Venezuela talks in the balance as US ups pressure on Maduro

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — For weeks, representatives of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his would-be successor, opposition leader Juan Guaidó, have been shuttling back and forth to Barbados trying to agree on a common path out of the country's prolonged political standoff.

The meetings have been slow-going and shrouded in mystery, with neither side disclosing details. But now Maduro's supporters are accusing the U.S. of trying to blow up the fragile process.

The purported explosive: sweeping new sanctions that freeze all of the Maduro government's assets in the U.S. and even threaten to...