Venezuela's combustible crisis
President Nicolás Maduro's power grab has plunged the nation deeper into despair. What's the end game?
The latest dispatches from Venezuela often come in the form of shaky phone-shot videos uploaded to social media. There was the surreal footage in June of a commandeered police helicopter hovering over the Caracas skyline with rogue officers lobbing grenades at the nation's Supreme Court and exchanging gunfire with guards. On 1 August, just hours after polls closed for President Nicolás Maduro's controversial constituent assembly election, Antonio Ledezma's family posted footage of the opposition leader being shunted from his house by a team of intelligence agents in the middle of the night. A few days later, bystanders captured an apparent rebellion at the Fuerte Paramacay military base in V
Also in this section
2 April 2026
Alongside a rapid continued build-out of renewables, China’s latest five-year plan stresses the value of domestic hydrocarbon production for energy security and calls for increased Russian gas imports
2 April 2026
The government is taking important steps to revive domestic production, lift investment and benefit from the geopolitical crisis even if more needs to be done in the longer term
1 April 2026
Golden Pass’s startup offers QatarEnergy a timely boost but may also force a difficult choice between honouring disrupted contracts and capitalising on soaring spot LNG prices
1 April 2026
It is not a case of if or when, but the length and magnitude of economic damage from elevated oil prices
