Venezuelans living abroad want to vote for president this year but can't meet absentee requirements
More than half of the estimated 7.7 million Venezuelans who have left their homeland during the complex crisis that has marked Nicolรกs Maduroโs 11-year presidency are estimated to be registered to vote in Venezuela.
Fact Focus: Claims Biden administration is secretly flying migrants into the country are unfounded
In his victory speech Tuesday, former president Donald Trump echoed false statements on social media that the Biden administration had secretly flown hundreds of thousands of migrants to the United States.
Deported by US, arrested in Venezuela: One family's saga highlights Biden's migration challenge
The Venezuelan diaspora is one of the most vexing migration challenges facing the U.S. secretary of state and the homeland security secretary when they meet Mexicoโs president Wednesday to discuss unprecedented arrivals at the border.
UN takes no immediate action at emergency meeting on Guyana-Venezuela dispute over oil-rich region
The United Nations Security Council took no immediate action at a closed emergency meeting requested by Guyana following Venezuelaโs recent referendum claiming the vast oil- and mineral-rich Essequibo region that makes up a large part of its neighbor.
UN court bars Venezuela from altering Guyanaโs control over disputed territory
The U.N. top court has ordered Venezuela not to take any action that would alter Guyanaโs control over a disputed territory, but did not specifically ban Venezuela from holding its planned referendum Sunday on the territoryโs future.
Ex-lawmaker Marรญa Corina Machado dominates opposition's presidential primary in Venezuela
Former Venezuelan lawmaker Marรญa Corina Machado, a longtime critic of Venezuelaโs government, has dominated the oppositionโs presidential primary election, getting more than 1.4 million votes, according to the latest partial results.
Migrants pass quickly through once impenetrable Darien jungle as governments scramble for answers
Rain-swollen rivers only briefly slowed the otherwise uninterrupted flow of migrants through this jungle-covered border of Colombia and Panama and by midweek another 2,000 bedraggled migrants stumbled out of the Darien jungle.
Biden's Democratic allies intensify pressure for asylum-seekers to get work permits
As migration to the United States from Venezuela and other countries soars, Democratic elected officials are pressing the Biden administration to quickly grant work permits for asylum-seekers while their cases wind through immigration courts.
Costa Rica-US immigration agreement aims to manage region's flows
Costa Rica and the U.S. government have agreed to open potential legal pathways to the United States for some of the Nicaraguan and Venezuelan migrants among the 240,000 asylum seekers already awaiting asylum in the Central American country.
Maduro's newest foe: an in-home caregiver who fled Venezuela
Like many of the 7 million Venezuelans whoโve abandoned their homeland in recent years, when Dinorah Figuera left behind her family and medical career in 2018 she was forced to accept meals from charities and hop from one low-cost shared apartment to another when she arrived in Spain.
Bribery trial tests US cases against Venezuela kleptocrats
A former Venezuelan treasurer and nurse to the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is contesting criminal charges in the U.S. Claudia Diaz is charged with money laundering, accused of taking at least $4.2 million in bribes and gifts in exchange for green lighting lucrative currency transactions.
Venezuelans halted in Panama by US policy change return home
With dashed dreams and empty hands, hundreds of Venezuelan migrants are stranded in Panamaโs capital looking for a way home after surviving the crossing of the Darien Gap only to find that a United States policy change had closed the border to them.
US migrant policy 'bucket of cold water' to some Venezuelans
Venezuelan Gilbert Fernรกndez still plans to cross the dangerous Dariรฉn jungle into Panama headed over land toward the U.S. despite Washington's announcement that it will grant conditional humanitarian permits only to 24,000 Venezuelan migrants arriving by air.
'Fat Leonard' may be Venezuela bargaining chip, experts say
A fugitive defense contractor nicknamed โFat Leonardโ who claims to have incriminating sex photos of top U.S. Navy brass could become the latest bargaining chip in Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduroโs efforts to win official recognition from the Biden administration.
EU reports improvements, old tactics in Venezuela election
Monitors from the European Union say Venezuelaโs regional elections last weekend happened under better conditions compared to the country's elections in recent years but were marred by the use of public funds to benefit pro-government candidates.
US targets graft in Venezuela's flagship food box program
Federal prosecutors have unveiled criminal charges against an alleged corruption ring accused of paying millions of dollars in bribes to a top ally of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to profit from lucrative contracts to import food and medicine at a time of widespread hardship in the South American country.
