President Nicolas Maduro’s calculation includes the potential for domestic and international political and economic gains.
Last November, the ICC opened a formal investigation into alleged rights violations during a crackdown by security forces on protests sparked by the arrests of several opposition leaders in 2017.
The recent regional elections were billed as a test for the beginning of the end of a years-long political stalemate.
The casualty count comes after several days of heavy gunfire forced some capital residents fleeing their homes and snarled traffic in several neighborhoods.
By cracking down on FARC dissidents, Caracas aims to co-opt the guerrillas as loyalist proxies it can wield as a foreign policy tool.
"Music beyond entertaining us, it can transform us, it can heal, it can soothe emotions," says Jose Agustin Sanchez, the Venezuelan pianist, composer and conductor who launched the initiative of a mobile orchestra performance.
Electoral board president says 67.6 percent of 5.2 million votes cast in Sunday's election were for pro-Maduro candidates with only 31 percent voter turnout.
A Venezuela judge sentenced five employees of Houston-based CITGO to prison terms of 8 years and 10 months, while one of them received a 13-year sentence after finding them guilty of corruption charges.
A stronger relationship between the two will trigger another headache for the US, but this time in its own hemisphere.
US Special Representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams criticised the detention of executives from US refiner Citgo in Caracas and warned Russia over its support for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Masked officers from SEBIN intelligence police unit blocked the building’s entrances and lined the street with their vehicles, barring entry by lawmakers aligned with Juan Guaido.
The UN Human Rights Council voted to send a team of investigators to investigate alleged violations while the EU imposed sanctions on seven Venezuelan intelligence and security officials.
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