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Venezuelan leader says to travel to push for OPEC, non-OPEC meeting

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Tuesday he would travel shortly to seek support for his push for a summit between OPEC and non-OPEC producers on lower oil prices. Maduro has lobbied for months for an emergency meeting and coordination with non-OPEC nations, but OPEC’s Middle East producers have pledged to maintain high output in a fight to defend market share against rising competition. This week Maduro reiterated calls for action within OPEC and beyond OPEC, mentioning controls on output and price bands. "Probably in coming days I will travel to reinforce work to achieve this historic summit between OPEC producers and non-OPEC producers," Maduro said after a four-hour televised broadcast. His calls for action come as Venezuelan oil prices, which averaged $41.08 last week, exacerbate a dire economic crisis that has goods ranging from cancer medication to car batteries in short supply, while raging inflation slams purchasing power […]

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Opposition in Venezuela Is Unsettled by Leader’s Sentence

Photo At a demonstration in Caracas on Friday, Lilian Tintori read a letter that her husband, Leopoldo López, an opposition leader, had written in prison. Credit Meridith Kohut for The New York Times CARACAS — A year ago Leopoldo López, a Venezuelan opposition leader, walked at the head of rallies of tens of thousands of people, calling for the exit of President Nicolás Maduro and setting off a wave of demonstrations and unrest as the country boiled with discontent. But on Friday, only a few hundred people showed up at a demonstration to support him, a day after he was convicted and sentenced to nearly 14 years in jail for his role in leading last year’s protests. The small size of the crowd told the story: The opposition finds itself discouraged and off balance even as it retains hopes of winning crucial legislative elections scheduled for December. “In Venezuela […]

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Venezuelan Opposition Leader Is Sentenced to Prison Over a Protest

Photo Leopoldo López in February. Credit Juan Barreto/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images CARACAS, Venezuela — A judge on Thursday found the Venezuelan opposition politician Leopoldo López guilty of inciting violence and other charges stemming from his leading role in a large antigovernment protest, according to government television reports. Mr. López, a Harvard-educated former mayor of a wealthy section of Caracas, was sentenced to more than 13 years in prison, the television reports said. Critics said the trial was politically motivated and lacked basic guarantees of due process. Lawyers for Mr. López said they were barred from presenting any witnesses or evidence at the trial. “This has been a farce,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director of Human Rights Watch , speaking by telephone from Washington. “It’s a kind of a caricature of a judicial procedure and in violation of fundamental principles of due process, of presumption of innocence.” The […]

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Venezuela Says China to Give $5 Billion Oil Loan

CARACAS—Venezuela’s government, facing a cash crunch amid a slump in oil prices, signed a deal to receive a $5 billion loan from China, President Nicolás Maduro said Tuesday. The funds will go to increase oil production in Venezuela in the coming months, Mr. Maduro said without offering more details during an address from China that was broadcast on Venezuelan state television. Support from Beijing—which also renewed a separate $5 billion loan to Venezuela earlier this year—may offer some relief to bond markets, where Venezuela’s debt securities are rated among the world’s riskiest. Wall Street analysts say the country could default on its debt as soon as next year. Mr. Maduro visited Vietnam and China this week in pursuit of financial aid for South America’s largest oil exporter as it reels from triple-digit inflation and worsening food shortages. The economic troubles are weighing on the ruling Socialist Party’s popularity ahead […]

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Russia, Venezuela to Discuss Potential Steps to Stabilize Oil Prices

MOSCOW—Russian President Vladimir Putin will discuss “possible mutual steps” to stabilize the global price for oil at a meeting with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in China on Thursday, a Kremlin aide said, as both countries grapple with lower prices for their main export. Venezuela, a Russian ally that has been hit hard by plunging oil prices, has been pushing for an emergency meeting with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in coordination with Russia to work out a strategy to halt the recent retreat in prices, people familiar with the matter said. The Kremlin aide, Yuri Ushakov, didn’t expand on what potential steps could be taken but said they could be “within the context of Russia’s cooperation with OPEC.” Russia also has been hurt by lower crude prices, as oil and gas account for half of federal budget revenue. But officials have repeatedly said that Russia, which vies […]

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Venezuela Asks OPEC for Emergency Meeting on Oil Prices

Hard-hit Venezuela has been contacting other OPEC members to push for an emergency meeting in coordination with Russia to come up with a strategy to stop the current oil price rout, people familiar with the matter said. According to these people, Venezuela has been in touch with some members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, including Qatar’s oil minister and president of the OPEC conference, Mohammed al-Sada, to try again to find common ground to defend crude prices. “Venezuela is genuinely concerned that if no action is taken prices are going to drop further,” an OPEC delegate said. “They also understand that OPEC alone cannot help much and there is a need for cooperation with producers outside OPEC, mainly Russia,” the delegate said. A representative of Venezuela couldn’t be immediately reached for comment. Russia has previously sought closer ties to OPEC, but has signaled that it won’t […]

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Venezuela’s Food Shortages Trigger Long Lines, Hunger and Looting

LA SIBUCARA, Venezuela—Hours after they looted and set fire to a National Guard command post in this sun-baked corner of Venezuela earlier this month, a mob infuriated by worsening food shortages rammed trucks into the smoldering edifice, reducing it mostly to rubble. The incident was just one of numerous violent clashes that have flared in pockets around the country in recent weeks as Venezuelans wait for hours in long supermarket lines for basics like milk and rice. Shortages have made hunger a palpable concern for many Wayuu Indians who live here at the northern tip of Venezuela’s 1,300-mile border with Colombia. The soldiers had been deployed to stem rampant food smuggling and price speculation, which President Nicolás Maduro blames for triple-digit inflation and scarcity. But after they seize contraband goods, the troops themselves often become targets of increasingly desperate people. “What’s certain is that we are going very hungry […]

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Venezuelans contend with food, medicine shortages, as low oil prices cripple economy

Empty refrigerator shelves are pictured at a Makro supermarket in Caracas, Venezuela, August 4, 2015. Venezuelan supermarkets are increasingly being targeted by looters, as swollen lines and prolonged food shortages spark frustration in the OPEC nation struggling with an economic crisis. Photo by Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters Amid Venezuela’s ongoing economic crisis, protests this month in the nation’s capital over shortages of medicine and basic supermarket necessities have spotlighted the ripple effect of the falling price of oil, the country’s main export. Food shortages have prompted some violence and more than 50 incidents of grocery store looting so far in 2015. Families of children with cancer demonstrated in front of a children’s hospital in Caracas this month to protest the country’s shortage of chemotherapy treatments. Tens of thousands of Venezuelans with HIV have no access to antiretroviral drugs and condoms are scarce in the country. Venezuela has some of the […]

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9 Opposition Candidates Barred From Venezuela’s December Ballot

Photo Enzo Scarano, a former mayor of San Diego, Venezuela, won a primary for national legislative elections, but the government suspended his right to hold office. Credit Meridith Kohut for The New York Times SAN DIEGO, Venezuela — When he handily won a primary to run for the National Assembly, Enzo Scarano hoped to be part of a wave carrying the opposition to a legislative majority that would alter the political balance in Venezuela . But when a government agency stripped him of his right to hold public office, scuttling his candidacy, he found himself caught up in a different kind of wave — of government measures that appear aimed at weakening the opposition ahead of a make-or-break legislative election in December. “It was a message to the Venezuelan people: ‘Look, we can do whatever we want,’ ” Mr. Scarano said of the move to bar him and at […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple