BRASILIA, Dec 11 (Reuters) – Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva spoke last month with his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro about the situation in the Caribbean and South America, the Brazilian government said on Thursday.
The two leaders held a “quick call” on November 21, the government said, adding that there were no further developments after the call.
The call was their first since before last year’s presidential election in Venezuela. At the time, the Brazilian government and international observers contested Maduro’s self-proclaimed reelection.
Brazilian newspaper O Globo, citing sources, was the first on Thursday to report the call. Its report said Lula expressed concerns about the growing U.S. military presence in the Caribbean as President Donald Trump ramps up pressure on Maduro’s socialist government.
In previous talks with Trump, the leftist Brazilian leader has offered to act as a mediator in negotiations between the U.S. and Venezuela, but has not received a response from Washington.
(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu; Writing by Fernando Cardoso; Editing by Paul Simao)
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the United States has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela as tensions mount with the government of President Nicolás Maduro.Using U.S. forces to take control of a merchant ship is incredibly unusual and marks the Trump administration’s latest push to increase pressure on Maduro, who has been charged with narcoterrorism in the United States. The U.S. has built up the largest military presence in the region in decades and launched a series of deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. The campaign is facing growing scrutiny from Congress.“We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized, actually,” Trump told reporters at the White House, later adding that “it was seized for a very good reason.”Trump did not offer additional details. When asked what would happen to the oil aboard the tanker, Trump said, “Well, we keep it, I guess.”The seizure was led by the U.S. Coast Guard and supported by the Navy, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The official added that it was conducted under U.S. law enforcement authority.Storming the oil tankerThe Coast Guard members were taken to the oil tanker by helicopter from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, the official said. The Ford is in the Caribbean Sea after arriving last month in a major show of force, joining a fleet of other warships.Video posted to social media by Attorney General Pam Bondi shows people fast-roping from one of the helicopters involved in the operation as it hovers just feet from the deck.The Coast Guard members can be seen later in the video moving throughout the superstructure of the ship with their weapons drawn.Bondi wrote that “for multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations.”Venezuela’s government said in a statement that the seizure “constitutes a blatant theft and an act of international piracy.”“Under these circumstances, the true reasons for the prolonged aggression against Venezuela have finally been revealed. … It has always been about our natural resources, our oil, our energy, the resources that belong exclusively to the Venezuelan people,” the statement said.Half of ship’s oil is tied to Cuban importerThe U.S. official identified the seized tanker as the Skipper.The ship departed Venezuela around Dec. 2 with about 2 million barrels of heavy crude, roughly half of it belonging to a Cuban state-run oil importer, according to documents from the state-owned company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., commonly known as PDVSA, that were provided on the condition of anonymity because the person did not have permission to share them.The Skipper was previously known as the M/T Adisa, according to ship tracking data. The Adisa was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2022 over accusations of belonging to a sophisticated network of shadow tankers that smuggled crude oil on behalf of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group.The network was reportedly run by a Switzerland-based Ukrainian oil trader, the U.S. Treasury Department said at the time.Hitting Venezuela’s sanctioned oil businessVenezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves and produces about 1 million barrels a day.PDVSA is the backbone of the country’s economy. Its reliance on intermediaries increased in 2020, when the first Trump administration expanded its maximum-pressure campaign on Venezuela with sanctions that threaten to lock out of the U.S. economy any individual or company that does business with Maduro’s government. Longtime allies Russia and Iran, both also sanctioned, have helped Venezuela skirt restrictions.The transactions usually involve a complex network of shadowy intermediaries. Many are shell companies, registered in jurisdictions known for secrecy. The buyers deploy so-called ghost tankers that hide their location and hand off their valuable cargoes in the middle of the ocean before they reach their final destination.Maduro did not address the seizure during a speech before a ruling-party organized demonstration in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. But he told supporters that the country is “prepared to break the teeth of the North American empire if necessary.”Maduro has insisted the real purpose of the U.S. military operations is to force him from office.Democrat says the move is about ‘regime change’Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the U.S. seizing the oil tanker cast doubt on the administration’s stated reasons for the military buildup and boat strikes.“This shows that their whole cover story — that this is about interdicting drugs — is a big lie,” the senator said. “This is just one more piece of evidence that this is really about regime change — by force.”Vincent P. O’Hara, a naval historian and author of “The Greatest Naval War Ever Fought,” called the seizure “very unusual” and “provocative.” Noting that the action will probably deter other ships from the Venezuela coastline, he said, “If you have no maritime traffic or access to that, then you have no economy.”The seizure comes a day after the U.S. military flew a pair of fighter jets over the Gulf of Venezuela in what appeared to be the closest that warplanes had come to the South American country’s airspace. Trump has said land attacks are coming soon but has not offered more details.The Trump administration is facing increasing scrutiny from lawmakers over the boat strike campaign, which has killed at least 87 people in 22 known strikes since early September, including a follow-up strike that killed two survivors clinging to the wreckage of a boat after the first hit.Some legal experts and Democrats say that action may have violated the laws governing the use of deadly military force.Lawmakers are demanding to get unedited video from the strikes, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told congressional leaders at a classified briefing Tuesday that he was still weighing whether to release it.The Coast Guard referred a request for comment about the tanker seizure to the White House.
