 06:03 UTC

  Inspirator of Venezuelan Socialism anticipates Maduro won't make it to April 2014

  

  The man credited with pioneering the idea of 21st Century socialism, which was championed and put into application in Venezuela under Hugo Chávez, recently made a damning condemnation of current Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

• Wednesday, October 16th 2013 - 08:22 UTC

  Venezuela third largest city mayor arrested for corruption; Maduro asks for special powers

  

  State security agents have arrested the mayor of Venezuela's third-largest city for alleged corruption after President Nicolas Maduro asked lawmakers to grant him decree powers he says he needs to fight graft.

• Tuesday, October 15th 2013 - 18:04 UTC

  Venezuela releases oil exploration vessel detained in disputed Guyana waters

  

  The owners of a US-operated oil ship which was detained by the Venezuelan navy on Thursday say the vessel has been released. The Venezuelan navy had boarded the Teknik Perdana on Thursday in disputed waters off the coast of Guyana and sailed it to Venezuela's Margarita Island.

• Tuesday, October 15th 2013 - 17:58 UTC

  Venezuelan retired officers justify ‘military action’ against Maduro and claim it’s not a coup d’état

  

  A group of 45 Venezuelan retired top officers among which a dozen generals and admirals and a former defence minister have published an open statement in which they accuse the government of President Nicolas Maduro of having broken the country’s “constitutional thread” and thus support a military action which, they say “would not be a coup d’état’.