Venezuela

This is first visit by a South American leader to the Chinese capital since the United States invaded Venezuela in January and captured then President Nicolas Maduro in a raid

India became a major buyer of Russian oil after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 triggered Western sanctions that drove down its price

Donald Trump claimed India will buy Venezuelan oil instead of Iranian crude as Washington moves to cut Russia-linked oil trade and ease some sanctions on Venezuela

US Ambassador Laura Dogu arrived in Caracas on Saturday to reopen the American diplomatic mission in Venezuela after seven years of severed ties. The move comes almost one month after a military action ordered by US President Donald Trump removed the South American country's then-leader Nicolas Maduro from office. "My team and I are ready to work," Dogu said in a message posted by the US Embassy in Venezuela 's account on X. It also posted pictures of her upon her landing at Maiquetia airport. Venezuela and the United States broke off diplomatic relations in February 2019 in a decision by Maduro and closed their embassies mutually after Trump gave public support to lawmaker Juan Guaido in his claim to be the nation's interim president in January of that year. Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, one of Venezuela's most powerful politicians and a Maduro loyalist, said earlier in January that reopening the US embassy would give the Venezuelan government a way to oversee the treatment

The US effort to supply Venezuelan crude to India comes as Washington also seeks to reduce Russian oil revenues that are funding the war in Ukraine

The license covers variety of activities that could expedite the movement of Venezuelan oil, including exporting, selling, storing, refining that oil, as long as the work is performed by a US entity

The overhaul also enables authorities to lower taxes and royalties paid to the government, although Petroleos de Venezuela will remain under state ownership

President Donald Trump said Thursday he has informed Venezuela's acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, that he will open up all commercial airspace over the Venezuela and Americans will soon be able to visit Trump said he instructed his transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, and US military leaders to take steps to open the airspace for travel by the end of the day. "American citizens will be very shortly able to go to Venezuela, and they'll be safe there," the Republican president said. Venezuela's government did not immediately comment. While the State Department continued to warn Americans against travelling to Venezuela, at least one US airline announced its intention to soon resume direct flights between the countries. American Airlines was the last US airline flying to Venezuela when it suspended flights in 2019 that it operated between Miami and the capital, Caracas, as well as the oil hub city of Maracaibo. The airline said Thursday it would share additional details about the

Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave a full-throated defence Wednesday of President Donald Trump's military operation to capture then-Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, while explaining to US lawmakers the administration's approach to Greenland, NATO, Iran and China. As Republican and Democratic members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee offered starkly different readings of the administration's foreign policy, Rubio addressed Trump's intentions and his often bellicose rhetoric that has alarmed US allies in Europe and elsewhere, including demands to take over Greenland. In the first public hearing since the Jan 3 raid to depose Maduro, Rubio said Trump had acted to take out a major US national security threat in the Western Hemisphere. Trump's top diplomat said America was safer and more secure as a result and that the administration would work with interim authorities to stabilise the South American country. "We're not going to have this thing turn around overnight, but I

The hearing marks Rubio's first appearance before Congress since the US raid on Caracas that led to Nicolás Maduro's capture on January 3

Indian refiners say only small volumes of Venezuelan crude are being offered as most supplies are directed to the United States

HPCL hopes to start crude processing at its 180,000 bpd Barmer refinery in Rajasthan by the end of January, making it India's 2nd -largest state-run refiner, behind Indian ‌Oil Corp

Venezuela's leading prisoner rights organisation said Monday that dozens of prisoners were released over the weekend, as the United States continues to pressure the acting government to free hundreds of dissidents jailed during the administration of ousted leader Nicolas Maduro. Alfredo Romero, president of Foro Penal, said in a post on X that 266 "political prisoners" had been freed since January 8, when Venezuela's acting government promised to release a "significant number" of prisoners in what it described as an effort to promote national reconciliation. Maduro was captured by the United States in a raid on January 3, and was replaced by Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, a longtime ruling party insider, who is now the nation's acting president. According to human rights groups, prisoners released this weekend included an opposition activist, a human rights lawyer and a journalism student who was imprisoned in March after he published complaints about his hometown's sewage system,

President Donald Trump said the US used a secret weapon he called "The Discombobulator" to disable Venezuelan equipment when the US captured Nicolas Maduro. Trump also renewed his threat to conduct military strikes on land against drug cartels, including in Mexico. Trump made the comments in an interview Friday with the New York Post. The Republican president was commenting on reports that the US had a pulsed energy weapon and said, "The Discombobulator. I'm not allowed to talk about it." He said the weapon made Venezuelan equipment "not work." "They never got their rockets off. They had Russian and Chinese rockets, and they never got one off," Trump said in the interview. "We came in, they pressed buttons and nothing worked. They were all set for us." Trump had previously said when describing the raid on Maduro's compound that the US had turned off "almost all of the lights in Caracas," but he didn't detail how they accomplished that. The president also indicated the US will con

The US military said Friday that it has carried out a deadly strike on a vessel accused of trafficking drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, the first known attack since the raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro earlier this month. US Southern Command said on social media that the boat was "engaged in narco-trafficking operations" and that the strike killed two people and left one survivor. It said it notified the Coast Guard to launch search and rescue operations for that person. A video accompanying the post announcing the latest strike shows a boat moving through the water before exploding in flames. The US military has focused lately on seizing sanctioned oil tankers with connections to Venezuela since the Trump administration launched an audacious raid to capture Maduro and bring him to New York to face drug trafficking charges. With the latest military action, there have been 36 known strikes against alleged drug smuggling boats in South American waters since ..

South American nation's claim that it sits atop more than 300 billion barrels, 17 per cent of the world's total and surpassing even Saudi Arabia, has long been questioned by some industry experts

Refiner was unable to do so earlier due to the crude's high acidic nature

US military forces boarded and took control of a seventh oil tanker connected with Venezuela on Tuesday as the Trump administration continues its efforts to take control of the South American country's oil. US Southern Command said in a social media post that US forces apprehended the Motor Vessel Sagitta without incident and that the tanker was operating in defiance of President Donald Trump's "established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean. The military command did not say whether the US Coast Guard took control of the tanker as has been the case in prior seizures. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to questions for more details. The Sagitta is a Liberian-flagged tanker and its registration says it is owned and managed by a company in Hong Kong. The ship last transmitted its location more than two months ago when exiting the Baltic Sea in northern Europe. The tanker was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department under an executive order related to Russia's ...

The US in October sanctioned Russia's two largest oil producers - Rosneft and Lukoil - giving companies until November 21 to wind down dealings with them

After Maduro's capture, Trump had made it clear that Washington would "run" Venezuela during a transition and needs "total access... to the oil and to other things in their country"