Venezuela

CARACAS, June 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro gave the head of the European Union mission in Caracas, Isabel Brilhante Pedrosa, 72 hours to leave the country after the bloc announced sanctions against 11 Venezuelan officials.

“Who are they to try to impose themselves with threats?” said Maduro.

“We will sort it out in 72 hours… she will be given a plane to leave, but we will arrange our things with the European Union.”

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s economic collapse has left most homes without reliable running water, so Caracas resident Iraima Moscoso saw water pooling inside an abandoned construction site as the end of suffering for thousands of her poor neighbors.

Workers had long ago stopped building a nearby highway tunnel through the mountain above them. Yet, spring water continued to collect inside the viaduct and then stream past their homes, wasted. The construction firm had also left behind coils of tube.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A year after shutting down the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, Washington’s top diplomat in Venezuela has found a way to slip back inside the South American nation — at least virtually.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido said on Saturday the opposition would not recognize a “false” electoral body named by the government-friendly Supreme Court, while his allies pledged to extend the term of the current legislature.

An extension past the January 2021 end date would allow Guaido, who is recognized by dozens of countries as Venezuela’s rightful leader due to his position as president of the opposition-held National Assembly, to remain in the role even if the opposition boycotts parliamentary elections due by the end of the year.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela’s supreme court on Friday named new leaders to the national electoral council that will oversee parliamentary elections later this year, a widely expected move that opposition leaders call an effort to rig the upcoming vote.

Critics of President Nicolas Maduro have repeatedly accused the elections council of favoring the ruling Socialist Party, and in 2018 boycotted the vote that led to Maduro’s re-election on the grounds that it was rigged.

CARACAS/MEXICO CITY(Reuters) - Last year, China replaced the United States as the No. 1 importer of oil from Venezuela, yet another front in the heated rivalry between Washington and Beijing. 

7 June 2020; AFP: Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido reappeared in the street in videos distributed Saturday by his team and parliamentary allies, after foreign minister Jorge Arreaza claimed he had taken refuge in the French embassy in Caracas.

"They are the ones who are hiding... $15 million reward for them. I am showing my face," said Guaido in one of the videos, which show him wearing a mask and gloves to protect himself from COVID-19 as he walks down a line of cars, greeting and chatting with drivers.

CARACAS, June 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido reappeared in the street in videos distributed Saturday by his team and parliamentary allies, after foreign minister Jorge Arreaza claimed he had taken refuge in the French embassy in Caracas.

“They are the ones who are hiding… $15 million reward for them. I am showing my face,” said Guaido in one of the videos, which show him wearing a mask and gloves to protect himself from COVID-19 as he walks down a line of cars, greeting and chatting with drivers.

5 June 2020; AFP: France on Friday denied that Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido had been given refuge at its mission in Caracas, after Venezuela's foreign minister claimed he was hiding at the embassy.

"Mr Juan Guaido is not at the French residency in Caracas. We have confirmed this to the Venezuelan authorities several times," ministry spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll said.

CARACAS, June 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido is at the French Embassy in Caracas, the South American country’s Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said, three days after President Nicolas Maduro hinted that his rival was “in hiding” at a diplomatic location.

“We cannot enter the premises of any country’s embassy whatsoever, in this case Spain or France,” Arreaza said, adding that that meant an arrest by force “is not possible.”