WASHINGTON —
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the United States has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela as tensions mount with the government of President Nicolás Maduro.
Using U.S. forces to take control of a merchant ship is incredibly unusual and marks the Trump administration’s latest push to increase pressure on Maduro, who has been charged with narcoterrorism in the United States. The U.S. has built up the largest military presence in the region in decades and launched a series of deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. The campaign is facing growing scrutiny from Congress.
“We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized, actually,” Trump told reporters at the White House, later adding that “it was seized for a very good reason.”
Trump did not offer additional details. When asked what would happen to the oil aboard the tanker, Trump said, “Well, we keep it, I guess.”
The seizure was led by the U.S. Coast Guard and supported by the Navy, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The official added that it was conducted under U.S. law enforcement authority.
Storming the oil tanker
The Coast Guard members were taken to the oil tanker by helicopter from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, the official said. The Ford is in the Caribbean Sea after arriving last month in a major show of force, joining a fleet of other warships.
Video posted to social media by Attorney General Pam Bondi shows people fast-roping from one of the helicopters involved in the operation as it hovers just feet from the deck.
The Coast Guard members can be seen later in the video moving throughout the superstructure of the ship with their weapons drawn.
Bondi wrote that “for multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations.”
Venezuela’s government said in a statement that the seizure “constitutes a blatant theft and an act of international piracy.”
“Under these circumstances, the true reasons for the prolonged aggression against Venezuela have finally been revealed. … It has always been about our natural resources, our oil, our energy, the resources that belong exclusively to the Venezuelan people,” the statement said.
Half of ship’s oil is tied to Cuban importer
The U.S. official identified the seized tanker as the Skipper.
The ship departed Venezuela around Dec. 2 with about 2 million barrels of heavy crude, roughly half of it belonging to a Cuban state-run oil importer, according to documents from the state-owned company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., commonly known as PDVSA, that were provided on the condition of anonymity because the person did not have permission to share them.
The Skipper was previously known as the M/T Adisa, according to ship tracking data. The Adisa was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2022 over accusations of belonging to a sophisticated network of shadow tankers that smuggled crude oil on behalf of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group.
The network was reportedly run by a Switzerland-based Ukrainian oil trader, the U.S. Treasury Department said at the time.
Hitting Venezuela’s sanctioned oil business
Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves and produces about 1 million barrels a day.
PDVSA is the backbone of the country’s economy. Its reliance on intermediaries increased in 2020, when the first Trump administration expanded its maximum-pressure campaign on Venezuela with sanctions that threaten to lock out of the U.S. economy any individual or company that does business with Maduro’s government. Longtime allies Russia and Iran, both also sanctioned, have helped Venezuela skirt restrictions.
The transactions usually involve a complex network of shadowy intermediaries. Many are shell companies, registered in jurisdictions known for secrecy. The buyers deploy so-called ghost tankers that hide their location and hand off their valuable cargoes in the middle of the ocean before they reach their final destination.
Maduro did not address the seizure during a speech before a ruling-party organized demonstration in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. But he told supporters that the country is “prepared to break the teeth of the North American empire if necessary.”
Maduro has insisted the real purpose of the U.S. military operations is to force him from office.
Democrat says the move is about ‘regime change’
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the U.S. seizing the oil tanker cast doubt on the administration’s stated reasons for the military buildup and boat strikes.
“This shows that their whole cover story — that this is about interdicting drugs — is a big lie,” the senator said. “This is just one more piece of evidence that this is really about regime change — by force.”
Vincent P. O’Hara, a naval historian and author of “The Greatest Naval War Ever Fought,” called the seizure “very unusual” and “provocative.” Noting that the action will probably deter other ships from the Venezuela coastline, he said, “If you have no maritime traffic or access to that, then you have no economy.”
The seizure comes a day after the U.S. military flew a pair of fighter jets over the Gulf of Venezuela in what appeared to be the closest that warplanes had come to the South American country’s airspace. Trump has said land attacks are coming soon but has not offered more details.
The Trump administration is facing increasing scrutiny from lawmakers over the boat strike campaign, which has killed at least 87 people in 22 known strikes since early September, including a follow-up strike that killed two survivors clinging to the wreckage of a boat after the first hit.
Some legal experts and Democrats say that action may have violated the laws governing the use of deadly military force.
Lawmakers are demanding to get unedited video from the strikes, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told congressional leaders at a classified briefing Tuesday that he was still weighing whether to release it.
The Coast Guard referred a request for comment about the tanker seizure to the White House.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado slipped through 10 military checkpoints to reach a fishing boat bound for Curacao and a private jet headed to Norway
Dec 11 (Reuters) – Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday held a second meeting in 17 days with the Venezuelan ambassador to Russia, at a time of mounting pressure by U.S. President Donald Trump for the removal of Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro.
Maduro told Trump in a phone call on November 21 that he was ready to leave Venezuela provided that he and his family had full legal amnesty, sources have told Reuters.
The Belarusian state news agency Belta reported on November 25 that Lukashenko had received the Venezuelan envoy to Moscow that day and told him Maduro was always welcome in Belarus and it was time for him to pay a visit.
On Thursday, Belta said Lukashenko had held a further meeting with the diplomat, Jesus Rafael Salazar Velazquez.
