Venezula

Maduro open to US talks on drug trafficking, but silent on CIA strike

Venezuela is open to negotiating an agreement with the United States to combat drug trafficking, the South American country's President Nicols Maduro said in a pretaped interview aired Thursday on state television, but he declined to comment on a CIA-led strike last week at a Venezuelan docking area that the Trump administration believed was used by cartels. Maduro, in an interview with Spanish journalist Ignacio Ramonet, reiterated that the U.S. wants to force a government change in Venezuela and gain access to its vast oil reserves through the monthslong pressure campaign that began with a massive military deployment to the Caribbean Sea in August. What are they seeking? It is clear that they seek to impose themselves through threats, intimidation and force, Maduro said, later adding that it is time for both nations to start talking seriously, with data in hand. The U.S. government knows, because we've told many of their spokespeople, that if they want to seriously discuss an ...

Trump's covert Venezuela strike raises new questions on next steps

The attack is likely to inject additional energy into heated discussions in US Congress about the strategy toward Venezuela, and the debate about how far Trump can go without seeking authorisation

Venezuela seeks to criminalise tanker seizures as Trump ramps up pressure

Venezuela's parliament on Tuesday approved a measure that criminalises a broad range of activities that can hinder navigation and commerce in the South American country, such as the seizure of oil tankers. The bill introduced, debated and approved within two days in the National Assembly follows this month's seizures by US forces of two tankers carrying Venezuelan oil in international waters. The seizures are the latest strategy in US President Donald Trump's four-month pressure campaign on Venezuela's leader Nicols Maduro. The tankers are part of what the Trump administration has said is a fleet Venezuela uses to evade US economic sanctions. The unicameral assembly, which is controlled by Venezuela's ruling party, did not publish drafts on Tuesday nor the final version of the measure. But as read on the floor, the bill calls for fines and prison sentences of up to 20 years for anyone who promotes, requests, supports, finances or participates in acts of piracy, blockades or other

Trump orders total blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers in Venezuela

Trump said he was also designating the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as a "foreign terrorist organisation

Trump floats Venezuela talks as US designates Prez Maduro a 'terrorist'

The latest terror designation, which will take effect on Nov. 24, would help expand the legal case for more aggressive action as the US masses military assets in the Caribbean

'US fabricating war': Venezuela's Prez seeks to revoke opponent's passport

Venezuela's President Nicols Maduro said the U.S. government is fabricating a war against him as the world's biggest warship approached the South American country, while moving to revoke the citizenship of an opponent he accuses of egging on an invasion. Maduro said in a national broadcast on Friday night that the administration of President Donald Trump is fabricating a new eternal war" as the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, which can host up to 90 airplanes and attack helicopters, moves closer to Venezuela. On Saturday, the Venezuelan president also referred to the pressure he has felt from the U.S. government as he started legal proceedings seeking to revoke the citizenship and cancel the passport of opposition politician Leopoldo Lpez. They promised they would never again get involved in a war and they are fabricating a war that we will avoid, said Maduro in Friday night's address. Trump has accused him, without providing evidence, of being the leader of the organized crime

Trump confirms he authorised CIA to take covert action in Venezuela

Trump said that Venezuelan leaders had emptied their prisons in to the United States of America and we have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela

US military sank three Venezuela-linked drug-smuggling boats, says Trump

The president also urged Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro to stop sending Tren de Aragua into the United States, stop sending drugs into the United States

Venezuela bans flights from Colombia following arrests in anti-govt plot

Venezuela on Monday banned the arrival of flights from neighboring Colombia after authorities detained more than 30 people who were allegedly plotting activities to destabilize the country ahead of Sunday's election. The arrests were announced just as an independent panel of experts backed by the Organization of American States released a report documenting serious human rights abuses in Venezuela as the government tightened its grip on dissent after the July 28 presidential election. Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello on state television said the flight ban was immediate and would last beyond Sunday, when voters across the country are expected to elect governors and National Assembly members. But Colombia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement said Venezuela's government had notified it that flights would resume the day after the election. Cabello said the anti-government plans involved placing explosives at embassies and other facilities in Venezuela. He said authorities had

US likely to revoke authorisations to foreign partners of Venezuela's PDVSA

In recent years, former President Joe Biden's administration granted the authorisations to secure Venezuelan oil supplies to refineries from Spain to India as exceptions to the US sanction regime

US Secretary of State vows stern response if Venezuela attacks Guyana

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday vowed that the United States will respond forcefully if Venezuela attacks Guyana amid an ongoing territorial dispute that includes massive oil and gas reserves. Rubio said it would be a "very bad day" for Venezuela should that happen. On the second leg of a three-nation tour of the Caribbean, Rubio was in Guyana as the Doland Trump administration ramps up engagement in the Western Hemisphere to promote energy independence and curb illegal migration, drug trafficking and gang violence. He made a brief stop in Georgetown on Thursday for talks with Guyanese President Irfaan Ali and other officials before travelling to Suriname for an even shorter visit to Paramaribo. "The regional threats are based on illegitimate territorial claims by a narco-trafficking regime," Rubio told reporters at a joint news conference with Ali. "And I want to be frank, there will be consequences for adventurism. There will be consequences for aggressive actions.

