Category: Latin America

Enraged as they are by their nation’s leaders, many of the protesters who have spilled onto Venezuela’s streets have their eyes fixed on another government altogether, one they resent perhaps just as bitterly as their own: Cuba’s. The Cuban government and its president, Raúl Castro, they contend, have leeched off Venezuela’s oil wealth, grafted Cuba’s rigid brand of socialism onto their country and helped choreograph a broad crackdown on dissent. Their rancor is echoed by the Cuban opposition, which has thrown itself behind the Venezuelan protesters’ cause with gusto, sharing photos and videos of protests and police abuse on Twitter, urging Venezuelans to resist and even rapping an apology for what they call Cuba’s meddling. The fixation with the influence of Cuba in Venezuela’s affairs reflects how meshed the two countries’ economic and political realities remain a year after the death of Venezuela’s longtime president, Hugo […]

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– President Nicolas Maduro’s cash-strapped government unveiled a new currency market Monday that allows Venezuelans to buy and sell dollars legally for the first time since 2010. Opposition leader Gov. Henrique Capriles said the so-called Sicad 2 exchange system is akin to a devaluation and will eat away at the savings of poor families. The government is counting on the new exchange mechanism to alleviate pressure on a black market Venezuelans turn to when they can’t purchase hard currency from the government at the official 6.3 bolivars per dollar rate. Maduro’s government has been increasingly safeguarding its shrinking supply of dollars as oil production declines and deficit spending remains high. That’s led it to fall behind on payments to foreign airlines and carmakers, exacerbating a shortage of imported goods.

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Seeking to confront the deep economic problems that have helped fuel weeks of protests here, Venezuela ’s socialist-inspired government took a step on Monday toward easing strict currency controls and opened what it says will be a free market for the sale of dollars to Venezuelans. The new exchange rate mechanism is intended to reduce the black market price of dollars, which had soared in recent months. Yet the impact of the measure, which is similar to a system that was shut down in 2010, depends on how much money the government allows to change hands in the new market and how freely it allows the market to operate. Alejandro Grisanti, an economist for Barclays, said the change “makes the exchange rate system more flexible,” adding, “And in that sense it’s very positive for Venezuela.” The new system will operate in tandem with a base exchange […]

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Oilfield services provider Weatherford International Ltd said on Monday it was reducing operations in Venezuela and expects its Russian business to grow this year. The Swiss-headquartered company, which competes with Schlumberger and Halliburton, said the "serious liquidity situation in Venezuela" is causing it to pare back services it provides inside the OPEC country, Chief Executive Bernard Duroc-Danner said at the Howard Weil conference in New Orleans on Monday. Weatherford provides drilling and exploration services to Venezuela’s national oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA , but Venezuela’s currency devaluation and economic instability have prompted payment delays, according to Weatherford’s annual filing with the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission. In Russia, Weatherford expects a "very constructive year," Duroc-Danner told the conference. He did not mention the ongoing tension between Russia and Ukraine over Crimea and how it could affect his business. Last year, revenue in […]

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Venezuela’s president said on Friday that street protests for the past month have caused at least $10 billion in damage, accusing hardline foes of carrying out terrorist acts to sabotage public assets. President Nicolas Maduro did not say how the government arrived at that figure from the clashes between demonstrators barricading roads, pro-government radicals and security forces that have killed at least 31 people. "The minority who want a coup have done so much damage to the country … they burnt a public university where hundreds of young people studied," he said in a nationally televised speech. "This isn’t protest. It’s vandalism. It’s terrorism." Maduro was referring to a military college affiliated with the Venezuelan armed forces that authorities say was torched by demonstrators in the western city of San Cristobal, near the border with Colombia. San Cristobal has been harder hit by the violence than […]

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The authorities have jailed the mayors of two cities that have experienced some of the most intense unrest in a wave of protests that has shaken the country in recent weeks. The arrests came as the National Assembly called for a criminal investigation of a prominent opposition lawmaker on charges related to the demonstrations. The intelligence police on Wednesday arrested Daniel Ceballos, the mayor of San Cristóbal, a city near the western border with Colombia where the protests began in early February. Many parts of San Cristóbal have been virtually shut down for weeks by demonstrators manning barricades, and clashes between residents and security forces are common. Mr. Ceballos was arrested during a trip to Caracas, the capital. The justice minister, Miguel Rodríguez, said that the mayor had been taken into custody on a judicial order after citizens filed court papers accusing him of failing to […]

