Presidential crisis in Venezuela

Last September, a group of former Venezuelan troops who had fled to neighboring Colombia trained and prepared for a daring mission: to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro — with the false hope of US government assistance.

The plan, to be executed two months later in November, consisted of two parts for the roughly 300 men. One team would take over Maracaibo, Venezuela’s second-largest city, which has a crucial seaport. A second team would simultaneously push to Caracas, the capital, to launch an air assault on Maduro’s mansion with US helicopters flown by American pilots wearing Venezuelan military garb.

President Donald Trump may be losing faith in Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó, but Guaidó doesn’t seem to have lost faith in the country Trump leads.

“We sense a firm commitment from the United States,” Venezuela’s self-declared interim president told me on Wednesday. “I think they’re doing everything they could be doing under these circumstances.”

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government arrested a top opposition leader on Wednesday night — by towing his car with him inside.

National Assembly Vice President Edgar Zambrano entered his car after leaving his political party’s headquarters in Caracas when a unit from Venezuela’s intelligence agency, known as the SEBIN, surrounded the vehicle. Zambrano refused to leave the car and even tweeted about the incident from inside. After a half-hour standoff, the SEBIN simply towed his car away while he remained in it.

The Trump administration has been trying for months to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power. So far, they’ve failed miserably.

In January, Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó declared himself the country’s rightful president. He argued that Maduro, who has been in power for six years, rigged the election last May that kept him in charge — and that as a result, Guaidó, as the head of the National Assembly, is now the rightful interim president of the country according to the Venezuelan constitution.

Screaming. Chanting. Sirens. Insults. And then a little violence.

That was the scene outside the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, DC, on Thursday as a group of people critical of President Nicolás Maduro clashed with anti-US intervention protesters who have been occupying the mission for more than two weeks.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just made the most explicit case yet that the Trump administration may use military force to dislodge Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power.

It’s perhaps the most aggressive stance so far by an American official during the months-long standoff between a US-backed challenger and the socialist dictator.

Juan Guaidó, the US-backed opposition leader of Venezuela, launched a military uprising against President Nicolás Maduro on Tuesday — a dramatic escalation in the ongoing political fight between the two rivals that threatens to plunge the country into open civil conflict.

In January, Guaidó declared himself the country’s rightful president. He argued that Maduro, who has been in power for six years, rigged the election last May that kept him in power — and that as a result, Guaidó, as the head of the National Assembly, is now the rightful interim president of the country according to the Venezuelan constitution.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced that his country will ration electricity, a major blow to millions of his citizens who are already struggling with a month-long, nationwide blackout that has made it much harder to live.

During a televised address on Sunday, Maduro said that the rationing — where power will be shut off deliberately — would last for 30 days. Because of this, the government added that the workday will end now at 2 pm, and that schools will remain closed.

Russia recently sent two military planes full of troops and equipment to Venezuela. It’s a move that could provoke a strong response from the United States and potentially plunge the South American nation into further chaos.

Around 100 Russians landed outside of Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, with unidentified equipment on Saturday. It’s not entirely clear why they’ve arrived now, although some fear they’ve come to help Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro fend off a US-led attempt to depose him. While Russia has in the past sent a few advisers to Venezuela, 100 is more than normal, CBS News reported.

Forces loyal to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro may have just committed one of their most brazen acts — one that threatens to plunge the country into even greater chaos.

On Thursday, Venezuela’s intelligence forces detained the chief of staff for Juan Guaidó, the opposition leader who claims to be the country’s legitimate president and who is backed by the United States. In an overnight raid, they seized Roberto Marrero from his home shortly after also nabbing dozens of journalists and two state utility workers.

Venezuela is in the midst of a massive political crisis that’s rocking the impoverished country. And now, adding insult to injury, it’s suffering a nationwide blackout that has potentially led to more than 20 deaths.

Millions of Venezuelans have fled the country in recent years due to the crippling economic downturn — a crisis largely caused by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s mishandling of the economy. Inflation is through the roof. Hunger rates have skyrocketed. And diseases once thought eradicated have sparked a health disaster.

The United States will withdraw all its diplomats from Venezuela — a move that could potentially exacerbate the political and international crisis in that country.

In a tweet late Monday night, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made the announcement with very little warning to only a handful of diplomatic staff beforehand, multiple US officials told me.

Vice President Mike Pence met with Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó on Monday to reiterate the Trump administration’s “100 percent” support for Guaidó’s claim to be the rightful president of that country and to announce an additional $56 million in US aid to support the Venezuelan people.

Guaidó is challenging the legitimacy of sitting President Nicolás Maduro, and the standoff between the two leaders and their backers has plunged the already crisis-ridden country into new depths of chaos.

