Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | The United Nations on Friday forecast that 5.3 million Venezuelans will have fled the country by the end of next year, an exodus that amounts to “a humanitarian earthquake”. The UN agencies for refugees (UNHCR) and migration (IOM) announced the estimates as they unveiled their …
Read More »Maduro labels Pence ‘a madman’ for Venezuela caravan link
Caracas, Venezuela | AFP | Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday labelled US Vice President Mike Pence “a madman” after he accused Caracas of financing the Honduras migrant caravan marching towards the United States. “What tremendous convening power I have in Central America, Mike Pence! If it wasn’t for an …
Read More »Maduro brushes off risk of new sanctions after Sunday’s vote
Paris, France | AFP | Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday dismissed the threat of new sanctions following an early election called for Sunday, which critics have denounced as a sham aimed at tightening his grip on power. “These are unacceptable threats toward any sovereign nation,” Maduro said in an …
Read More »Maduro raises minimum wage again as Venezuela battles hyperinflation
Caracas, Venezuela | AFP | Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro announced Monday he was almost doubling the minimum wage in an effort to tackle the crisis-wracked Latin American country’s runaway inflation. Venezuela’s economic collapse ranks as one of the worst in modern history, with hyperinflation likely to see prices soaring 13,000 percent …
Read More »Pastor has faith he can unseat Maduro in Venezuela poll
Caracas, Venezuela | AFP | Despite unpopularity and a deepening economic crisis, Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro seems such a certainty for reelection in April that only an evangelical pastor has found the faith to run against him. “I am the light in the darkness,” said little-known pastor Javier Bertucci, without …
Read More »Valentine’s Day a rosy opportunity for jobless Colombians
Tabio, COLOMBIA | AFP | Valentine’s Day is a crazy rush for Colombia, one of the biggest flower exporters in the world, resulting in huge demand for labor in greenhouses near Bogota. That’s how Rubiela Mendez and William Perez found themselves shivering in a cold they’d never known, preparing roses …
Read More »US mulling sanctions on Venezuela oil: Tillerson
Buenos Aires, Argentina | AFP | The United States said Sunday it has not ruled out sanctions on Venezuelan oil as it turns the screw on President Nicolas Maduro, but is wary of hurting the country’s people. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is in Argentina as he tours Latin American to …
Read More »Almost 70 media outlets close in Venezuela in 2017, attacks on journalists up: union
Caracas, Venezuela | AFP | Venezuela saw almost 70 newspapers, TV and radio stations close in 2017 while attacks on journalists rose, the main union representing the media said Wednesday, accusing the socialist government of trying to “silence” the press. The National Union of Press Workers (SNTP) said 46 radio …
Read More »Venezuela says Brazilian, Canadian diplomats not welcome
Caracas, Venezuela | AFP | Venezuela on Saturday said two diplomats from Canada and Brazil were no longer welcome, in an escalating showdown over their criticism of President Maduro’s socialist government. The head of the powerful pro-government Constituent Assembly, Delcy Rodriguez, said the body decided on the move against Brazil’s …
Read More »US sentences nephews of Venezuelan first lady to 18 years
New York, United States | AFP | A US judge on Thursday sentenced two nephews of Venezuela’s first lady to 18 years in prison for drug trafficking, damning them as “not the most astute drug traffickers that ever existed.” Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, 31, and Francisco Flores de Freitas, 32, …
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