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The government on Monday deployed hundreds of soldiers in a part of Caracas where weeks of often violent protests have taken place, and a top official boasted that the area had been “liberated.” The operation centered on a public square, Plaza Francia, in the city’s well-off Altamira district, where virtually every night up to hundreds of young protesters gathered to engage in battles with the police and National Guard troops, building barricades to block streets and throwing rocks and gas bombs at security forces, who responded with tear gas and plastic buckshot. The deployment extended into other nearby neighborhoods where residents had been active in the protests and had barricaded many streets. Soldiers, some armed with assault weapons, were stationed in the plaza and on many of the major streets in the area, which has long been an opposition stronghold. Municipal workers removed barricades and cleaned up the trash […]

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A Venezuela National Guard captain died on Monday after being shot in the head during a demonstration, the military said, the 29th fatality in six weeks of clashes between protesters and security forces. General Padrino Lopez, head of the armed forces’ strategic operational command, said the captain was shot late on Sunday at a street barricade set up by demonstrators in the central city of Maracay, in Aragua state. "He was another victim of terrorist violence," Lopez said on Twitter, calling for an end to the confrontations. "Our armed forces don’t repress peaceful protests, they protect them." Since early February, students and hardline opposition leaders have been calling supporters onto the streets to protest against President Nicolas Maduro and his socialist government. The demonstrators are demanding political change and an end to high inflation, shortages of basic foods and one of the worst rates of violent […]

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Air Canada says it will continue to monitor the situation "with the objective of resuming operations" Air Canada has suspended flights to and from Venezuela, citing concerns over security. The airline said it would consider resuming operations once the situation in Venezuela had stabilised. It operated three return flights between Toronto and Caracas per week. Twenty-nine people – from both sides of the political divide – have been killed in six weeks of protests against high inflation, crime and the shortage of many staples in Venezuela. "Due to ongoing civil unrest in Venezuela, Air Canada can no longer ensure the safety of its operation and has suspended flights to Caracas until further notice," says the Canadian airline in a statement. It says customers who have not begun their travel "may obtain refunds". Others may be rebooked on other airlines. Retaliation Several international airlines have reduced operations in recent weeks […]

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Air Canada says it will continue to monitor the situation "with the objective of resuming operations" Air Canada has suspended flights to and from Venezuela, citing concerns over security. The airline said it would consider resuming operations once the situation in Venezuela had stabilised. It operated three return flights between Toronto and Caracas per week. Twenty-nine people – from both sides of the political divide – have been killed in six weeks of protests against high inflation, crime and the shortage of many staples in Venezuela. "Due to ongoing civil unrest in Venezuela, Air Canada can no longer ensure the safety of its operation and has suspended flights to Caracas until further notice," says the Canadian airline in a statement. It says customers who have not begun their travel "may obtain refunds". Others may be rebooked on other airlines. Retaliation Several international airlines have reduced operations in recent weeks […]

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Venezuela’s central bank president acknowledged on Sunday that his country was undergoing an "economic crisis" but said measures like a new market-based currency mechanism would help bring rapid improvements. The announcement came amid continuing street protests against the government of President Nicolas Maduro. Unrest has been fueled by a 56 percent annual inflation rate and regular shortages of consumer goods. Late Saturday, Maduro warned protesters in Caracas to clear a square they have made their stronghold , or face eviction by security forces. Plaza Altamira, in upscale east Caracas, has been a focus of anti-government protests and violence during six weeks of unrest around Venezuela that has killed 28 people. "I’m giving the Chuckys, the killers, just a few hours," Maduro said, using the name of a murderous child-doll in a horror film to describe anti-government demonstrators who have made the normally genteel 1940s square a base of operations. "If they don’t […]

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Venezuela’s central bank president acknowledged on Sunday that his country was undergoing an "economic crisis" but said measures like a new market-based currency mechanism would help bring rapid improvements. The announcement came amid continuing street protests against the government of President Nicolas Maduro. Unrest has been fueled by a 56 percent annual inflation rate and regular shortages of consumer goods. Late Saturday, Maduro warned protesters in Caracas to clear a square they have made their stronghold , or face eviction by security forces. Plaza Altamira, in upscale east Caracas, has been a focus of anti-government protests and violence during six weeks of unrest around Venezuela that has killed 28 people. "I’m giving the Chuckys, the killers, just a few hours," Maduro said, using the name of a murderous child-doll in a horror film to describe anti-government demonstrators who have made the normally genteel 1940s square a base of operations. "If they don’t […]

