Latest news with #Caracas
Associated Press
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
Panama and Venezuela to restore consular services in each other's countries
PANAMA CITY (AP) — Panama and Venezuela will restore consular services in each other's countries in the coming days, Panama's Foreign Affairs Ministry said late Thursday, nearly a year after Panama suspended them following questionable Venezuelan elections that reelected President Nicolás Maduro. 'Due to the imperative need to attend to the consular issues of their citizens,' the two countries agreed to reactivate their consular services, the ministry said in a statement. The diplomatic break came July 29, 2024, when Panama pulled its diplomats from Caracas and announced it was suspending relations with Venezuela. It followed elections the day before in which the opposition declared fraud and offered evidence that Maduro had been roundly defeated. Panama President José Raúl Mulino gave his support to the Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, who had visited Panama weeks earlier. Venezuela suspended flights between both countries, including those by Panamanian national carrier Copa Airlines. Flights were reestablished May 22 this year. Panama had also insisted that Venezuela agree to receive migrants from its country moving south through Panama, but there was no mention of that issue in Thursday's statement.
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Venezuelan government supporters march in favour of Iran following Israeli air strikes
Supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his government took to the streets of Caracas on Thursday in support of Iran, Palestinians and peace in the region. (AP video/ Juan Arraez)
Bloomberg
21 hours ago
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Maduro Locks Up Economists Sharing Data on Venezuela's Decline
President Nicolás Maduro has intensified his crackdown on independent economists and consultants, detaining at least eight people in what critics call a bid to control data exposing Venezuela's decline. Detentions began last week, with some released after a few hours and others still being held by the government, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified to avoid reprisals.
Reuters
2 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Venezuela's Machado calls for more US action against Maduro
June 18 (Reuters) - Washington needs to take further action against Venezuelan leader President Nicolas Maduro, opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said, including enforcing sanctions and fighting criminal networks she says are connected to the government. Machado was barred from running in the 2024 presidential election but is the country's most popular opposition figure. Western countries and the opposition say Machado roundly won last year's election, while Maduro's government says he was re-elected but has not released detailed vote tallies. "Would we like more action more quickly? Yes, yes," Machado, who has been in hiding for nearly a year, told Reuters in a Zoom interview late on Tuesday. "For the United States, Venezuela is a hemispheric security issue." The 57-year-old industrial engineer, who urged her supporters to boycott recent legislative elections, said Maduro is the head of a "criminal enterprise." "We're asking for law enforcement," said Machado about her position on what the United States, Canada, and Europe, among others, should do. "We need the international justice system to function because the justice system in Venezuela doesn't exist." Machado said the opposition also urged the U.S. government and others in Europe to release information about the criminal networks allegedly connected to Maduro. The United States has sanctioned several individuals in Maduro's government, levied drug trafficking indictments against many high-ranking members of Venezuela's government and military and Maduro himself, among other actions. The U.S. revocation of Chevron's license to operate in Venezuela was a financial blow to Maduro, and Machado said cutting off financing was crucial to creating internal pressure against him. Under the new authorization, Chevron can no longer operate in Venezuelan oil fields, export oil, or expand activities. Maduro and his allies have always rejected sanctions, referring to them as "economic war" and hailing what they say is the success of the economy in spite of the measures. Venezuela's government has increased taxes on the private sector since the Chevron license change to compensate for lost revenue, business leaders and analysts told Reuters this month.
