Venezuela

MOSCOW (AP) — More than a week into a standoff with the opposition, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Wednesday that he is willing to negotiate.

Violent street demonstrations erupted last week after opposition leader Juan Guaido during a major opposition rally in Caracas declared that he had assumed presidential powers under the constitution and planned to hold fresh elections to end Maduro’s “dictatorship.”

30 Jan 2019; AFP: Venezuela's Supreme Tribunal of Justice barred self-declared president Juan Guaido from leaving the country and froze his bank accounts Tuesday, as leader Nicolas Maduro seeks to neutralize the American-backed opposition chief.

The 35-year-old head of the National Assembly legislature "is prohibited from leaving the country until the end of the (preliminary) investigation" for having "caused harm to peace in the republic," high court president Maikel Moreno said.

27 Jan 2019; AFP: CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela defused a potential showdown with the United States, suspending a demand that U.S. diplomats leave the country as Washington called on the world to “pick a side” in the South American nation’s fast-moving crisis.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Backed by Venezuela’s military, President Nicolas Maduro went on the offensive against an opposition leader who declared himself interim president and his U.S. supporters, setting up a potentially explosive struggle for power in the crisis-plagued South American nation.

MOSCOW, January 24./TASS/. Venezuelan Ambassador to Russia Carlos Rafael Fario Tortosa said on Thursday that the staff of the US diplomatic mission in Venezuela would be stripped of diplomatic immunity after 72 hours President Nicolas Maduro had given them to leave the country.

MOSCOW, January 25. /TASS/. The number of people detained during protests in Venezuela, which started on January 21, has reached 364 people, said Alfredo Romero, Executive Director of the NGO Penal Forum, on Twitter on Friday.

"A total of 364 people were detained during protests from January 21 to 23," Romero tweeted.

MOSCOW, January 24. /TASS/./TASS/. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said he is not going to step down, Agencia Venezolana de Noticias (AVN) quoted the president as he addressed the Supreme Court on Thursday.

"I will never give up on commitments to the homeland, I will never do this," said the president who was inaugurated for the second term on January 10. The US and the Lima Group countries with the exception of Mexico refused to recognize Maduro’s re-election.

MOSCOW, January 24. /TASS/ Venezuela's Armed Forces refuse to recognize parliament speaker Juan Guaido as interim president, the country's Defense Minister Padrino Lopez said on Wednesday.

"Soldiers of the Motherland do not recognize the president imposed on us under the influence of foreign interests and self-proclaimed unlawfully. The Armed Forces are defending the Constitution and are guarantors of national sovereignty," Lopez wrote on his Twitter account.

MOSCOW, January 24. /TASS/. The Venezuelan authorities know that the US is trying to stage a Syrian scenario with "government in exile" in Caracas, Venezuela's Ambassador to Russia Carlos Rafael Faria Tortosa told TASS on Thursday.

MOSCOW, January 24. /TASS/ At least 16 people died in clashes during anti-government protests in Venezuela on Wednesday, El Pitazo portal reported.

According to the portal, protesters clashed with security forces, and 16 people died in total in the states of Amazonas, Barinas, Bolivar, Portuguesa, Tachira, as well as in the capital, Caracas. Large-scale protests against President Nicolas Maduro were organized in many regions of the country.