It said Lukashenko had told him, referring to their earlier meeting: “We agreed that you should coordinate certain matters with the Venezuelan leadership, with Nicolas Maduro. We agreed that, after resolving certain issues, you would find time to come to me and meet again so we could make the appropriate decision, which is within our competence. And if necessary, we will then involve the president of Venezuela.”
Reuters requested further comment from Lukashenko’s office on the significance of the meetings, and whether Belarus would be willing to offer sanctuary to Maduro if he stepped down. There was no immediate response.
The Trump administration has said it does not recognise Maduro, in power since 2013, as Venezuela’s legitimate president. He claimed to have won re-election last year in a national ballot dismissed as a sham by the U.S. and other Western governments, which independent observers said the opposition had won overwhelmingly.
In recent months, Trump has intensified pressure on Venezuela, not least with a massive military build-up in the Caribbean.
In an interview with Politico this week, he said Maduro’s “days are numbered”, while declining to say whether he would be willing to send U.S. troops into Venezuela.
Lukashenko has friendly ties with Venezuela and has also this year entered a dialogue with the Trump administration, after years of being shunned by Washington and other Western governments over his human rights record and support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Trump has started to ease U.S. sanctions on Belarus and last month named a special envoy, John Coale, to pursue further negotiations with Lukashenko on the release of political prisoners.
In a sharp escalation of tensions between Washington and Caracas, the United States has seized a large Venezuelan oil tanker off the Caribbean coast, prompting fierce denunciations from the government of President Nicolás Maduro.
What To Know
Initial reports on Wednesday cited U.S. officials saying the Coast Guard carried out the tanker seizure under international maritime law, targeting vessels tied to alleged illicit PDVSA-linked crude shipments.
U.S President Donald Trump later confirmed the seizure, hinting that “other things are happening,” but offered no further details.
A senior Trump administration official described the move as a “judicial enforcement action on a stateless vessel” last docked in Venezuela.
Oil prices jumped on the news: Brent crude rose 0.8 percent to $62.35 a barrel, and West Texas Intermediate climbed to $58.46.
Analysts warn the seizure may further strain U.S.–Venezuela relations and deter shippers already wary of handling sanctioned Venezuelan crude.
Maduro has long accused Washington of seeking to overthrow him and seize Venezuela’s vast oil reserves; the nation’s production has fallen from over 2 million barrels a day to roughly 1 million.
The seizure comes after Trump renewed threats of intervention by land, air, or sea, including a recent U.S. fighter jet flyover near Venezuelan airspace.
Caracas condemned the action as “international piracy” and “brazen theft,” accusing the U.S. of trying to control its natural resources.
Trump called the tanker the “largest ever” seized by the U.S.
Stay with Newsweek for all the latest updates on rising tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela.
The U.S. seized a 20-year-old oil tanker called The Skipper off the coast of Venezuela on Wednesday, three sources familiar with the matter told CBS News, after months of heightened tensions between the Trump administration and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The seizure was initially announced by President Trump during an unrelated White House event on Wednesday. Here’s what we know about the boat and the operation:
Seizure involved special operations forces and 2 helicopters
The operation to seize the tanker began Wednesday morning, after the boat had just left port in Venezuela, according to a senior military official and a source familiar with the operation.
The mission was launched from the USS Gerald R. Ford, an aircraft carrier that has been in the area for weeks as part of a broader buildup of U.S. forces in the region, the sources told CBS News.
It involved two helicopters, special operations forces, 10 members of the U.S. Coast Guard and 10 Marines, the sources said. The boarding team was composed of the Coast Guard’s Maritime Security and Response Team, an elite maritime interdiction unit based in Chesapeake, Virginia.
Attorney General Pam Bondi posted a 45-second video of the operation on X, showing armed personnel descending onto the vessel’s deck from a helicopter. She said the U.S. executed a seizure warrant on the vessel, and that the tanker was “used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.”
While the U.S. government — particularly the Justice Department and Homeland Security Investigations — has seized sanctioned oil tankers before, conducting a fast-rope boarding from helicopters at sea is rare, though it’s something the boarding team trains for, U.S. officials said.
The operation was led by the Coast Guard, supported by Navy forces, the officials told CBS News. Any such operation would legally require the Coast Guard to be the lead agency because the authorities used for these seizures fall under Coast Guard jurisdiction.
Tanker was sanctioned by Treasury 3 years ago
The Skipper was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2022 for its alleged role in an oil smuggling network that helped fund the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group backed by Iran.
The ship — known as Adisa in 2022 — is among the vessels controlled by sanctioned Russian oil magnate Viktor Artemov, the Treasury said in a statement. At the time, the Treasury said Artemov transported Iranian oil using an expansive network of ships that were often registered in obscure ways with the intention of skirting U.S. restrictions on Iranian petroleum exports.
The Treasury’s 2022 sanctions announcement didn’t mention Venezuela. But oil networks involving both Iran and Venezuela have been reportedfor years, drawing pushback from the United States. The two countries are major petroleum producers with some of the world’s largest oil reserves, but trade is restrictedby heavy U.S. sanctions.
The tanker is controlled by Nigeria-based management company Thomarose Global Ventures LTD and owned by a firm linked to Artemov, according to publicly available data.
The ship is 20 years old, initially sailing under the name The Toyo in 2005. At 333 meters (about 1,092 feet) in length, it was one of the largest tankers in the world at the time it was built.
