Venezuela's Maduro says son to join virus vaccine trial

CARACAS - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Sunday his son will join trials of Sputnik V, the coronavirus vaccine which was met with caution when Russia announced it was the world's first to be approved.

An initial batch of the vaccine arrived in Venezuela on Friday, the government announced, and 2,000 residents will participate in the trials.

"In this clinical trial phase, my son, Nicolas Ernesto Maduro Guerra, told me of his decision to be vaccinated with the Russian vaccine, to join the trial. I think it is very good," the socialist leader said in a speech on state television network VTV.

Maduro's sister is also a volunteer for the clinical trials.

Maduro Guerra, 30, is also a politician and a member of his father's governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).

Named "Sputnik V" after the historic Soviet-era satellite, the vaccine was met with skepticism from the global medical community.

Russia in August declared itself the first country to approve a coronavirus vaccine, although it is still undergoing large-scale clinical trials after promising results.

The drug is currently in Phase 3, the human testing state, and according to Moscow, more than 40,000 volunteers have been inoculated during the process.

"When the entire scientific, clinical and testing phase is closed, voluntary vaccination will come... As soon as we start mass vaccination, I am going to be the first one to get it," Maduro said.

Russia has been one of Maduro's main backers in the face of international pressure led by Washington, which seeks to displace him from power because it considers his reelection to have been fraudulent.

The US, as well as some 50 other countries, recognize Maduro's opponent, National Assembly speaker Juan Guaido, as Venezuela's interim president.

Guaido slammed the decision to participate in the Russian trials, saying, "They use our people as guinea pigs."

According to official figures, as of Saturday, Venezuela has registered 77,646 cases of Covid-19 out of the entire 30 million population, and 649 deaths. These numbers are disputed by the country's opposition and international organizations such as Human Rights Watch.

Agence France-Presse

Maduro bids to revive Venezuela's 'petro' cryptocurrency

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday decreed that airlines flying from Caracas must pay for fuel in Venezuela's ailing "petro" cryptocurrency, which he ordered to be more widely used in the cash-strapped South American country.

Maduro used his annual speech to the ruling Constituent Assembly to try to revive the controversial petro that has been banned by the United States and labeled a "scam" by some risk rating bodies.

"I decree the sale of all fuel sold by the PDVSA for planes operating international routes be made in petros from now on," the socialist leader told the all-powerful Assembly, created by Maduro himself to sideline the opposition-controlled National Assembly. 

Maduro also decreed the mandatory use of the petro to pay for state document services including passports.

Backed by Venezuela's vast oil reserves, the petro was introduced in 2018 as a way to circumvent wide-ranging US sanctions and overcome chronic liquidity shortages.

Maduro wants the virtual currency to become a widely used means of payment by Venezuelans, yet most people have no idea how to use it. 

Risk rating websites such as icoindex.com describe the petro as a "scam."

But while the petro has failed to win investor confidence, other cryptocurrencies have proved hugely popular in Venezuela as a refuge against hyperinflation.

Maduro last December approved bonuses in petros for public employees and pensioners. However, experts said the petros were quickly changed back to bolivars and then to other currencies. 

The government last week blocked the exchange of petros for bolivars.

Maduro did not specify whether the fuel payment measures introduced at Caracas airport concerned Venezuelan companies alone or if they extended to international carriers.

International links to Venezuela have been severely restricted since the beginning of a crippling economic crisis seven years ago.

The capital's Maiquetia Airport is still serviced by Air France, Iberia, Portugal's TAP, Air Europa and Panama's Copa Airlines.

But there are no longer direct flights to the United States, due to sanctions imposed by Washington aimed at removing the socialist leader from power.

Caracas owes $3.8 billion to international carriers, according to the International Air Transport Association IATA.

erc-gde/fjb/db/bgs

Agence France-Presse

Facing US sanctions, Venezuela offers suppliers payment in Chinese yuan: sources

CARACAS - Venezuela's government and its oil company PDVSA have offered to pay suppliers and contractors into accounts in China using the yuan currency, five people familiar with the matter said.

The move made in recent months is the latest example of how Caracas has sought new ways of making international payments since sweeping sanctions by Washington, intended to force out socialist President Nicolas Maduro, cut off the country's access to the U.S. financial system.

Officials have made the proposal verbally to at least four companies that provide services to the public sector, said the people, including two government officials and three sources from private companies in the financial or oil sectors. The individuals declined to disclose which companies have been approached.

The companies are evaluating the proposal, the sources said. Reuters could not determine whether any such payments in yuan have been made.

China's central bank, the Peoples' Bank of China, did not respond to a faxed request for comment. PDVSA, Venezuela's central bank, and Venezuela's information ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

Venezuelan public entities have traditionally paid private sector partners in the local bolivar currency or U.S. dollars. But hyperinflation and U.S. sanctions, which prohibit American companies from doing business with Venezuela's public sector, are complicating those methods.

The offer comes after Venezuela's government and PDVSA have paid some suppliers and contractors with euros in cash, which they have received from some oil and gold sales, in response to the loss of access to the U.S. financial system due to the sanctions.

Paying suppliers in yuan would allow Venezuela to take advantage of funds it has available in China, without touching the U.S. financial system. However, two of the sources said the process of opening accounts at Chinese banks was proving complicated.

PDVSA and Venezuela's central bank have long maintained accounts in China, in part thanks to a financing deal inked more than a decade ago that saw China lend some $50 billion to the OPEC nation in exchange for crude shipments.

Venezuela's central bank has at least $700 million in yuan in an account at China's central bank, which it received earlier this year as compensation for an oil shipment, according to two people with knowledge of the Venezuelan central bank's operations. Reuters could not independently confirm this.

Receiving payments in foreign currency, or overseas banks, are "the kind of setup that some contractors now have to engage in to get paid," said Raul Gallegos, consultancy Control Risks' director for the Andean region. "This will become standard operating procedure as long as Maduro and U.S. sanctions remain in place."

Venezuela's offer to pay in yuan comes even as some Chinese entities have taken steps to try to distance themselves from the sanctioned country.

