September 30, 2013 - Maduro announces on state-run VTV that he is expelling three US diplomats. He claims they were involved in a widespread power outage earlier in the month. "Get out of Venezuela," he says, listing several names. "Yankee go home. Enough abuses already."

 

February 12, 2014 - Student protests in Venezuela that started earlier in the month attract global attention when three people are killed. Major social and economic problems have fueled the protests, with some blaming Venezuela's government, led by President Nicolás Maduro, for those problems.

 February 21, 2014 - Maduro calls for US President Barack Obama to "accept the challenge" of holding direct talks with Venezuela.

 

January 15, 2016 - Following the release of years of economic data, Maduro declares a state of "economic emergency."

 

May 13, 2016 - Maduro declares a "constitutional state of emergency," which expands on the "economic emergency" he declared in January.

 

October 30, 2016 - Maduro sits down to engage in talks with political opponents for the first time in two years, in order to find a compromise among Venezuelan political parties.

 

July 31, 2017 - US Treasury Department sanctions freeze Maduro's assets subject to US jurisdiction and bar US citizens from dealing with him. This comes a day after elections are held for a new lawmaking body in Venezuela. The department says the National Constituent Assembly "aspires illegitimately to usurp the constitutional role of the democratically elected National Assembly, rewrite the constitution, and impose an authoritarian regime on the people of Venezuela."