A poorly informed passerby wondered at five in the afternoon if the hundreds of Venezuelans gathered in Madrid's Puerta del Sol were celebrating a football triumph. Seeing children with Venezuela's colors painted on their faces, the sea of flags that flooded the square, and the festive atmosphere that hovered over the event could have suggested it. But no. "It's living what we always wanted there, freedom," summarizes Francisco, who has been living in Madrid for eight years and introduces María Corina Machado as a "bulwark of the fight for freedom." For Clara, who has also been in Spain for eight years, it is "the great hope for achieving a democratic country forever." They are two of the thousands of Venezuelans waiting for the leader of the Venezuelan opposition on the day she has been distinguished by Isabel Díaz Ayuso with the Gold Medal of the Community of Madrid. "She is our future president, the one who has liberated us and the one who has taken away the dictator," thanks Mariel, who left Venezuela 26 years ago and now lives in Seville. "Donald Trump is not the ideal president, but he has given us the encouragement and hope that we can indeed get out of this," acknowledges Frai, who has been living in Valencia for three years.

While Pedro Sánchez received Lula da Silva, president of Brazil, with military honors in Barcelona, at the PP headquarters in Madrid an alternative reception with honors was held for the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado. Dozens of popular affiliates, party officials, other anti-Chavista activists, and Alberto Núñez Feijóo himself gathered at the entrance of the headquarters on Génova street to applaud Machado's arrival. The new Nobel Peace laureate, in full European tour, has allowed herself to be courted by the PP – in the afternoon she also has a meeting with the leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal – while turning her back on the Spanish government, with whom she has preferred not to meet.

The Spanish oil company Repsol has signed an agreement with the Ministry of Hydrocarbons of Venezuela and the state-owned company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) that will allow it to resume control of operations and increase oil production in the South American country.

Venezuela has been Telefónica's last stronghold in Latin America since Wednesday. It is the only country where the "telecom" telecom maintains its business after reaching an agreement to divest its subsidiary in Mexico for approximately 389 million euros. Specifically, Telefónica has reached an agreement with the consortium Melisa Acquisition, made up of Oxio and Newfoundland Capital Management, for the sale of its stake in the Mexican subsidiary, as the company has communicated to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).

First there was a discursive rapprochement between Donald Trump and Delcy Rodríguez. Then came the approval of legislative reforms in Caracas to liberalize the economy. In parallel, the resumption of Venezuelan oil and other natural resources extraction by US companies occurred. Following this, Trump recognized Rodríguez as president of Venezuela. And this week, two new episodes have further eased the tense relations between the United States and Venezuela, which until three months ago: Washington has resumed activity at its embassy in Caracas, and the US Treasury Department has lifted the sanctions it applied to Delcy Rodríguez.

After twelve years at the helm of Venezuela's Ministry of Defense, Vladimir Padrino López left his post this week. It was neither a random nor an isolated change: President Delcy Rodríguez dismissed him, adding him to the growing list of key Chavista figures who have been removed from their positions. Since January, Nicolás Maduro's successor has implemented 13 changes in the executive branch, in addition to the dismissal of the attorney general and several military officials. The changes driven by Rodríguez aim to place more technically skilled individuals at the head of key ministries and institutions, although the shift is not always so clear. The replacements do not necessarily diminish Chavismo's power, but rather focus on installing people trusted by the new president, belonging to what is known in the country as "enlightened Chavismo," comprised of figures with more technical than military backgrounds. Several analysts point out that, while some changes might be motivated by a desire to present himself to the international community as an innovative administration in contrast to Maduro's, most are explained more by an attempt to maintain control of institutions and avoid internal divisions. In this way, Rodríguez is trying to survive in an extremely complex situation, where he must carefully measure his actions to avoid overstepping the ideological boundaries of Chavismo, secure the support of powerful circles, and, at the same time, appear sufficiently open to the demands of the United States. The case of the Ministry of Defense is paradigmatic: he replaces a key figure from the Maduro era in the government, but instead of appointing an innovative candidate, he designates Gustavo González López, a military intelligence specialist close to Diosdado Cabello, the Minister of the Interior, and Nicolás Maduro. Furthermore, the new Minister of Defense is also linked to the Rodríguez siblings (the country's president, Delcy Rodríguez, and the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez). González López, sanctioned since 2015 by the United States and the European Union for human rights violations during his tenure as Interior Minister, faces the challenge of restoring the prestige of a ministry particularly damaged after the US attack. Several sources have publicly stated that US soldiers entered and advanced into the country without encountering significant Venezuelan military resistance. In fact, the security cordon they had the most difficulty overcoming, according to this information, was that of the Cuban military, which was carrying out security operations for the Chavista regime—a fact that cast doubt on López's position. Reduction of ties with Maduro

