Venezuelan authorities have blockaded a second bridge to Colombia amid fresh skirmishes between protesters and security forces loyal to embattled leader Nicolás Maduro.
Related: Venezuela: US increasingly isolated as allies warn against use of military force
Continue reading...UN security council officials clash over ‘politicised’ aid to troubled country as peace-building chief warns of ‘grim realities’
Infant mortality in Venezuela has soared by roughly 50% during the prolonged political crisis in the country.
Briefing the UN security council, the UN’s political and peace building chief, Rosemary DiCarlo, depicted a devastating collapse in Venezuela’s health system. She warned that 40% of medical staff had left the country and said hospital stocks of medicine had dwindled to 20% of the required level.
Continue reading...Anchor, who has reportedly been released, asked question embattled leader did not approve of, according to Univision executive
The Univision anchor Jorge Ramos has been detained in the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, the network announced on Monday evening.
The Mexican-born journalist was interviewing Venezuela’s embattled president Nicolás Maduro when he and his crew were detained after asking a question the combative Maduro did not approve of, according to a tweet by the network’s US president, Daniel Coronell. The team’s equipment had also been confiscated, Coronell said.
Continue reading...Mike Pence says ‘all options are on the table’ in effort to oust Maduro while key allies warn they would oppose sending troops
US vice-president Mike Pence has repeated a veiled threat of military intervention in Venezuela, but Washington appeared increasingly isolated in its willingness to contemplate using force to oust President Nicolás Maduro.
Both European powers and some of Donald Trump’s key Latin American allies – all of whom have recognised opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s legitimate leader – warned that they would oppose sending troops into the country.
Continue reading...Alva Johnson files lawsuit alleging Trump kissed her in August 2016 outside rally in Tampa, and says ‘I immediately felt violated’
Donald Trump has complained about a “racist hit” he said Spike Lee carried out on him at the Oscars.
The film-maker, 61, won his first competitive Academy Award, best adapted screenplay, for his film BlacKkKlansman, which was also nominated for best picture. Lee received an honorary Oscar in 2015.
A former staff member of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has filed a federal lawsuit against the president, claiming he kissed her without consent.
Alva Johnson, who served as Trump’s campaign’s director of outreach and coalitions in Alabama in 2016, told the Washington Post that Trump “grabbed her hand and leaned in to kiss her on the lips”, as the then-candidate exited an RV at a rally in Tampa on August 24 2016.
Johnson said she turned her head and the unwanted kiss landed on the side of her mouth, which she called “super-creepy and inappropriate.”
“I immediately felt violated because I wasn’t expecting it or wanting it,” she said. “I can still see his lips coming straight for my face.”
Continue reading...Spanish foreign minister says Madrid would not support military action to oust Nicolás Maduro
Spain has warned that it will not back any military intervention in Venezuela after the South American country’s opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, urged other nations to consider “all options” to remove the president, Nicolás Maduro, from power.
Guaidó is due to meet the US vice-president, Mike Pence, in Colombia on Monday amid ongoing speculation that the Trump administration could use force to oust Maduro.
Continue reading...Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó is set to meet US Vice-President Mike Pence on Monday, after asking other countries to consider “all options” to remove President Nicolás Maduro from power.
Related: 'Venezuelan blood is being spilled': tension flares near border with Brazil
Continue reading...While the world watches supporters of Guaidó and Maduro at the Colombian frontier, a remote region sees days of drama and fear
On Saturday, presidents, music stars and activists backing the Venezuelan opposition’s attempt to break a government blockade and bring food and medical supplies into the country, and most of the journalists covering the showdown, clustered around the border with Colombia.
Related: Juan Guaidó: 'keep all options open' to remove Venezuela's Maduro from power
Continue reading...Presidential challenger Juan Guaidó says he will urge foreign leaders to keep ‘all options open’ at a meeting on Monday
At least four people have been killed and hundreds injured in a wave of violence that convulsed Venezuela’s border regions on Saturday, as opposition activists tried to defy a government ban and bring food and medical supplies into the country.
After the failed attempt to breach government blockades, opposition leader Juan Guaidó declared the fight would continue, and said “we must keep all our options open for the liberation of our homeland”.
Continue reading...Volunteers attempt to get aid inside country but trucks stopped just meters inside Venezuelan territory
Tensions have been rising at the Venezuelan border with Colombia amid president Nicolás Maduro's ban on aid entering the country.
