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The Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, has sent 3,000 troops on to the streets of the capital, Caracas, to crack down on rampant crime which has made the country one of the most dangerous in the world. The "secure fatherland" plan is a new effort to lower violent crime following close to 20 similar attempts during the 14-year rule of the late socialist leader Hugo Chávez. "Our armed forces are taking the streets to protect the people," Maduro said in a speech to military police and troops that was broadcast live on state television. "I call on you to serve your...

Nicolas Maduro Wins Venezuela Presidential Election (50.7%): Opposition Gets 49.1% Socialist candidate Nicolas Maduro has won a narrow victory in Venezuela's presidential poll. Mr Maduro, who was chosen by the late Hugo Chavez, won 50.7% of the vote against 49.1% for opposition candidate Henrique Capriles. The electoral commission said the results were "irreversible". There has been no comment from Mr Capriles, who earlier on Sunday has suggested there was an attempt to doctor the result. Mr Maduro told a rally of supporters in the capital Caracas that he had won a "just, legal and constitutional" victory. However, the margin of...

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. will be attending the state funeral for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday in Caracas, the nation's capital. Jackson, founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, will be leading a delegation organized by the civil rights organization -- which is separate from the official U.S. delegation

Reports that the Venezuelan intelligence agency is targeting and spying on the Venezuelan Jewish community as well as on Venezuelan companies and organizations with ties to Israel is deeply troubling, asserted the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). “We are deeply troubled by a recent news report alleging that the Venezuelan Intelligence Service (SEBIN) is spying on the Venezuelan Jewish community,” said ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman. “Venezuela under the regime of Hugo Chavez has a history of harassing the Jewish community in that country,” he said. “It is chilling to read reports that the SEBIN received instructions to carry out clandestine...

Dictator Hugo Chavez and friend of Sean Penn and Oliver Stone was mandated to take a sworn presidential oath before the National Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela this morning due to the specifics of their Constitution and that he won the Oct. election (unfortunately) for another six-year term starting today. However Hugo "smells of sulphur", it is reported, and is out of the country and deathly ill in Havana, Cuba of apparently malignant cancer, so he is not exercising his duties in addition to being absent from the country in the first place. There are succession plans in place in Venezuelan...

This is the first official report on the leftist president’s health since he arrived in Havana last Friday. Vice President Elias Jaua, “The complete extraction of the diagnosed pelvic lesion was performed, along with the removal of (putrid) tissue surrounding the lesion. There were no (unexpected) complications Jaua’s report on came hours after Spanish dailies Publico and El Pais published a document from a U.S. private intelligence firm asserting that the Venezuelan president is mortally ill. “The Russian team blamed the Cubans for an improper surgery the first time in trying to remove the tumor” and said Cuba lacks the...

The government of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is emerging as a rare supplier of diesel to Syria, potentially undermining Western sanctions and helping the Syrian government fuel its military in the middle of a bloody crackdown on civilian protests. A cargo of diesel, which can be used to fuel army tanks or as heating fuel, was expected to arrive at Syria's Mediterranean port of Banias this week, according to two traders and shipping data. The cargo could be worth up to $50 million. Chavez is a vociferous advocate of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who face pressure...

There is concern in Venezuela about the direction the country is moving politically, and Venezuelan governor Henrique Capriles is beginning to represent hope for opposition groups. As mayor of Caracas, Henrique was targeted by the administration for not doing enough to suppress protests against the Cuban embassy in 2002, and was charged with fomenting violence; a charge that may have been intended to remove him as political competition. At least a third of Venezuelans currently support opposition candidates according to recent polls, and many Venezuelans left the country since Chavez came to power, and even more after a failed referendum...

Iran has begun enriching uranium deep inside a mountain and sentenced an American to death for spying, angering the West and undermining hopes that diplomacy could avert further sanctions or war. The start of enrichment at the Fordow bunker near the Shi'ite Muslim holy city of Qom was confirmed on Monday by an Iranian official in Tehran and by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran says its nuclear program is purely non-military but the West believes it is designed to produce nuclear weapons. The Islamic Republic's decision to carry out enrichment work deep underground could eventually make it much...