On the same day she announced the change to the Ministry of Defense, Rodríguez also ordered changes in ministries such as Labor, Transportation, Electric Power, and Higher Education. These portfolios are now mostly headed by figures who, while still Chavistas, have a more technocratic profile. They are also considered ideologically close—and some personally close—to Delcy Rodríguez, who, during her time as vice president, promoted measures to relax certain economic laws, always within the ideological framework of Chavismo. One of the names Rodríguez has also removed, and who is clearly linked to Maduro and singled out by the US, is Alex Saab, who until January was Minister of Industries and National Commerce. The new president dismissed him a few days after taking office, amid accusations from Washington—and from former Venezuelan Attorney General Luisa Ortega Díaz—that he is Maduro's main front man. Besides being dismissed, he hasn't been seen in public for weeks. The US is requesting his extradition, and several media outlets, such as the New York Times They indicate that he will be detained in Venezuela from the beginning of February.

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Since Delcy Rodríguez announced a "cooperation agenda" with the White House Just over 24 hours after Nicolás Maduro's capture, Caracas has been forced to capitulate to Washington week after week. The United States governs Venezuela through the back door and has managed to get Chavismo to implement reforms to liberalize the economy, while the Trump administration has restored trade with the Latin American country in a highly restricted manner and under exceptional conditions. In the two and a half months since the attack, Venezuela has opened its doors to the US for its natural resources. Trump himself acknowledged this last weekend at the summit in Miami with Latin American leaders allied with the White House: "We are getting enormous amounts of oil out," he stated. On paper, Chavismo's opening to US investment began at the end of January. At that time, the National Assembly approved an amendment to the hydrocarbons law, confirming a pragmatic—and forced—shift by Chavismo in the face of US pressure. The Venezuelan Parliament approved a bill that reduces state controls over the industry and places fewer obstacles in the way of foreign private companies participating in oil exploration. Until now, they could only do so in joint ventures in which the state always held a majority stake, but the new legislation allows this to change. In the area of ​​trade, the government of Delcy Rodríguez has also promoted a new mining law, approved in its first reading this week in the Venezuelan Parliament. Although the text may still undergo some modifications, the intention is to establish the legal framework to provide legal guarantees to companies, with the aim of generating confidence and attracting foreign private investment. In case of conflict, the law establishes mediation and arbitration mechanisms that should resolve disputes. the doubts that some major oil companies like Exxon expressed in their meeting with Trump in January, in which they called for reforms before investing in the country to avoid exposing themselves to asset seizure.

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The prose of war is written in numbers. 555 deaths in two and a half days of attacks on Iran by Israel and the US, according to Red Crescent data. Among this trail of corpses are Ayatollah Khamenei (a tyrant who deserved his end) and a good portion of his regime's leadership, but the majority are civilians, including a large number of children, such as the 85 girls who died when a primary school in the city of Minab was bombed. "People die in wars. These things happen," Trump asserted, while broadcasting his propaganda messages for Operation Epic Fury (the names of American military interventions in other countries are always as pompous as they are ridiculous, and could fill an anthology). It's the same thing he said when he received the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, responsible for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi: "These things happen," Trump remarked.

