Category: Nicolas Maduro

How Alleged Illicit Gold Trade Feeds the Chavista Regime

Commentary A newly published investigation reports Venezuelan kingpin Nicolás Maduro and his cabinet allegedly received around $1 billion in 2020 by illicitly trading gold reserves. According to the interim government’s commissioner for foreign affairs, the ruse evades international sanctions by using Russia as a middleman and refineries in Mali. The final transactions are then allegedly with Noor Capital of the United…


Venezuela Hired Democratic Party Donor for $6 Million

MIAMI—Newly filed lobbying records (pdf) show Venezuela’s socialist government previously hired a longtime Democratic Party donor for $6 million at the same time it was lobbying to discourage the U.S. from imposing sanctions on the oil-rich nation. The documents, which were disclosed Thursday, show a U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela’s state oil giant PDVSA agreed to…


EU States No Longer Recognize Guaido as Venezuela’s Interim President

BRUSSELS—Venezuela’s Juan Guaido is a “privileged interlocutor” but no longer considered interim president, European Union states said in a statement on Monday, sticking by their decision to downgrade his status. The EU’s 27 states had said on Jan. 6 they could no longer legally recognize Guaido as interim president after he lost his position as…