New York Times
5 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
At this U.S. Open, a lone Venezuelan navigates golf's great test and America's immigration turmoil
OAKMONT, PA — Late in December 2004, with no other options, Jhonattan Vegas picked up the phone and called University of Texas golf coach John Fields. Vegas was stuck. He was supposed to be in Austin and enrolling for his freshman year. Instead, he was still in Maturín, Venezuela with no way out. The U.S. Embassy in Caracas, at the time, was overwhelmed by Venezuelans seeking access to the United States following President Hugo Chávez's victory in a controversial recall referendum that August. Having already missed UT's first semester due to academic snafus, Vegas now faced the possibility of missing the second semester and the entire golf season. He was told the earliest appointment available might come in March or April. He thought all was lost. Advertisement Except things have a way of getting done sometimes. Fields called legendary golfer Ben Crenshaw, a proud Longhorn and friend of President George W. Bush. Crenshaw told Fields, 'John, I don't think we need to call the president about this, but I have an idea.' Crenshaw told Fields to call Don Evans, a Texas oilman, former UT regent, and the sitting U.S. Secretary of Commerce. Evans told Fields that he was, in fact, close friends with William Brownfield, the U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela, and he'd see what he could do. Fields' phone rang the next day. 'Can Jhonny be in Caracas tomorrow? His appointment is at 10 a.m.' Vegas boarded a bus in Maturín, made the 300-mile overnight ride to Caracas, then received a student visa. He picked up a plane ticket and flew to Texas. He arrived on a Thursday, having missed only two days of the semester. It was, as Fields puts it, 'an extraordinary confluence of events.' That's what it took for Venezuela's lone PGA Tour player to come to live in the United States. And that, deep in the recesses of Vegas' mind, is why this U.S. Open, a national championship being played amid heightened tensions in American streets and foment-filled conversations surrounding immigration, is unlike any other for the 40-year-old. 'As an immigrant, as a guy from Venezuela, a country that's being highlighted in all this, it's tough to see,' Vegas said Saturday. 'It's tough to read the news because it directly and indirectly affects you. It's hard to see.' In a field with 67 international players, Vegas is the only one representing a country targeted in President Trump's latest round of travel bans. In addition to the 12 countries with outright bans, Venezuela is among seven foreign nations subject to partial restrictions on entering the U.S. permanently or applying for certain visas. The result is Venezuelans across the country navigating deep anxiety over not only their own status, but over bubbling hostilities in the national debate over immigration. Advertisement As Vegas took to Oakmont on Saturday, tipping his cap to throngs of fans lining the first hole in anticipation of world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler playing in the next group, he was, for the moment, well removed from a bigger picture and a much, much larger story. Vegas says he thinks 'every day' about the circumstances of him leaving Venezuela and how his prodigious golf talent secured him and his family status to live in the U.S. His mother and father live near him in Houston. His brother Julio, who followed him as a player at Texas, works as a teaching professional in Florida. Another brother, Carlos, is 'in an asylum-type of process, so, not as free, but trying to do it the right way.' Other Venezuelans, Vegas knows, aren't quite so fortunate. There's a weight with that. 'I feel their pain, for the reason that our country is in a horrible spot politically,' Vegas said. 'I think we all wish we were living in our country and enjoying our country. But unfortunately, because of the political situation, we had to leave. Obviously, a lot of us came here, and now a lot of us have to leave. It's hard, man. It's hard to deal with a lot of that. I can see why there are protests. At the end of the day, I support the people that I can.' Fifteen miles from Oakmont, in downtown Pittsburgh, demonstrators marched through the streets as part of weekend protests sweeping the U.S. to oppose, among other causes, Trump's immigration crackdown and ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. In Pittsburgh, three people were arrested at one rally specifically against ICE. Vegas, meanwhile, was in the throes of one of the most difficult U.S. Opens in recent years. It's no small feat that he's still here this weekend, grinding his way to a third-round 2-over 72 and a spot in 29th place heading into Sunday. Advertisement This is somewhat new territory. Prior to May, Vegas was a journeyman in the later days of a career highlighted by four PGA Tour wins, but often derailed by injuries and hard times. His major tournament résumé was always particularly thin. Six made cuts in 16 total appearances. A top finish of T22 in the 2016 PGA Championship. That's all unexpectedly changed when he came from nowhere to finish tied for fifth at the PGA Championship last month. Now he's made his first cut in the U.S. Open since 2021. 'I think it's big for (Venezuela) for me to be here this week, playing in a major championship, and doing fairly well,' he said. 'The support I get and my family gets is incredible.' While that support is there for him, as it has been since picking up that phone in 2004, Vegas wrestles with the reality that his story is his only. He's happy to have been married in the U.S. and had two children born here. He's happy he gets to play on Sunday. And he knows what the alternative might look like. 'It's about being uncertain about your future, you know?' he said outside the Oakmont clubhouse, as his family, swing coach and manager waited for him to wrap up. 'We all have families. Most of us came here because of our families and the promise of a better future. And it's just hard when that gets taken away.' (Top photo of Jhonattan Vegas: Andrew Redington / Getty Images)
