Lawyers

• Arbitrary Center Ordered Venezuela to Pay Vestey Group Nearly $100 Million

  ICSID ordered Venezuela to pay Vestey Group close to $100 million (£70 million) for taking over its ranch. The decision gives more pressure to country which has been burdened by continuous plunge of oil price.

• Venezuela opposition wins majority in legislature after 17 years

  Venezuela's opposition was sworn in today as the majority in the National Assembly. It's the first time in 17 years that opponents of the socialist revolution begun by the late Hugo Chavez have controlled the legislature.

• U.S. to charge Venezuela's National Guard chief with drug trafficking

  U.S. prosecutors are preparing to unveil drug trafficking charges against the head of Venezuela's National Guard, according to people familiar with the case, as the United States investigates the suspected involvement of senior Venezuelan officials in the cocaine trade.

• Venezuela's president calls for prosecution of business leader Mendoza

  Venezuela's president on Sunday urged legal action against billionaire businessman Lorenzo Mendoza over a phone call which airs the possibility of an international bailout for the OPEC nation's ailing economy.

• Lula throws weight behind Scioli's bid for Argentina presidency

  Brazil's popular but scandal-weary former leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva endorsed Argentina's ruling party presidential candidate on Wednesday, shoring up Daniel Scioli's credentials with the political left a month and a half before the election.

• Venezuela's struggling socialists hold primaries for parliamentary vote

  Venezuela's ruling socialists held primaries on Sunday ahead of December's parliamentary election they are forecast to lose due to a biting recession and discontent with the late Hugo Chavez's uncharismatic successor.

• Venezuela stages military exercise to counter U.S. 'threat'

  Venezuela on Saturday staged a military exercise to counter an alleged U.S. threat, deploying soldiers and partisans across the country to march, man shoulder-fired missiles and defend an oil refinery from a simulated attack.

• Venezuela's Maduro says may go to U.S. to challenge Obama

  Ridiculing the U.S. qualification of Venezuela as a security threat, President Nicolas Maduro said on Thursday he may travel to Washington to challenge American counterpart Barack Obama.

• Mind your manners, Venezuela tells U.S. official Jacobson

  Venezuela's top diplomat called a senior U.S. official "petulant" and ill-mannered on Wednesday in response to her contention that sanctions were intended to change the government, not topple it.

• U.S. declares Venezuela a national security threat, sanctions top officials

  The United States on Monday declared Venezuela a national security threat and ordered sanctions against seven officials from the oil-rich country in the worst bilateral diplomatic dispute since socialist President Nicolas Maduro took office in 2013.

• Maduro says Venezuela captures U.S. citizens linked to espionage

  Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Saturday his government had captured Americans, including a pilot, involved in espionage activities and said U.S. citizens in the future will have to seek visas to come to the OPEC nation.

• Venezuela's ruling Socialists target another opposition leader

  Socialist Party legislators called on Monday for a probe of another Venezuelan opposition leader accused of conspiring against President Nicolas Maduro, just days after the mayor of Caracas was arrested on similar charges.

• Violence flares in Venezuela on anniversary of 2014 fatalities

  Venezuelan security forces faced off with stone-wielding protesters on Thursday as supporters of President Nicolas Maduro also rallied on the anniversary of last year's fatal unrest.

• Venezuela's Maduro moves foreign minister Ramirez to U.N.

  President Nicolas Maduro named powerful Foreign Minister Rafael Ramirez to a new post as envoy to the United Nations on Friday, saying the appointment would strengthen Venezuela's voice on the world body's Security Council from Jan. 1.

• Venezuela to charge opposition leader over alleged plot to kill Maduro

  Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado will be charged next week with involvement in an alleged plot to kill President Nicolas Maduro, the state prosecutor's office said on Wednesday.

• Hugo Chavez Death: Different Voices Ponder the Venezuelan President's Legacy (Video)

  Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez died on Tuesday after a two-year battle with a pelvic tumor cancer. He recently won re-election in his country, though some say was fraught with voting malpractice, sworn in for the fourth time. Recently, he tried to institute into law the ability to run for the presidential office "indefinitely."

• Hugo Chavez Dead at 58: Fiery Venezuelan President Loses Battle to Cancer (Video)

  Venezuela's fiery and controversial socialist president Hugo Chavez who came to power on wave of popular sentiment and befriended some of the world's most notorious dictators, has died at the age of 58.