US weighs policy on Venezuela as Maduro signals flexibility
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduroโs government is intensifying efforts to court the Biden administration as the new U.S. president weighs whether to risk a political backlash in Florida and ease up on sanctions seeking to isolate the socialist leader.
Venezuelan teen sells drawings on Twitter to buy food
The 14-year-old has been selling his drawings on his Twitter account to help the family get by. Without his mother's knowledge, he began selling his drawings on his Twitter page to help the family get by and to pay for a special diet doctors say he needs in Venezuela's troubled economy. Iโm Samuel, Iโm selling my drawings for $1 to help my mom with my diet, buy her a house and a shop so she wonโt work on the street and get sick with COVID-19 and buy peanut butter for me. But they came home in December after she lost her job and found increasing prejudice against the growing number of Venezuelan migrants. Venezuelan artist Oscar Olivares, who runs an art academy, saw Samuelโs tweets and gave him a scholarship to study drawing.
Venezuelans overjoyed by US temporary residency opportunity
But their life may change drastically this year after the decision of President Joe Bidenโs administration to offer temporary legal residency to several hundred thousand Venezuelans who fled their countryโs humanitarian crisis. โAs long as someone does not have a significant criminal record, itโs a pretty straightforward application, and I would expect nearly all to be approved,โ Kagan said referring to the temporary protected status program. Gustavo Acosta cheered loudly upon learning that the Biden government had ordered temporary protected status for Venezuelans. Republicans in recent days had urged the Biden administration to formalize Trumpโs executive order, but the temporary protected status issued Monday provides immigrants a more formal status that cannot be as easily reversed. โI feel happy, not only for me but for all the Venezuelans who are here.โ___Garcia Cano reported from Mexico City.
US lets Venezuelans stay temporarily, will review sanctions
AdA senior Biden administration official portrayed that as a failed strategy. โThe United States is in no rush to lift sanctions," the official said, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss the policy. Any easing of sanctions would likely face opposition in Congress, but the granting of temporary protected status for Venezuelans has bipartisan support. Temporary protected status is a more formal status that cannot be as easily reversed. Citizens of 10 countries, totaling about 400,000 people, are in the United States now with temporary protected status.
Chief European Union diplomat in Venezuela leaves country
European Union Ambassador to Venezuela Isabel Brilhante Pedrosa leaves a meeting with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza where she was given a letter of "persona non grata" and given 72 hours to leave the country, at Arreaza's office in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)CARACAS โ The chief European Union diplomat in Venezuela left the country on Tuesday, a week after the government of Nicolรกs Maduro ordered her expulsion following the EU's decision to impose sanctions on several Venezuelan officials accused of undermining democracy or violating human rights. AdThe move marked the second time in almost eight months that Brilhante Pedrosa was declared persona non grata and ordered to leave Venezuela. Both cases were related to the European Union sanctions against officials and allies of Maduro. Last June, Brilhante Pedrosa was able to remain in Venezuela after the European Union high representative for foreign affairs, Josep Borrell, and Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza agreed on the need to maintain diplomatic relations.
Sanctions prompt Venezuela to expel head of EU delegation
Isabel Brilhante Pedrosa was given 72 hours to leave the troubled country. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said Brilhante Pedrosa was declared persona non grata by decision of President Nicolรกs Maduro. It is the second time in almost eight months that Brilhante Pedrosa has been declared persona non grata and ordered to leave Venezuela. Both cases have been related to the EU sanctions against officials and allies of Maduro. Without that, there will be no "kind of dialogue, gentlemen of the European Union,โ he added.
AP Exclusive: Man recounts torture in Maduro's Venezuela
Marrn says the torture he endured supports a United Nations report that Nicols Maduros government committed possible crimes against humanity. (AP Photo/Cody Jackson)CARACAS โ The ransom calls began soon after Carlos Marrรณn learned his father hadnโt returned from his evening walk. There followed two days of intense abuse, the start of nearly two years in the Venezuelan jail, Marrรณn said. โTorture continues under the dictatorship.โThe AP could not independently verify Marrรณnโs claims, but his name and allegations are included in the Sept. 16 United Nations report. She accused Venezuelan officials of gaming the system.
