CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s attorney general proposed on Friday to end the house arrest of a female judge who was detained on corruption charges in 2009 and alleged that she was raped in prison.

Maria Lourdes Afiuni’s detention for the past three years and alleged mistreatment behind bars has made her a cause celebre for foes of the late President Hugo Chavez.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela deported a U.S. filmmaker who had been arrested in April on accusations he was working as a spy for Washington and advising opposition student groups on how to destabilize the South American OPEC nation.

“The gringo Timothy Hallet Tracy, who was captured while spying in our country, has been expelled,” Interior and Justice Minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres said on Twitter on Wednesday.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s electoral authority said on Saturday the opposition created false hopes about a vote audit being prepared after President Nicolas Maduro’s narrow election win, adding that his rival had failed to present compelling proof of foul play.

The National Electoral Council had stressed from the start that the “expanded” audit it agreed to after the April 14 vote would not change the results, which made Maduro the successor to the late socialist leader Hugo Chavez.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles said on Thursday he will challenge President Nicolas Maduro’s narrow election victory in the courts and that an audit of the vote being prepared by electoral authorities risked being “a joke.”

Maduro, the hand-picked successor of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, won the April 14 vote by less than 2 percentage points. The opposition says there were thousands of irregularities in the election and that their figures show Capriles won.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s government-controlled parliament set up an inquiry on Wednesday into violence over a disputed election that authorities blame on opposition leader Henrique Capriles.

Nine people died and dozens were injured after opposition protests against Nicolas Maduro’s narrow April 14 presidential poll win turned violent around the South American nation.

CARACAS, April 21 (Reuters) – President Nicolas Maduro
replaced Venezuelan Finance Minister Jorge Giordani on Sunday,
appointing central bank chief Nelson Merentes in his place two
days after being sworn in as the late Hugo Chavez’s successor.

It will be the third stint as finance minister for Merentes,
a mathematician by training who is seen as a more pragmatic
economist than his ideologically driven counterpart Giordani, a
Marxist academic who was nicknamed “the Monk.”

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition and electoral authority expressed on Saturday widely differing expectations for an audit of the contested April 14 presidential election, a day after Nicolas Maduro was sworn in to succeed the late Hugo Chavez.

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles, who says there were thousands of irregularities, wants a manual recount of all ballots cast in the vote, but has accepted the electoral body’s decision to carry out a more limited electronic audit.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Nicolas Maduro was sworn in as Venezuela’s president on Friday at a ceremony attended by leaders from Iran to Brazil after a decision to widen an electronic audit of the vote took some of the heat out of a dispute over his election.

Maduro, a bus driver-turned-foreign minister who became the late Hugo Chavez’s chosen successor, narrowly beat opposition challenger Henrique Capriles in the election last Sunday.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Nicolas Maduro will be sworn in as Venezuela’s president on Friday at a ceremony attended by several Latin American leaders, after a decision to widen an electronic audit of the vote took some of the heat out of a dispute over his election.

Maduro, a former bus driver-turned-foreign minister who became the late Hugo Chavez’s chosen successor, narrowly beat opposition challenger Henrique Capriles in Sunday’s vote.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition leaders feared persecution over post-election protests while the U.S. government backed their calls for a recount and said on Wednesday it was still deciding if it would recognize President-elect Nicolas Maduro.

The narrow victory by Maduro in Sunday’s presidential vote has been rejected by his rival, Henrique Capriles, who is alleging thousands of irregularities at polling centers and wants a full audit of the ballots.