VENEZUELANS

The newly released document provides a glimpse into the extent to which Venezuela’s government and intelligence forces have encroached into citizens’ lives.

Panama’s security minister says the number of migrants crossing the dangerous Darien Gap has grown substantially

President Joe Biden and other Western Hemisphere leaders have announced what is being billed as a roadmap for countries to host large numbers of migrants and refugees.

A group that once numbered as many as 5,000 migrants has split on whether to keeping walking through Mexico toward the U.S. border

After walking along rural highways in southern Mexico for two days, Venezuelan Wilber Pires spent what was supposed to be a day of rest for several thousand migrants traveling in a caravan, asking for help to buy medicine for his daughter.

After walking for two days along rural highways in southern Mexico with several thousand other migrants, Venezuelan Wilber Pires spent what was supposed to be a day of rest for the caravan asking for help to buy medicine for his daughter. Two-year-old Valesca Pires was hospitalized in Huixtla overnight with a high fever. Other children in the extended family of 18 were sick as well and covered with mosquito bites.

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has been welcomed in the Turkish capital one the same day as the foreign minister of Russia, a key ally of the ostracized Latin American regime, was also visiting the city.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was welcomed in the Turkish capital on Wednesday just as the foreign minister of Russia, a key ally of the ostracized Latin American regime, was also visiting the city. Maduro is on a Eurasian tour after being rebuffed by Washington, which decided not to invite him to the Summit of the Americas. Turkey is one of a handful of places around the world – Russia and Iran are other friendly states – where Maduro is welcome amid U.S. sanctions on his country.

Venezuela’s auto mechanics are increasingly busy these days, trying to coax a little more life out of aging vehicles

Venezuela's auto mechanics are increasingly busy these days, trying to coax a little more life out of aging vehicles.

The eyes of Fabiana Marquez brightened after she took the first bite of a savory, crescent-like bread stuffed with ham and cheese

The eyes of Fabiana Marquez brightened after she took the first bite of a savory, crescent-like bread stuffed with ham and cheese.

Maybel Sequera and Juan González recently shared for lunch a plate of noodles and beans at their home in a low-income neighborhood west of Venezuela’s capital

Maybel Sequera and Juan González recently shared for lunch a plate of noodles and beans at their home in a low-income neighborhood west of Venezuela’s capital.

The ground shook as the voice of Mexican singer Alejandro Fernandez collided with the cheers of fans at his first Venezuelan concert in over a decade

The ground shook as the voice of Mexican singer Alejandro Fernandez collided with the cheers of fans at his first Venezuelan concert in over a decade.

The U.S. is faced with the likelihood of eventually reopening its southern border to asylum seekers, and the government is urging allies in Latin America to shore up their immigration controls and expand their own asylum programs

A more realistic policy toward the Maduro regime would free up oil supplies and weaken Russian influence.

The rare U.S. visit with Maduro, the authoritarian leader who has been indicted by U.S. prosecutors on narcoterrorism charges, underscored the global shake-up prompted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro has signaled an interest in improving relationships between the South American country and the U.S. Maduro spoke Monday during a late-night televised meeting with cabinet members that followed weekend discussions with American officials

Venezuela has long been one of America's most bitter adversaries. But amid the crisis with Russia and soaring gas prices, the Biden administration is reaching out to the Latin American country.

The Venezuelan opposition was re-energized recently by an unexpected gubernatorial victory in the home state of the late President Hugo Chavez.

The Biden administration has begun expelling Venezuelan migrants to Colombia without a chance to seek asylum after entering the U.S. from Mexico, its latest use of pandemic-related authority

Venezuelans are getting a chance on to demand a recall of President Nicolás Maduro.

Mayerlin Mayor left her native Maracaibo with her 7-year-old daughter Victoria this month

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro says he has spoken by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin about cooperation between the two countries.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Thursday said he spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin about cooperation between the two countries. The call came a week after Russia’s chief negotiator in talks with the U.S. on tensions over Ukraine said he would “neither confirm nor exclude” the possibility of Russia sending military assets to Cuba and Venezuela if the U.S. and its allies don’t curtail their military activities on Russia’s doorstep.

The internal struggles of the movement started by late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez were encapsulated by the apparent defeat _ and its aftermath _ of one of his brothers during the gubernatorial election in November.

In the midst of the country’s economic collapse, casinos—and the dollar—are king again.

Monitors from the European Union say Venezuela’s 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.

A divided Venezuelan opposition has found itself on familiar territory, having lost an overwhelming majority of races disputed in a regional election over the weekend.

Hundreds of Venezuelans have been traveling to Colombia recently for coronavirus shots, as Venezuela struggles to get enough doses for its people

Hundreds of Venezuelans have been traveling to Colombia recently for coronavirus shots, as Venezuela struggles to get enough doses for its people.

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.

A new currency with six fewer zeros is debuting in Venezuela, whose currency has been made nearly worthless by years of the world’s worst inflation.

Wigs, a fake moustache and a new safehouse every three months are just some of the tools of deception that authorities in Spain believe a former Venezuelan spymaster relied on to evade capture on a U.S. warrant for narcoterrorism

Venezuela's socialist government and its opposition have agreed on at least one thing: Both claim that most of the neighboring nation of Guyana should be part of Venezuela. Guyana's government on Wednesday formally denounced the accord signed this week by Venezuelan negotiators who are trying to find a way out of their nation's political impasse. It called the agreement “an overt threat to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Guyana.”

Representatives of Venezuela’s government and opposition say they have agreed to find ways to deal with the pressing needs of Venezuelans, especially in combatting the coronavirus pandemic.

Correspondent Debora Patta visits a village in northern Kenya where men are not allowed. Woman make all the rules and rear their children to break the cycle of domestic violence suffered by 95% of Kenyan women.

Some described Duque's decision less an act of solidarity than a bid to improve his image with the United States.

Government and Venezuelan opposition representatives are continuing a dialogue aimed at finding a common path out of their country’s political standoff.

The government of Venezuela and its opposition have met for the first time in two years to look for a change in the South American nation's prolonged political standoff.

The government of Venezuela and its opposition are scheduled to begin a new dialogue this week, marking the third effort in four years.

Yosmar Sanguino says she struggles to put food on the table for for her two daughters and three grandchildren in a low-income neighborhood of Venezuela’s capital.

The United Nations refugee agency says it is seeking to help a Venezuelan boxer who fought in the Tokyo Games for the Refugee Olympic Team, a day after his father said he cannot return to Trinidad and Tobago where he had been living.

The U.S. government has begun to ease the crippling sanctions imposed by the Trump administration against Venezuela by allowing companies to export propane to the troubled South American country, a step that could mitigate a shortage that has pushed people to cook on charcoal or wood grills

To undocumented people like me, a few pieces of paper are the difference between stability and crisis.

Luis Sadovnic, Moises Rodan and Andres Levine, residents of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, had more in common than just their address: The three Venezuelans went to the same Jewish high school in Caracas. They’re still missing after the condo building collapsed last Thursday.

The frantic search for survivors of a partial building collapse in Surfside, Fla., continued as rain fell on the disaster site Friday morning.

The accusations that appeared on Twitter were alarming: A woman who identified herself as “Pia” said she’d been sexually abused by a prominent Venezuelan writer when she was 16.

Colombia granted Venezuelan migrants legal status, now it wants other countries to follow suit.

Venezuela’s National Assembly named two opposition stalwarts, including a formerly jailed activist, as election officials Tuesday, the latest move by President Nicolás Maduro to seek improved relations with the Biden administration. It is the first time since 2005 that the Venezuelan opposition will have two seats on the five-person National Electoral Council, which oversees elections in the South American country. Critics have said the body was stacked with government allies who functioned as a tool of Maduro's socialist administration.

A man revered by millions of Venezuelans as the “doctor of the poor” is one step away from sainthood.

It was billed as the beginning of the end for Nicolás Maduro. Instead, the humanitarian convoy was violently blocked by security forces loyal to Maduro — the first in a series of miscalculations in the Trump administration's policy toward Venezuela. More than two years later, the risky gambit is being questioned by a U.S. government watchdog.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s 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.

WASHINGTON – A Florida man was sentenced today to 55 months in prison for his connection with a scheme to provide private charter flights to two prominent members of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s inner circle. Mones Coro also provided flights in furtherance of Maduro’s May 2018 campaign for reelection, a corrupt campaign through which Maduro illegitimately maintained control of Venezuela. Between approximately February and May 2018, Mones Coro and ACS arranged between 20 to 25 domestic Venezuelan flights for the Maduro campaign. To avoid detection, Mones Coro and his co-conspirators, including Joselit Ramírez Camacho, Venezuela’s current Superintendent of Cryptocurrencies, engaged in various forms of subterfuge. Mones Coro also tried to cover his tracks by directing one of his pilots to lie to law enforcement.

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. I’m Samuel, I’m selling my drawings for $1 to help my mom with my diet, buy her a house and a shop so she won’t 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 Samuel’s tweets and gave him a scholarship to study drawing.

But their life may change drastically this year after the decision of President Joe Biden’s administration to offer temporary legal residency to several hundred thousand Venezuelans who fled their country’s humanitarian crisis. “As long as someone does not have a significant criminal record, it’s a pretty straightforward application, and I would expect nearly all to be approved,” 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 Trump’s executive order, but the temporary protected status issued Monday provides immigrants a more formal status that cannot be as easily reversed. “I feel happy, not only for me but for all the Venezuelans who are here.”___Garcia Cano reported from Mexico City.