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The World Bank said it won’t reconsider Venezuela’s request to review last year’s decision against it for seizing assets of ConocoPhillips in 2007. Venezuelan energy company Petroleos de Venezuela , known as PDVSA, said a 2013 ruling it failed to act in good faith in talks to compensate Conoco for assets seized in 2007 was unfair. The World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes said Wednesday it was upholding the September decision. "The majority of the tribunal concludes that it does not have the power to reconsider," the ruling states in part. Former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in 2007 moved to put the state in control of several oil projects in 2007. PDVSA said the September decision for compensation was unjust and ICSID said in its ruling it would take that matter up "in due course." There was no statement from PDVSA […]

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A university student, a National Guard captain and a third man were shot to death in separate incidents on Wednesday during anti-government protests in the central city of Valencia. Three National Guardsmen and several protesters were wounded. Two of the deaths occurred in the opposition-dominated neighborhood of Isabelica, where residents dissatisfied with the scarcity of basic items and rising unemployment have protested for weeks by blocking streets and throwing rocks at police officers.  The opposition has accused the government of supporting armed civilian thugs who attack protesters. A month of student-led demonstrations in a number of Venezuelan cities has left at least 25 people dead, according to the government.

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The gunmen descended a street on Monday night toward a park taken over by student demonstrators in the western city of San Cristóbal, the crucible of the protests that have shaken Venezuela . They opened fire, and a 23-year-old student leader, Daniel Tinoco, fell. Hit in the upper body, he died before he got to a hospital, fellow protesters said. Less than a week earlier, in Caracas, someone opened fire and killed a 25-year-old soldier, Acner López, who was riding on a motorcycle. Residents said he was in a group of soldiers shooting tear gas at demonstrators and apartment buildings. The shot that killed him, investigators believe, came from someone in one of the apartments. These two deaths, among more than 20 that the government says are linked to over a month of protests, are emblematic of a spiral of violence that people on both sides […]

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People in the western Venezuelan city of San Cristobal, where the current eruption of anti-government unrest began early last month, say National Guard troops have attacked and dismantled barricades that protesters had raised at key intersections. Local TV journalist Beatriz Font and other witnesses say guardsmen fired a lot of tear gas, including at nearby residential buildings, according to The Associated Press. They say the attack began before midnight and continued into early Monday. Font said the guardsmen broke windows and several people reported from apartment buildings near the intersections that children and elderly people were being affected by the gas. The disturbance began a day after hundreds of National Guardsmen in riot gear and armored vehicles prevented an "empty pots march" from reaching Venezuela’s Food Ministry on Saturday to protest now-chronic food shortages. President Nicolas Maduro’s government, meanwhile, celebrated an Organization of American States (OAS) declaration supporting its […]

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A Venezuelan soldier and a motorcyclist died in a confused melee sparked by the opposition’s barricading of a Caracas street, officials said on Thursday, boosting the death toll from nearly a month of violence to 20. Demonstrators have for weeks staged rallies and set up barricades to demand the resignation of President Nicolas Maduro, leading to clashes with security forces and government supporters. Motorcycle drivers clearing a barricade in the middle-class neighborhood of Los Ruices were attacked by residents from nearby buildings who threw rocks and later shot at them, National Guard Gen. Manuel Quevedo told Reuters. The motorcyclist who was killed, Jose Cantillo, who was in his early twenties, was shot in the neck, Quevedo said. "Make no mistake, the National Guard and the armed forces are going to continue patrolling the streets to restore order," he said in an interview at the scene of […]

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Venezuela’s President, Nicolas Maduro, has broken diplomatic relations and frozen economic ties with Panama. The decision comes after the Central American nation requested a meeting at the Organization of American States (OAS) to discuss Venezuela’s crisis. Mr Maduro was speaking to other Latin American heads of state at events to mark the first anniversary of the death of the Venezualan leader Hugo Chavez. At least 18 people have died in anti-government protests in the last month. "I’ve decided to break political and diplomatic ties with the current government of Panama and freeze all trade and economic relations from this moment on," Mr Maduro told the presidents of Cuba, Raul Castro, Uruguay, Jose Mujica, and Bolivia, Evo Morales, among other leaders gathered around the tomb of Mr Chavez. ‘Conspiracy’ Panama’s President […]