China National Petroleum Corp, one of the largest foreign investors in Venezuela's oil sector, in August stopped lifting crude from Venezuelan ports due to worries about sanctions.

Analysts said they expect China's imports of Venezuelan crude to have fallen to zero last month. But China is importing more and more crude blends from Malaysia, which include some Venezuelan oil. (Additional reporting by Stella Qiu in Beijing; Writing by Luc Cohen; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

source: news.ab s-cbn.com

US plans to divert $40-M in aid to Venezuela's opposition

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration plans to divert more than $40 million in humanitarian aid for Central America to support the U.S.-backed opposition in Venezuela, according to an internal document obtained by Reuters on Tuesday.

The $41.9 million had been destined for Guatemala and Honduras, two of the three Central American countries at the center of a migration crisis in which thousands of people have fled poverty, violence and corruption and attempted to cross the southern U.S. border.

The congressional notification from the U.S. Agency for International Development said the money will instead be used for salaries, travel, communications equipment, technical assistance and training for the management of a government budget and other needs for the Venezuelan opposition.

The memorandum, dated July 11, says the funds are necessary because of "a significant, exigent event in the U.S. national interest, specifically the rapidly evolving crisis in Venezuela."

The memo and its contents were first reported by the Los Angeles Times.

Spokespeople for the State Department, Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido and Venezuela's Information Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Guaido, the head of Venezuela's National Assembly, invoked the Venezuelan constitution in January to assume an interim presidency, arguing Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro is illegitimate.

Maduro, meanwhile, has called Guaido a U.S.-backed puppet and has so far retained his grip on the levers of government.

The State Department announced in June it was slashing hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras after Trump said the three countries were not doing enough to stem migration.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

China sends 71 tons of medical aid to Venezuela

CARACAS - A second airplane from China carrying medical supplies including medicine arrived in Venezuela on Monday as part of a "humanitarian technical" cooperation agreement between President Nicolas Maduro's government and the Asian powerhouse.

A Boeing 747 carrying 71 tons of medicines and surgical material arrived in the capital Caracas, the government said in a press statement.

It included supplies for pregnant women and drugs to treat respiratory conditions.

"With this second shipment, as well as that which we already received from the Russian Federation, the International Red Cross and the Red Crescent" some 166 tons of medicines and supplies have arrived in the country, Health Minister Carlos Alvarado said.

A previous shipment of 65 tons of aid arrived from China on March 29.

Crisis-wracked Venezuela is suffering from serious shortages of basic necessities such as food and medicines after five years of recession.

The United Nations says almost a quarter of its population of 30 million is in urgent need of humanitarian aid.

The country has also been gripped in a political crisis since January when parliament speaker Juan Guaido proclaimed himself acting president -- quickly receiving backing from more than 50 countries -- in a direct challenge to Maduro's authority.

Guaido attempted to force in stockpiles of US-supplied aid from Colombia, Brazil and Curacao but Venezuela's military, on Maduro's orders, prevented him from doing so.

Maduro blames US sanctions for Venezuela's problems and claims they have cost the country's economy $30 billion.

Last month, Maduro allowed in an aid shipment from the Red Cross, which has called on both sides in the power struggle to avoid politicizing the issue.

China's ambassador to Venezuela, Li Baorong, said he hoped this medical aid shipment would reduce "the damage done by foreign sanctions."

Maduro's government is supported by China and Russia while the US is backing Guaido.

mbj/du/lda/bc/cs/dw

source: nws.abs-cbn.com

US says ‘fully supports’ Venezuelan people's ‘quest for freedom’

The United States on Tuesday threw its full weight behind Venezuela's self-proclaimed acting president Juan Guaido, as the opposition leader said troops had joined his campaign to oust President Nicolas Maduro.

"Today interim President Juan Guaido announced start of Operacion Libertad," or "Operation Freedom," tweeted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, as Maduro's government vowed to put down what it called an attempted coup.

"The U.S. Government fully supports the Venezuelan people in their quest for freedom and democracy. Democracy cannot be defeated," Pompeo wrote.

Earlier, the White House urged Venezuela's armed forces to stand by the country's "legitimate institutions." 

"@vladimirpadrino: The FANB must protect the Constitution and the Venezuelan people," tweeted National Security Advisor John Bolton, addressing the country's Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez.

"It should stand by the National Assembly and the legitimate institutions against the usurpation of democracy. The United States stands with the people of Venezuela."

President Donald Trump's administration has been waging a mounting pressure campaign to oust Maduro and install Guaido, who is recognized as acting president by more than 50 countries, including most in Latin America.

Re-elected in a vote widely condemned for irregularities, Maduro presides over a crumbling economy, with inflation forecast to hit a mind-boggling 10 million percent this year and millions of Venezuelans having fled due to shortages of basic goods.

He has so far survived three months of US-led pressure, including efforts to deprive him of Venezuela's financial lifeline of oil sales, and still enjoys critical backing from Russia and China.

Guaido has vowed that protests on Wednesday for the May 1 workers' holiday will be the biggest in Venezuela's history, heightening fears that the crisis will turn violent.

The State Department in a travel alert advised US citizens in Venezuela to take shelter in the coming days if they cannot leave the country.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Venezuela opposition takes control of diplomatic properties in US

WASHINGTON - Representatives of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido have taken control of three of the country's diplomatic properties in the United States, Guaido's U.S. envoy said on Monday, as the opposition presses its bid to oust socialist President Nicolas Maduro.

The envoy, Carlos Vecchio, said the opposition had gained control of two buildings belonging to Venezuela's defense ministry in Washington and one consular building in New York. He added that the group expected to take control of Venezuela's embassy in Washington "in the days to come."

Guaido, president of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, invoked the constitution to assume an interim presidency in January, arguing that Maduro's May 2018 re-election was illegitimate. He has been recognized as Venezuela's rightful leader by most Western countries, including the United States.

"We are taking these steps in order to preserve the assets of the Venezuelans here in this country," Vecchio said from one of the buildings, the office of Venezuela's military attache to Washington, after removing a portrait of Maduro from the wall and replacing it with one of Guaido.

