WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Congress gave its final approval Wednesday to new sanctions against Venezuelan officials accused of violating the human rights of anti-government protesters this year.
VERACRUZ, Mexico – Cuban President Raúl Castro kept a summit of Latin American, Spanish and Portuguese leaders wondering if he would show up until the last moment Tuesday, only to send his deputy instead.
A Miami-based newspaper reported that a team of intelligence operatives posing as members of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s advance team for the upcoming January meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) arrived in Costa Rica to abduct José Gregorio “Gato” Briceño and other prominent exiles.
Late last month Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro went on TV to decree a ban on street sales of coffee, eggs, shampoo and some 50 other "regulated" items whose prices are capped by the government. He ordered the National Guard to police market stalls for such items as mayonnaise and powdered milk, and threatened to prosecute recidivist violators.
MANAGUA, Nicaragua – The number of Nicaraguans living in extreme poverty – defined as less than $1 a day – increased from 7.6 percent to 9.5 percent from 2012 to 2013, according to a survey by the Managua-based Fundación Internacional para el Desafío Económico Global. This means that living conditions worsened last year for some 355,000 Nicaraguans following a slight improvement the previous year.
Prices for Venezuela's oil, which accounts for 95 percent of the nation's exports, are tumbling to a four-year low and threatening to choke off the export dollars the country needs to pay its debts.
CARACAS – A top Venezuelan newspaper cartoonist said Wednesday he was fired over a sketch depicting Hugo Chávez's signature melting into a flat-line electrocardiography in a jab at the decrepit national health care system.
CARACAS, Venezuela — The trial of Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López has proceeded along a clear trajectory so far, seemingly driven toward a predetermined outcome. Which, of course, is also how railroads work.
A single mom, a brazen businesswoman, a party girl, and social-media rock star — María Gabriela Chávez is many things. But the bona fide that counts on Chávez's résumé is her bloodline.
CARACAS, Venezuela — Geraldine is tired of hearing that she should be grateful for the apartment the Venezuelan government gave her last year. With the elevator out of action, water leaking through the ceiling and no gas supplies, she wishes she had never moved in.
