The EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell condemned on Tuesday the expulsion of the EU's ambassador from Caracas, DPA reported. The move taken by the Venezuelan president was in response to sanctions issued against individuals from the South American country. On Monday, the European Council added 11 Venezuelans to the sanctions list for "undermining democracy and rule of law." The sanctions include travel bans and asset freezes.

Sources at Venezuela's embassy in Rome on Monday told ANSA that a report in Spanish daily ABC that Venezuela funded Italy's anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) in 2010 was all false.The embassy sources said the report was "false and absurd" adding that the Venezuelan authorities would take legal action. The sources added that the movement was "totally unknown in Venezuela" in 2010. The M5S was founded in 2009.

Oil tankers that were sailing toward Venezuela have turned around and others have left the country’s waters as the United States considers blacklisting dozens of ships for transporting Venezuelan oil, according to shipping data and industry sources.

The first of five Iranian tankers carrying fuel to Venezuela has moored at Venezuela's El Palito refinery, Iran's English-language Press TV reported on Monday.

Venezuela said its navy and air force would escort Iranian tankers, after Tehran warned of "consequences" if the US tried to stop the ships from reaching their destination, news wires reported. "We're ready for whatever, whenever," President Nicolas Maduro told state-run media on Wednesday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote a letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres late on Sunday warning about possible attempts by the US to “disrupt” the movement of the Iranian tankers carrying fuel to Venezuela, Tehran Times reported. Zarif warns that such a move will be “illegal”, “dangerous”, “provocative”, “instance of piracy” and a “great danger to international peace and security”.

A prison riot has left at least 47 dead and 75 wounded in western Venezuela, a country where NGOs and inmates' families regularly denounce unsanitary conditions, violence and overcrowding behind bars. The Venezuelan Prison Observatory (OVP) rights group provided the figures for the riot, which happened Friday afternoon at the Los Llanos prison center in Guanare city.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday appointed as his new oil minister Tareck El Aissami, who has been sanctioned by the United States for alleged narcotics trafficking, news wires reported.

The price of Venezuelan oil has fallen to below $10 a barrel -- its lowest level in more than two decades, the government said on Friday. The oil ministry said the price between Monday and Friday was 70.62 Chinese yuan - $9.90 a barrel - a level that has not been seen since 1998 when it was $9.28.

The Trump administration on Tuesday ordered Chevron Corp. to “wind down” operations in Venezuela by 1 December, barring the California-based oil giant in the meantime from drilling or exporting, as the U.S. increases pressure on President Nicolás Maduro to give up power.