The government of Guyana — which borders Venezuela — said in a statement Wednesday the ship was falsely flying the Guyanese flag, despite not being registered in the South American country
Bondi said the boat was sanctioned “due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations.”
“This seizure, completed off the coast of Venezuela, was conducted safely and securely — and our investigation alongside the Department of Homeland Security to prevent the transport of sanctioned oil continues,” the attorney general said.
Venezuela’s government said in a statement that it “strongly denounces and repudiates what constitutes a shameless robbery and an act of international piracy.”
OSLO, Dec 11 (Reuters) – After more than a year mostly spent in hiding and in defiance of a decade-long travel ban, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado arrived in Norway on Thursday, hours after a ceremony to award her the Nobel Peace Prize.
The head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee confirmed Machado had arrived.
Machado, 58, has been banned by the government of President Nicolas Maduro from leaving Venezuela since 2014, and an acceptance speech was delivered on Wednesday in her absence by her daughter.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the prize to Machado for her fight against what it called a dictatorship.
(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche in Oslo, editing by Terje Solsvik)
Ana Corina Sosa, daughter of Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, is greeted by the vice-chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Asle Toje, as she represents her mother at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony at Oslo City Hall on December 10, 2025 in Oslo, Norway. The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Machado for her efforts to bring democracy to Venezuela, challenging the iron-fisted rule of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro.
ODD ANDERSEN
AFP via Getty Images
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado used her Nobel Peace Prize lecture on Wednesday to deliver a sweeping account of her country’s two-decade struggle against authoritarianism, portraying Venezuela’s crisis not only as a national tragedy but as a global warning about the fragility of democracy and the cost of freedom.
Machado was unable to leave Venezuela — where she is living in hiding — in time to attend the ceremony in Oslo. Her remarks were read on her behalf by her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado, before members of Norway’s royal family and international diplomats. Even in her absence, Machado said, the message carried the voice of a nation — the echo of “millions of Venezuelans who rose, once again, to reclaim the destiny that was always theirs.”
Moments after receiving the prize on her mother’s behalf, Sosa announced that she expected to embrace Machado in Oslo within hours — and that the opposition leader intends to return to Venezuela “very soon.”
“I must say that my mother never breaks a promise. And that’s why, with all the joy in my heart, I can tell you that in just a few hours we will be able to hug her here in Oslo after 16 months,” she told attendees at the ceremony. She added that while she and her mother have waited two years for this moment, she was mindful of “the other daughters and sons who today will not be able to see their mothers.”
“This is what drives her, what drives all of us,” Sosa continued. “She wants to live in a free Venezuela and will never give up that goal. That is why we all know — I know — that she will soon be back in Venezuela.” Until then, Sosa said she carries “the difficult task of giving voice to her mother’s words, the speech she prepared for this occasion.”
She opened with “infinite gratitude” on behalf of her family and the country to the Norwegian Nobel Committee for recognizing that “the struggle of an entire people for truth, freedom, democracy, and peace is today recognized throughout the world.”
“I am here on behalf of my mother, María Corina Machado, who has united millions of Venezuelans in an extraordinary effort that you, our hosts, have honored with the Nobel Peace Prize,” she said.
Over the next 40 minutes, her daughter read Machado’s speech, which traced the arc of Venezuelan history, from independence to the oil-fueled prosperity of the 20th century and the subsequent dismantling of democratic institutions under Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro. The lecture was both a tribute to ordinary citizens who resisted repression and a roadmap to what she described as Venezuela’s imminent democratic transition.
“Freedom is not something we wait for, but something we become,” she said, arguing that authoritarianism took root not only through the ambitions of rulers but through a society convinced its democracy was unshakable. “My generation was born in a vibrant democracy, and we took it for granted. We assumed freedom was as permanent as the air we breathed.”
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado JONATHAN LANZA NurPhoto via AFP
She said the concentration of oil revenue in state hands created “perverse incentives,” turning public wealth into a tool of political control and eroding the civic culture needed to sustain a republic. When Chávez — a former coup leader — won the 1998 election, many believed charisma could replace institutions. “From 1999 onward, the regime dismantled our democracy,” she said. “They eroded institutions, politicized the military, censored the press and criminalized dissent.”
The collapse, Machado added, was moral as well as economic. Oil wealth “was not used to uplift, but to bind,” she said, recalling televised handouts of appliances that masked rising poverty. In two decades, the economy contracted by more than 80 percent. Poverty exceeded 86 percent. Nearly nine million people fled — an exodus she described as “an open wound” that tore families across continents.
Yet exile, she said, ultimately forged unity. In 2023, when the opposition organized primary elections despite repression and scarce resources, Venezuela “rediscovered itself.” With no access to media and campaign events held amid blackouts and fuel shortages, supporters spread the message “by conviction alone.”
Machado recounted a teacher who convinced her local ruling-party captain to support the opposition after her son, living in Peru, urged her to vote for change. In a mountain town controlled by guerrillas, flags hidden for years out of fear reappeared on rooftops. “That day, love defeated fear,” she said. “That day, courage defeated oppression.”
The primaries on Oct. 22, 2023, became a civic uprising, she said, with Venezuelans at home and abroad lining up to vote even after ballots ran out. Machado won by a landslide, only to be barred from running for president. The opposition later rallied behind Edmundo González Urrutia, a former diplomat then little known to the public. “They underestimated the resolve of millions,” she said.