Nearly 200 Venezuelan migrants deported from Guantanamo Bay via Honduras

Nearly 200 Venezuelan immigrants to the US were returned to their home country after being detained at Guantanamo Bay, in a flurry of flights that forged an unprecedented pathway for US deportations. US and Venezuelan authorities confirmed the deportations that relied on a stopover in Honduras, where 177 Venezuelans exited a US Customs and Immigration Enforcement flight and boarded a Venezuelan plane bound for Caracas. The government of President Nicols Maduro said it had requested the repatriation of a group of Venezuelans who were unjustly taken to the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. With the request accepted, an aircraft with the state-owned airline Conviasa picked up the migrants from Honduras. ICE confirmed the transfer of 177 Venezuelan illegal aliens. The administration of President Donald Trump has placed a high priority on deporting people who have exhausted all legal appeals to stay in the U.S. Nearly 1.5 million had final removal orders as of Nov. 24, according to

Trump admin to seize Venezuelan prez's 2nd plane held in Dominican Republic

The Trump administration plans to seize a second plane belonging to Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro 's government that is currently in the Dominican Republic. Secretary of State Marco Rubio intends to announce the seizure on Thursday during a visit to Santo Domingo, the last stop of his five nation tour of Central America, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter and a State Department document obtained by The Associated Press. Carrying out the seizure required that Rubio sign off on a foreign aid freeze waiver request to pay more than USD 230,000 in storage and maintenance fees. It also required approval by the Department of Justice. That waiver request, submitted early last week, has been approved and Rubio is expected to make the announcement at what the State Department has described publicly as only a law enforcement engagement. The plane is a Dassault Falcon 200 that has been used by Maduro and top aides, including his vice president and defense minister to ..

US rejects Prez Maduro's reelection, keeps financial lifeline for Venezuela

Things seemed to be looking up for Venezuela in 2022. Following years of authoritarian rule and withering economic sanctions, President Nicols Maduro had agreed to work toward a democratic presidential election. The White House, in return, granted him a financial lifeline: a permit for US energy giant Chevron to pump and export Venezuelan oil. Oil wells roared back to life and massive tanker ships returned to Venezuela's coast to be filled with heavy, hard-to-refine crude destined for the US. Maduro's promised election was neither fair nor free, and the longtime president was sworn in this month for a third six-year term despite credible evidence that his opponent got more votes. Yet, the sanctions reprieve the US offered to support the restoration of democracy is still helping fill state coffers. Venezuela's opposition says Maduro's government has earned billions of dollars from exports allowed by the permit. The White House has ignored calls from the main opposition coalition, as

Venezuela's Oppn ex-candidate says forced to sign letter that admits defeat

Venezuela's former opposition candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, on Wednesday said he was coerced into signing a letter effectively recognising his defeat in July's presidential election, which electoral authorities claim was won by President Nicolas Maduro. The revelation of the letter is the latest strain to the country's political crisis, which was exacerbated by the disputed election results and Gonzalez's recent departure for exile in Spain. Gonzalez and the Unitary Platform coalition he represented on July 28 claim they defeated Maduro by a wide margin. The document states it was meant to be confidential, but Jorge Rodriguez, head of the National Assembly and Maduro's chief negotiator, presented it during a nationally televised press conference hours after a local news outlet published parts of it. The letter shows Gonzalez as the sender and is addressed to Rodriguez, who signed it as recipient. Rodriguez told reporters Gonzalez signed the letter of his own volition. Gonzalez, ...

Maduro opponents rally to revive protests over disputed Venezuelan election

Opponents of Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro took to the streets Wednesday in an attempt to revive protests against him as he tightens his grip on power following last month's disputed election. The demonstration in the capital, Caracas, comes exactly a month after the fraught July 28 vote in which Maduro was declared the winner despite strong evidence that opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzlez won by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, which drew international condemnation that the vote lacked transparency. In weeks of on-again, off-again demonstrations, the opposition's rallying cry has been constant but so far ineffective. Opponents have demanded that officials publish results from each polling station that they say would expose Maduro's attempts to steal the election. Voting records kill sentence, is how the opposition billed the latest protest, referring to the thousands of tally sheets it collected and posted online that contradict a recent sentence written by the loyalist Supreme Court

Venezuela: Efforts underway to make Prez release election vote tallies

Diplomatic efforts are underway to persuade President Nicols Maduro to release vote tallies from Venezuela's presidential election, after opposition leaders disputed his claim of victory and amid increasing calls for an independent review of the results, according to officials from Brazil and Mxico. Government officials from Brazil, Colombia and Mexico have been in constant communication with Maduro's administration to convince him that he must show the vote tally sheets from Sunday's election and allow impartial verification, a Brazilian government official told The Associated Press Thursday. The officials have told Venezuela's government that showing the data is the only way to dispel any doubt in the results, said the Brazilian official, who asked not be identified because they are not authorized to publicly speak about the diplomatic efforts. A Mexican official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the three governments have been discussing the issue with ...

Maduro begins re-election run while rival struggles to register candidacy

It's a tale of two dramatically different political campaigns. On Monday, throngs of supporters of President Nicols Maduro rallied at a giant stage draped in the red, yellow and blue colors of Venezuela's flag outside the electoral council headquarters where he is expected to make official his candidacy for a third term. Meanwhile, his would-be rivals tried to register their candidate, an 80-year-old unknown newcomer, before a midnight deadline but found they were unable to do so in what the opposition denounced as the latest attack on Venezuela's democracy. Polls show that Venezuelans would trounce the unpopular Maduro by a landslide if given half a chance. But the self-proclaimed socialist leader has so far managed to block his chief opponents from running while alternately negotiating and then reneging on minimal electoral guarantees promised to the U.S. government in exchange for relief from oil sanctions In a creative attempt to force Maduro's authoritarian hand, two smaller .

India's oil imports to be disrupted as US-Venezuela tensions escalate

Uncertainty over Venezuelan supplies comes amid reduced discounted Russian flows

Oil an option to recoup $600 million from Venezuela dividend: ONGC Videsh

Indian refiners have resumed purchase of Venezuelan oil following the easing of US sanctions on the South American country last year