Accusing the Venezuelan government of committing human rights abuses during anti-government protests earlier this year, the U.S. State Department issued a press release on Wednesday barring 24 Venezuelan officials from travel to the United States. The statement did not identify the 24 individuals due to confidentiality requirements.
A week into a government-initiated relocation plan, 25 percent of the 1,156 families occupying the Torre Confianzas in downtown Caracas have been moved to new housing in Valles de Tuy, Miranda state, Minister Ernesto Villegas announced this morning.
Former opposition mayor of Chacao, Leopoldo Lopez, goes on trial today after six months in prison for allegedly inciting violence in Venezuela and conspiring against the government.
Early this morning Venezuelan attorney general Luisa Ortega Diaz dispatched a public attorney to Ramo Verde military prison, to check on conditions of hardline opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez’s confinement. This came in response to claims made by Lopez’s wife, Lilian Tintori, who told reporters last week she was denied visiting rights.
A former Bolivarian government minister, Hector Navarro, has criticised the internal democracy of the leadership of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).
Venezuelan comptroller Adelina Gonzalez announced yesterday that all senior officials in public office must update their sworn declaration of wealth (DJP) between the 1st and 31st of July.
Yesterday, Venezuelan attorney general Luisa Ortega Diaz announced the order for the arrest of Pedro Burelli, Ricardo Koesling and Diego Arria. They are all linked to the alleged plot to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro which was detailed in a series of emails seized by Venezuelan intelligence services and released by the government during the final week of May.
On Wednesday, Venezuelan authorities publicized correspondences between opposition leaders and U.S. diplomats which, they say, constitute a plan to assassinate president Nicolas Maduro and overthrow his administration.
On Monday, hundreds of peasant workers, or campesinos, gathered in a central plaza of the Venezuelan capital Caracas to protest a Supreme Court decision. The ruling upheld agribusiness and large landowners’ claims to ownership of land that has been cultivated by peasant collectives for over 12 years.
The rekindling of street violence follows a widely publicized press conference held by the leadership of the Democratic Unity Table (MUD), where the opposition announced their withdrawal from the dialogue talks initiated by the government.
Yesterday at noon, Rafael Celestino Albino Arteaga, 44, Vargas state chief of the Venezuelan Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN), was shot dead by an unidentified male assailant in a shopping mall in the western city of Maracay.
In the early hours of Thursday morning, Jorge Tovar, 24, a Venezuelan national police officer was shot dead in the neck by a sniper, according to official sources. The shooting occurred as police attempted to clear an encampment that blocked traffic set up by hardline anti-government protestors, or guarimberos, in the upperclass neighborhood of Los Palos Grandes, in eastern Caracas.
