US seizes fifth Venezuela-linked oil tanker, Olina
The United States has seized a fifth oil tanker linked to Venezuela, the Olina, in the Caribbean Sea.
VATICAN CITY, Jan 12 (Reuters) – Pope Leo met with Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Colina Machado on Monday, the Vatican said, without providing further details.
The meeting was listed among the pope’s Monday schedule in the Vatican’s daily statement, but was not included in Leo’s earlier advisory to the press about his planned schedule for the day.
The first U.S. Pope Leo called for Venezuela to remain an independent country after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was detained by U.S. forces on the orders of President Donald Trump.
In a major foreign policy speech on Friday, the Pope denounced the use of military force as a means to achieve diplomatic goals and called for the protection of human rights in Venezuela.
Machado, a former lawmaker, has been banned from running in Venezuela’s 2024 general election by authorities aligned with Maduro.
Although Maduro claimed victory, she supported a replacement candidate who was widely thought to have won the vote. An audit of the vote by independent observers found irregularities in the official results.
(Reporting by Joshua McElwee; Editing by Cristina Carlevaro and Crispian Ballmer)