On Saturday afternoon, images went viral of burning humanitarian aid trucks full of food on the Venezuelan border — set alight by informal, pro-government militias called colectivos that are loyal to Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, the authoritarian leader clinging to power. Juan Guaidó, whom many countries now recognize as the constitutionally designated interim president of Venezuela, had sought to enable the trucks to enter the country.

By inviting in international aid, Guaidó was attempting to address Venezuela’s severe shortages of food and medical supplies, which have reached crisis levels under Maduro. Yet the invitation also dramatically escalated the two men’s conflict for control of the country — putting Maduro in the position of either very publicly rejecting much-needed aid or allowing his rival to invite trucks into the country against Maduro’s explicit orders.

The crisis in Venezuela devolved over the weekend, as embattled president Nicolás Maduro’s military blocked help and humanitarian aid from entering the country — occasionally with deadly force.

Starting Friday, violent clashes erupted at several points along Venezuela’s border with Colombia as armed government forces tried to block shipments of aid from entering the country. By the end of Saturday, at least four people had reportedly been killed in the area and along the country’s border with Brazil; hundreds more were injured. Maduro has insisted that the humanitarian supplies are unnecessary and spent the weekend celebrating his continued rule with his supporters — even as the United States and other international leaders ramped up calls for him to step down.

In an escalation of the crisis brewing within the country, Venezuela’s National Guard, who are loyal to the country’s embattled president, Nicolás Maduro, killed at least one person and injured several others during clashes over humanitarian aid.

On Friday morning, protesters from an indigenous community in Kumarakapai, a southern Venezuelan village, tried to block military vehicles from closing off the border with Brazil by putting their bodies in the way.

In a July 2017 private briefing with intelligence officials, President Donald Trump apparently asked why the US wasn’t at war with Venezuela, noting that “they have all that oil and they’re right on our back door.”

If true, it calls into question why the president has focused so intently on overthrowing the country’s dictator, Nicolás Maduro, and if he plans to send troops in the future.

President Donald Trump seems to care deeply about the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela — but it might not necessarily be for the reasons you’d think. His focus on Venezuela today is little more than a ploy to help his chances against Democratic challengers in the 2020 presidential election.

Trump used a Monday speech in Florida to trash Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro for having run his country into the ground — and he has good reason to. Under the dictator’s rule, inflation and hunger rates have skyrocketed, and diseases once thought eradicated from Venezuela have sparked a new health crisis. Unsurprisingly, all of this and more have made Maduro an unpopular leader both at home and around the world.

President Donald Trump just issued an ultimatum to Venezuela’s military: Either join with the US-led effort to depose Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, or suffer immense consequences.

Maduro’s troops can defect and support the US-backed challenger — Juan Guaidó — “or you can choose the second path, continuing to support Maduro,” Trump said on Monday at Florida International University. “If you choose this path, you will find no safe harbor, no easy exit, and no way out. You will lose everything.”

Thousands of protesters filled the streets in cities across Venezuela over the last month in an effort to depose President Nicolás Maduro, the socialist leader who has overseen one of the most devastating economic collapses in the world.

And now President Donald Trump has joined them in calling for Maduro to step down — stoking the fires of an already fraught political crisis roiling the South American country. He even mentioned it during Tuesday night’s State of the Union address.

The Trump administration is sanctioning Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, adding significant pressure on President Nicolás Maduro to step down and transfer power to the US-backed resistance leader who is challenging his claim to the presidency.

But some worry the move could backfire — angering Maduro and giving him all the more reason to cling to power.

President Donald Trump’s decision to weigh in on the political crisis currently rocking Venezuela has thrust the country into a greater tailspin — and could possibly set the stage for a future war.

The country is currently in the midst of a potentially explosive political standoff between two men who both claim to be the legitimate president of Venezuela: Nicolás Maduro, who was reelected president in May 2018, and opposition leader Juan Guaidó.

President Donald Trump once openly considered a “military option” to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro — and now that the US has officially called on Maduro to step down amid massive protests against his rule, Trump says that option is back on the table.

But according to a former top US military official, it probably shouldn’t be. The Pentagon’s former top official in charge of overseeing South American operations says there is no “good reason” for the US military to intervene in Venezuela right now.

President Donald Trump has said that he no longer recognizes Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro’s government — and Maduro responded by saying he no longer recognizes relations with the United States.

In a Wednesday statement outside his palace in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, Maduro — a socialist dictator — officially broke off diplomatic ties between the US and his country. American diplomats now have 72 hours to leave Venezuela, and it’s unclear if Maduro will ensure they can depart safely.

Colombia is currently dealing with a massive wave of refugees coming from Venezuela. A severe economic crisis under current President Nicolás Maduro is causing them to flee; inflation rates are high and there isn’t enough food available for people in Venezuela to eat.

Thousands of Venezuelans are crossing the Simón Bolívar International Bridge in Cúcuta, a Venezuelan border town, every day. And Colombia doesn’t seem to be turning anyone away.