Venezuelan parliament votes to begin impeachment proceedings against Maduro

by Sabrina Martín Rondon | 10.06.22


The renowned Venezuelan island of Margarita received 456 alleged Russian and Cuban tourists as part of an assumed plan of Nicolás Maduro’s regime to boost tourism; however, sources assure that within this group there are also members of the military.

The regime claims that this is a “strategic plan” within the framework of the “reactivation of the Moscow-Porlamar charter operation,” launched in 2021.

“Tourists (Russians) were arriving and were coming in good numbers until February, when the war broke out, and what is being done now is to resume that operation,” Viviana de Vethencourt, president of the island’s Chamber of Tourism, told EFE.

The passengers arrived aboard a charter flight of the Russian airline Nordwind, which had been working for months to operate in a “neutral” route avoiding U.S. and European airspace.

However, intelligence specialists assure that within this group of tourists there are also military personnel.
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Venezuela crisis: 7.1m leave country since 2015 - BBC News

By Vanessa Buschschlüter By Vanessa Buschschlüter

BBC News Online Latin America editor

More than seven million Venezuelans have left their homeland since 2015 amid an ongoing economic and political crisis, according to new UN data.

More than half of them face challenges accessing food, housing, and stable employment, the UN says.

But despite the difficulties facing them abroad, the flow of Venezuelans escaping turmoil in their homeland has not let up.

Aid agencies warn that these migrants risk being forgotten amid other crises.

"There's no question both that it is a major protracted crisis that is shaking the region [of Latin America]," David Miliband, president of the International Rescue Committee, told the BBC.

"But it is also clear that the competing priorities for global attention - Ukraine, famine in East Africa, trauma in Afghanistan - are draining attention in a way that is quite dangerous."

More than 80% of those who have left Venezuela are living in Latin America and the Caribbean, in countries which often already struggle to provide health and education to their own nationals.

Venezuela's population has fallen from 30.08m in 2015 to an estimated 28.25m now based on latest UN figures.
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October 17, 2022

By Vanessa Buschschlüter By Vanessa Buschschlüter

BBC News Online Latin America editor

More than seven million Venezuelans have left their homeland since 2015 amid an ongoing economic and political crisis, according to new UN data.

More than half of them face challenges accessing food, housing, and stable employment, the UN says.

But despite the difficulties facing them abroad, the flow of Venezuelans escaping turmoil in their homeland has not let up.

Aid agencies warn that these migrants risk being forgotten amid other crises.

"There's no question both that it is a major protracted crisis that is shaking the region [of Latin America]," David Miliband, president of the International Rescue Committee, told the BBC.

"But it is also clear that the competing priorities for global attention - Ukraine, famine in East Africa, trauma in Afghanistan - are draining attention in a way that is quite dangerous."

More than 80% of those who have left Venezuela are living in Latin America and the Caribbean, in countries which often already struggle to provide health and education to their own nationals.

Venezuela's population has fallen from 30.08m in 2015 to an estimated 28.25m now based on latest UN figures.
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Sandokan said:

The 7.1 million that have left Venezuela since 2015, represent 23.7% of the 30 million population in 2015. This is an outstanding figure. Venezuelan are voting with their feet, leaving Venezuela in great number, due to political and economic reasons. Venezuela, a rich country with the world's largest oil reserves, through the mismanagement of the Maduro regime, have brought the economy to the brink of collapse.

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By The Dialogue - Dec 08, 2022,

Venezuela is planning on oil to finance 63 percent of its budget for 2023, a figure slightly higher than this year’s, Reuters reported Monday, citing a document it had seen.

The stronger reliance on oil comes as the U.S. government’s revises its sanctions, first imposed in 2019, on the South American country’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA. The easing of sanctions would allow exports to the United States, boosting oil sales.

President Nicolás Maduro’s government expects the national budget to amount to $14.7 billion in 2023, the wire service reported, 8.5 percent higher than the 2022 budget, which stood at $13.6 billion. Revenues from PDVSA would bring in $9.34 billion to the government’s budget, up from this year’s $8.2 billion contribution, though the document did not specify average daily oil output. “The rebound in global demand for post-pandemic crude oil and the impact of the war between Russia and Ukraine on global oil markets have provided the executive branch with additional resources in recent months,” Asdrúbal Oliveros, director at economic analysis firm Ecoanalítica told the daily Latin America Advisor in a Q&A published on April 18.

Though global prices have risen this year, Venezuela’s production is lower, a result of continued divestment, mismanagement and sanctions. On Dec. 2, U.S.-based oil major Chevron signed contracts with Venezuelan Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami and representatives of PDVSA, Reuters reported. The contracts include the Petroboscan and Petropiar joint ventures between Chevron and PDVSA, Reuters reported. Under the agreements, Chevron could recoup more than $4 billion in debt that PDVSA owes it, The Wall Street Journal reported.

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Senior Contributor
Dec 14, 2022

Venezuelans have left their country, and a small percentage have come to America due to a historic economic and political crisis, not U.S. border policies, according to a leading expert on Venezuela. Ricardo Hausmann, founder and Director of Harvard’s Growth Lab and a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, says it’s important for U.S. policymakers to understand why Venezuelans have left their country and how more welcoming policies can benefit Venezuelan refugees and the United States.

The Biden administration has established a parole program for up to 24,000 beneficiaries. The parole provision is restricted to Venezuelans who “agree to fly at their own expense to an interior U.S. port of entry (POE), rather than entering at a land POE,” among other limitations. “At the center of the Venezuela plan is a trade-off that would deny the right to seek asylum to Venezuelans who arrive at or irregularly cross the U.S. border and substitute for that a program that will allow up to 24,000 Venezuelans with sponsors in the United States who can support them financially to apply to enter the United States,” said Bill Frelick of Human Rights Watch.

A Human Rights Disaster Caused By Economic Policies
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• PDVSA has stopped releasing data about oil spills since 2016.
• The volume of oil spills in the crisis-torn Latin American country is expanding.
• The OEP claimed 86 oil spills occurred in Venezuela during 2022.

The collapse of Venezuela’s once prolific oil industry has triggered an economic and humanitarian crisis that accelerated in 2019 after U.S. President Donald Trump implemented strict sanctions cutting the Maduro regime off from international energy markets. It isn’t only Venezuela’s economy and people which have suffered from a foundering hydrocarbon sector and corroding energy infrastructure, tremendous damage has occurred to the environment. Oil spills, leaking pipelines and storage facilities, noxious discharges from ramshackle intermittently operating refineries and toxic tar like slicks are commonplace in Venezuela. The OPEC member’s collapsing petroleum industry, along with precious metals and other mining, is a key culprit of the significant environmental damage occurring in the near-failed state. Since national oil company PDVSA ceased releasing incident data in 2016 it is extremely difficult to reliably track the number of oil spills, the volume of oil released into the environment and the damage that occurs. This is particularly worrying when it is considered that Venezuela is ranked as the eleventh most biodiverse country globally. While the lack of official data makes it difficult to track the volume of environmental incidents concerning Venezuela’s oil industry there are non-government organizations tracking oil spills and other environmentally damaging incidents. Two organizations which provide regular reports and updates regarding the substantial environmental degradation occurring because of the petrostate’s oil industry are the Venezuelan Observatory of Environmental Human Rights (OVDHA – Spanish initials) and the Venezuelan Observatory of Political Ecology (OEP – Spanish initials).
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Will Venezuela Make an Oil Market Comeback in 2023? | Rigzone

by Andreas Exarheas | , January 18, 2023

Venezuela will not be making a big comeback in the oil market this year.

That’s what FGE thinks, according to Francisco Gonçalves, a senior analyst and energy economist at the company, who noted that “without further sanctions relief, we expect Venezuela’s production gains in 2023 will be limited”.

“Chevron joint venture production aside, Venezuela’s output for most of 2022 was stuck at around 650,000 barrels per day - albeit some 150,000 barrels per day higher year on year due mainly to more frequent imports of Iranian condensate - showing that the country has limited capacity for production growth,” Gonçalves told Rigzone.