U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Palladino told reporters the United States was "pleased to support these requests."

In a statement, Venezuela's foreign ministry called on U.S. authorities to "take the necessary measures to immediately reverse this forcible occupation" of its diplomatic offices. It said the transfer of possession violated international law on the protection of diplomatic properties.

Maduro, who has branded Guaido a U.S. puppet seeking to oust him in a coup, broke off relations with Washington after it recognized Guaido, calling diplomatic and consular staff back to Caracas.

Of 55 staff members, 12 decided to remain in the United States and support Guaido, Vecchio said on Monday. He added that his staff would work out of the attache building, which is in the upscale Kalorama neighborhood and has an assessed value of $2.2 million, according to Washington property records.

Vecchio spoke alongside Colonel Jose Luis Silva, Venezuela's military attache to Washington who recognized Guaido on Jan. 27. Few other high-ranking members of the military have heeded Guaido's call to break with Maduro, who retains the support of the armed forces and control of state functions.

On Monday, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters an army general had defected and fled to Colombia. Vecchio said he was confident that Venezuela, which is undergoing an economic and humanitarian crisis, was in "an irreversible process of change" but that "it won't come easily."

The United States withdrew all its remaining diplomatic personnel in Venezuela last week

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Hero's welcome as opposition leader Guaido returns to Venezuela

CARACAS -- Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaido received a hero's welcome from thousands of flag-waving supporters chanting "Yes, you can!" as he returned to Caracas on Monday, defying the threat of arrest from embattled President Nicolas Maduro's government.

"We know the risks we face, that's never stopped us. The regime, the dictatorship must understand," a defiant Guaido, who has been recognized as acting president by more than 50 countries, told a delirious crowd.

"We're stronger than ever, let's carry on in the streets, mobilized."

Supporters, media, and diplomats from allied countries mobbed Guaido on his arrival at the international airport in Caracas before he headed into the city for a tumultuous homecoming by thousands of supporters.

There, Guaido announced a new protest march for Saturday to ramp up the pressure on Maduro.

"All of Venezuela will return to the streets. We will not rest one second until freedom is achieved," he said.

Venezuelans holding aloft flags, crosses and portraits of their young leader chanted: "Guaido! Guaido!" and "Yes you can!"

Just before his arrival, US Vice President Mike Pence sent a warning to Maduro to ensure Guaido's safety, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo later hailed his "safe return."

"Any threats, violence, or intimidation against him will not be tolerated & will be met with swift response," Pence wrote on Twitter.

Pompeo said in a statement that "the international community must unite and push for the end of Maduro's brutal regime."

DIRECT CHALLENGE 

Guaido left Venezuela 10 days ago in an unsuccessful bid to force through desperately needed humanitarian aid stockpiled in Colombia.

He then went on a tour of regional allies Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Ecuador.

Guaido's reappearance in Venezuela poses a direct challenge to Maduro, who had said the opposition leader would face justice when he returned.

Maduro must decide whether to arrest Guaido for defying a travel ban -- thereby provoking strong international condemnation -- or allow him to enter unmolested, which would undermine his own authority, analysts say.

"They won't stop us with threats, we're stronger and more united than ever and looking to the future," Guaido told his supporters, holding up his passport in a message of defiance to Maduro's government.

Other demonstrations took place all over Venezuela without major incident.

When he left Venezuela on February 23, Guaido said the military had helped him cross the border into Colombia, even though he was under a travel ban.

The high command has professed absolute loyalty to Maduro, however, and troops have blockaded border crossings to prevent the entry of humanitarian aid, supplied mostly by the United States.

Guaido has said some 300,000 people are at risk of death without those supplies of food and medicine.

He reiterated his call for the armed forces to abandon Maduro and to rein in the pro-regime armed civilian militias known as "colectivos."

Venezuela is in the midst of an economic upheaval after 4 years of recession that have plunged many into poverty.

Hyperinflation has obliterated salaries and savings, while 2.7 million people have fled the country since 2015, according to a UN estimate.

TIME TO 'MAKE MOVES' 

Guaido, who heads the opposition-led National Assembly legislature, stunned the world on January 23 when he proclaimed himself Venezuela's acting president.

He acted after the legislature declared Maduro a usurper and illegitimate over his May 2017 re-election, which was widely criticized as fraudulent. Maduro's new term in office began on January 10.

Guaido wants to oust Maduro, set up a transitional government and call new elections.

He says he has not ruled out any measures to achieve that aim, while US President Donald Trump has repeated that "all options are on the table."

Guaido must "now look for an idea around which to maintain hope," Felix Seijas, an academic and director of Delphos pollsters, told AFP.

"He has to make the moves that will keep the international community from taking more radical action like an intervention."

Maduro enjoys strong support from Russia, which accuses Washington of interventionism, and China, which is concerned over the fate of billions of dollars in loans to Maduro's regime. 

The socialist president warned last week that Guaido should "respect the law" and would have to "face justice" upon his return.

"Guaido has grown so much politically that they haven't been able to touch him, in the traditional ways... which is to put him in prison or force him to flee the country, harass him," said political analyst Luis Salamanca.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

2 killed as Maduro sends troops to block Venezuela aid convoys

CUCUTA, Colombia/URENA, Venezuela - At least two people were killed and trucks loaded with foreign aid were set ablaze after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro deployed troops and armored vehicles to turn back humanitarian assistance at border crossings with Colombia and Brazil.

Maduro said he was breaking diplomatic relations with Colombia and ordered its diplomatic staff to leave Venezuela within 24 hours because of its government's assistance to opposition leader Juan Guaido.

Guaido, who most Western nations recognize as Venezuela's legitimate leader, gave a personal send-off on Saturday to a convoy carrying U.S. aid departing from the Colombian city of Cucuta. The opposition says the foreign humanitarian assistance is desperately needed to tackle widespread food and medicine shortages in Venezuela.

But Maduro denies his oil-rich nation has any need of aid and accuses Guaido of being a coup-mongering puppet for U.S. President Donald Trump.

Washington warned on Friday that it could impose tough new sanctions on Venezuela if Maduro blocked the aid shipments.