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Venezuela’s President, Nicolas Maduro, has broken diplomatic relations and frozen economic ties with Panama. The decision comes after the Central American nation requested a meeting at the Organization of American States (OAS) to discuss Venezuela’s crisis. Mr Maduro was speaking to other Latin American heads of state at events to mark the first anniversary of the death of the Venezualan leader Hugo Chavez. At least 18 people have died in anti-government protests in the last month. "I’ve decided to break political and diplomatic ties with the current government of Panama and freeze all trade and economic relations from this moment on," Mr Maduro told the presidents of Cuba, Raul Castro, Uruguay, Jose Mujica, and Bolivia, Evo Morales, among other leaders gathered around the tomb of Mr Chavez. ‘Conspiracy’ Panama’s President […]

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Thousands of opposition demonstrators in Venezuela have marched through the streets of Caracas in new protests against the government. At the end of the march, activists clashed with police in the opposition strongholds of Chacao and Altamira. President Nicolas Maduro extended the traditional carnival holidays until the end of this week and asked Venezuelans to rest and celebrate peace. At least 17 people have been killed in more than three weeks of unrest. Opposition leaders have asked people to ignore the carnival season, when many Venezuelans traditionally go to the seaside. They are demanding the release of dozens of demonstrators and activists arrested since last month, including high-profile politician Leopoldo Lopez. The opposition blames the left-wing policies of Mr Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, for […]

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At a conference that annually celebrates–for the most part–the explosion of North American supply, a panel that featured two PDVSA alumni turned into a bleak review of an almost unfathomable crisis gripping the Venezuelan oil industry. The strife in the streets of Caracas, and the lines of people waiting to buy the basic stuff of life, are almost secondary to the fact that, as the panelists noted, the Venezuelan government has mortgaged the future of its oil industry. Waiting for the country’s rapidly sinking ship of state to be righted by an increase in production, and maybe a boost in prices too, increasingly appears to be a pipe dream. The two panelists discussing this on day two of the Platts Crude Oil Market-Americas conference in Houston were Alberto Cisnernos Lavalier, CEO and president of Caracas-based Global Business Consultants, and Ramon Espinasa, the lead oil and gas specialist in the […]

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On the east side of this capital city, where the rich people tend to live, most children have stayed home from school for more than a week, protest bonfires burn in the streets at night, stores shut early and carnival celebrations have been canceled. But on the west side, where many of the poor people live under tin roofs, you would hardly know that the country has been stirred by weeks of unrest. Schools operate normally, restaurants serve up arepas, and residents, enjoying the extra days off that President Nicolás Maduro has given the country, prepare to crown their carnival queens. Both sides of this city, the better off and the poorer, are dealing with many of the same […]

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Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro said yesterday he is open to meeting with student protesters and opposition leaders as the death toll from more than two weeks of demonstrations rose. “The country would gain if we met and talked, with respect as always,” Maduro said in a nationwide address after calling on two-time presidential hopeful Henrique Capriles to hold talks. “We are inviting actors, artists, private and public entities, opposition leaders, students, governors, mayors, the Catholic Church and whoever wants to participate.” Maduro spoke after the opposition alliance, which has boycotted two meetings with the president, said it would negotiate only when he shows respect and offers an agenda worked out with mediators. In a message passed on by his wife, opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez wrote that the invitation lacked sincerity considering the government jailed him and seeks to arrest his political coordinator, Carlos Vecchio. Maduro has attempted to defuse […]

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Security forces in Venezuela have used tear gas to break up a student demonstration in the capital, Caracas. Hundreds of protesters were demanding the release of fellow students detained during two weeks of unrest, and called a fresh march for Sunday. In another part of Caracas, a large pro-government march was held. Earlier this week, President Nicolas Maduro declared an early start to the week-long Carnival public holiday in an attempt to end the unrest. On Monday, Venezuela’s Attorney General Luisa Ortega said 13 people had died in the violence, although President Maduro put the figure of protest-related deaths at more than 50 on Wednesday. ‘No Carnival’ Despite the start of the long holidays on Thursday, students again gathered in Caracas. "There’s no Carnival for anybody here. Here we are […]