“With regards to the output from Chevron’s four Venezuelan joint ventures over the next months, growth is likely to be minimal, given Chevron has said it is not planning on making any significant investment there in the short term,” he added.

Although the three main JVs could “in theory” produce around 200,000 barrels per day, compared to around 50,000 barrels per day in November 2022, the partners would need to make “big investments” over the next two to three years to ramp-up their production by another 80-100,000 barrels per day overall, according to the senior analyst.
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February 03, 2023

By Marianna Parraga

HOUSTON, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Venezuela's January oil exports fell despite a U.S. license authorizing Chevron Corp CVX.N to take cargoes for the first time in four years, after a new boss at state-run PDVSA froze most shipments pending contract reviews.

PDVSA Chief Executive Pedro Tellechea, who took over in early January, suspended most crude and fuel exports, while his team tightened contract terms to halt instances where buyers skipped out without full payments.

The decision almost emptied Venezuela's largest oil port, the Jose terminal, for weeks as tankers were instructed to move away from berths and some ship-to-ship transfers were halted during the audit.

Venezuela exported an average of 558,419 barrels per day (bpd) of crude and fuel last month, 19% below December levels and the lowest since July, according to data from Refinitiv and internal PDVSA documents. The July drop had come after an earlier set of contract changes.

PDVSA and Venezuela's oil ministry did not reply to requests for comment.
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By Carlos Camacho

Published date:23 February 2023

Chevron aimed to export almost 50pc more crude from Venezuela in February than in January after the US eased sanctions to allow its shipments, an in-country company source told Argus.

But plans to ship 4mn bl (140,000 b/d) a month may near the ceiling for what is possible in Venezuela because of logistical constraints. Only 1mn bl crude has completed loading from Venezuela to the US so far in February, compared with 2.4mn bl in January, based on estimates from ship tracking data in Vortexa.

US sanctions for years prevented oil company Chevron, partner state-owned PdV or other companies from sending crude to the US. That started to change in early 2022 when the Russian invasion of Ukraine triggered renewed interest in Venezuelan oil, and the US allowed Chevron to resume some work.
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March 3, 2023

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Few Venezuelans have not had their lives touched by migration over the last decade, when more than 7 million people left the country amid a political, economic and humanitarian crisis that has lasted the entirety of President Nicolás Maduro’s government.

In the 10 years since Venezuelans learned on March 5, 2013, that polarizing President Hugo Chávez was dead and his chosen successor, Maduro, would take over, a drop in oil prices coupled with government mismanagement have sunk the country into an economic tailspin, pushing many people into poverty, hunger, poor health, crime and desperation.

As people continue to migrate, mostly to elsewhere in Latin America, there’s an increasing divide between “los que se quedaron” and “los que se fueron,” those who stayed and those who left.

The split has political implications. Opponents of Maduro’s government frequently talk about the diaspora — their preferred term for migrants — and the reasons that drove them to leave, while the president and his allies like to highlight the entrepreneurial spirit of people who remain.

There are also social consequences. People long for weekend or evening gatherings around a grill with loved ones who are now far-flung, or lament missed birthdays, graduations and funerals.

These are some their stories:
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Venezuela’s descent into economic and political chaos in recent years is a c

WRITTEN BY Amelia Cheatham, Diana Roy, and Rocio Cara Labrador

Last updated March 10, 2023

Summary

• Venezuela is an example of a petrostate, where the government is highly dependent on fossil fuel income, power is concentrated, and corruption is widespread.
• Petrostates are vulnerable to what economists call Dutch disease, in which a government develops an unhealthy dependence on natural resource exports to the detriment of other sectors.
• Venezuela continues to grapple with economic and political hardship under President Nicolás Maduro, but U.S. efforts to ease some sanctions have sparked hope for a revival of the oil industry.

Introduction

Venezuela, home to the world’s largest oil reserves, is a case study in the perils of becoming a petrostate. Since it was discovered in the country in the 1920s, oil has taken Venezuela on an exhilarating but dangerous boom-and-bust ride that offers lessons for other resource-rich states. Decades of poor governance have driven what was once one of Latin America’s most prosperous countries to economic and political ruin.