The Biden administration on Monday announced it will offer deportation relief and work permits to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants living in the U.S., citing the political and economic turmoil in the South American country. "The designation is due to the extraordinary and temporary conditions in Venezuela, which is one of the statutory bases for it," a senior Biden administration official told reporters on a call Monday. During the presidential campaign, President Biden promised to grant TPS to Venezuelans "seeking relief from the humanitarian crisis brought on by the Maduro regime." Last month, the Colombian government announced it would offer temporary legal status to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans living in Colombia. Hindered by court rulings, the Trump administration was unable to strip the TPS protections of approximately 300,000 immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan.

AdA senior Biden administration official portrayed that as a failed strategy. “The 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.

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 – The chief European Union diplomat in Venezuela left the country on Tuesday, a week after the government of Nicolás 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.

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 Nicolás 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,” he added.

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 – The ransom calls began soon after Carlos Marrón learned his father hadn’t returned from his evening walk. There followed two days of intense abuse, the start of nearly two years in the Venezuelan jail, Marrón said. “Torture continues under the dictatorship.”The AP could not independently verify Marrón’s claims, but his name and allegations are included in the Sept. 16 United Nations report. She accused Venezuelan officials of gaming the system.

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 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.

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 – 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 he’s worked official channels in the past to get permission, but has been frustrated by bureaucrats demanding bribes.

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. “Ten drops under the tongue every four hours and the miracle is done,” 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.

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. “Supposedly, a shipment is coming to Venezuela,” said Contrera, who buys and sells food products and car parts to support his family. “Right now, I don’t know anything about its effects,” he said of the vaccine.

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 “deteriorative condition” 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 Guaidó as Venezuela’s president shortly after the young lawmaker rose up to challenge Maduro’s 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.

National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez gives an interview at Congress in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, Jan. 15, 2021. It’s 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 country’s 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 Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign.

National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez gives an interview at Congress in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, Jan. 15, 2021. It’s 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 country’s 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 Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign.

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 – 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 didn’t already control. “They are trying to annihilate Venezuela’s democratic force,” Guaidó said in his online address, which was overshadowed by the government’s 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 Guaidó.

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.

(AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)CARACAS – President Nicolás 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. “The results of the election show a discouraged, tired people, the vast majority doing everything possible to survive,” 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.

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. “I came to vote, and in less than half a second I have voted, quickly,” Caracas resident Rafael Espinoza said. “I don’t feel like wasting my time, giving these people the opportunity, so I simply don’t vote,” she said.

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 Guaidó, 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. "We’re getting instead an election that doesn’t deserve to be called an election."

(Courtesy of John Pereira via AP)CARACAS – The family of a Houston-based Citgo oil executive convicted and ordered to prison in Venezuela alongside five others appealed directly to President Nicolás Maduro on Friday for mercy. “Our purpose for this letter is not to enter into legal tirades about the case,” the letter says. The so-called Citgo 6 are employees of Houston-based Citgo refining company, which is owned by Venezuela’s 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.

Jesus Loreto, an attorney representing Tomeu Vadell, one of six U.S. oil executives jailed for three years in Venezuela, shows a letter written by Vadell, in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020. The so-called Citgo 6 are employees of Houston-based Citgo refining company, which is owned by Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA. Despite his circumstances, Vadell held out hope. With encouragement from his family, Vadell broke his silence, taking a risk relatives said was necessary. During his 35-year career with PDVSA and Citgo, Vadell ended up running a refinery in Lake Charles and then became vice president of refining.

Marlene Alfonso, a 69-year-old Venezuelan grandmother who goes by Toothless Cindy, sings about Venezuelan migrants' lives in hopes of tips from commuters on the Transmilenio, the crowded and crime-ridden public bus system in Bogota, Colombia, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)BOGOTA – With her pink cardigan and thick glasses, “Toothless Cindy” is becoming a musical sensation on Colombian public transport. “I’m trying to make something of myself,” she sings while riding on a bus packed with commuters heading into downtown. Two years ago, she moved to Colombia because rapping in Venezuela’s subways no longer helped her to make ends meet. This growing recognition comes as some Venezuelan migrants also make headlines in Colombia for committing crimes that include robberies on public buses.

Burgos hands out his homemade arepas from the seat of his bicycle to needy children, adults and the elderly. Burgos, 55, started handing out arepas — Venezuela’s beloved corn flour patties — from the seat of his bicycle to needy children, adults and the elderly. In fact, I enjoy it.”Luis Miguel Yajure, a slender, homeless man, said the two arepas Burgos gave him were likely the only thing he would eat that day. Thanks to Burgos, he did not need to look for food in a pile of junk and computer parts. “As long as there’s the need and I have the materials and the money to do it, I’ll do it,” Burgos said.