Ahead of the July 2024 presidential election, activists built a vast volunteer network to protect the vote — using QR-scanning apps, clandestine Starlink antennas hidden in fruit trucks and training sessions in church basements. On election day, turnout surged. Volunteers photographed tally sheets and carried them by hand, mule and canoe. “What began as a mechanism to legitimize leadership became the rebirth of a nation’s confidence in itself.”
González won with 67 percent of the vote, Machado said. The regime responded with “state terrorism,” she said — arrests, disappearances, torture and sexual abuse, even of minors. She accused authorities of hunting down citizens who shared tally sheets from the vote and forcing detained children to incriminate themselves under electric shocks. “These are crimes against humanity,” she said, noting United Nations documentation of abuses.
Still, Machado insisted the country has crossed a point of no return. “During these past sixteen months in hiding we have built new networks of civic pressure and disciplined disobedience, preparing for Venezuela’s orderly transition to democracy,” she said. The prize, she added, was proof the world stands with Venezuelans at a decisive hour.
Machado framed the struggle not as partisan but existential — a fight for truth, for life and for the right to reunite families. She imagined the future in intimate scenes: political prisoners stepping into sunlight, children hearing stories of their parents’ bravery, students debating freely, streets filled again with music and laughter.
“The world will witness one of the most moving sights of our time,” she said. “Our loved ones coming home.”
Machado vowed to stand at the Simón Bolívar bridge — once a route of mass exodus — to welcome returning Venezuelans, “the greatest blood loss our country has ever suffered.”
Throughout the speech, Machado rejected the idea that peace can exist without democracy. Peace, she said, “is ultimately an act of love,” attained only when citizens defend freedom with “willingness and courage.” Venezuela’s struggle, she added, belongs to humanity — both a warning and an example.
She ended by naming those she said share the peace prize: political prisoners, persecuted families, journalists, human rights defenders, activists and the millions who sheltered and protected the resistance.
“To them belongs this honor. To them belongs this day. To them belongs the future,” her daughter read, voice breaking at the final words.
Galardonado periodista con más de 30 años de experiencia, especializado en la cobertura de temas sobre Venezuela. Amante de la historia y la literatura.
“As you probably know, we’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela,” Trump said. “Large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized actually.”
Trump did not provide details on the matter but said that it was an “interesting day.” He also hinted that more developments may unfold on the matter as “other things are happening.”
News of the seizure comes after Trump told Politico that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s “days are numbered.” Trump also declined to comment on whether the U.S. could send troops to the country during the interview, which published Tuesday.
The U.S. has targeted drug cartels operating vessels in the Caribbean since September. Trump has justified the strikes by characterizing the U.S. as being in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels and describing the boats as being operated by foreign terrorist organizations.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Venezuela said the U.S. has unilaterally suspended its migrant repatriation flights and seeks to “undermine the sovereignty of its airspace,” after President Donald Trump posted on social media that the country’s airspace should be considered as “closed in its entirety.”
In a statement released Saturday — in response to the message posted earlier by Mr. Trump — Venezuela’s government demanded “unrestricted respect” for its airspace. “Such statements constitute a hostile, unilateral, and arbitrary act, incompatible with the most basic principles of international law, and are part of a permanent policy of aggression against our country,” the Venezuelan government release read in part.
Mr. Trump had said in a Truth Social post that all airlines, pilots, drug dealers, and human traffickers should consider the airspace “above and surrounding” the South American nation as “closed in its entirety” — an assertion that appeared to signal further U.S. pressure on Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
The White House did not respond to questions about Mr. Trump’s post, and it was unclear whether he was announcing a new policy or simply reinforcing the messaging around his campaign against Maduro, which has involved multiple strikes in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean on small boats accused of ferrying drugs as well as a buildup of naval forces in the region.
More than 80 people have been killed in such strikes since early September.
International airlines last week began to cancel flights to Venezuela after the Federal Aviation Administration told pilots to be cautious flying around the country because of heightened military activity. Three U.S. airlines that regularly fly over Venezuela airspace confirmed to CBS News earlier this month that they had not been using the country’s airspace for a while.
The FAA’s jurisdiction is generally limited to the United States and its territories. The agency does routinely warn pilots about the dangers of flying over areas with ongoing conflicts or military activity around the globe, as it did earlier this month with Venezuela. The agency, which works with other countries and the International Civil Aviation Organization on international issues, urged civilian aircraft in Venezuelan airspace to “exercise caution” due to the “worsening security situation and heightened military activity in or around Venezuela.”
“No authority outside the Venezuelan institutionality has the power to interfere, block or condition the use of national airspace,” the Venezuelan government said in its statement Saturday, citing ICAO rules. It also said that flights that were part of a plan to repatriate Venezuelan migrants had been “unilaterally suspended” as a result of U.S. actions.
The FAA and ICAO did not immediately respond to requests for comment Saturday.
The Trump administration has sought to ratchet up pressure on Maduro. The U.S. government does not view Maduro as the legitimate leader of the oil-rich but increasingly impoverished South American nation and he faces charges of narcoterrorism in the U.S.
