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, …
Read More »Thirty women rescued from sex trafficking in Mexico
Mexico City, Mexico | AFP | Thirty women trafficked for sex — most from Colombia and Venezuela — were rescued in two raids in Mexico, police said Saturday. The biggest operation took place in Toluca, capital of Mexico state, the most populous and one of the most dangerous states in …
Read More »Venezuelans vote in crucial regional elections
Caracas, Venezuela | AFP | Venezuelans headed to the polls Sunday in regional elections seen as a crucial test for President Nicolas Maduro and the opposition alike after months of deadly street protests failed to unseat him. Public opinion surveys predicted that the opposition would win a majority of state …
Read More »IMF worried over Venezuela, ‘no solution in sight’
Washington, United States | AFP | The International Monetary Fund expressed grave concerns Friday over Venezuela’s unending political crisis, seeing no end to the economic downturn and suffering of the population. Venezuela “remains in a full-blown economic, humanitarian, and political crisis with no end in sight,” the Fund said in a …
Read More »New US travel ban “psychological terrorism”: Venezuela
Caracas, Venezuela | AFP | Venezuela accused the United States on Monday of “psychological terrorism” designed to bring down the government after it was included in a list of eight countries targeted by a travel ban. “These types of lists….are incompatible with international law and constitute in themselves a form …
Read More »Venezuela’s Maduro in Algeria for talks on oil
Algiers, Algeria | AFP | Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro visited fellow OPEC member Algeria Monday for talks after announcing Caracas would sell crude oil in non-dollar currencies in a bid to resist US sanctions. Maduro arrived late Sunday in the North African country and met Senate speaker Abdelkader Bensalah on …
Read More »Venezuela to sell oil in currencies other than dollar
Caracas, Venezuela | AFP | Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced Friday his government will sell oil and other commodities in currencies other than the dollar, in a bid to weather US-imposed sanctions on the embattled country. “I have decided to start selling oil, gas, gold and all other products that Venezuela …
Read More »Pope in Colombia: 3 highlights
Francis’s 12-hour journey from Rome was the first time the pope’s words have been reported direct from his plane. Bogota, Colombia | AFP | Pope Francis landed in Colombia Wednesday to promote peace after decades of war. Here are three highlights from day one of the Argentine pope’s fifth papal …
Read More »Debt, sanctions and disrepair: Venezuela’s oil sector in agony
Caracas, Venezuela | AFP | After decades of being Venezuela’s cash cow, the state oil company PDVSA is a ragged shadow of its former self: overburdened, underfed, and in hock to Russian and Chinese creditors. The woes of the group, whose full name is Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., look set to …
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