Police arrest a protester at a Moscow rally in support of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who fell ill while in prison and is now hospitalized.
Alexander Demianchuk\TASS via Getty Images
There’s not much the world can do to stop authoritarian rulers from persecuting their political opponents, as shown by the standoff over Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who is ill and imprisoned.
Russian police officers beat people protesting the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Jan. 23, 2021 in Moscow.
Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images)
US denies backing failed raid to remove Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro – but it has a long history of sponsoring private armies elsewhere.
He may be praying, but so far the Pope has declined to intervene in Venezuela’s crisis to aid a unified coronavirus response.
LUIS ACOSTA/AFP via Getty Images
If anyone can convince the Maduro government and the Venezuelan opposition to come together to fight COVID-19, it’s the Pope. But the Church’s power to negotiate an emergency deal is limited.
In this March 2018 photo, Venezuelan children wait for a meal at a migrant shelter set up in Boa Vista, Roraima state, Brazil.
(AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
If Brazil can find an efficient, pragmatic way to welcome, protect and integrate hundreds of thousands of forced migrants arriving at its border, so can more affluent states.
Anti-government protesters in Chile defend themselves against a police water cannon, Santiago, Nov. 15, 2019.
AP Photo/Luis Hidalgo
There’s much more going on in the world than the Trump impeachment and Brexit. Here are five momentous global stories to track in 2020.
Many of Latin America’s leftist ‘revolutions’ are now in crisis. But the left is resurging in some countries.
The Conversation / Photo Claudia Daut/Reuters
Progressives are leading in the presidential elections of Argentina, Uruguay and Bolivia, bucking the region’s recent rightward trend. But there are lessons in the failures of leftists past.
Sanctions are mounting against the government of Nicolás Maduro.
Rayner Pena/EPA
For one, you can’t break an economy that’s already broken.
A line of cars spills on to the street as drivers wait to fill their tanks at a fuel station in Cabimas, Venezuela, in May 2019. U.S. sanctions on oil-rich Venezuela appear to be taking hold, resulting in mile-long lines for fuel and other hardships.
AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
The devastating costs of economic sanctions on Venezuela are being ignored or disregarded. So too is the lack of a legal basis for international intervention.
Bullet shells collected during a pro-government protest in Venezuela.
Miguel Gutierrez/EPA.
At the beginning of the 1980s, homicides were relatively rare in Venezuela. Now, it’s one of the most dangerous countries in Latin America.
Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez speaks to reporters outside the residency of the Spanish ambassador in Caracas, May 2, 2019.
REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
Venezuela’s most famous political prisoner, freed from house arrest by soldiers who turned against President Maduro, now faces arrest after leading an April 30 rebellion against Maduro’s government.
Members of Venezuela’s Bolivarian National Guard watch the border with Colombia. February 24, 2019.
EPA Images
Despite its rhetoric, the Bolivarian Revolution is betraying Venezuela’s indigenous people.
‘Laugh so you don’t cry’: Venezuelan students crack up as they stand near a damaged mural of Venezuelan independence hero Simon Bolivar in Caracas, Venezuela, Feb. 7, 2019.
AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd
As rival factions vie for control over Venezuela, many of the country’s 31 million people are suffering prolonged power outages, food and water shortages, and limited access to medicine.
Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro throws his handkerchief into a crowd of supporters at an anti-imperialist rally for peace in Caracas, Venezuela, in March 2019.
(AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
During the Cold War, socialism was portrayed as a gateway drug to communist orthodoxy. The crisis in Venezuela has resurrected tired old tropes about “pinks” and “useful idiots.”
Venezuelans carry buckets filled with water. A power outage that began on March 7 left much of the capital, Caracas, without electricity, running water or public transportation for days.
Reuters/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
Robert Muggah, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio)
Citing security concerns, the US is evacuating its embassy in Caracas, where President Maduro blames the US for a calamitous power outage. Venezuela’s relations with Brazil are eroding quickly, too.
Clashes between opposition protesters and Venezuelan soldiers at the Venezuela-Brazil border have killed an estimated 25 people.
AP Photo/Edmar Barros
Robert Muggah, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) and Adriana Abdenur, Escola de Guerra Naval (ESG)
Brazil’s president has threatened military intervention in neighboring Venezuela, called its leader a ‘dictator’ and sent troops to the border. But Brazil’s military is quietly working to avoid war.
The world’s most oil-abundant nation is heading for energy consumption levels not seen since the 1990s.
An officer from Venezuela’s National Guard lobs tear gas toward demonstrators during a standoff over humanitarian aid at the Colombian border on Feb. 23, 2019. Four protesters were killed.
AP Photo/Fernando Llano
The Trump administration says President Maduro’s ‘days are numbered’ after Venezuelan security forces killed four protesters. But any US-led operation to oust him is likely to be extremely unpopular.