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The National Assembly of Venezuela has finally approved the amnesty law for political prisoners announced three weeks ago The law, passed unanimously by all parliamentary groups on Thursday, grants amnesty for convictions related to 13 political incidents in Venezuela between 2002 and 2025, including the failed coup attempt against President Hugo Chávez in April 2002 and various anti-government protests. It also excludes individuals who participated in "armed actions or the use of force against the people, sovereignty, and territorial integrity." Rodríguez called for the law's implementation with "utmost speed": "We must know how to ask for forgiveness, and we must know how to receive forgiveness, and this is the process that begins with this amnesty law," she stated. The text is the result of several weeks of debate and includes more provisions than initially envisioned. However, some NGOs in the country pointed out that the law has an "unjustifiable excess of exclusions." A parliamentary commission of 23 National Assembly deputies, from both the opposition and the Chavista movement, was also appointed to develop "mechanisms" to guarantee compliance with the law. The deputies on this commission will be the ones who can fight to review cases that may initially be excluded. With the approval of the law, which has been named the "Amnesty Law for Democratic Coexistence," the Venezuelan government wants to lay the groundwork for a "new political era," as the president asserted a few days ago. In a clear shift in rhetoric, Chavismo implicitly acknowledges the existence of abuses and describes some of the events of recent years, which have led to persecution and persecution, as "deplorable and catastrophic," in the words of National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez on Thursday. Until a few months ago, an amnesty in Venezuela like the one recently approved was practically unthinkable. In response to this move, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares announced that Spain will formally request the European Union to lift the sanctions against Delcy Rodríguez: "Sanctions are never an end in themselves, they are a means," he said. To force changes in the country, the 27 EU member states apply various sanctions to prominent figures of the regime, such as restricting their entry into the EU, prohibiting the transfer of funds, and freezing their assets in member states. In statements to the media, Albares emphasized that Maduro was not sanctioned because presidents and foreign ministers are usually excluded from these measures "to keep the lines of dialogue open."

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Venezuela's acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, received former Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero at Miraflores Palace, the seat of government in Caracas, on Friday evening. He was invited to participate in a program aimed at promoting a dialogue process in the South American country. The state-run television channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV) broadcast images of the meeting, which also included the president of the National Assembly and the acting president's brother, Congressman Jorge Rodríguez, without providing details of the conversation. The Venezuelan presidency explained in a statement that the Chavista leader received the former Spanish president "as part of the Bolivarian diplomacy of peace, which reaffirms brotherhood, dialogue, and solidarity."

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A blow has been dealt to the far-right group Hazte Oír by the National Court. Judge Antonio Piña has dismissed the lawsuit filed by the organization against former Spanish President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for money laundering, drug trafficking, and membership in a criminal organization due to his ties with Nicolás Maduro and the Venezuelan regime. After reviewing the document, he concluded that he cannot open a "prospective" investigation into the former Prime Minister's assets without evidence of criminal activity and without the original lawsuit providing "any facts" that could link Zapatero to the alleged crimes. In fact, Piña strongly criticized Hazte Oír: "Personal or popular belief cannot be confused with the existence of facts sufficient to warrant opening a criminal case." He added, "The public significance of lawsuits like this requires the presentation of evidence that goes beyond journalistic reports."

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"Hispanics are not tourists, they are not foreigners, and they are not immigrants in Madrid because they are at home." This maxim, tirelessly repeated by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has palpable effects on the structure and membership of the Madrid branch of the People's Party (PP). At the 2022 regional congress, which made her party president, Ayuso created a secretariat called Nous Madrileños (New Madrileños) to "bring" the party closer to people of foreign origin and "promote their political participation." It is led by Gustavo Eustache, a Venezuelan who is also a member of the Madrid Assembly, and according to PP sources in the region, more than 60% of these "new Madrileños" are Latin American. "I think the PP is being smart by doing this," notes political scientist Laura Morales, who has extensively studied the voting behavior of immigrants in Spain, in a conversation with ARA.

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Outside El Helicoide, the headquarters of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service in Caracas, dozens of relatives of prisoners gathered this Saturday to await the release of their loved ones. As the afternoon wore on, a prerecorded message was broadcast over the phone in which Venezuela's new president, Delcy Rodríguez, announced a bill granting total amnesty to the political prisoners amassed in Venezuelan jails. The legislation covers "the entire period of political violence," from 1999, when Chávez came to power, to "the present." At the opening ceremony of the judicial year this Friday evening at the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) of the South American country, Rodríguez tasked the Commission for Judicial Revolution and the Program for Democratic Coexistence and Peace with approving the bill "in the coming hours." And there is little doubt that the bill will be approved shortly. Deputies loyal to the current regime hold a majority in the Venezuelan Parliament, whose head is the president's brother, Jorge Rodríguez. "I once again request the full cooperation of the Venezuelan legislative branch. May this be a law that serves to heal the wounds left by political confrontation, violence, and extremism. May it serve to restore justice in our country and peaceful coexistence among Venezuelans," he stated. At El Helicoide, described as a center of "torture" by NGOs and opposition members, everyone was crying. "Freedom! Freedom!" some shouted. "God is good. God has heard us," Johana Chirinos, the aunt of a prisoner, told the Associated Press.