U.S. forces have conducted bomber flights near Venezuela and the USS Gerald R. Ford, America’s most advanced aircraft carrier, was sent to the area. The Ford rounds off the largest buildup of U.S. firepower in the region in generations. With the aircraft carrier’s arrival, the “Operation Southern Spear” mission includes nearly a dozen Navy ships and about 12,000 sailors and Marines.
There are bipartisan calls for greater oversight of the U.S. strikes against vessels in the region after The Washington Post reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order for all crew members to be killed as part of the Sept. 2 attack on suspected drug smugglers.
Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and its top Democrat, Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, said in a joint statement late Friday that the committee “will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances.”
Mr. Trump’s team has weighed both military and nonmilitary options with Venezuela, including covert action by the CIA authorized last month by the president.
Mr. Trump has publicly floated the idea of talking to Maduro. The New York Times reported Friday that Mr. Trump and Maduro had spoken. The White House declined to answer questions about the conversation.
President Trump on Saturday said that the airspace surrounding Venezuela should be considered closed, ratcheting up tensions with the Maduro regime and offering yet another sign that he is considering striking targets on land.
“To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY,” Trump posted on Saturday morning.
Nov 29 (Reuters) – Venezuela condemned U.S. President Trump’s assertion that the airspace around Venezuela should be considered closed, a government statement said on Saturday.
It called Trump’s comments, made earlier, a “colonialist threat” against the country’s sovereignty and incompatible with international law.
Trump said on Saturday the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela should be considered “closed in its entirety,” but gave no further details.
“To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
For two decades, Venezuela cultivated anti-American allies across the globe, from Russia and China to Cuba and Iran, in the hope of forming a new world order that could stand up to Washington.
The USS Gerald R. Ford is the world’s largest aircraft carrier.
U.S. Navy
President Donald Trump jolted an already-tense standoff with Venezuela on Saturday morning, declaring on his Truth Social account that all airspace “above and surrounding Venezuela” should be considered “closed in its entirety.”
Addressing “Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers,” he offered no operational details but warned that the directive required immediate attention. The statement landed amid a rapid escalation in U.S. military posture toward Caracas and mounting fears of conflict across the Caribbean.
“To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY. Thank you for your attention to this matter!,” Trump wrote.
Trump’s declaration capped a week in which his administration signaled it is preparing a more assertive phase of operations targeting Venezuela’s so-called Cartel de los Soles., which according to Washington is headed by strongman Nicolás Maduro and top members of his regime.
On Thursday, the president announced that U.S. military actions—until now focused on sinking speedboats suspected of carrying drugs in the Caribbean—would soon move onto Venezuelan territory. Speaking to service members during a Thanksgiving call, he said the U.S. Armed Forces would “very soon” begin land-based efforts to disrupt what he characterized as Venezuelan drug-trafficking networks.
Members of the U.S. Marine Corps, Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 225, work at Jose Aponte de la Torre Airport on Sept. 13, 2025 in Ceiba, Puerto Rico. President Donald Trump was sending 10 F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico as part of his war on drug cartels, sources familiar with the matter told AFP, as tensions mount with Venezuela over Washington’s military build-up in the Caribbean. MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO AFP via Getty Images
He said maritime operations had already destroyed more than 20 vessels and resulted in more than 80 deaths since Sept. 1, claiming the United States had halted “85%” of the maritime flow. Venezuelan groups, he said, were “sending poison” northward that kills “thousands of people a year.”
Despite the sharper rhetoric and growing U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean, quiet diplomatic contacts have taken place between Washington and Caracas in recent days, according to news reports. Whether those conversations can restrain the accelerating confrontation remains unclear.
Washington has simultaneously sought to expand its legal authority. On Monday, the State Department formally designated the Cartel de los Soles a Foreign Terrorist Organization, placing Maduro, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López in the same legal category as leaders of al-Qaeda and ISIS.
The designation, published in the Federal Register, is seen as an instrument that grants the administration new latitude to take military action without additional congressional approval.
Analysts say the move is sweeping in scope. Because U.S. officials argue that the cartel operates from within the Venezuelan state, the designation effectively treats the Maduro government as part of a terrorist network.
Experts note the measure could allow the administration to invoke the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force, the law underpinning most U.S. counterterrorism operations over the past two decades. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the designation “opens up a lot of new options,” and Trump has suggested it could permit strikes on Venezuelan assets and infrastructure. He has also said he remains open to negotiation.
Caracas denounced the move, calling it a false pretext for foreign intervention and insisting the cartel is an American invention. “It is foolish for the Venezuelan government to waste part of its valuable governing time responding to these slanders and calumnies,” the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said Monday, adding that Venezuelans remained “united and cohesive” and were preparing for Christmas festivities.
The expanding U.S. legal framework has coincided with a significant buildup of military hardware near Venezuela’s borders. For more than two months, American naval and air assets have surged into the Caribbean, including the Nov. 16 arrival of the USS Gerald R. Ford—the world’s largest aircraft carrier. At least 10 additional warships, a nuclear submarine and F-35 fighter jets are also deployed. U.S. commanders say the missions support counter-narcotics operations, but regional observers note the level of firepower far exceeds typical interdiction activity.
Inside Venezuela, the sense of crisis has deepened. Maduro has repeatedly claimed the United States is attempting to overthrow him, and in recent days his government has urged citizens and the armed forces to prepare for “prolonged resistance” should an invasion occur.