"What do the Venezuelan people think of Donald Trump's threats? Get your hands off Venezuela Donald Trump. Yankee go home," Maduro told a rally of red-shirted, flag-waving supporters in the capital, Caracas. "He is sending us rotten food, thank you!"

In the Venezuelan border towns of San Antonio and Urena, troops fired tear gas and rubber bullets at opposition supporters, including lawmakers, walking towards the frontier waving Venezuelan flags and chanting "freedom."

People in Urena barricaded streets with burning tires, set a bus alight and hurled stones at troops to demand that Maduro allow aid into a country ravaged by an economic meltdown that has halved the size of the economy in five years.

"They started shooting at close range as if we were criminals," said shopkeeper Vladimir Gomez, 27, wearing a white shirt stained with blood. "I couldn't avoid the (rubber) bullets and they hit me in the face and my back. We have to fight."

Colombia's government had said that aid trucks would be unloaded at the border and their cargo transported by "human chains" that formed on the road that leads toward Venezuela.

However, Venezuelan security forces halted the convoys with a barrage of teargas. At the crossing by Urena, two trucks caught fire, sending plumes of dark smoke into the air, while crowds started removing boxes of supplies, a Reuters witness said.

In the southern town of Santa Elena de Uairen, near the border with Brazil, at least two people were killed in clashes with security forces, according to a doctor at the hospital where they were treated. On Friday, a married couple in a nearby indigenous community were shot dead by security forces.

Rights group Penal Forum said it had recorded 29 injuries and two deaths across Venezuela in clashes with troops, though Reuters could not verify this.

"I'm a homemaker and I'm here fighting for my family, for my children and parents, resisting the military's tear gas and soldiers on motorbikes," said Sobeida Monsalve, 42, in Urena.

'THE BIGGEST BATTLE'

Guaido had appealed to Venezuela's armed forces to stand to one side and allow aid in, promising amnesty to all officers who disavowed Maduro. Several soldiers, whose families suffer from the same shortages as other Venezuelans, took up his offer.

Twenty-three members of the security forces defected on Saturday, including 18 members of the National Guard and two police officers, Colombia's migration authority said.

A social media video showed troops who abandoned their post driving armored vehicles across a bridge linking Venezuela and Colombia, knocking over metal barricades, and then jumping out of the vehicles and running to the Colombian side.

"What we did today, we did for our families, for the Venezuelan people," said one of the defectors in a video televised by a Colombian news program, which did not identify them. "We are not terrorists."

Venezuela's ruling Socialist Party calls Guaido's aid effort a veiled invasion backed by Washington and insists that the United States should instead help Venezuela by lifting crippling financial and oil sector sanctions.

Maduro blames Venezuela's dire situation on US sanctions that have blocked funds and hobbled the OPEC member's vital oil industry.

On Saturday, Maduro turned his ire on Colombia and said President Ivan Duque's government was allowing its territory to be used for "attacks against Venezuela."

"For that reason, I have decided to break all political and diplomatic relations with Colombia's fascist government," he told cheering supporters.

Nearby, thousands of white-clad protesters gathered outside a military base in Caracas to demand that the armed forces allow the aid in.

"This is the biggest battle that the armed forces can win," said Sheyla Salas, 48, who works in advertising. "Please join this struggle, get on the right side of history, allow the humanitarian aid to enter."

According to a Reuters witness, two humanitarian aid trucks crossed the Brazilian border although they had not passed through the Venezuelan customs checkpoint.

Trump's national security adviser John Bolton canceled plans to travel to South Korea to prepare for a summit addressing North Korea's nuclear program in order to focus instead on events unfolding in Venezuela, his spokesman said on Friday.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, in a message on Twitter on Saturday, said: "To Juan Guaido and all the people of Venezuela taking a stand for freedom and humanitarian relief: Estamos con ustedes. We are with you."

(Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra, Anggy Polanco, Mayela Armas and Steven Grattan; Additional reporting by Helen Murphy and Julia Symmes Cobb in Bogota, Anthony Boadle in Brasilia; Ricardo Moraes in Pacaraima, Angus Berwick in Caracas; Writing by Brian Ellsworth and Angus Berwick; Editing by Daniel Flynn, Daniel Wallis and Grant McCool)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Venezuela's Guaido calls for 'million volunteers' in aid standoff

CARACAS -- Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido set a goal Sunday of enlisting a million volunteers within a week to confront a government blockade that has kept tons of humanitarian aid, most of it from the United States, from flowing into the country.

Guaido has given Feb. 23 -- one month to the day after he proclaimed himself acting president -- as the date for a showdown over the aid with the government of President Nicolas Maduro.

Food supplies, hygiene kits and nutritional supplements have been stockpiled near the Venezuelan border in Cucuta, Colombia.

Additional storage centers are supposed to open this week in Brazil and Curacao, a Dutch island off Venezuela's northern Caribbean coast. 

"Our principal task is to reach a million volunteers by February 23," Guaido said in a message to the 600,000 supporters who have signed up so far for the push to bring aid in.

He said the volunteers would gather at designated points, or participate on social media. 

Caravans of buses are being planned to carry volunteers to border entry points to meet and transport arriving cargo, but Guaido has kept to himself how he plans to overcome the obstacles put up by the Venezuelan military, on Maduro's orders.

Volunteer groups have already begun meeting in so-called "humanitarian camps" in several Venezuelan states to organize and prepare for the arrival of aid. Sometimes working under awnings or tents, doctors, nurses, dentists and pediatricians have attended to local residents in need.

An imploding economy has driven an estimated 2.3 Venezuelans to migrate, while those who remain have been punished by hyperinflation that has put scarce food and medicine out of reach for many.

Maduro, who denies the existence of a humanitarian crisis, dismisses the opposition moves as a "political show" and a cover for a US invasion.

'HUMANITARIAN AVALANCHE'

"Venezuela is preparing for the humanitarian avalanche," Guaido told about 4,000 supporters clad in white T-shirts and green scarves who gathered Saturday to sign up as volunteers.

Coromoto Crespo, 58, told AFP he volunteered because of the urgent need for supplies.

