![Venezuelan soldiers patrol by boat on the Arauca River, the border between Colombia and Venezuela, as seen from Arauquita, Colombia, March 28, 2021 [File: Luisa Gonzalez/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/2021-03-31T152203Z_332060955_RC2FMM9SU1S8_RTRMADP_3_COLOMBIA-VENEZUELA-1.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
The explosion also left nine members of Venezuela’s military injured, the defence ministry says.
Nicolas Maduro
![A doctor looks on while monitoring the progress of a patient who is suffering from COVID-19 in Caracas [File: Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2021-03-21T231407Z_971930779_RC2ZFM9747J0_RTRMADP_3_HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-VENEZUELA.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
President Nicolas Maduro said the quarantine will last for two weeks around the Christian holiday of Easter.
![The Citgo financing was never executed, and a Caracas court in late 2020 sentenced the six executives to between eight and 13 years in prison on graft charges [File: Jonathan Bachman/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/citgo.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
Three ministers knew about the proposed deal for Citgo to borrow up to $4bn, according to documents seen by Reuters.
![With annual inflation hitting 2,665 percent, long lines form many mornings outside banks in Caracas as residents seek to withdraw a maximum of 400,000 bolivars — the equivalent of 20 United States cents — just to pay round-trip transit fare to get to work [File: Miguel Gutierrez/EPA-EFE]](/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/24024d181449450b977849a2c2a1cd32_18.jpeg?resize=570%2C380)
Maduro has targeted the public transit system as the first stage of his ‘digital bolivar’ plan.
![Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro turned over gas stations to local entrepreneurs in the first phase of a complicated plan to rescue the country from United States sanctions that have dealt a serious blow to Venezuela’s oil business [File: Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/ven1.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Maduro has been handing over dozens of gas stations to local entrepreneurs who run them under a chain known as Via.
![A Venezuelan exile loads boxes into a container, next to a poster of opposition leader Juan Guaido, during a collection drive of humanitarian aid in Miami, Florida, in March 2019 [File: Gaston De Cardenas/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2019-03-30T193837Z_645565542_RC18D4CB8000_RTRMADP_3_VENEZUELA-POLITICS-USA.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Biden administration move would shield Venezuelans already in the US from deportation and allow them to work legally.
![Venezuelan gold was refined in Mali and then resold primarily in the United Arab Emirates, Julio Borges, the opposition leader's chief overseas envoy, told reporters on Wednesday [File: Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/gold.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Maduro’s government got about $1.21bn from the trade despite crippling US sanctions, an opposition figure alleges.
![Before taking office, Blinken called Maduro a 'dictator' and said he would continue recognising Guaido as the interim president [File: Manuel Balce Ceneta/Pool via Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2021-02-26T224728Z_1644408421_RC2M0M9FK6FS_RTRMADP_3_USA-MEXICO.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
US secretary of state spoke to Venezuela’s opposition leader, stressing the importance of a return to democracy.
![Venezuela's Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza talking to the European Union's ambassador to Venezuela, Isabel Brilhante, during a meeting at the Foreign Ministry headquarters in Caracas, Venezuela on February 24, 2021 [Manaure Quintero/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/2021-02-24T150937Z_813575570_RC23ZL9V9462_RTRMADP_3_VENEZUELA-EU.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said Isabel Brilhante had 72 hours to leave the country.
![The United States in 2019 recognised Juan Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate president and created a sanctions package against the Maduro government that included the seizure of nearly $350m held in US accounts [File: Manaure Quintero/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/guaido.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Venezuela must pay $100m to access vaccines via the COVAX program but cannot pay due to sanctions, officials have said.
![Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro speaks during a ceremony marking the start of the judicial year at the Supreme Tribunal in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, January 22, 2021 [Matias Delacroix/AP Photo]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/AP_21022669024684.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Alex Saab carried a letter from Maduro asking for Iranian petrol and medicines when he was arrested on a US warrant.
![PDVSA's logo is seen at a gas station in Caracas, Venezuela, where President Nicolas Maduro is seeking to attract investments to the OPEC nation [File: Ivan Alvarado/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/pdvsa.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Venezuela may allow contractors to operate state-owned PDVSA fields, sources tell Reuters.
An election takes place in a once prosperous village in Venezuela and reveals the decline of a nation.
![Nicolas Maduro was set to extend his grip on power on Tuesday as the governing socialist party prepared to assume the leadership of Venezuela’s congress, the last institution in the country it did not already control [Fausto Torrealba/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2021-01-05T151132Z_1354894914_RC2R1L947W5D_RTRMADP_3_VENEZUELA-POLITICS.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
The shift in legislative power away from the opposition marks a consolidation of power for President Nicolas Maduro.