Venezuela’s opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, has declared himself the country's interim president in a dramatic escalation of efforts to force out Nicolás Maduro, who has overseen the country’s slide into authoritarianism and economic ruin
Continue reading...Category Archives: Nicolás Maduro
Mike Pence backs Venezuelan protesters seeking to oust President Nicolás Maduro – video
Mike Pence, the US vice-president, has issued a video message offering the country's ’unwavering support’ to Venezuelans protesting against President Nicolás Maduro.
‘We stand with you, and we will stay with you until democracy is restored,’ Pence said on the eve of demonstrations expected to take place across the country. Maduro has accused Washington of trying to force a coup
Continue reading...Venezuela opposition leader briefly detained after challenging Maduro
Juan Guaidó was seized after he declared himself ready to assume the presidency in a bold challenge to its leader Nicolás Maduro
Venezuelan secret police seized and then swiftly released a prominent opposition leader, less than 48 hours after he declared himself ready to assume the presidency of his crisis-stricken country in a bold challenge to its leader Nicolás Maduro.
Juan Guaidó, the 35-year-old head of Venezuela’s opposition-run parliament, was reportedly taken by agents from the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin) on Sunday morning as he travelled north out of the capital, Caracas.
Continue reading...Venezuela: opposition leader declares himself ready to assume presidency
Juan Guaidó said he has constitutional right to assume leadership because Maduro is an illegitimate ‘usurper’
The head of Venezuela’s opposition-run parliament has thrown down the gauntlet to his country’s embattled leader, Nicolás Maduro, declaring himself ready to assume the presidency, in a rare and potentially destabilizing challenge to two decades of Bolivarian rule.
Related: Maduro starts new Venezuela term by accusing US of imperialist 'world war'
Continue reading...Maduro starts new Venezuela term by accusing US of imperialist ‘world war’
President Nicolás Maduro shrugged off a tempest of international condemnation to begin his second term in office
The Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, has castigated the European Union and accused Washington of waging an imperialist “world war” against his crisis-stricken nation, as he shrugged off a tempest of international condemnation to begin his second term in office.
Maduro, who inherited Hugo Chávez’s Bolivarian revolution after his 2013 death, has overseen a calamitous decline in his country’s fortunes and was re-elected in disputed elections last May.
Continue reading...‘It’s like 1984’: Venezuela targets human rights defenders
Amid Venezuela’s collapse, Nicolás Maduro has locked up those accused of criticizing his regime – often without due process
Geraldine Chacón, a 24-year-old lawyer from Caracas, went four months without seeing the sun while a prisoner in the Helicoide, the feared hillside prison complex administered by Venezuela’s secret police, where she was denied access to sunlight, water and food.
“The guards told me I was a political prisoner, and for that I don’t get anything,” said Chacón, speaking by phone from Caracas, where she is on conditional release. “Without seeing the sun, you lose a sense of time, you don’t know if it’s day or night – it’s horrible.”
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