Help keep Salon independent

Joshua Goodman

FILE - In this Nov. 15, 2013, file photo, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, left, speaks with his Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez before the start of a press conference at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela. President Maduro has replaced on Tuesday Sept. 2, 2014, Venezuela's longtime oil minister and economic czar as part of a cabinet shakeup sidelining the most-prominent voice within his administration for much-needed reforms to address the country's economic crisis. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File) (AP)

Maduro replaces Venezuela’s longtime oil chief

Fabiola Sanchez, Joshua Goodman

FILE - In this June 27, 2006, file photo, John Jairo Velasquez, a former hit man for Pablo Escobar, gives his testimony while holding a book titled "The True Pablo, Blood, Treason, and Death," during the trial against Alberto Santofimio Botero in Bogota, Colombia. Velasquez, better known by his nickname Popeye, was released Tuesday Aug. 26, 2014, under heavy police surveillance from a maximum security prison northeast of Bogota after 23 years behind bars for plotting the murder of a former presidential candidate. (AP Photo/ William Fernando Martinez, File) (AP)

Colombian kingpin’s former hit man leaves prison

Joshua Goodman

Venezuela protests heat up amid opposition rift

Joshua Goodman, Luis Alonso Lugo