Venezuela’s President Maduro and Nicaragua’s President Ortega shake hands during ALBA alliance summit in Caracas

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro (L) and Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega shake hands during an ALBA alliance summit in Caracas March 17, 2015. Leaders of Latin America’s left-wing ALBA bloc of nations (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America) are holding an extraordinary meeting in Caracas on Tuesday to express their support for Venezuela after Washington declared the oil-rich country a national security threat on Monday, March 9, and ordered sanctions against seven officials from the South American nation. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins (VENEZUELA – Tags: POLITICS)