Troops blocked presidential rival from entering the parliament building in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas

Venezuela’s opposition has accused president Nicolás Maduro of masterminding an illegal parliamentary “coup” after an apparent bid to decapitate the challenge from his presidential rival Juan Guaidó by replacing him as head of the country’s opposition-controlled parliament.

Guaidó shot to international prominence last January after he was elected president of Venezuela’s national assembly and used that position to declare himself the country’s legitimate interim leader.

Fresh protests to mark half a year after he declared himself interim leader, but Nicolás Maduro remains in power

Sol Castro Sánchez was a picture of elation as she took to the streets of Caracas in the days after Juan Guaidó launched his dramatic bid to topple Nicolás Maduro on 23 January.

“I guess this is what people in Germany felt in 1989 when the wall came down,” the retired professor enthused as she marched through Venezuela’s capital with tens of thousands of jubilant protesters and a homemade placard that read: “Enough is enough! We want them out!”

In withering report, human rights chief details how Maduro’s security forces allegedly torture members of the opposition

The UN has issued a withering appraisal of the human rights situation in Venezuela, as horrific details emerged of the injuries inflicted on a navy captain allegedly tortured to death during a crackdown on alleged plotters against president Nicolás Maduro.

A report by UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet – which follows a three-day mission to the South American country last month – accuses Maduro’s security forces of committing a series of “gross violations” against Venezuelan dissenters and urges him to disband a notorious special forces group blamed for a wave of politically-motivated killings.

Venezuelan officials said that they have foiled a plot to overthrow the government that included assassinating President Nicolás Maduro and his closest political allies.

Maduro spokesman Jorge Rodríguez said on state television that a network of mostly retired police officers and soldiers planned to bomb a key government building, seize a Caracas air base and loot Venezuela’s central bank.