Venezuela has suffered economic collapse in recent years, with output shrinking by three-quarters and rampant hyperinflation contributing to a scarcity of basic goods. Meanwhile, government mismanagement and U.S. sanctions have led to a drastic decline in oil production and severe underinvestment in the sector. But Caracas hopes that Washington’s 2022 decision to allow U.S. oil giant Chevron to resume operations in the country could signal a potential détente.
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ANTONIO MARIA DELGADO
Updated April 25, 2023

The Colombian government deported Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó late on Monday, saying he had entered the country illegally, and put him on a commercial flight bound for Miami after being told by a high-ranking U.S. official of his whereabouts, Colombia’s foreign minister said.

The opposition leader, who arrived in Miami early Tuesday morning, had entered Colombia hoping to meet with some of the delegations sent to Bogotá to participate in a diplomatic summit organized by leftist Colombian President Gustavo Petro to discuss the crisis in Venezuela.

But Guaidó entered Colombia without going through regular immigration channels, which prompted local officials to start searching for him, Colombian Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva told reporters.

“We knew he was here because of all the noise he was making, that he was going to stage a protest. ... Naturally, immigration set out to find out what had happened. Finally, it came to be known from a high-ranking U.S. official where he was, which allowed immigration to reach him,” Leyva said. Guaidó was then taken to El Dorado International Airport.
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Last updated: May 23, 2023

Venezuela has been in a severe socio-political and economic crisis for several years.

With an exodus of more than 7.24 million people (as of March 28, 2023), the refugee crisis in Venezuela is one of the largest in the world. Even early in the crisis (2018), when only one million had fled, it was deemed the largest-ever refugee crisis in Latin America.

Nearly 6.1 million of the refugees are located in Latin America and the Caribbean. Those who fled Venezuela continue to “face challenges accessing food, housing, and stable jobs” in their new countries of residence. As a result of these challenges, some refugees choose to continue their migration to other countries, and some have chosen to return to Venezuela.

According to UNHCR (The UN Refugee Agency), this has been “motivated mainly by the lack of integration opportunities and cases of intolerance and xenophobia, as well as the desire for family reunification and the perception of an improving economic outlook in Venezuela. According to Venezuela’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, more than 300,000 nationals have returned to the country since September 2020. Nevertheless, those returning face difficulties in accessing jobs, social services, and housing.”
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June 2, 20239:21 AM

HOUSTON, June 2 (Reuters) - Venezuela's oil exports fell 14% in May from the previous month as crude upgraders at its main oil region produced less exportable grades and state-run oil firm PDVSA struggled to replenish inventories, according to shipping data and documents.

PDVSA is under a widespread anti-corruption probe that uncovered billions of dollars in unpaid cargoes and led to a temporary suspension of some contracts. The investigation has led to more that 60 people arrested and a management overhaul

In May, PDVSA and its joint ventures shipped an average of 606,258 barrels per day (bpd) of crude and refined products, below the prior two months, but higher than the first two months of the year when the contract suspension halted some exports, data based on vessel tracking showed.

PDVSA and other state companies separately exported some 209,000 metric tonnes of methanol, urea and petroleum coke, the lowest amount so far this year.
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A 22 June 2023 photo of an oil spill at Lake Maracaibo (Venezuela). EFE/Henry Chirinos
Environmentalists: Oil spills have left Venezuela’s largest lake in ‘state of emergency’

23 June 2023

Maracaibo, Venezuela, June 22 (EFE).- Venezuela’s Azul Ambientalistas foundation on Thursday warned of a “state of emergency” at Lake Maracaibo, the country’s largest, saying oil spills there are affecting the local economy and people’s health.


Activist Jose Sandoval, a member of that foundation, told Efe that pollution caused by oil spills, which are visible on the surface of the lake, “totally destroys” the bottom of that lagoon and kills all different kinds of animals.

“It’s more than evident that this is a state of emergency … all over the world this would be declared a state of emergency, (but) here they” ignore the situation, according to Sandoval, who urged the government to act quickly to remedy the problem in that oil-rich northwestern region near Venezuela’s border with Colombia.

