With the economy in ruins, and U.S. military forces off the coast, uncertainty and rumors mark life in Venezuela, dampening the yuletide mood.

Russia and its close ally Belarus reached out to Venezuela's embattled leader, Nicolas Maduro, on Thursday as U.S. President Donald Trump ramps up pressure for his removal, raising the possibility he could seek refuge abroad.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado warned that President Nicolas Maduro’s government is in its “final days” during an interview with Colombian broadcaster RCN from Oslo.

Maria Corina Machado, asked by CBS News' Margaret Brennan about Trump's threat of land strikes, said she'd "welcome more and more pressure" on Maduro.

The new sanctions on Franqui Flores, Carlos Flores and Efrain Campo come a day after Trump announced that the U.S. had seized an oil tanker off Venezuela.

Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by phone on Thursday and reassured him of Moscow's support for his government's course in the face of growing external pressure,

U.S. Navy aircraft carried out patrol flights Friday near the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao as part of what Washington describes as an expanded security operation targeting illicit trafficking networks — a move Venezuela denounced as an act of intimidation and a prelude to broader conflict in the region.

Opposition leader María Corina Machado plans to return to Venezuela whether or not President Nicolás Maduro is removed from power

The US seized a Venezuelan oil tanker and sanctioned Maduro’s relatives, as Caracas warns of rising threats to regional stability.