"To find medicines requires a miracle. I need tablets for high blood pressure, and what I find, I can't pay for," Crespo said.

"One of my relatives died because of a lack of antibiotics."

Andrea Hernandez, a physical therapy student whose mother is a pediatric nurse who was also volunteering, said her mom often "cried from seeing her patients die from lack of medicine."

So "humanitarian aid is the best thing for Venezuela at this time," Hernandez said.

Another woman, who went by Jessenia, added she took advantage of a roving dentist's office to finally get treatment she was otherwise unable to afford for her son who had cavities.

US SENATOR ARRIVES

US Senator Marco Rubio, meanwhile, arrived Sunday in Cucuta for a first-hand look at the aid operations. He met with officials at the collection point and visited the Simon Bolivar international bridge linking Colombia and Venezuela.

Guaido, in a tweet, thanked Rubio for his "noble effort to achieve humanitarian aid."

Three US military cargo planes delivered several dozen more tons of food assistance to Cucuta on Saturday. 

Another US aircraft is due in Curacao from Miami on Tuesday, and a collection center for Brazilian aid will open Monday on the border, Guaido's team said.

Saturday's shipment was accompanied by a delegation led by Mark Green, head of the US Agency for International Development. 

Venezuelans based in Miami held their own drive, putting together 1,000 crates of food to send to their homeland.

On Friday, Maduro instructed his army to prepare a "special deployment plan" for the 2,200-kilometer (1,370-mile) border with Colombia.

Maduro has poured scorn on the aid, spurning it as "crumbs" and "rotten and contaminated food" while blaming shortages of food and medicine on US sanctions.

He said 6 million families had benefited from subsidized food boxes and he claimed to have bought 933 tons of medicines and medical supplies from China, Cuba and Russia, his main international allies.

On another front, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza confirmed having held two meetings with special US envoy Elliott Abrams. Arreaza, who traveled to New York on Feb. 13, said he held the talks with Abrams at the request of the State Department. He declined to comment on the substance of their discussions.

Guaido repeated his call on Venezuela's military -- whose support for Maduro has been crucial -- to let the aid pass.

He also announced that British billionaire Richard Branson was organizing a concert for February 22 in Cucuta with renowned international artists to raise money for the relief effort.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Venezuela opposition plans to get oil money from US fund

CARACAS -- Venezuela's opposition on Wednesday said it would use a US-based fund to receive some of the country's oil income in a key step to bankroll its efforts to dislodge President Nicolas Maduro.

The fund would receive income accrued by state-run oil firm PDVSA's US unit Citgo Petroleum Corp since last month, when US President Donald Trump recognized Juan Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate head of state, opposition legislator Carlos Paparoni told Reuters.

Guadio, head of Venezuela's National Assembly, last month declared himself to be the South American country's interim ruler.

White House national security adviser John Bolton said on Wednesday the United States would consider lifting sanctions on senior Venezuelan military officers if they recognize Guaido as interim leader. "If not, the international financial circle will be closed off completely," Bolton wrote on Twitter.

Aside from one senior general, who recognized Guaido in a video and urged others in the military to do the same, most of Venezuela's top military officers have not defected from Maduro.

Citgo, the eighth-largest US refiner and Venezuela's top foreign asset, is in the middle of a tug of war as the United States has made aggressive moves to remove it from Maduro's control and imposed sanctions on OPEC-member Venezuela's oil industry.

"This is already quite advanced, I hope that next week it can be announced by our representative in the United States," Paparoni said, though he did not give details about the nature of the US-based fund or the financial institution involved.

Pressure is building on Maduro, a socialist, to resign amid an economic crisis marked by widespread shortages and hyperinflation. Maduro was re-elected last year in a vote critics have called a sham.

Yon Goicoechea, a member of Guaido's policy team, told Reuters that Guaido was in contact with PDVSA's international partners and they were willing to keep operating in Venezuela. He did not identify the partners.

Guaido's team is planning for a post-Maduro government with an emergency arrangement to supply fuel domestically, given widespread shortages across Venezuela, Goicoechea said.

Most Latin American and European countries also recognize Guaido, although Italy so far has not. Guaido has reached out to Italy's ruling coalition seeking its support.

Maduro, who retains control over the state, denounces Guaido as a US puppet who is seeking to foment a coup against him. He is supported by China and Russia, while Slovakia on Wednesday joined Italy in defying the coordinated action of European Union nations and the United States.

GOLD SALES

The opposition has also sought to prevent the government from selling gold, believing that it is using the proceeds to try to stay solvent as the sanctions cut off other revenue streams.

But Maduro's government last year sold 73 tons of gold to Turkey and the United Arab Emirates without the required approval of the opposition-led National Assembly, Paparoni told a news conference. Abu Dhabi investment firm Noor Capital bought the largest amount, 27.3 tons of gold, and a Turkish firm bought 23.9 tonnes, Paparoni said.

"We will keep working so that not one more gram of gold can be sold," Paparoni said.

Venezuela had gold reserves of 132 tons between the central bank's vaults and the Bank of England at the end of November, according to central bank data.

Venezuela's Information Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Noor Capital said it "does not engage in any illegal or prohibited transactions."

In recent days, at least 5 tankers carrying gasoline, gasoil for power generation and naphtha have been ordered to unload at Venezuela's ports as fuel inventories dwindle. PDVSA issued court orders for most of the tankers to discharge, according to shipping and PDVSA sources.

Guaido asked Italy's ruling coalition leaders in a letter to meet with his representatives as he seeks their explicit backing. Italy's hard-right League has expressed strong support for Guaido, but coalition partner the 5-Star Movement has not, making Italy the only major European Union nation not to recognize him as Venezuela's interim head of state.

League leader and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini's office on Wednesday said he would meet Guaido's envoys on Feb. 11.

As the world's countries line up to support either Maduro or Guaido, the United Nations warned against using aid as a pawn. The United States has sent food and medicine to Venezuela's border, even though it is unclear how it will get past the objections of Maduro.