Defense Minister Padrino accused Washington of staging provocations, citing U.S. military exercises in neighboring Trinidad and Tobago. “No threat, no air-naval deployment, however powerful or intimidating, can take away Venezuela’s right to continue on its path of freedom and independence,” he said recently on state television.
Beyond the military realm, the rising tension has triggered swift regional consequences. Concerned about the security situation in the Caribbean, six airlines suspended their routes to Venezuela over the weekend after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a warning urging aircraft to “exercise extreme caution” in and around Venezuelan airspace. Iberia of Spain, Portugal’s TAP, Colombia’s Avianca, Trinidad and Tobago’s Caribbean Airlines, Brazil’s GOL and Chile’s LATAM halted flights, said Marisela de Loaiza, president of the Venezuelan Association of Airlines. She provided no timeline for the resumption of service.
The FAA cited “worsening security conditions and increased military activity” in the region and warned that the risks “could pose a potential danger to aircraft at all altitudes, including during overflight, arrival and departure phases, and to airports and aircraft on the ground.”
Human-rights groups have raised alarms over the lethality of recent U.S. maritime interdictions. Since early September, U.S. forces have carried out at least 21 strikes against suspected drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific, leaving at least 83 people dead. Advocacy organizations describe the killings as extrajudicial, while some regional governments worry Washington may be operating close to—or beyond—international legal boundaries.
This story was originally published November 29, 2025 at 9:50 AM.
Galardonado periodista con más de 30 años de experiencia, especializado en la cobertura de temas sobre Venezuela. Amante de la historia y la literatura.
President Trump announced Thursday that he would “permanently pause” immigration from “Third-World Countries.” The declaration comes as the Trump administration takes aim at U.S. immigration policies in the wake of the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C. Weijia Jiang has the latest.
LIMA (Reuters) -Peru will declare a state of emergency along its border with Chile, President José Jerí said on Friday, as migrants seek to cross into the country following a Chilean presidential frontrunner’s vow to expel undocumented migrants.
The state of emergency “will generate tranquility before the risk of migrants entering without authorization,” said Jerí on X.
At least 100 foreigners, mostly Venezuelans, are at the border seeking to cross into Peru, Peruvian police General Arturo Valverde told local television station Canal N on Friday. He said surveillance at the border has increased in anticipation of the declaration.
On November 20, far-right Chilean presidential candidate José Antonio Kast, the favorite to win the runoff election next month against leftist Jeannette Jara, warned that illegal migrants must leave in the coming months or they will be detained and expelled when he comes to power.
“If you don’t leave voluntarily, we will detain you, retain you, expel you, and you’ll leave with what you have on,” he said in a video message at the border.
(Report by Marco Aquino, additional report by Fabián Cambero from Santiago. Writing by Leila Miller. Editing by Rod Nickel)
Honorable Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, speaks onstage during Global Citizen NOW: Impact Sessions on September 24, 2025 in New York City.
Rob Kim
Getty Images for Global Citizen
For the first time in nearly a quarter of a century, the twin-island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the eastern Caribbean is expected to be governed by someone other than Ralph Gonsalves.
In a stunning upset, opposition leader Godwin Friday is projected to be the country’s seventh prime minister after his New Democratic Party defeated Gonsalves’ Unity Labor Party in a close race, according to the St Vincent Times. Gonsalves, 79, is projected to hold onto his North Central Windward seat. He will now serve as leader of the opposition after failing to secure an unprecedented sixth-consecutive, five-year term as prime minister.
Preliminary results have the NDP winning 11 of the 15 seats up for grab in the election, which was a contest primarily centered between Gonsalves’ and Friday’s political parties. Among the casualties were Gonsalves’ son and finance minister, Camillo Gonsalves.
Friday, 66, unsuccessfully ran in 2020, and this go-around campaigned on severing ties with Taiwan in favor of mainland China and introducing the controversial citizenship by investment, CBI, program, which allows foreigners to get a passport in exchange for investments or payments. Both policies were opposed by Gonsalves, who headed one of the region’s longest, uninterrupted political dynasties.
The change of leadership in the island-nation with an estimated population of just over 100,600 residents, comes amid heightened regional tensions over the U.S. military buildup in the southern Caribbean, off the coast of Venezuela. While the Trump Administration says the operations are targeted at drug traffickers, they have divided regional leaders, some of whom believe the real purpose is to pressure Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro to step down.
A Maduro ally, Gonsalves has criticized the U.S. operations as well as Trinidad and Tobago’s support. He’s also expressed frustration over the lack of clarity coming from the 15-member Caribbean Community bloc known as CARICOM.
In October, during a regional conference he warned that any forced regime change in Caracas would have dire consequences, including mass migration and new security threats in the Caribbean, which has promoted itself as a zone of peace.
Since September, the U.S. strikes have killed at least 83 people.
On Wednesday, the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, agreed to allow U.S. aircraft to refuel at the San Isidro Air Base and Las Américas International Airport. The country’s decision came during a visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Gonsalves’ tenure in office dates to 2001. Since then, he’s emerged as not only a titan in the region, speaking out on various matters including the ongoing crisis in Haiti, a CARICOM member state. For example, he was behind a decision to put the Dominican Republic’s request to join the mostly English-speaking regional bloc on hold after the Dominican Constitutional Court in 2013 revoked the citizenships of tens of thousands of Black Dominicans and individuals of Haitian descent.