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Several thousand anti-government demonstrators marched in Caracas yesterday after President Nicolas Maduro tried to defuse two weeks of protests by granting Venezuelans an unexpected six-day holiday. In the eastern Caracas municipality Chacao, an opposition stronghold, demonstrators held banners urging Venezuelans to ignore the holidays and continue protesting against crime, inflation and shortages of goods. As they attempted to block the city’s main east-west highway, the National Guard broke up the march with tear gas and water cannons. Two U.S. senators proposed a resolution threatening sanctions for “violent repression of peaceful demonstrations in Venezuela.” Maduro this week expanded the annual Carnival festivities by decreeing national holidays for yesterday and today, in addition to the scheduled days off on March 3-4. At least 14 people were killed in the past two weeks in the biggest demonstrations against the government since the former bus driver won presidential elections in April. “This is […]

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s Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is betting that an unexpected six-day holiday starting today will help defuse two weeks of demonstrations that have left 14 people dead. Maduro this week expanded the annual Carnival festivities by decreeing today and tomorrow national holidays, in addition to previously scheduled days off on March 3-4. Antonio Iskandar, an eye doctor in western Caracas who has taken part in protests, said that while Maduro’s strategy may offer the government a respite, it won’t keep people off the streets. “Six days of holidays is a very tempting opportunity for people to see their families,” Iskandar, 25, said in a telephone interview. “This is our best chance and we can’t stop now. We aren’t leaving the streets until Maduro is out.” Maduro has argued that his government is gaining support as daily demonstrations begin to alienate voters. The 51-year-old president heard from […]

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Hugo Chavez’ Bolivarian Revolution had leveraged Venezuela’s enormous oil wealth by selling oil cheaply to Caribbean neighbors, and heavily subsidizing consumer goods for the masses at home. But recently, the Venezuelan economy has not been performing. At the time of Chavez’ death last March, it was predicted that the country would have to devalue its currency, cut back on subsidies, and back off from many of the policies that had won the loyalty of lower-income Venezuelans and the disdain of wealthier citizens. Many airline carriers have suspended their flights to Caracas, and others won’t accept payment for tickets in the Venezuelan currency, the bolivar. Nicolas Maduro, a vice president who had gradually taken power during Chavez’ long battle with cancer, was elected in his own right after Chavez died. Now, after less than a year in charge, Maduro is facing rising opposition from his people. In recent weeks the conflict has turned more violent […]

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; As dawn broke, the residents of a quiet neighborhood here readied for battle. Some piled rocks to be used as projectiles. Others built barricades. A pair of teenagers made firebombs as the adults looked on. These were not your ordinary urban guerrillas. They included a manicurist, a medical supplies saleswoman, a schoolteacher, a businessman and a hardware store worker. As the National Guard roared around the corner on motorcycles and in an armored riot vehicle, the people in this tightly knit middle-class neighborhood, who on any other Monday morning would have been heading to work or taking their children to school, rushed into the street, hurling rocks and shouting obscenities. The guardsmen responded with tear gas and shotgun fire, leaving a man bleeding in a doorway. […]

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The oil market has lived in interesting times for so long it could do with a weekend off. This one wasn’t it. Ukraine dominated headlines, but in terms of oil output it is an irrelevance. Libya and Venezuela loom much larger. It wasn’t meant to be like this. Coming into 2014, the International Energy Agency was projecting oil supply outside of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to rise by 1.7 million barrels a day against global demand growth of 1.3 million a day. That excess should have meant rising inventories and spare OPEC capacity, pushing down prices. Instead, after initial weakness, Brent crude is back above $110 a barrel. The impetus for this has come not from riots in Caracas or even rising demand from emerging markets. Rather, demand for oil in the industrialized world increased, bucking the trend of recent years. That was partly due to […]

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Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles today pulled out of talks with President Nicolas Maduro after the death toll from protests rose to 13 and both sides traded insults over the weekend. Maduro last week called on governors to meet at the presidential palace in Caracas today for talks, warning there would be legal consequences for skipping. Capriles said Feb. 22 he would attend while demanding the government free opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, who was imprisoned last week on charges of inciting violence at rallies. “How do I go amid the repression, amid the violation of human rights,” Capriles, a two-time presidential hopeful and currently a state governor, told reporters in Caracas today. “The presidential palace is not the place for dialog in the country.” The talks were scheduled after two weeks of unrest that have claimed the lives of 13 people, according to […]

