To the [ Venezuelan ] regime, you are either a socialist or you are dead. In fact, Maduro reaffirmed his position: “If Venezuela was plunged into chaos and violence and the Bolivarian Revolution destroyed, we would go to combat. We would never give up, and what we were not able to do with votes, we would do with weapons, we would liberate the fatherland with weapons.” ... READ MORE

Venezuelan flag, young people, women and retirees demonstrate by the thousands, carrying signs saying “Don’t shoot!” and shouting Sí se puede, sí se puede, “Our weapon is the constitution!” and “Who are we? Venezuela! What do we want? Freedom!” At least 79 people – including passers-by and security forces – have died in the daily exercises of democratic participation that began in April. Among the dead are a 17-year-old protester shot in mid-June and a 25-year-old man killed July 4 in Tariba...READ MORE

Several opposition lawmakers in Venezuela emerged bloody and battered after a violent storming of the National Assembly by pro-government militias...READ MORE ( VIDEO )

A reporter for the state-run television channel Venezuelan Television (VTC) referred to the country’s leadership as a “dictatorship,” in a seemingly rare moment of honesty from the pro-government network. “You were just listening to the constitutional lawyer Hernann Escarrá, who rejects the proposal of the Venezuelan opposition to hold a referendum, in what he has described as an attack on the Venezuelan dictatorship,” ... READ MORE

The attack began early in the morning on Wednesday, July 5, after the Vice President of the Republic, Tareck El Aissami (a wanted criminal), retired from the commemorative act. After that, the militants stayed in the place to protest against the deputies, threatening to keep all of them inside the building by a period of six hours; becoming this the second kidnapping that undergoes the National Assembly...READ MORE

Pro-government supporters storm the opposition-controlled legislature, injuring lawmakers, as Venezuela celebrates independence day...READ MORE

Several Venezuelan politicians have been badly hurt after pro-government supporters wielding sticks and metal bars stormed the national assembly. Laying blame squarely on the government, the president of the opposition-controlled congress Julio Borges said: “The violence in Venezuela has a name and surname: Nicolas Maduro.”...READ MORE (VIDEO)

The political crisis in Venezuela could be described as a “government war against the people,” Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino of Caracas said on June 29. Cardinal Urosa condemned the government’s repressive tactics in the face of public protests, and charged that the regime of President Nicolas Maduro is seeking “to establish a totalitarian Marxist militaristic system” and using “illegal resources to dismantle the state.”... READ MORE

​A conflict between President Nicolas Maduro's government and his increasingly defiant chief prosecutor was coming to a head Tuesday as Luisa Ortega Diaz announced she was boycotting a Supreme Court hearing on whether to lift her immunity from being tried for unspecified irregularities...READ MORE + VIDEO

On the evening of June 28, Internet users from various cities in Venezuela reported that multiple websites and social media platforms — including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Periscope — were inaccessible. According to the digital activism organization Venezuela Inteligente ... READ MORE

In Caracas, the rich and poor are suddenly less divided. For most of Venezuela’s two-decade socialist experiment, the city’s wealthier, whiter east has been the hotbed of anti-government sentiment. Now, noisy protests are erupting in poorer-but-calmer western neighborhoods that were strongholds for embattled President Nicolas Maduro as crime explodes and medicine and food are scarce and expensive...READ MORE

Human rights groups in Venezuela say hundreds of people are being illegally held behind bars, as the government tries to regain control after months of protests. Many of them have been accused of treason after taking part in anti-government protests. According to rights groups, over 3,200 people have been detained since the start of the political unrest at the end of March and more than 1,000 remain behind bars...READ MORE

Venezuela's president raised the country's minimum wage by half on Sunday to just over 12,50 USD per month, but given the currency's fall the new minimum monthly wage is effectively down 17% in USD terms since the last increase in May ... READ MORE

At least four people were killed during anti-government protests in the northwest city of Barquisimeto, Venezuelan officials said Saturday. Officials confirmed the deaths occurred in clashes in Barquisimeto late Friday but offered no details. There have been almost daily protests against the government of President Nicolas Maduro for the past three months. The deaths brought the toll to at least 83 fatalities since April. Authorities said more than 1,000 people have been injured...READ MORE

Two young men have lost their lives within several hours in anti-government protests that have gripped the northwestern Venezuelan state of Lara, an opposition lawmaker said Friday...READ MORE

