Free Republic

The Trump administration on Tuesday gave Chevron 30 days to stop oil production in Venezuela after Washington accused President Nicolas Maduro of not making progress on electoral reforms and migrant returns. President Trump reversed a Biden-era license that allowed the oil giant to operate in Venezuela despite US sanctions – a U-turn from January when the White House appeared to be making progress with Maduro. The Treasury Department gave the US-based oil giant an April 3 deadline to pull up stakes, much quicker than the usual six-month wind-down period. “Closing down Chevron’s operations in a month is an almost impossible...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday congratulated Nicolas Maduro on winning the disputed Venezuelan election, and the Kremlin said it was deepening cooperation in all areas - including sensitive ones - with Caracas. -snip- "Russian-Venezuelan relations have the character of a strategic partnership," Putin said in a message to Maduro, the Kremlin said. "I am confident that your activities at the head of state will continue to contribute to their progressive development in all directions." -snip- Putin ended his message to Maduro: "Remember that you are always a welcome guest on Russian soil."

President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela ordered its border with Brazil closed Thursday, part of his escalating effort to stop opponents from sending humanitarian aid into his poverty-stricken country. Juan Guaidó, the parliamentary opposition leader who declared himself president of Venezuela last month, has vowed to bring tons of aid donated by the United States and others into Venezuela on Saturday. Mr. Maduro, who has called Mr. Guaidó an American lackey, has vowed not to let the aid in. The Brazil-border closure, announced on television, followed a Venezuelan government announcement on Wednesday that it would block air and sea travel between...

The number of dead is now around forty, the wounded number a thousand. It is the price of a month of popular demonstrations, even of only women dressed in white, against the presidency of Nicolás Maduro, in a Venezuela on the brink.A Venezuela in which a new factor has recently taken the field, and this is the growing, systematic aggression against properties and personnel of the Catholic Church.Vatican sources - starting with “L'Osservatore Romano” - as detailed as they are in covering the developments of the crisis, are sparing with news about aggression against the Church.There is not a single...

Venezuela is stepping up efforts to combat shortages and rising places so families can have a merry Christmas complete with 12-cent sacks of sugar and 50-cent chickens. President Nicolas Maduro announced Friday that he is deploying hundreds of inspectors to enforce the government's price regulations, which set the cost of everything from milk to toothbrushes artificially low. "Today we deploy, and in November and December you will see that we have guaranteed a happy Christmas for the people," he said during televised remarks.