Maduro tasked El Aissami, who later became Venezuela's Oil Minister, with restructuring their nation's oil giant PDVSA in February 2020. The president also said two foreigners tied to extremist groups were detained a day prior to the incident with plans to kill Venezuelan leaders. Maduro did not identify the them, give their nationality or explain whether they had ties to the refinery attack. Venezuela was once a wealthy oil nation, but its broken refineries fail to produce enough fuel for drivers to fuel up their cars. “It seems like a very good idea to buy missiles from Iran,” Maduro said.

Venezuelan migrants walk to Bogota as they pass through Tunja, Colombia, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020. Thousands of Venezuelans are heading to Colombia, Ecuador and Peru in search of work as these countries reopen their economies following months of lockdowns. Before the pandemic, over 5 million Venezuelans had left their country, according to the United Nations. Over 100,000 Venezuelans returned to their country, where at least they’d have a roof over their heads. Further complicating matters, more than half of all Venezuelans in Colombia have no legal status.

(AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)CARACAS – The second of three ships loaded with gasoline from Iran approached fuel-starved Venezuela on Wednesday amid simmering social unrest over a lack of goods and services that's sparked protests across the South American nation. Despite each being relatively small, they have raised concern among Venezuelan authorities, who have responded forcefully, sending in soldiers and local police, activists and residents told The Associated Press. The latest shipment of Iranian fuel didn't impress residents of a small farming town of Urachiche in Yaracuy state. It was the site of protests among fed-up residents in the streets last week for five straight days. Venezuelan authorities have rejected the report, claiming it is full of “falsehoods” and that it was written at the behest of Washington in its ongoing attacks against Venezuela.

For Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro, its the propaganda gift that keeps on giving, buoying a leader long in Washingtons crosshairs. AdvertisementI saw the pictures on a beach, Trump told Fox News. The funds were to be backed by Venezuelan barrels of oil extracted once Maduro was out and replaced by Guaid. AdvertisementThe debacle also threatened new rifts in the long-fragmented Venezuelan opposition, which united in January 2019 to endorse Guaid's presidential self-declaration. If I wanted to go into Venezuela, I wouldnt make a secret about it, Trump told Fox News after the failed assault.

A U.S. military veteran who has claimed responsibility for a failed armed incursion into Venezuela to oust President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday that two U.S. citizens working with him have been detained by Venezuelan authorities. Venezuelan authorities said 10 people involved in a "mercenary incursion" were detained on Monday along the Caribbean coast, saying the 10 were part of the U.S.-backed plot. Venezuelan state television said two U.S. citizens were among those detained but did not provide their identities. But the American military veteran, Jordan Goudreau, who leads a Florida-based security company called Silvercorp USA, on Monday told Reuters that two Americans working with him, Aaron Berry and Luke Denman, had been captured. Washington has imposed tough economic sanctions against Venezuela in an effort to oust Maduro, whom it accuses of having rigged elections in 2018.

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Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro Marco Bello | ReutersWASHINGTON In the latest move meant to back Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, the Trump administration on Tuesday sanctioned more than a dozen aircraft used to support the regime of President Nicolas Maduro. The Department of Treasury identified 15 aircraft operated by Venezuela's state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, that transport senior members of the Maduro regime. According to the Treasury release, Venezuelan Oil Minister Manuel Salvador Quevedo Fernandez flew to an OPEC meeting last year in the United Arab Emirates on a PDVSA aircraft. During his campaign for president, Chavez vilified the U.S. and other countries he felt were taking advantage of Venezuela. Maduro, who is not the charismatic leader Chavez was, consolidated his power in 2017 by stripping the country's opposition-led legislature of power.

Members of the so-called Rio Treaty a rarely invoked mutual defense pact among the U.S., Canada and several Latin American and Caribbean nations voted 16 to 1 to approve the measures. Colombian Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo said the countries agreed to all available measures to pursue, prosecute and extradite suspects from the government of President Nicolas Maduro and to freeze the targeted individuals assets in any of the treaty countries. The 1947 Rio Treaty has not been activated since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S. The Venezuelan opposition, which sought to rejoin the treaty, was allowed to vote on Monday. Ahead of Mondays meeting, Colombian President Ivan Duque again condemned Maduro, accusing him of crimes against humanity.

More than half of Venezuela's 23 states lost power on Monday, according to Reuters witnesses and reports on social media, a blackout the government blamed on an "electromagnetic attack." Venezuelan Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said the outage on Monday was caused by an "electromagnetic attack," without providing evidence. The oil-rich country's hyperinflationary economic crisis has led to widespread shortages in food and medicine, prompting over 4 million Venezuelans to leave the country. Venezuela's national power grid has fallen into disrepair after years of inadequate investment and maintenance, according to the opposition and power experts. "I live in the eastern part of the city and there the lights go out every day.