Colombia will legalize undocumented Venezuelan migrants
FILE - In this April 14, 2019 file photo, Venezuelans cross illegally into Colombia near the Simon Bolivar International Bridge, seen from La Parada near Cucuta, Colombia. President Ivan Duque said that through a new temporary protection statute, Venezuelan migrants who are in the country illegally will be eligible for 10-year residence permits, while migrants who are currently on temporary residence will be able to extend their stay. The new measure could benefit up to one million Venezuelan citizens who are currently living in Colombia without proper papers, as well as hundreds of thousands who need to extend temporary visas. Other popular destinations for Venezuelan migrants include Panama and Chile, which have imposed visa requirements that make it harder for Venezuelans to move to those countries. AdAccording to the United Nations, there are 4.7 million Venezuelan migrants and other refugees in other Latin American countries after fleeing the economic collapse and political divide in their homeland.
Peru's crime worries tainting Venezuelans who want to work
Peru is hosting roughly 1 million displaced Venezuelans, an influx that began around 2014 as inflation, unemployment, crime and shortages of food and medicine soared in their homeland. Then the coronavirus pandemic came, hitting Peru particularly hard, and Marero found herself out of work as did countless other migrants. Using imprisonment data in Peru as a proxy for crime rates, researchers said 1.3% of inmates were foreign born. Federico Agusti, the representative in Peru of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, challenged officials' assertions that Venezuelan immigrants are increasingly involved in crime. He said data that the government has shared with the U.N. body show that only 1.8% of all complaints in Peru are against Venezuelans.
Stunts in the streets for Venezuelan motorcycle virtuoso
Stuntman Pedro Aldana performs a wheelie on his motorcycle during an exhibition in the Ojo de Agua neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Jan. 10, 2021. The motorcycle trick rider and adrenalin junkie who prefers the nickname "Crazy Pedro," draws masses of Venezuelans starved for entertainment to his shows across the country. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)CARACAS โ If police aren't shutting down his street shows for lack of permits, Venezuelan motorcycle trick rider Pedro Aldana is battling coronavirus quarantines or the tropical rains that turn the asphalt slick and send fans running for cover. For the last decade, he's been travelling across Venezuela to put on shows drawing up to 7,000 spectators. Aldana says heโs worked official channels in the past to get permission, but has been frustrated by bureaucrats demanding bribes.
Maduro's 'miracle' treatment for COVID-19 draws skeptics
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro speaks during a ceremony marking the start of the judicial year at the Supreme Court in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, Jan. 22, 2021. โTen drops under the tongue every four hours and the miracle is done,โ Maduro said in a televised appearance on Sunday. Other leaders too have embraced solutions dismissed by scientific studies. Maduro said the treatment, which he called carvativir, has been under testing for nine months among Venezuelans ill with the coronavirus. She said colleagues at a local health center and some neighbors have died from COVID-19.
Venezuela power struggle impedes delivery of COVID vaccine
FILE - In this Sept. 19, 2020 file photo, a doctor takes a nasal swab sample to test for COVID-19 at the Cocodrilos Sports Park in Caracas, Venezuela. The acrimonious posturing has already led Venezuela to miss a December deadline to make an $18 million down payment on vaccines to the U.N. But Venezuela risks falling behind the world in vaccinating health workers and the most-vulnerable populations. โSupposedly, a shipment is coming to Venezuela,โ said Contrera, who buys and sells food products and car parts to support his family. โRight now, I donโt know anything about its effects,โ he said of the vaccine.
Trump blocks Venezuelans' deportation in last political gift
Trump signed an executive order deferring for 18 months the removal of more than 145,000 Venezuelans who were at risk of being sent back to their crisis-wracked homeland. He cited the โdeteriorative conditionโ within Venezuela that constitutes a national security threat as the basis for his decision. The Trump administration was the first of now more than 50 countries in the world to recognize Guaidรณ as Venezuelaโs president shortly after the young lawmaker rose up to challenge Maduroโs rule two years ago. More than 700 Venezuelans have been removed from the U.S. since 2018, while 11,000 more are under deportation proceedings, according to the TRAC immigration data base of Syracuse University. All are accused of helping the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA evade earlier U.S. sanctions designed to stop the president from profiting from crude sales.
AP EXCLUSIVE: Maduro ally presses for dialogue with Biden
National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez gives an interview at Congress in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, Jan. 15, 2021. Itโs unclear if the Biden administration will accept the overture or continue with the hardline policy of regime change it inherits. Past attempts at government dialogue with the opposition have failed to end the countryโs stalemate and Maduro has tightened his grip on power. As National Assembly president, Rodriguez is second in the line of presidential succession, behind his younger sister, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez. Analysts say Biden has limited options to undo crippling oil sanctions imposed as part of Trumpโs โmaximum pressureโ campaign.