As the cliche goes, there are no coincidences in politics. Obama fundraiser group Code Pink just happened to have arrived in Cairo last week for the group’s ninth visit there in two years as part of its campaign to undermine the Mubarak government and help Hamas, the terrorist group that controls Gaza. Code Pink and the media are trying to portray the leftist group's 'sudden' appearance in Cairo Wednesday as an act of courageous support for a democratic revolution. Nothing could be further from the truth.Code Pink protests the Mubarak government in Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt. February 2, 2011. Code...

With Caracas set to sign an agreement to purchase the system, Israel is concerned that Teheran will eventually obtain the anti-aircraft system. Israel has warned Russia of the possibility that an advanced air defense system it is planning to sell to Venezuela could eventually make its way to Iran, according to defense officials. The system, the S-300, is one of the most advanced multi-target anti-aircraft-missile systems in the world, with a reported ability to track up to 100 targets simultaneously while engaging up to 12 at the same time. It has a range of about 200 kilometers and can hit...

Beautiful beyond belief and anti-Marxist. Now, that’s a winning combination!… (Powerline)- We missed an important moment at the Miss Universe pageant on Saturday night. The outgoing Miss Universe made a little political statement on her final catwalk that was visible to Venezuelans but probably no one else, holding up an obsolete seven star pre-Chavez era flag. She did it to signal distress in her country, and nowhere is that move evident than in Venezuela’s violent crime. This week the news came out that Caracas is the most violent city in the world, a distinction it holds over Kabul, Baghdad, Sao...

Socialism: Quick, what's the murder capital of the world: Kabul? Juarez? Try Caracas, Venezuela, a city whose dictator, Hugo Chavez, has made murder a means of extending his control. The silent protest at Monday night's Miss Universe Pageant in Las Vegas was invisible to nearly everyone — except Venezuelans. On her final catwalk, the ranking Miss Universe, Stefania Fernandez, suddenly whipped out a Venezuelan flag in a patriotic but protocol-breaking gesture.

President Hugo Chavez has announced an agreement with China that would have the Asian economic giant devote $20 billion to financing long-term development projects in Venezuela. The Venezuelan president says the financing would go toward industrial and infrastructure projects, among other development plans.

Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko on Tuesday offered Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, a vocal US critic, help in building an anti-air defense system as part of the countries' deeper strategic ties. "We have proposed to your government and your president sharing the experience of creating a defense system for the state," Lukashenko, visiting Caracas since Monday, told lawmakers. "If your president wants to do so, we will be able to do so very soon." "And then you can live peacefully, without having to be looking around to see what the rest of the world may do tomorrow, whether they are going...

Few colonial buildings remain in Caracas. Is Chavez changing that or just haphazardly seizing buildings? Standing at the corner of one of Venezuela’s most historic squares, the Francia building always looked a little incongruous among the Spanish colonial mansions. But for many, this late art deco construction holds fond memories — it housed Caracas’ largest gold market for more than half a century. Many came to buy engagement or wedding rings for their sweethearts, confirmation bracelets for their children or watches or trinkets for themselves. That was until last week when the edifice caught the eye of President Hugo Chavez......

Battling with one of the world's highest murder rates, Venezuela on Wednesday crushed more than 30,000 guns seized from the streets during police raids this year. Policemen used blow-torches to chop up some of shotguns and pistols. They compacted weapons including home-made pistols into a 5 ton block... "This act forms part of the disarmament policies that we have been promoting." With 13,000 murders in 2007... Venezuela's murder rate is about 8 times that of the United States. Crime has risen under President Hugo Chavez...

CARACAS, Venezuela — Tens of thousands marched through Venezuela's capital on Saturday to protest what they call growing authoritarianism by President Hugo Chavez. A few thousand of the president's backers held a separate counter-rally to express support for the government's policies. Anti-Chavez protesters, many of them wearing white, filled the streets of Caracas, denouncing recent arrests of opposition members for alleged violence during protests and a new education law that critics fear could lead to indoctrination in schools. "It's very concerning because education is Venezuela's future," said 23-year-old engineering student Carlos Delgado, who also complained of soaring inflation and rampant...