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Anti-government demonstrators put up barricades and set fire to trash in Caracas on Monday despite calls from within the opposition to rein in protests that have led to 13 deaths in Venezuela’s worst unrest for a decade. Traffic in the capital slowed to a crawl and many people stayed home as protesters burned trash and piled debris along main avenues a day after opposition leader Henrique Capriles called on them to keep demonstrations peaceful. "We know we’re bothering people but we have to wake up Venezuela!" student Pablo Herrera, 23, said next to a barricade in the affluent Los Palos Grandes district of Caracas. Authorities in the convulsed border state of Tachira confirmed another death: a man who fell from his second-storey apartment after being hit by a bullet from a nearby protest. The demonstrations are the biggest challenge to President Nicolas Maduro’s 10-month-old government, though […]

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Venezuela’s cities are convulsed with riots . A local beauty queen was shot in the head during protests over . . . well, everything: chronic shortages of basic goods, increasing repression of free speech by a government that clearly feels it cannot tolerate any dissent. She is not the only person to have been killed in recent days. The government is cracking down — hard — on any and all opposition. It seems to me that this was always the inevitable end game to the disastrous policies of the late President Hugo Chavez. Diverting funds from capital investment into the nation’s oil fields was politically popular. But it was also disastrous: Venezuela’s oil is sludgy stuff, hard to get at and hard to refine, and it requires a high level of capital expenditure just to keep production level. Predictably, production is now well below pre-Chavez levels. That wasn’t so […]

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Venezuela’s cities are convulsed with riots . A local beauty queen was shot in the head during protests over . . . well, everything: chronic shortages of basic goods, increasing repression of free speech by a government that clearly feels it cannot tolerate any dissent. She is not the only person to have been killed in recent days. The government is cracking down — hard — on any and all opposition. It seems to me that this was always the inevitable end game to the disastrous policies of the late President Hugo Chavez. Diverting funds from capital investment into the nation’s oil fields was politically popular. But it was also disastrous: Venezuela’s oil is sludgy stuff, hard to get at and hard to refine, and it requires a high level of capital expenditure just to keep production level. Predictably, production is now well below pre-Chavez levels. That wasn’t so […]

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Riots in the streets. Killings of protesters. Shortages of consumer staples like toilet paper and flour. Power outages. Confiscations of private property. Capital flight. Inflation running at more than 50%. The highest murder rate in the world. The situation in Venezuela has grown so terrible that we could very well be witnessing the waning days of the Chavez-Maduro regime. But don’t hold your breath. Despots propped up by revenues from natural resources have had a surprisingly robust track record over the past 100 years. Saddam Hussein survived through ruthlessness and handouts to Baath party loyalists. Khadafi perfected the same model in Libya. The Saudis and other Gulf sultanates and emirates have survived by paying off tribe members. Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe is still around thanks to his trade in blood diamonds. In each case, the big boss keeps his head by paying off everyone who matters. Hugo Chavez appeared to […]

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Mr Maduro said many international networks had created a false idea that Venezuela is facing civil war The American news network, CNN, says Venezuela has revoked the accreditation of its Caracas-based reporter, Osmary Hernandez. Two journalists who had been sent to Venezuela to cover the current crisis had their working permits cancelled. President Nicolas Maduro had vowed to expel CNN unless it "rectified" its coverage of recent opposition marches. Eight people have been killed in the protests, according to the government. Chief Prosecutor Luisa Ortega Diaz said 137 people had been injured in the current series of protests, which began earlier this month. The opposition leader who called for the marches, Leopoldo Lopez, was detained on Tuesday during a protest in Caracas. The government accused him of inciting violence as part of a right-wing coup plot. CNN […]

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Mr Maduro said many international networks had created a false idea that Venezuela is facing civil war The American news network, CNN, says Venezuela has revoked the accreditation of its Caracas-based reporter, Osmary Hernandez. Two journalists who had been sent to Venezuela to cover the current crisis had their working permits cancelled. President Nicolas Maduro had vowed to expel CNN unless it "rectified" its coverage of recent opposition marches. Eight people have been killed in the protests, according to the government. Chief Prosecutor Luisa Ortega Diaz said 137 people had been injured in the current series of protests, which began earlier this month. The opposition leader who called for the marches, Leopoldo Lopez, was detained on Tuesday during a protest in Caracas. The government accused him of inciting violence as part of a right-wing coup plot. CNN […]

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