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The official announcement of the release of political prisoners following the US military operation in Venezuela opened the prison gates not so much for those detained by Nicolás Maduro's regime, but rather for greater collective tensions in an uncertain environment. The second week of Delcy Rodríguez's interim government was fueled by contradictions between the official statements of the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, who on January 8th said that "a significant number of detainees" would be released, and the actual verification that the amnesty, far from being massive, would be a tortuous, piecemeal process. This week, the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUC) indicated that it had so far been able to "verify the release of 170 political prisoners," just under 20% of the total. Kaleidoscope Humano also reports similar figures. Both organizations have been documenting politically motivated arrests since years before the 2014 electoral fraud, a key episode in Venezuela's long-running crisis.

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From the carpets of Miraflores to the darkness of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, two weeks ago He was arrested in Caracas by US forces and transferred the same day to a jail in ManhattanA swift operation—not without deaths on the Venezuelan side—ended when his cell door closed.

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The US attack on Venezuela has once again put all eyes on the so-called black goldCrude oil is not only the most traded commodity in international markets, but its control, a priori, grants a clear position of global dominance. "Except for weaponry, no other product has greater geopolitical weight or has been used so extensively as an instrument of coercion, both for sanctions and embargoes," reflects Gonzalo Escribano, a researcher at the Elcano Royal Institute, on this commodity in an article published in 2024. Donald Truli's ambitions are a reflection of Donald Trump's.

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One day after his closed-door meeting with Donald TrumpVenezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado held a press conference this Friday afternoon in Washington. At the event, the anti-Chavista leader asserted that she will return to Venezuela "as soon as possible" and reiterated her alignment with the White House: "Venezuela will be free with the support of the United States," she stated. It was also learned this Friday that CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Venezuelan interim president Delcy Rodríguez in Caracas on Thursday.

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2025 was a record-breaking year for the Catalan labor market, thanks in part to the influx of foreign workers. This group ended the year with a total of 697,103 registered with Social Security, the highest figure ever recorded for a year-end and 4.2% higher than in 2024. According to figures published this Friday by the Spanish Ministry of Labor, the number of these workers has increased by 368,406 over the last decade (+88.9%).

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Reality is always changing, but the speed at which it's changing these days is impressive. France, Germany, Norway, and Sweden are sending soldiers to Greenland. And Denmark, of course. Spain says it's considering it. These are small contingents that will carry out "reconnaissance" work, in a clear symbolic message to Donald Trump: this is Danish sovereign territory, it's European Union territory, and we don't accept threats. Trump must be laughing, but these countries have done the only thing they can do, which is not to look the other way.

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The dispute between Venezuela's interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, and opposition leader María Corina Machado for Donald Trump's favor is beginning to clear up. the question of who really rules the Caribbean countryMachado met behind closed doors this Thursday at the White House with the US president, in a meeting that the Trump administration has downplayed. Machado had lunch with the president and, after the meeting, which lasted more than two hours, described the conversation as "good." It wasn't until the chaotic press conference following the meeting with US senators that the opposition leader explained that she had brought her Nobel Peace Prize medal for the US president. "I presented him with the medal," she stated. She added, "I told him: 'Two hundred years ago, General Lafayette presented President Simón Bolívar with a medal bearing the image of George Washington, and he always cherished it. Exactly 200 years later, Bolívar's people are returning a medal to Washington in recognition,'" she told reporters. According to the opposition leader, it was a gesture to thank the magnate for his "unique commitment to freedom." Machado has not responded to whether Trump accepted the offering or not. The Nobel committee had already warned Machado that the prize is non-transferable and that this could not be done.

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