MEXICO'S volatile border city of Ciudad Juarez has the world's highest murder rate, followed by Caracas, Venezuela and the US city of New Orleans. Ciudad Juarez - the scene of regular and brutal score-settling between rival drug gangs - has 130 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, the Citizen's Council for Public Security said. Caracas has 96 murders per 100,000 inhabitants and New Orleans registers 95, the Mexican non-governmental organisation said, basing its figures on media and FBI reports. Caracas was listed as the murder capital of the world in the September 2008 Foreign Policy magazine, quoting official figures of 130 murders...

August 14, 2009 Protests fail to halt passage of Chavez's 'socialist indoctrination law' Police in riot gear used tear gas yesterday against Venezuelan demonstrators angry about a law that they believe could lead to the "socialist indoctrination" of the nation's schools. Officers fired tear gas into crowds who were protesting in Caracas against President Chávez's plans to broaden state control over the education system. Scuffles broke out as clouds of caustic, white gas wafted through the air outside the predominantly pro-Chávez National Assembly. Inside, legislators began debating a Bill which would order schools to base the curriculum on "the Bolivarian...

President Hugo Chavez says he has a new book for President Barack Obama: "What is to be Done?" by communist Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Soviet state. Chavez says he'll "give it to Obama at the next meeting." "What is to be Done?" is Lenin's political treatise on the role of intellectuals and the proletariat in promoting revolution, written more than a decade before he led the Bolshevik takeover of Russia in 1917.

BLOG: Note: The following blog entry is a quote: Iran, Venezuela to Expand Defense Ties Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, heading a high-ranking defense delegation, arrived in Caracas on Monday to promote Tehran-Venezuela relations. During his three-day visit, Mohammad Najjar is slated to attend meetings with senior Venezuelan political and defense officials. The visit to Caracas by the Iranian defense minister is the first since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. Source: Fars, Iran, April 27, 2009 Posted at: 2009-04-28

And in what people still think is a democracy, the Chavez Government decided to get back by legislation what it lost in the November elections, as it approved the new Bill for the Capital District, a Bill that castrates the newly elected mayor of the Metropolitan District Antonio Ledezma. Just like that, Ledezma not only will have a boss appointed by Chávez, but the Bill also takes away his office and his budget. His office will now be occupied by the new Chief of the Capital District, who will also get most of Ledezma’s budget. Ledezma’s budget will now be...

By David Paulin Caracas now ranks as the world's No. 1 murder capital, according to Foreign Policy magazine. It's an assessment that will surprise few credible Venezuela watchers. During President Hugo Chávez's tumultuous ten-year rule, Venezuela's quality-of-life indices have been in an ongoing tailspin – thanks to epic levels of corruption and mismanagement; not to mention El Presidente's increasing concentration of power in his own hands. When I was a Caracas-based journalist in the 1990s, Colombia's Bogotá was the world's No. 1 murder capital. But in the years before Chávez's election, high-crime Venezuela was catching up, boasting South America's...

Caracas, Venezuela Population: 3.2 million Murder rate: 130 per 100,000 residents (official) . . . The numbers also don’t count those who died while “resisting arrest,” suggesting that Caracas’s cops—already known for their brutality against student protesters—might be cooking the books. Cape Town, South Africa Population: 3.5 million Murder rate: 62 per 100,000 inhabitants According to the South African Police Service, most of the Cape Town area’s violent crimes happen between people who know one another, including a horrific case last year in which four males doused a female friend in gasoline and lit her on fire. New Orleans, United...

Archbishop Roberto Luckert Caracas, Jun 30, 2008 / 12:35 pm (CNA).- Archbishop Roberto Luckert of Coro and vice president of the Venezuelan Bishops’ Conference deplored the founding of the self-proclaimed “Reformed Catholic Church,” whose leaders have aligned themselves publicly with “Bolivarian Socialism” and are receiving financial backing from the government of Hugo Chavez. Speaking on Union Radio, the archbishop said that the church’s leaders “want to give the impression that the Catholic Church in Venezuela is divided. They are going to dress like priests, baptize and confirm, with everything paid for by the government, which seeks to destroy the...

