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'
Continue reading...In the wake of the scandal, it became harder to launder money through investment in Panamanian real estate for Venezuelans who grew rich on the back of their political connections
On Avenida Balboa, Panama City’s premier seafront avenue, the 50 story tower blocks form a near continuous wall of glass to the Pacific Ocean. At night, however, most of the luxury apartments remain in darkness and the basement casinos are eerily deserted.
Panamanian real estate was a favourite investment of the boliburgues, Venezuelans who grew rich on the back of their political connections to the late president Hugo Chávez and his successor Nicolás Maduro.
Continue reading...Juan Guaidó calls on military to let supplies in, but President Maduro denies any crisis
A US military transport plane carrying humanitarian aid meant for Venezuela has landed in the Colombian border city of Cúcuta, where food and medicine is being stored amid uncertainty over how and where aid will be distributed.
The shipment on Saturday is the second arrival of large-scale US and international aid for Venezuelans, many of whom have scant access to food and medicine, since the opposition leader Juan Guaidó declared himself interim president last month in defiance of the socialist president, Nicolás Maduro.
Continue reading...The US vice-president rebuked European powers over Iran and Venezuela on Saturday, in a renewed attack on traditional US allies, rejecting a call by Germany’s chancellor to include Russia in global cooperation efforts. Describing the results of Donald Trump’s presidency as 'remarkable' and 'extraordinary', Pence told senior European and Asian officials that the European Union should follow the US in quitting the Iran nuclear deal and recognising the head of Venezuela’s congress, Juan Guaidó, as president
Pence hails 'remarkable, extraordinary' Trump tenure in attack on US allies
Continue reading...In the midst of Venezuela’s spiralling economic crisis, Natalia and fellow members of a Chavista collective have stepped in to take over production at a local bakery, La Minka. Authorities had suspended operations when the owners were accused of overpricing their loaves and hoarding flour. In March 2017, with the tacit support of the government, the collective began selling affordable bread. This is the story of their fight to safeguard the bakery’s future and keep the Chavista dream alive
Continue reading...Opposition leader believes movement for change in the country is irreversible
The Venezuelan opposition leader spearheading efforts to unseat Nicolás Maduro has rejected his rival’s claim that his campaign has failed but admitted the “trickle” of military defections to his side had so far been insufficient to force change.
In an interview with the Guardian, Juan Guaidó – now recognised as Venezuela’s legitimate interim president by more than 50 governments – insisted his country’s march into a new political era was unstoppable and Maduro’s “cruel dictatorship” doomed.
Continue reading...Demonstrations over missing $4bn in development funds leave police overstretched, allowing 78 inmates to escape
The impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti, hit by days of violent demonstrations that have claimed four lives, has suffered a mass prison breakout after 78 inmates escaped while police were dealing with protesters.
The demonstrations, the culmination of months of anti-corruption protests over the fate of almost $4bn (£3.1bn) in missing funds earmarked for social development – delivered via a controversial deal for Venezuelan petrol – have swelled in recent days under the slogan: “Kot kòb Petrocaribe a?” (“Where’s the Petrocaribe money?”).
Continue reading...The Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar had a heated exchange with the Trump administration’s special envoy to Venezuela over his record in Latin America.
The Minnesota representative pressed Elliott Abrams – a former Reagan administration official – on his involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal
Continue reading...The US conceded it was ‘impossible to predict’ how long Maduro will remain in power
Venezuela’s embattled leader, Nicolás Maduro, has claimed he has seen off a dramatic opposition challenge to his rule, as those efforts appeared to falter and the United States conceded it was “impossible to predict” how long he might remain in power.
In an interview with Euronews, Maduro boasted that his political foes had “failed totally” in their quest to topple him. Opponents “could march every single day of their lives” and achieve nothing, Maduro said.
Continue reading...Thousands of demonstrators marched across the country as rebellion enters its fourth week and Maduro clings to power
Tens of thousands of demonstrators have poured back on to the streets of Caracas and towns and cities across Venezuela to intensify their mutiny against Nicolás Maduro.
Related: ‘Maduro, our amigo’: loyalists in Venezuela cling to their man
Continue reading...Top Latin America adviser claims ‘there is not a single scenario’ in which Maduro and his ‘cronies’ are able to retain power
Donald Trump’s top Latin America adviser has claimed “there is not a single scenario” in which Nicolás Maduro and his “cronies” are able to retain power in Venezuela.
The revolt against Maduro’s regime is entering its fourth week, with the Venezuelan strongman showing no sign of relinquishing power despite a startling and largely unforeseen challenge from a previously obscure opposition leader called Juan Guaidó.
Continue reading...Venezuelan soldiers have blocked the border crossing with Colombia ahead of a humanitarian aid delivery from the US arranged by opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who has declared himself interim president. 'We have been threatened by the US empire, by the President of the United States of America, Mr Donald Trump', declared Venezuela's embattled president, Nicolás Maduro. The aid blockade could sway the loyalties of the military who may disobey Maduro's orders and allow the much-needed aid to pass. International pressure is growing on Maduro to step down after major European Union nations this week joined the United States, Canada and a group of Latin American countries in recognising Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate leader
The opposition leader behind Juan Guaidó’s rise has been under house arrest since 2017, but is an experienced schemer
Leopoldo López has been under house arrest since 2017, but he played a key role in Juan Guaidó’s sudden ascent from the political margin to Venezuela’s would-be president.
López claims to be distant relative of Simón Bolívar, the general who liberated Venezuela from Spanish rule in the 19th century. Like many members of the Venezuelan elite, he was educated in the United States, at a boarding school in New Jersey, and later at Harvard, where he attended the Kennedy school of government.
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