CARACAS, Venezuela – The Venezuelan bolivar opened Thursday at 172 to the dollar on the first day of a government sponsored exchange meant to compete with the black market.
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.
CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelan authorities demolished four protest camps in Caracas and detained more than 200 people in pre-dawn raids Thursday, striking at the remaining bastions of a months-long and at times deadly anti-government movement. But hours later, groups of youths were back out on the streets of the capital, where they were met by tear gas and rubber bullets.
CARACAS, Venezuela – President Nicolás Maduro and Venezuela's opposition leaders are to meet Thursday for talks aimed at ending two months of deadly anti-government protests.
"If you fake being a foreigner who doesn't speak Spanish," says the fair skinned Caraqueño, "you can simply pretend not to comprehend why exactly they won't let you buy the goods. You just maintain a blank expression, holding out cash in your hand, and doing your best to sound indignant and perplexed in broken, idiot Spanish.
Protesters in Venezuela are portrayed as peaceful students repressed by an authoritarian Maduro government that has caused shortages and widespread crime. In this light, many will wonder why Nicolás Maduro’s administration continues to have widespread support.
The government and presidential aspirants of Costa Rica called for investigations Friday into the violence during protests in Venezuela that claimed the lives of three and injured dozens more on Wednesday.