Dozens of Venezuelans and Colombians gathered at the Simón Bolívar bridge connecting the countries to urge authorities to allow humanitarian aid to enter Venezuela, while in other areas on the border Venezuelan soldiers defected and violent protests broke out between police and demonstrators
Video shows Venezuelan security forces using tear gas against volunteers and opposition politicians who are trying to get the aid shipments across the border from Colombia, on the Simon Bolivar bridge.
1:10 pm. PNB dispara lacrimógenas contra voluntarios y diputados en el Puente Simón Bolívar. #23Feb Vía VPI pic.twitter.com/URqU8xcyoG
Venezuelans near the border with Brazil are holding flags as they await the hoped-for arrival of trucks carrying food and medicine.
1:00 pm| Foto cortesía. Aunque hay fuerte represión en el pueblo, hasta ahora, en la línea fronteriza todo transcurre en paz tras la llegada de un camión que, aseguran, lleva comida y medicinas. #FronteraConBrasil #ayudahumanitaria pic.twitter.com/rFPPJ94J9W
Continue reading...Country braced for violence after clashes early on Friday leave two dead and 15 injured
The US has condemned Venezuela’s military after soldiers shot dead two people and injured 15 others trying to keep the country’s border with Brazil open for aid deliveries.
The White House warned in a statement: “Egregious violation of human rights by [President Nicolás] Maduro and those who are following his orders will not go unpunished.”
Continue reading...Collapse of Venezuela’s healthcare system could fuel spread of malaria and other diseases across region
Experts have warned of an epidemic of diseases such as malaria and dengue on an unprecedented scale in Latin America following the collapse of the healthcare system in Venezuela.
Continent-wide public health gains of the last 18 years could be undone if Venezuela does not accept help to control the spreading outbreaks of malaria, Zika, dengue and other illnesses that are afflicting its people, experts have warned in a report published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.
Continue reading...Move comes days before opposition leaders planned to bring in foreign aid
Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, has ordered the vast border with Brazil to be closed, just days before opposition leaders plan to bring in foreign humanitarian aid he has refused to accept.
Maduro said he’s also weighing up shutting the border with Colombia. He made the announcement on state TV on Thursday, surrounded by military commanders.
Continue reading...Darwin Zerpa is among those who have fled to Peru to get the antiretrovirals he needs. Now he counsels others with the virus
By day it is one of Lima’s grandest squares. By night the Plaza San Martín becomes a magnet for nightclubbers and bag-snatchers, as well as a haunt for male sex workers and their clients.
It is here just before midnight that 29-year-old Darwin Zerpa and other volunteers set up shop. Pulling up in an out-of-service ambulance and folding out a table on the pavement, they mark out a spot where passersby can get HIV finger-prick test results in less than 10 minutes.
Continue reading...Stalled relief supplies for Venezuela at the Colombian border are a stark illustration of Trump’s crudely transactional approach to aid
In their grey livery, the US Air Force C-17s shuttling into Camilo Daza airport in Cúcuta, Colombia, look more belligerent than friendly – which is, perhaps, the point.
In the city itself, the planes’ cargo – boxes labelled USAid and intended for distribution by the Venezuelan opposition just across the border – are accumulating in the town’s warehouses.
Continue reading...Virgin says event ‘is not a political statement and the US is not involved’
The Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters has criticised an upcoming Live Aid-style concert to raise funds for humanitarian aid for Venezuela, by claiming it is a US-backed effort to tarnish the socialist government.
Related: Maduro government and Richard Branson to hold rival Venezuela concerts
Continue reading...Guaidó calls for volunteers to carry stockpiled US aid over the border on Saturday
Members of Venezuela’s opposition are gathering in Cúcuta, Colombia, where they are frantically planning to shift stockpiled US aid to their homeland this weekend, in defiance of their country’s embattled president Nicolás Maduro.
“Saturday will be a day that goes down in our history,” said Omar Lares, the former mayor of Campo Elías in western Venezuela, who has been living in exile in the border city for two years and is now helping coordinate Saturday’s planned delivery of aid.
“We’re working overtime to get the food and medicine that people so desperately need,” Lares said, speaking in the lobby of the Casino Internacional hotel, which has become one of the opposition’s impromptu bases of operations over the last month.
Continue reading...Donald Trump has used a speech in Miami, Florida, to issue a direct appeal to members of the Venezuelan military to back opposition leader Juan Guaidó. The influential Venezuelan military has so far remained largely loyal to current president, Nicolás Maduro. The US president told the crowd: 'We seek a peaceful transition of power, but all options are open'
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