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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, September 18th 2026 - 15:30 UTC

Venezuela

  • Sunday, May 17th 2026 - 05:07 UTC

    Venezuela hands over to the United States former minister and Maduro frontman Alex Saab

    The United States sanctioned him in 2019 for allegedly paying bribes to obtain no-bid contracts with the Venezuelan state

    The Venezuelan government on Saturday deported to the United States the Colombian businessman Alex Saab, considered for years the main financial operator of former president Nicolás Maduro and minister of Industry and National Production until January 2026. The businessman landed at sunset at Opa-locka airport in Miami-Dade County, escorted by agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), bringing to a close a judicial file that had turned Saab into one of the most visible symbols of the economic apparatus of Chavismo and into one of the most wanted figures by US justice over the past decade.

  • Saturday, May 16th 2026 - 03:25 UTC

    Venezuela and World Bank agree to define technical cooperation areas after seven-year pause

    According to the official communiqué released after the meeting, both sides “agreed to continue working jointly to define the concrete areas of technical collaboration”

    The Venezuelan government and the World Bank agreed on Friday in Caracas to work jointly on identifying concrete areas of technical cooperation, in the first high-level encounter between the two parties since the resumption of relations announced last month, which ended a seven-year pause in institutional contacts. The meeting was led by acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who received at the Miraflores Palace the World Bank's Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean, Susana Cordeiro Guerra.

  • Thursday, May 14th 2026 - 09:27 UTC

    Venezuela announces formal restructuring of its external debt after nearly a decade in default

    The restructuring advances within the framework of the gradual easing of sanctions promoted by Washington following the 3 January military operation

    The Venezuelan government on Wednesday announced the formal launch of an “integral and orderly” restructuring of the country's public external debt and that of the state oil company PDVSA, in the most concrete step by acting President Delcy Rodríguez's administration toward financial normalization after nearly a decade in default. The communiqué, issued by the Sectoral Vice Presidency for the Economy, sets as its central objective “to put the economy at the service of the Venezuelan people and free the country from the burden of accumulated debt.”

  • Wednesday, May 13th 2026 - 11:57 UTC

    White House “51st state” trolling tests Caracas's oil opening

    The “51st state” map had appeared in earlier posts by the US administration, alongside references to the annexation of Greenland

    The official White House account on Tuesday published a series of messages on social media platform X suggesting the annexation of Venezuela to the United States under the formula of the “51st state,” a discursive shift that strains the bilateral rapprochement built since the capture of former President Nicolás Maduro on 3 January. The first post shows a map of Venezuela covered with the US flag and the caption “51st State”; eight minutes later, a video revives Secretary of State Marco Rubio's announcement of Maduro's capture, with footage of the former leader being flown to New York. The publication comes at a moment of apparent stagnation in the economic opening that acting President Delcy Rodríguez has pushed from Caracas to attract US investment.

  • Monday, May 11th 2026 - 14:42 UTC

    Delcy Rodríguez defends Essequibo claim at The Hague under temporary EU sanctions waiver

    For Venezuela, the Essequibo appears on its official maps as a “zone of reclamation.” For Guyana, the Venezuelan claim represents an existential threat to its territorial integrity

    Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodríguez arrived in the Netherlands on Sunday to defend her country's claim to the Essequibo, the border region disputed with Guyana, before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The trip, authorized under a specific waiver to the European Union sanctions imposed on her, marks her first major international journey outside the Caribbean since the capture of President Nicolás Maduro by US forces in January, which paved the way for her to assume office as interim leader.

  • Saturday, May 9th 2026 - 22:32 UTC

    Nahuel Gallo describes torture and a sardonic “you're off to Disney” during Venezuela detention

    Gallo remained virtually incommunicado for more than a year. He was freed on 1 March 2026, three weeks after Maduro's capture

    Argentine gendarme Nahuel Gallo, who spent 448 days detained in Venezuela under the regime of Nicolás Maduro, described in a televised interview the torture inflicted on him at the El Rodeo I prison and revealed the phrase his captors used to announce his confinement: “You're off to Disney.”

  • Saturday, May 9th 2026 - 14:59 UTC

    US removes 13.5 kilos of highly enriched uranium from Venezuela's RV-1 reactor

    The material, enriched above the 20 percent threshold separating low-enriched from highly enriched uranium, had been considered surplus since the reactor ceased operations in 1991

    The U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has completed the removal of 13.5 kilograms of highly enriched uranium from the former RV-1 research reactor at the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC), in Miranda state, in an operation coordinated with the United Kingdom, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and Venezuela's transitional government.

  • Friday, May 8th 2026 - 15:37 UTC

    Venezuela confirms death of political prisoner Víctor Hugo Quero, ten months after he died

    His mother, 82-year-old Carmen Teresa Navas, had submitted multiple petitions to the prosecutor's office and the Ombudsman's Office.

    Venezuela's Ministry for Prison Services confirmed on Thursday the death of political prisoner Víctor Hugo Quero Navas, a 51-year-old merchant, nearly ten months after he died in state custody and following more than a year of forced disappearance complaints filed by his family.

  • Monday, May 4th 2026 - 01:08 UTC

    Venezuelans rally in more than 120 cities worldwide demanding release of political prisoners

    According to the latest report from Foro Penal as of April 27 there were 454 people detained for political reasons in the country

    Dozens of cities in Venezuela and more than 120 gathering points around the world joined on Sunday a global day of mobilization called by Venezuelan opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace laureate María Corina Machado to demand the release of political prisoners and to bring international visibility to the country's human rights situation. The rallies took place simultaneously at noon Caracas time and included events across the Americas, Europe, and other regions with significant Venezuelan diaspora communities.

  • Friday, May 1st 2026 - 11:13 UTC

    Caracas and Washington launch direct flights after seven years and sign two oil deals

    The first American Airlines flight took off from Maiquetía airport bound for Miami, completing the journey in just over three hours

    The United States and Venezuela inaugurated on Thursday the first direct air connection between the two countries since 2019 and signed two new energy agreements, in a day the White House described as a substantive advance in the “economic revitalization” phase of the three-stage plan designed by President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to reorganize the bilateral relationship following the capture of former president Nicolás Maduro by US troops on January 3.