"Humanitarian action needs to be independent of political, military or other objectives," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has doubled its budget in Venezuela in recent weeks and is also helping Venezuelan migrants in neighboring Colombia and Brazil, ICRC President Peter Maurer said in Geneva.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Pushing for Maduro to go, White House says don't trade Venezuelan gold

CARACAS/WASHINGTON -- The White House warned traders on Wednesday not to deal in Venezuelan gold or oil following its imposition of stiff sanctions aimed at forcing socialist President Nicolas Maduro from power.

National security adviser John Bolton tweeted that traders should not deal in gold, oil or other commodities "being stolen" from the Venezuelan people, even as opponents of Maduro's government worried that a Russian plane in Caracas was preparing to ship gold out of the country.

US President Donald Trump spoke to Venezuela's self-proclaimed interim president, Juan Guaido, by phone on Wednesday, reiterating support for his "fight to regain democracy."

On one side of the tussle for control of Venezuela, an OPEC member that has the world's largest oil reserves but is in dire financial straits, Guaido and Western backers led by the United States are insisting on an immediate transition and fresh elections.

On the other, Maduro, with backing from Russia, China and Turkey, says he will remain for his second six-year term despite accusations of fraud in his re-election last year and the economic meltdown.

Venezuela's struggle to pay its debts even to allies Russia and China amid a sharp drop in oil output has been exacerbated by the new sanctions, which will make it very hard to sell oil to its main client, the United States.

In that context, the unusual arrival in Caracas of a Boeing 777 plane from Moscow on Monday led to speculation Maduro's government was preparing to ship more gold reserves out of the country, following shipments last year of $900 million of gold to Turkey last year. Those shipments were part of a strategy to increase the Central Bank's liquidity.

Venezuelan lawmaker Jose Guerra, a former Central Bank economist, told the National Assembly his understanding was that the plane would take some gold reserves to Russia when it leaves. The Central Bank did not respond to a request for comment.

Sources have told Reuters private military contractors who do secret missions for Moscow were in Venezuela.

Elliott Abrams, the US envoy for Venezuela, said the United States was looking around the world for more assets of the Maduro government, including gold holdings and bank accounts

The Kremlin said this week it expected Venezuela to pay its debts. Russia, which like China has loaned and invested billions of dollars in OPEC member Venezuela, called on Guaido to drop his demand for a snap election and instead accept mediation.

But given the failure of previous rounds of dialogue between the government and opposition, including one led by the Vatican, opponents are suspicious, believing Maduro uses them to quell protests and buy time.

Guaido's envoy to the United States, Carlos Vecchio, said the only dialogue they were interested in would be a negotiation for Maduro's departure and new elections. Government officials insist the next presidential election will be in 2025.

FRESH PROTESTS

Responding to a call by Guaido, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in cities across Venezuela on Wednesday, some waving Venezuelan flags while drivers of cars and buses honked in support.

"I want this government to go, it has been a total humiliation for the country" said Lucy Cordoba, 51, a government worker in the poor hillside town of Petare at the edge of the capital, where she said trash had not been collected for a year and water was scarce.

Cordoba said her children were among the more than 3 million Venezuelans who have left the country in the past couple of years. One went to Peru, and another to Dominican Republic.

More than 40 people have died so far in and around the protests that began a week ago, the UN human rights office said. Hundreds have also been arrested, including children.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Trump and Guaido agreed to maintain regular communication after Venezuelan authorities opened an investigation that could lead to Guaido's arrest.

Oil prices rose nearly 3 percent on Wednesday, as investors remained concerned about supply disruptions because of Venezuela

Maduro, 56, says Guaido is staging a US-directed coup against him. Facing the biggest challenge to his rule since replacing Hugo Chavez six years ago, Maduro told Moscow's RIA news agency on Wednesday that Trump ordered "the government of Colombia and the Colombian mafia to kill me," reprising an accusation of assassination plots that he has often made over the years.

Bogota and Washington have routinely denied that.

However, speculation about military action against him was fueled this week when Trump national security adviser John Bolton carried a notepad with the words "5,000 troops to Colombia". US Major General Mark Stammer, the commander of US Army South, was in Colombia on Wednesday, US embassy officials said.

In response to Guaido's invitation to army officers to join his cause in return for an amnesty, Maduro has made daily visits to troops, whose pledges of allegiance are televised. He is not expected to stand down while he has the backing of senior military officers.

"Do you want to be a coward," he yelled in a call and response session with hundreds of soldiers on Wednesday.

"No, president," they shouted back.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Double trouble: Venezuelans and their two 'presidents'

CARACAS - Anibal Garcia chooses to make light of a situation which has left him and many other residents of Caracas unsure as to who is in charge of Venezuela.

"Brilliant! We have 2 of everything in this country: 2 parliaments, 2 presidents," says the street vendor, 63.

Prolonged economic crisis has now been joined by high-stakes political turmoil in the country whose official president is Nicolas Maduro, but where National Assembly chief Juan Guaido on Wednesday proclaimed himself in charge, on an acting basis. Guaido pledged to install a transitional government and hold free elections.

"I think we deserve a prize, don't we? The Guinness records!" Garcia says, counting the money he made during the day -- a rarity since cash has become almost impossible to find in an economy where inflation is forecast by the International Monetary Fund to hit 10 million percent this year.

The rivalry at the country's top is reflected at the legislative level.

The National Assembly is the sole institution controlled by the opposition, but the official regime has stripped it of its power since 2017, in favor of a Constituent Assembly made up of regime loyalists.

The doubling-up doesn't stop there, either.

Venezuela is home to a supreme court and an attorney general on the side of Maduro, but their equivalents are based in exile overseas, supported by the opposition.

On Wednesday Guaido said he would "formally assume national executive powers" to end the "usurpation" of power.

"Maduro is supposed to be president but he is not really liked by the Venezuelan people," Garcia said.

"My candidate is Guaido, whether or not that pleases certain people."

'WHO IS THE REAL ONE?'

In Chacaito district, residents have a lot to worry about in an economically-collapsed nation with hyper-inflation and shortages of food and medicines.

"It's madness," says one.

"Oh, that someone should come to free us," says another, while a third vows he won't accept "an unknown" as head of the country.