The constant oil spills “paralyze the economy,” he added, noting that tourism operators are unable to work in the area and have had to suspend contracts due to the pollution.

The problem is nothing new, according to fisherman Emery Delgado.
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Venezuela’s abandoned oil industry | CGTN America

Mary Triny Mena, July 14, 2023

Venezuela was once one of the wealthiest oil nations in the world.

But despite sitting on the largest proven oil reserves in the world, the country doesn’t even rank among the top 10 oil producers in the world.

There are a lot of reasons for this, including mismanagement, underinvestment and U.S. sanctions.

And now, after years of decline, the government is trying to fix the country’s broken oil industry.

CGTN correspondent Mary Triny Mena traveled to Zulia state, where Venezuela’s oil industry first started, to see out how it could work.

Video: (335) Venezuela’s abandoned oil industry - YouTube

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Maria Corina Machado has been a longtime foe of Venezuela’s government, and not exactly a unifying figure for its critics

Regina Garcia Cano | Thursday 13 July 2023

Maria Corina Machado has been a longtime foe of Venezuela’s government, and not exactly a unifying figure for its critics. But the government’s move to ban her from public office has helped rally the fractured opposition and focus much-needed attention on their effort to hold an independent presidential primary.

The ban was issued just days after she entered the race, and Machado says it shows that the government knows that it could face defeat.

“If anyone had doubts about the strategic importance, the value, of the primaries, … the actions of the regime have made this clear: The primary is an opportunity to build civic and citizen strength,” Machado told reporters.

Opposition factions have been organizing a primary since late last year to choose a candidate for the arduous task of facing President Nicolás Maduro in the 2024 election under a system that independent observers say gives all the advantages to his socialist party.
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Saturday, 12 August 2023, 6:39 am
Press Release: UN Special Procedures - Human Rights

GENEVA (11 August 2023) – UN experts* warned today that convicting trade unionists and labour leaders on terrorism charges was a “chronic misuse” of Venezuela’s counter-terrorism laws against those advocating for the rights of workers.

The experts expressed deep concern about the 1 August 2023 judgment convicting six Venezuelan trade union and labour leaders under the Organic Law against Organised Crime and Financing of Terrorism measures.

“It is evident that we are witnessing chronic misuse of counter-terrorism measures against those advocating for the rights of workers, addressing working conditions, and those engaging in trade union organizations in Venezuela,” the experts said. “In a legal process marked by irregularities and exceptionalities, such abuse of counter-terrorism measures is entirely contrary to international law,” they said.
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The fishermen of Lake Maracaibo say they face their worst nightmare everyday as fish stocks decline and pollution degrades the health of this great freshwater lake, one of the oldest — and largest — in the world.

Lake Maracaibo, which once was at the heart of Venezuela's oil boom, has turned into a polluted wasteland, according to environmentalists.

The pollution of the lake, located about 600 kilometers (372 miles) west of the capital, Caracas, is the result of decades of excessive oil exploitation, poor maintenance of the obsolete infrastructure and a lack of waste treatment plants in the area. Tens of thousands of kilometers of pipes lie at its bottom, where crude oil leaks and system failures are frequent.

The lake, which collects rainwater from more than a hundred tributaries, has also become the wastewater deposit for the western states of Zulia, Mérida and Trujillo, where 5.3 million people live. Waste from the Colombian department of Norte de Santander also ends up in it.
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September 4, 2023

Sept 4 (Reuters) - Venezuela's oil exports in August fell 38% from a three-year high in July as state-run oil company PDVSA struggled to keep its heavy crude upgraders in service, according to vessel monitoring data and internal company documents.

The South American country overall has slightly boosted oil production and exports this year, helped by fewer outages and higher output by Chevron (CVX.N) under a U.S. license received in November.

But PDVSA's lack of capital, U.S. sanctions since 2019 and poorly maintained infrastructure, including the upgraders the company uses to convert its extra heavy oil to exportable grades, put limits to what it can do to sustain the increases.

