Miranda, Venezuela News

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said that his government will dispatch some 3,000 police and army troops throughout the country in a bid to stem spiraling violent crime.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro salutes as he arrives with his wife, First Lady Cilia Flores to the military academy for a parade in Caracas April 19, 2013.

Venezuelan lawmakers were bloodied and bruised in a brawl set off by an opposition protest of a gag rule against those disputing the presidential vote results.

Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles Radonski said Thursday that the country's election agency has until Friday to start a promised recount of the ballots from the April 14 presidential vote or face the consequences.

A political group that works for the Venezuelan government tried to scare thousands of people into voting for Nicolas Maduro on April 14 by telling them that if they backed the opposition candidate their social benefits would be taken away, an investigation by El Nuevo Herald suggests.