...It has been the destiny of Venezuela to bounce between the extremes of oppression and freedom. The crisis now convulsing the country follows this historical pattern. Every day, Venezuelans of all stripes  pour into the streets protesting the loss of their freedom and their constitutional rights by a tyrannical regime that condemns them to scarcity, illness, malnutrition and outright hunger. Social media has given us a wealth of shocking images: the National Guard firing indiscriminately into crowds, killings, tanks moving against demonstrators. A daily Tiananmen while President Nicolás Maduro dances salsa​ ... READ MORE

Venezuela has been in turmoil for months, with regular street demonstrations and more than 70 protest-related deaths since April. But Tuesday was a particularly big day. Pro-government crowds stormed the National Assembly, the president was accused of swiping powers from one of his highest-profile critics, and a rogue policeman launched a helicopter attack on the Supreme Court. Here is a round-up of the headline events in a 24-hour period...READ MORE

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has appointed Adm. Remigio Ceballos Ichaso to replace Defense Minister Gen. Vladimir Padrino Lopez as head the country's Strategic Operational Command, a position that gives Ichaso operational control of the Venezuelan armed forces. A Stratfor source has said that Diosdado Cabello, an influential powerbroker in the country, influenced Maduro's decision. The move made June 20 could be seen as an attempt by Cabello to shield himself and his allies in the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) from pressure by members of the armed forces...READ MORE

Socialist President Nicolas Maduro is under a lot of pressure. With triple-digit inflation, months of protests resulting in more than 80 dead, and demands he allow elections to resume he must be spending a great deal of time thinking about the end of his own disastrous regime. Monday Maduro spoke at a rally designed to support his illegal plan to rewrite the country’s constitution (as a way to avoid elections). The president said that if he was removed from office, his supporters would fight to “liberate the fatherland.”...READ MORE

Refineries are running at 50% of their installed capacity ... READ MORE

Friends of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro are peeling away. As the nation’s chaos grinds on, former allies are joining a mounting chorus of dissent, a wave of defections unprecedented since the 1999 dawn of the nation’s socialist era. Many of the disenchanted are actively working to foil Maduro’s efforts, making his hold on power all the more tenuous…READ MORE

Thousands of anti-government protesters once again took to the streets of Caracas on Saturday (June 24), as international pressure mounted on President Nicolas Maduro to hold free elections...READ MORE

The clashes took place after a mass demonstration next to La Carlota base where a 22-year-old protester was killed this week when a national guardsman shot him in the chest at close range ... READ MORE (VIDEO)

In a video posted to social media sites by the politician’s wife, Lopez is heard yelling from inside a military prison that he is being tortured. He pleads with his wife to pass on the information about his treatment...READ MORE

In a country plagued by sky-high inflation and an extreme scarcity of food and medicines, confrontations between protesters and the National Bolivarian Guard have led to more than 70 fatalities.​ But interpretations of this political crisis as simply a dictatorial regime cracking down on a united and suffering population do not do justice to the complexities and severe polarisation of Venezuelan society...READ MORE

His name was David José Vallenilla. At 22, he became the latest of at least 75 fatalities tied to civil unrest in the streets of Venezuela, a country mired in economic crisis and political instability. In a shocking video, a protester is seen hurling what appear to be rocks over a fence at La Carlota airbase. At least two soldiers approach from the other side of the fence. One of them fires at the young man with a shotgun or a rifle from a few feet away. The protester, a knapsack slung over his chest and his face covered with a bandana, falls to the ground. Another protester, carrying a makeshift shield and a Venezuelan flag draped over his back, moves in as if to provide cover. The wounded protester gets up and staggers away, grasping his chest...READ MORE

​" never in recent memory has a president been so unpopular and the state of the country so grim." ...READ MORE.

The near-daily unrest in Venezuela has culminated once again in the death of a protester. A 22-year-old man named as David Jose Vallenilla died at a nearby hospital as a result of injuries he sustained during the protest. Soldiers fired from near point blank range as protesters attacked the fence outside La Carlota airbase in the wealthy east end of Caracas...READ MORE

Opposition lawmaker Jose Olivares said the youth died in the Altamira area on the road to La Carlota air base. He claimed Vallenilla was shot at point-blank range by National Guard troops...READ MORE

​The United States was disappointed that the Organization of American States (OAS) did not take immediate action to address the political deterioration in Venezuela caused by President Nicolas Maduro’s regime, US Vice President Mike Pence said during a speech at the Wilson Center on Thursday...READ MORE

"The tragic situation in Venezuela calls out for action," "The Venezuelan people are starving while their government tramples their democracy." ... READ MORE

A lawmaker acting on behalf of Venezuela's government sought on Friday to start court proceedings to dismiss the chief state prosecutor, who has broken with socialist President Nicolas Maduro during opposition protests. The prosecutor, Luisa Ortega, 59, a former ally of Maduro, has accused security forces of excessive violence, in the highest-profile dissent from within government ranks since anti-government unrest began in April killing at least 72 people...READ MORE

Rio de Janeiro-based Condor Non-Lethal Technologies confirmed that it is fulfilling two contracts in Venezuela after opposition leaders presented what they said was a document showing the armed forces had purchased almost 78,000 tear gas canisters in April...READ MORE

Venezuela is in the final stages of a total financial, economic and social collapse. The ability of the economy to consistently provide the population with basic goods like food or medicine has disappeared. Different branches of the government have come into direct conflict with one another, and the population’s revulsion to this is no better symbolized than by the protesters who now hurl jars of their own excrement at the riot police. People are being killed daily. The end is near...READ MORE

“Bus TV was born from the necessity to bring to ordinary people news which is not broadcast in the media,” said one of the newscasters, Maria Gabriela Fernandez. “As an average citizen, but also as a reporter, it is extremely difficult to get information. There are a lot of rumours on social media, on the streets, so we wanted an alternative to give people another direct source of information.”...READ MORE

This year, more protesters hit the streets in Venezuela, as a recession in the oil-rich nation keeps getting worse. Essentially continuing Hugo Chávez's economic policy, President Nicolás Maduro has enacted price and currency controls on US dollars, leading to further shortages of food, medicine, and other basic necessities. These demonstrations have been growing increasingly more violent, with dozens killed and more than 700 injured in more than a month of protests, according to Venezuela's state prosecutor's office. But amid the destruction, a group led by young medical students from the Central University of Venezuela, known as "Green Cross" because of the symbol the members wear on their helmets, has been providing primary care. They receive many of their supplies from outside donations, as they can't obtain them in their country. In the field, these men and women, most of them in their 20s, tend to those who have been subjected to tear gas, rubber bullets, and flying stones...READ MORE

Opponents of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro say the 54-year-old successor to Hugo Chavez has become a dictator and unleashed repression to intimidate a population fed up with economic hardship and demanding general elections...VIDEO

Two protesters, both aged 20, died Thursday during anti-government demonstrations in separate regions of Venezuela, bringing the total deaths in more than two months of protests to 72, officials said...READ MORE

Luisa Ortega has made a decisive break with the president, and now she’s being decried by the government officials who were once her allies ... READ MORE

A 14-year-old boy was “run over and tortured” by an armored vehicle driven by the Venezuelan National Guard in the city of Mérida...READ MORE