As Vincentians celebrated Friday’s victory late Thursday, Caribbean leaders extended their congratulations.
St. Lucia opposition leader, Allen Chastanet, who is hoping to return to power in his country’s Dec. 1 general election, told Friday the victory is a testament to his perseverance, integrity and the trust the people have placed in his leadership.
“May your tenure be guided by wisdom, progress and an unwavering commitment to the people you now serve,” he said.
Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who is the current chairman of CARICOM, said the election marks “an important moment for the Vincentian people” and his hurricane-recovering nation looks “forward to strengthening our cooperation as we continue to build a more resilient and prosperous Caribbean region together.”
Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar also extended congratulations. She and Gonsalves had disagreed over the U.S. operations in the Caribbean. In a statement, Persad-Bissessar, said the people of St. Vincent had given Godwin and his party, “a resounding democratic mandate.”
This story was originally published November 27, 2025 at 10:18 PM.
Jacqueline Charles has reported on Haiti and the English-speaking Caribbean for the Miami Herald for over a decade. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for her coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, she was awarded a 2018 Maria Moors Cabot Prize — the most prestigious award for coverage of the Americas.
President Donald Trump suggested Thursday that the United States is preparing to take new action against alleged drug trafficking networks in Venezuela, telling service members during a Thanksgiving call that efforts for strikes in land will be starting “very soon.””In recent weeks, you’ve been working to deter Venezuelan drug traffickers, of which there are many. Of course, there aren’t too many coming in by sea anymore,” Trump told service members in the call.Video above: Foreign Terrorist Org: How a new designation could escalate U.S. military action in Venezuela”You probably noticed that people aren’t wanting to be delivering by sea, and we’ll be starting to stop them by land also,” the president continued. “The land is easier, but that’s going to start very soon.”We warn them: Stop sending poison to our country,” Trump added.Trump comments suggest he has made up his mind on a course of action in Venezuela following multiple high-level briefings and a mounting US show of force in the region earlier this month.Trump designated Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his government allies as members of a foreign terrorist organization earlier this week.The designation of “Cartel de los Soles,” a phrase that experts say is more a description of allegedly corrupt government officials than an organized crime group, as a foreign terrorist organization will authorize Trump to impose fresh sanctions targeting Maduro’s assets and infrastructure. It doesn’t, however, explicitly authorize the use of lethal force, according to legal experts.The US military has amassed more than a dozen warships and 15,000 troops in the region as part of what the Pentagon has branded “Operation Southern Spear.” The U.S. military has killed more than 80 people in boat strikes as part of the anti-drug-trafficking campaign.CNN reported earlier this month that Trump administration officials told lawmakers in a classified session the US was not planning to launch strikes inside Venezuela and doesn’t have a legal justification that would support attacks against any land targets right now.Lawmakers were told during the session that an opinion produced by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel to justify strikes against suspected drug boats does not permit strikes inside Venezuela itself or any other territories, four sources said.The officials did not rule out any potential future actions, one of the sources said.The administration has largely tried to avoid involving Congress in its military campaign around Latin America. A senior Justice Department official told Congress in November that the U.S. military could continue its lethal strikes on alleged drug traffickers without congressional approval and that the administration is not bound by a decades-old war powers law that would mandate working with lawmakers, CNN has reported.
CNN —
President Donald Trump suggested Thursday that the United States is preparing to take new action against alleged drug trafficking networks in Venezuela, telling service members during a Thanksgiving call that efforts for strikes in land will be starting “very soon.”
“In recent weeks, you’ve been working to deter Venezuelan drug traffickers, of which there are many. Of course, there aren’t too many coming in by sea anymore,” Trump told service members in the call.
Video above: Foreign Terrorist Org: How a new designation could escalate U.S. military action in Venezuela
“You probably noticed that people aren’t wanting to be delivering by sea, and we’ll be starting to stop them by land also,” the president continued. “The land is easier, but that’s going to start very soon.
Trump comments suggest he has made up his mind on a course of action in Venezuela following multiple high-level briefings and a mounting US show of force in the region earlier this month.
The designation of “Cartel de los Soles,” a phrase that experts say is more a description of allegedly corrupt government officials than an organized crime group, as a foreign terrorist organization will authorize Trump to impose fresh sanctions targeting Maduro’s assets and infrastructure. It doesn’t, however, explicitly authorize the use of lethal force, according to legal experts.
The US military has amassed more than a dozen warships and 15,000 troops in the region as part of what the Pentagon has branded “Operation Southern Spear.” The U.S. military has killed more than 80 people in boat strikes as part of the anti-drug-trafficking campaign.
CNN reported earlier this month that Trump administration officials told lawmakers in a classified session the US was not planning to launch strikes inside Venezuela and doesn’t have a legal justification that would support attacks against any land targets right now.
The officials did not rule out any potential future actions, one of the sources said.
The administration has largely tried to avoid involving Congress in its military campaign around Latin America. A senior Justice Department official told Congress in November that the U.S. military could continue its lethal strikes on alleged drug traffickers without congressional approval and that the administration is not bound by a decades-old war powers law that would mandate working with lawmakers, CNN has reported.
