VENEZUELA-Opposition Leader's Lawyer Detained As Maduro Shuffles Cabinet

A month after Venezuela's presidential election, President Nicolas Maduro has engaged in a cabinet reshuffle in an attempt to move the conversation on from the opposition's claims that the gov't stole the election. As Reuters reports, "The changes, which include a return to the cabinet by ruling party leader and famed hard-liner Diosdado Cabello and a change in duties for Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, who will add the oil ministry to her brief, came as Maduro shifted his rhetoric away from the election dispute and toward promised changes."

• Protests continue across the country despite a crackdown that has seen thousands detained. Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said in an interview with the FT that the crackdown is not sustainable. In the latest move seen as an attempt to silence the opposition, Machado's lawyer Perkins Rocha was detained by 'unidentified men' and his location is unknown.
• The leftist presidents of neighbouring Brazil and Colombia have sought to act as interlocutors between the gov't and opposition but to no avail. Suggestions of a re-run election have been given short shrift, with both sides claiming victory.
• Foreign Policy reports that the US "has focused on carrots rather than sticks. The Wall Street Journal reported that Washington was offering to lift indictments on Maduro and other key ruling party figures if they enter talks to guide a transition. The United States is so far reticent to impose new sanctions on Venezuelan oil. That may change if Maduro’s repression campaign continues with no sign of a transition."