Maduro was narrowly elected a few months later and re-elected in 2018 to a six-year term in an electoral process widely criticized as fraudulent.[150] The State Department also alleges that Maduro expelled authorized foreign companies from the mining sector to allow officials to exploit Venezuela's resources for their own gain, using unregulated mi… Read More

Social unrest, looting, and violence were on the rise, and in April the government was forced to reduce its workweek to two days in order to save energy (partly because of shortages of hydroelectric power brought about by El Niño-derived drought). Meanwhile, the opposition pushed forward with an effort to put Maduro to a recall vote. By early May … Read More

Maduro promoted a consultative referendum in Venezuela to support Venezuela's claim to the Essequibo region, which is disputed with, and controlled by, neighboring Guyana.Opposition candidates and their supporters struggle to find places to gather without harassment from government activists and to get fuel to travel across the country.Musk’s mot… Read More

They have hit the country’s already flailing economy. Millions of Venezuelans have fled, and half the country live in poverty.Candidates must register by late March, giving Machado and other opposition factions less than three weeks to decide next steps.As the year progressed, growth of the Venezuelan economy slowed to a crawl, inflation climbed … Read More

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.Maduro continued the practice of his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, of denouncing alleged conspiracies against him or his government; in a period of fifteen months… Read More