Each passerby has a different reply when asked who is president of Venezuela.

"Apparently there are 2: Maduro and Guaido, but who is the real one, nobody knows. Legally, it's Maduro but internationally it's Guaido," says Antonio Vera, 30, a computer scientist.

The United States, Canada and major South American governments have already recognized Guaido, and on Saturday the European Union and several of its member states said they, too, would endorse Guiado unless Maduro, in power since 2013, calls new elections within eight days.

Vera, shrugging his shoulders, says he prefers not to talk about the subject, "which we will settle among ourselves."

Guaido, 35, says he is acting according to the Constitution, after Maduro was sworn in on January 10 for a second mandate following an election dismissed by the US, EU and UN as a sham.

Maduro has accused Washington -- the first to recognize Guaido as president -- of being behind an attempted coup.

China, Russia, Cuba and Bolivia continue to back Maduro.

STILL JOKING

"Nicolas is the president of Venezuela but the country is doing so badly. It is in such a bad state, so sad," laments Maria Aurora Fuentes, 70, who thinks "it's not good" what Guaido did.

"It's because of that that everything isn't going well, because of others who don't want (Maduro). They have attacked him since he began his term," she says.

Yosmar Landaeta, 39, a nurse, is of the same opinion.

"Each has his version of the facts, but it's still Maduro" who is president, she said.

Jose Rodriguez, on the other hand, does not hesitate when asked who is in charge: Juan Guaido, says the musician, 22.

"He's the only one who did things according to the Constitution, who has not misled the people," Rodriguez said.

Some even have trouble remembering the name of the relatively young leader of the National Assembly, Guaido, who had been largely unknown to the public, but they still support him.

The president is the "gentleman who just launched himself, the one who they say proclaimed himself. I think we are going to give him a chance," said Thais Jiminez, 46, a hotel cleaner.

In the middle of this confusion, Venezuelans have not lost their sense of humor.

As the satirical website Chiguire Bipolar asked this week: "If I want to make fun of the president, which one do I choose?"

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Venezuela on edge as Maduro unveils raft of economic reforms

CARACAS - Uncertainty reigned in Venezuela on Saturday after President Nicolas Maduro unveiled a major economic reform plan aimed at halting the spiraling hyperinflation that has thrown the oil-rich, cash-poor South American country into chaos.

Ahead of a major currency overhaul on Monday, when Caracas will start issuing new banknotes after slashing five zeroes off the crippled bolivar, Maduro detailed other measures he hopes will pull Venezuela out of crisis.

Those measures -- revealed in a speech to the nation late Friday -- include a massive minimum wage hike, the fifth so far this year. 

But analysts say the radical overhaul could only serve to make matters worse.

"There will be a lot of confusion in the next few days, for consumers and the private sector," said the director of the Ecoanalitica consultancy, Asdrubal Oliveros. 

"It's a chaotic scenario."

'PURE LIE!' 

The embattled Maduro, a former bus driver and union leader, said the country needed to show "fiscal discipline" and stop the excessive money printing that has been regular in recent years.

The new currency, the sovereign bolivar -- to distinguish from the current, and ironically named, strong bolivar -- will be anchored to the country's widely discredited cryptocurrency, the petro.

Each petro will be worth about $60, based on the price of a barrel of Venezuela's oil. In the new currency, that will be 3,600 sovereign bolivars -- signaling a massive devaluation.

In turn, the minimum wage will be fixed at half a petro (1,800 sovereign bolivars), starting Monday. That is about $28 -- more than 34 times the previous level of less than a dollar at the prevailing black market rate. 

Maduro also said the country would have one fluctuating official exchange rate, also anchored to the petro, without saying what the starting level would be.

As it stands, the monthly minimum wage -- devastated by inflation and the aggressive devaluation of the bolivar -- is still not enough to buy a kilo of meat.

In the capital Caracas, residents were skeptical about the new measures.

"Everything will stay the same, prices will continue to rise," 39-year-old Bruno Choy, who runs a street food stand, told AFP.

Angel Arias, a 67-year-old retiree, dubbed the new currency a "pure lie!"

'PLOTS' 

The International Monetary Fund predicts inflation will hit a staggering one million percent this year in Venezuela -- now in a fourth year of recession, hamstrung by shortages of basic goods, and crippled by paralyzed public services.

Maduro blames the country's financial woes on opposition "plots" and American sanctions -- but admits that the government will "learn as we go along" when it comes to the currency redenomination.

His government pushed back Saturday against criticism of the economic reform plan.

"Don't pay attention to naysayers," Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said. "With oil income, with taxes and income from gasoline price hikes... we'll be able to fund our program."

Electronic transactions are set to be suspended from Sunday to facilitate the introduction of the new notes. 

Oil production accounts for 96 percent of Venezuela's revenue -- but that has slumped to a 30-year low of 1.4 million barrels a day, compared to its record high of 3.2 million 10 years ago.

The fiscal deficit is almost 20 percent of GDP while Venezuela struggles with an external debt of $150 billion.

Venezuela launched the petro in a bid for liquidity to try to circumvent US sanctions that have all but stamped out international financing.

But there's a good reason the redenomination hasn't generated renewed hope or investor confidence: Venezuela has done this before.

Maduro's predecessor Hugo Chavez stripped 3 zeroes off the bolivar in 2008, but that failed to prevent hyperinflation.

Oliveros warned that the new bank notes will crumble "within a few months" if hyperinflation is not brought under control.

According to economist Jean Paul Leidenz, Venezuela is trying to emulate Brazil, which replaced its old cruzeiro currency with the real in the 1990s after the former was destroyed by hyperinflation.

But he said that will not work because of the government's fiscal indiscipline and a lack of financing.

CRYPTOCURRENCY 'SCAM'? 

Cryptocurrency rating site ICOindex.com has branded the petro a "scam," while the US has banned its nationals from trading in it. 

"Anchoring the bolivar to the petro is anchoring it to nothing," said economist Luis Vicente Leon, director at polling organization Datanalisis.

Right from the outset, it has not been clear how the petro would operate, nor what being backed by oil actually means.