Venezuela's oil exports in August dropped to about 544,000 barrels per day (bpd) from more than 877,000 bpd in July, according to LSEG Eikon vessel tracking data.
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September 20, 2023

GENEVA (AP) — A U.N.-backed panel investigating human rights violations in Venezuela said Wednesday the South American country’s government has intensified efforts to curtail democratic freedoms with threats, surveillance and harassment as President Nicolás Maduro faces a re-election contest next year.

The international fact-finding mission authorized by the U.N. Human Rights Council said the government shifted tactics since the COVID-19 pandemic, which marked the end of mass opposition protests and subsequent extensive arrests and torture of demonstrators.

Now, the report said, authorities are increasingly repressing specific members of civil society, including politicians, labor leaders, journalists, human rights defenders and other real or perceived opponents. The targets have been subjected to detention, surveillance, threats, defamatory campaigns and arbitrary criminal proceedings on hate speech or terrorism charges, the report said.
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September 20, 2023

GENEVA (AP) — A U.N.-backed panel investigating human rights violations in Venezuela said Wednesday the South American country’s government has intensified efforts to curtail democratic freedoms with threats, surveillance and harassment as President Nicolás Maduro faces a re-election contest next year.

The international fact-finding mission authorized by the U.N. Human Rights Council said the government shifted tactics since the COVID-19 pandemic, which marked the end of mass opposition protests and subsequent extensive arrests and torture of demonstrators.

Now, the report said, authorities are increasingly repressing specific members of civil society, including politicians, labor leaders, journalists, human rights defenders and other real or perceived opponents. The targets have been subjected to detention, surveillance, threats, defamatory campaigns and arbitrary criminal proceedings on hate speech or terrorism charges, the report said.

“By criminalizing participation in legitimate activities, the government is silencing and creating a chilling effect on anyone who might consider participating in any activity that could be perceived as critical of government,” Patricia Tappatá Valdez, a member of the fact-finding mission, told reporters Wednesday.
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Maria Corina Machado receives a document proclaiming her as the winner of the internal opposition elections, in Caracas, Venezuela, last week. Photograph: Miguel Gutiérrez/EPA
Luke Taylor in Cúcuta, Colombia

Mon 30 Oct 2023 17.43 EDT

Venezuela’s supreme court has suspended the results of the political opposition’s primaries after María Corina Machado was overwhelmingly elected last Sunday to take on President Nicolás Maduro in a presidential contest expected for 2024.

The court – which is stacked with Maduro’s allies – also ratified bans on running for office which had been slapped on Machado and two others.

Monday’s ruling was the latest effort to cast doubt on Machado’s eligibility and will probably provoke a reaction from the US, which lifted sanctions on Venezuela earlier this month in exchange for the government pledging to hold fair elections overseen by European observers.

“We urge Nicolas Maduro and his representatives to uphold the commitments they made at the signing of the political roadmap agreement,” a state department spokesperson said. “The US government will take action if Maduro and his representatives do not meet their commitments.”

The court ruling came after Venezuela’s attorney general announced last week that the primaries, which were held independently without the involvement of the government, were under investigation for financial crimes and conspiracy.
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On October 5, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that the U.S. had reached an agreement with the Venezuelan government to carry out deportations of Venezuelan nationals who entered the U.S. irregularly and lacked legal grounds to remain. This announcement contradicts the Biden administration decision of just weeks ago when Temporary Protected Status (TPS) was extended and re-designated for Venezuelans in the United States because of the dangers posed by return to that country.

The September 20 TPS decision granted legal status to Venezuelans citizens for 18 months, making it available to those in the United States before July 31, 2023. That decision was welcomed by WOLA, as it provided a lifeline for those seeking refuge in the United States. Now, just weeks later, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stated “We have made a determination that it is safe to return Venezuelan nationals who’ve arrived in the United States subsequent to July 31st and do not have a legal basis to remain here.”

This new decision to return Venezuelans is reprehensible, considering the risks that Venezuelans face in their own country and the international obligation the U.S. has to guarantee it is not returning people to a country where they would face probable danger or persecution (non-refoulement).
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