United Nations Security Council turns eye to Venezuela crisis

The Trump administration imposed sanctions on the chief judge and seven other members of Venezuela 's Supreme Court on Thursday as punishment for annulling the opposition-led Congress earlier this year, USA officials said.

Venezuela has been hit by a series of violent protests since early April, that have left at least 34 people dead and hundreds injured, as the opposition ramps up the pressure on Maduro to call overdue elections.

Almost two months of street protests throughout Venezuela have left at least 46 people dead.

A demonstrator holds a Venezuelan flag during a vigil for the victims of the clashes with the government's security forces, during protest against President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, May 17, 2017.

"In Venezuela, we are on the verge of humanitarian crisis".

The agency said the justices were responsible for a number of rulings in the past year that have usurped the authority of Venezuela's democratically-elected legislature, the National Assembly.

But they said the ultimate goal is to bring about a positive change in behavior and encourage these individuals to "change their ways and contribute to Venezuelan society".

"We haven't really seen a problem like that.in decades, in terms of the kind of violence that we're witnessing", Trump told a joint news conference with visiting Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.

"As President Trump has said, Venezuela is a disaster".

People made off with items including coffee, diapers, and cooking oil in the OPEC nation where a brutal economic crisis has made basic foods and medicine disappear from shelves.

Maduro's government accuses them of seeking a violent coup and says numerous protesters are no more than "terrorists".

Needless to say, the Confederation of Israeli Associations in Venezuela, the country's central Jewish organization, voiced an "absolute rejection" of the president's "banal" comparisons with the most traumatic event in recorded history in which six million Jews were annihilated. The center-right opposition blames it all on mismanagement and corruption in the Socialist government. Maduro has said he had no prior knowledge of the Supreme Court ruling against congress in March, pointing to the objections raised by Venezuela's chief prosecutor as proof the country's institutions operate independently.

"We are the Jews of the 21st century", Maduro declared. He reportedly died shortly after being taken to a health center.

In February, the Trump administration also slapped Venezuela's vice president with what are called kingpin sanctions, for his role in the alleged trafficking of illegal drugs. One was the approval of Maduro's budget and his appointment of two government sympathizers to the National Electoral Council, decisions that are supposed to require National Assembly approval.