Maduro's government is desperately grasping at straws to try to fix the country's economic meltdown.

Earlier this week, he announced a curb on heavily subsidized fuel in a bid to prevent oil being smuggled to other countries.

Subsidies would only be available to citizens registering their vehicles for a "fatherland card" -- which the opposition has decried as a mechanism to exert social control over opponents.

Fuel subsidies have cost Venezuela $10 billion since 2012, according to oil analyst Luis Oliveros, but without them, most people would not be able to buy fuel.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Venezuelan general arrested over 'attack' on Maduro

CARACAS - A Venezuelan general has been arrested over the alleged assassination attempt on President Nicolas Maduro, Attorney General Tarek William Saab said on Tuesday.

National Guard Major General Alejandro Perez Gomez appeared before a judge on Monday along with opposition politician Juan Requesens and colonel Pedro Javier Zambrano, Saab told a press conference.

To date, 14 people have been arrested and charged for allegedly taking part in the August 4 incident in which Maduro was seen reacting on live television to an off-camera explosion while he addressed a military parade in Caracas. 

A second explosion was heard and then the assembled troops could be seen breaking formation and scattering in panic.

Maduro said the blasts were from explosives-laden drones sent to assassinate him.

Saab told journalists further arrests were possible.

Maduro has blamed the attack on "terrorist cells" in Florida led by a man called Osman Delgado Tabosky, whom he claims was behind the plot. The state is home to a large community of Venezuelan immigrants.

Maduro said this week that he would allow FBI agents to come to Venezuela to help investigate the alleged plot.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Maduro wins as rivals call for new Venezuela elections

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Nicolas Maduro was unsurprisingly declared winner of Venezuela's election Sunday in a poll rejected as invalid by his rivals, who immediately called for fresh elections to be held later this year. 

Reeling under a devastating economic crisis, only 46 percent of voters turned out to cast ballots in an election boycotted by the opposition and condemned by much of the international community, but one that hands Maduro a second term until 2025.

"We do not recognize this electoral process as valid, as true," his main rival Henri Falcon told a news conference, even before the result was announced. 

"For us, there were no elections. We have to have new elections in Venezuela." 

Maduro hailed his victory for another six-year term as a "historic record" in a speech to thousands of cheering supporters outside the official Miraflores Palace in Caracas.

"Never before has a presidential candidate taken 68 percent of the popular vote," he said, to applause.

"We won again! We triumphed again! We are the force of history turned into a permanent popular victory," said Maduro.

The official result gave Maduro 67.7 percent of the vote, with Falcon a distant second at 21.2 percent. In the last opinion polls before the vote, the pair were running neck-and-neck.

Third-placed Javier Bertucci, an evangelist preacher who polled around 11 percent, joined in the call for new elections.

Maduro, the political heir to the late leftist firebrand Hugo Chavez, has presided over an implosion of the once wealthy oil producer's economy since taking office in 2013.

Hyperinflation, food and medicine shortages, rising crime and broken water, power and transportation networks have sparked violent unrest, and left Maduro with a 75 percent disapproval rating.

Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have fled the South American country in a mass exodus in recent years.

Wearing a bright red shirt that identifies him as a "Chavista," the president arrived early at a Caracas polling station along with his wife, former prosecutor Cilia Flores.

"Your vote decides: ballots or bullets, motherland or colony, peace or violence, independence or subordination," said the 55-year-old former bus driver and union leader.

The comments reflected previous ones by the socialist leader that Venezuela is the victim of an "economic war" waged by the conservative opposition and outside powers such as the United States aimed at toppling him.

As the polls opened, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denounced the "sham" election.

Small queues of voters, mostly Maduro supporters, formed at some polling stations, but others appeared half empty, AFP correspondents reported from several cities.

Falcon, a 56-year-old former army officer who failed to gain the endorsement of the main opposition, accused the government of coercing voters.

In a news conference held before the official result announcement, he pointed particularly to so-called "red points" -- street stalls set up by the ruling Socialists near polling stations -- allegedly to offer handouts in exchange for votes.

The former governor of Venezuela's Lara state also said polling centers had remained open after the scheduled closing time, and that his monitors were expelled from some of them.

Hundreds of Venezuelans took to the streets in several Latin American capitals, including Bogota, Buenos Aires and Lima -- as well as in Madrid -- to denounce the vote.

The biggest protest was in Chile's capital Santiago, where more than 1,000 demonstrated against the election. Chile granted 73,000 visas to Venezuelans fleeing the country last year.

The Chilean government rejected a result that "lacks all legitimacy and does not meet any of the minimum and necessary requirements to be a democratic and transparent election, in accordance with international standards."

'A DOG'S LIFE'

"I am not taking part in this fraud," said retired teacher Maria Barrantes, 62. "What we are living through is a disaster."

"For the first time in my life, I am not going to vote because we are living a dog's life, without medicine, without food," said Teresa Paredes, a 56-year-old housewife.

But Rafael Manzanares, 53 and living on government handouts, said he believed Maduro's claim that "things are bad because of the economic war" against the country.

Aware of the popular mood, Maduro had vowed an "economic revolution" if reelected.

Falcon promised to dollarize the economy, return companies expropriated by Chavez and allow humanitarian aid, something the president rejects.

'FURTHER INSTABILITY'

Falcon said fresh elections could be held in November or December, when they are traditionally contested, but they were moved up this year by the country's all-powerful and pro-government Constituent Assembly, catching the divided and weakened opposition off-guard.

The Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) opposition coalition has won support from the United States, the European Union and 14 countries of the Lima Group who called for the vote to be postponed.

Maduro is accused of undermining democracy, usurping the power of the opposition-dominated legislature by replacing it with his Constituent Assembly and cracking down hard on the opposition. Protests in 2017, still fresh in the collective memory, left around 125 people dead.

The MUD's most popular leaders have been sidelined or detained, the boycott their only remaining weapon.

Despite holding the world's largest oil reserves, the country faces ruin, with the IMF citing a 45 percent drop in GDP under Maduro.

The crippled oil industry lacks investment and its assets are increasingly prey to debt settlements as the country defaults.

source: news.abs-cbn.com