AP EXCLUSIVE: Maduro ally presses for dialogue with Biden
National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez gives an interview at Congress in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, Jan. 15, 2021. Itโs unclear if the Biden administration will accept the overture or continue with the hardline policy of regime change it inherits. Past attempts at government dialogue with the opposition have failed to end the countryโs stalemate and Maduro has tightened his grip on power. As National Assembly president, Rodriguez is second in the line of presidential succession, behind his younger sister, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez. Analysts say Biden has limited options to undo crippling oil sanctions imposed as part of Trumpโs โmaximum pressureโ campaign.
Venezuela's socialists take control of once-defiant congress
The ruling socialist party assumed the leadership of Venezuela's congress on Tuesday, the last institution in the country it didn't already control. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)CARACAS โ Parading giant portraits of Hugo Chavez and independence hero Simon Bolivar, allies of President Nicolas Maduro retook control of Venezuela's congress Tuesday, the last institution in the country it didnโt already control. โThey are trying to annihilate Venezuelaโs democratic force,โ Guaidรณ said in his online address, which was overshadowed by the governmentโs celebratory session in the legislature downtown. Rodriguez emphasized that urgent work would be needed to mitigate the fallout from U.S. sanctions, which have exacerbated Venezuela's many homespun economic problems. He also reiterated a desire for dialogue with the opposition at the same time that Maduro and others have threatened arrest for Guaidรณ.
Coronavirus dampens Christmas joy in Bethlehem and elsewhere
Few people were there to greet them as the coronavirus pandemic and a strict lockdown dampened Christmas Eve celebrations. The Philippines prohibited mass gatherings and barred extended families from holding traditional Christmas Eve dinners. On Christmas Eve in Italy, church bells rang earlier than usual. In Athens, Christmas Eve was eerily silent. The schedule for Christmas Eve and Christmas day included Masses in English and Spanish, and a bilingual jazz vespers service.
Legislative election leaves Venezuela in political standoff
(AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)CARACAS โ President Nicolรกs Maduro has cemented formal control over all major institutions of power in Venezuela with authorities reporting Monday that his political alliance easily won a majority in congress. Yet he remains a pariah to much of the world following an election critics called deeply undemocratic. โThe results of the election show a discouraged, tired people, the vast majority doing everything possible to survive,โ Shifter said. The U.S., Panama, Canada and Germany have repeated their condemnation of the the election by Maduro's government following announcement of the results. "The international community now has to decide whether it wants to live with that or restore the democratic path for Venezuela.
Venezuela vote likely to give Congress to Maduro's party
The vote, championed by President Nicolas Maduro, is rejected as fraud by the nation's most influential opposition politicians. Critics say he's guaranteed that by rigging the system to smother the last remnants of democracy in Venezuela. The European Union, the U.S. and several other nations have already declared the vote a sham. โI came to vote, and in less than half a second I have voted, quickly,โ Caracas resident Rafael Espinoza said. โI donโt feel like wasting my time, giving these people the opportunity, so I simply donโt vote,โ she said.
Venezuela's Maduro seeks to tighten his grip via election
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro speaks to supporters during a closing campaign rally for the upcoming National Assembly elections in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Dec. 3, 2020. Venezuelans will vote for a new National Assembly this Sunday, Dec 6. Opposition leader Juan Guaidรณ, 37, rose to head the National Assembly in early 2019, declaring presidential powers and vowing to oust the 58-year-old Maduro. Abrams said he also expects broad international support for Venezuela's opposition to remain firm, even as Maduro's government tries to push them out of Venezuela's political landscape. "Weโre getting instead an election that doesnโt deserve to be called an election."
Family of jailed oil exec asks for Venezuelan leader's mercy
(Courtesy of John Pereira via AP)CARACAS โ The family of a Houston-based Citgo oil executive convicted and ordered to prison in Venezuela alongside five others appealed directly to President Nicolรกs Maduro on Friday for mercy. โOur purpose for this letter is not to enter into legal tirades about the case,โ the letter says. The so-called Citgo 6 are employees of Houston-based Citgo refining company, which is owned by Venezuelaโs state oil company, PDVSA. Judge Lorena Cornielles, who oversaw the trial, did not respond to a letter from The Associated Press seeking permission to observe. Pereira's family said in the letter that he suffers from at least seven chronic health problems including diabetes and back trouble that requires surgery.