VENEZUELA’S POLITICAL and humanitarian crisis, which has long been desperate and deadly, this week tipped toward the surreal. On Tuesday, a helicopter swooped over the Supreme Court and interior ministry, dropping grenades and firing shots; President Nicolás Maduro called it a U.S.-backed coup attempt. But no one was injured in the incident, and when the pilot of the helicopter turned out to be an actor who has played a police commando in the movies — and who has yet to be detained by authorities — opposition leaders understandably wondered whether the incident was orchestrated by Mr. Maduro.
If so, it wouldn’t be suprising. The corrupt clique around the president, which inherited the leftist populist movement founded by Hugo Chávez, is resorting to increasingly far-fetched tactics to combat a mass protest movement that has the support of the vast majority of Venezuelans. It has dispensed tons of tear gas at the daily marches and demonstrations, and fired thousands of bullets, both rubber and real; at least 78 people have been killed since the unrest began in April. Five died on Wednesday...READ MORE

Police arrested 62 students during some of the latest in three months of anti-government protests, a student leader said Friday. About half them were detained when trying to march to offices of the electoral authority in Caracas on Thursday, said Daniel Ascanio, student leader from Simon Bolivar University."There is no reason for them to be detained," he said, insisting they had been protesting "peacefully." Opposition demonstrators accuse the security forces of repressing and jailing opponents. Judicial NGO Foro Penal says 3,500 people have been arrested in the unrest. Prosecutors say 82 people have been killed...READ MORE

Foes of Venezuelan socialist President Nicolas Maduro are holding public showings of Netflix's "Winter on Fire" documentary about the three-month standoff in Ukraine that led to 100 deaths and the exit of then-president Viktor Yanukovych, Reuters wrote. In Venezuela's anti-government unrest, where 80 people have died since April, youths bear colourfully decorated homemade shields akin to those used in Kyiv's Maidan Square. The young Venezuelans make their shields from satellite TV dishes, drain covers, barrels or any other scraps of wood and metal they can find. Some supporters also make and donate shields...READ MORE

Twelve-year-old Samuel Becerra went to Venezuela's main pediatric hospital for routine dialysis in March.Within two months, he was dead, along with three other youngsters who also developed bacterial infections at the J.M. de los Rios children's hospital. They were just a few of the many children who have died during a rapidly worsening health crisis in Venezuela, according to doctors, patients, and official and private data...READ MORE

On the night of June 28, internet users across Venezuela reported that multiple major web and social media sites had gone dark. According to the digital rights organization Venezuela Inteligente: DNS servers of the State’s Internet Service Provider CANTV were not responding to the DNS requests on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Periscope, preventing users to access these platforms.An hour later, users were able to access those sites again. This wave of censorship comes in a moment when Venezuela’s government is facing record levels of public opposition and unrest, and a rapidly escalating economic crisis that has led to widespread hunger and threats to public health countrywide. Internet access has significantly deteriorated since May 2016, when the government declared a (still ongoing) state of emergency and officially authorized online content filtering. In May 2017, the Index on Censorship published evidence of 41 websites being blocked in the country ... READ MORE

Amid the ongoing violence in Venezuela, the United Nations human rights office today expressed concern about a decision by the Supreme Court to null the appointment of the Attorney General, freeze her assets and ban her from leaving the country...READ MORE

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is promoting an intelligence chief being investigated for human rights abuses to be chief of the nation's army. Maduro announced that he is promoting Gustavo Gonzalez on Friday, just hours after Venezuela's chief prosecutor said she was investigating Gonzalez for "grave and systemic human rights violations."...READ MORE

The former head of Venezuela’s National Guard, Antonio Benavides, has been charged with “serious and systematic” human rights violations, the state prosecutors’ office announced Thursday. Benavides was removed from his post last week after his troops were captured on film firing handguns at protesters, but was soon reassigned to a position as head of Venezuela’s Capital District government. In 2015, he was sanctioned by the Obama administration following violent clashes between protesters and security forces in 2014, which killed more than 40 people. The latest bout of opposition protests in Venezuela has resulted in at least 76 deaths and thousands of injuries since April...READ MORE

Health authority in the Baruta district of Caracas said Thursday 17 people were injured in clashes with Venezuelan riot police as protests are about to go into the fourth month...READ MORE