<p>CARACAS - Grimacing from contractions, expectant mother Castuca Marino had more on her mind than birth pangs.</p> <p>She was nervous about whether she and her newborn child would make it out of the hospital alive. Interviewed as she stood in the emergency room of Concepción Palacios Maternity Hospital here last week, Marino had heard news reports of six infant deaths there over the course of a 24-hour period late in March.</p>

Plane Carrying 46 Missing in Venezuela

This is one of the best short online videos I have seen in a long time.Go to the link above, or here:http://www.el-nacional.com/www/site/detalle_multimedia.php?q=med/5947Let it load (be patient if not on good broadband), turn up your speakers, and get dig this totally ballistic Hugo Chavez supporter after losing an election in Venezuela recently.You won't be disappointed. This is right after the communist Reds in Venezuela under Chavez lost a vote to anti-Chavez forces.

Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, loser in the recent Venezuelan national referendum which would grant him increasing dictatorial powers, has ended his brief benevolence and contrition (if it ever was there) it would seem. But he did so with a backdrop of Venezuela's top military, sending a strong, yet somewhat shaky, staged subliminal message to his opponents.The video (short, in Spanish) is at the link above and here: http://www.el-nacional.com/www/site/detalle_multimedia.php?q=med/5475 Just hit the white "arrow" to see.

Hilton becomes socialist, but prices stay same By Jeremy McDermott, Latin America Correspondent Last Updated: 1:21am BST 03/09/2007 It has been a landmark for the last 38 years, a point of navigation for taxi drivers and tourists alike, but now the Hilton Hotel in Caracas has been taken over by the state to become a "socialist tourism business". "We want to put this hotel at the service of the people," said Eustacio Aguilera, the president of the Simon Bolivar Centre, the government cultural institution that owns the hotel. "Now everyone will have access to a great hotel and be able...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday stepped in to help his leftist ally Argentine President Nestor Kirchner by bailing out an Argentine firm to prevent its purchase by a fund involving billionaire investor George Soros. Chavez, whom Kirchner wished good luck before his landslide re-election on Sunday, said he would lend $80 million to Sancor, a struggling private cooperative dairy sought by Adecoagro, a fund in which currency speculator and philanthropist Soros has a stake. "The capitalist magnate wanted to buy it out. Now I have signed the first part of the deal. We are going to issue credit of...

A man has been arrested at Gatwick Airport under anti-terrorist laws. It follows the arrest of two men near Heathrow. Gatwick's North Terminal has been closed and its flights suspended. No further details have been released by Sussex Police. Stansted Airport has announced its security is being stepped up.

<p>WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is investigating a trip by 100 Muslim members of the U.S. armed forces for a pilgrimage to Mecca that was paid for by a Saudi charity accused of financing al Qaeda, The Post has learned.</p> <p>The so-called "Hajj Tour" in March 2001 for Muslim servicemen and chaplains was organized by the Muslim World League, a major charity group financed in part by the Saudi royal family and which is dedicated to the spread of Wahhabism, the extreme form of Islam embraced by Osama bin Laden.</p>

PAIN IN SLUMS OF CHAVEZ - CARACAS KIDS LIVE IN FEAR October 3, 2006 by Douglas Montero nypost.com I'D LIKE Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez to meet one of his countrymen, 15-year-old Manuel Gonzalez. Manuel, who's never been to school, lives in a tin-roofed shack with walls made of slabs of half-inch-thick wood, cardboard and flattened oil drums. His "house" clings precariously to La Vega, one of hundreds of hillside slums that dot Chavez's oil-rich capital. Each day, Manuel lugs buckets of water or propane tanks so his pregnant mother, 12-year-old sister and 1-year-old brother can eat, bathe and flush the...

In Caracas, there are very few green spaces, other than the Avila mountain range, which ruffles the northern side of the vast Venezuelan capital city. The rest is pure urban concrete. Of those few green spaces, even fewer are safe enough to go to without needing a bodyguard or a bullet-proof automobile. But there is one important exception - it’s in the municipality of Chacao, and it’s called the Country Club. I was there - and it’s not quite as elite as you might think. The Country Club is a private recreation club where any resident in the area can...

CARACAS, Venezuela - Three major Caracas golf courses, long favored by the city's wealthy, are being expropriated to build housing for thousands of poor and middle class Venezuelans, officials said Tuesday. The city expropriations, which will likely generate new friction between supporters and opponents of President Hugo Chavez, are part of an ambitious government effort to provide more homes amid an acute housing shortage that has driven up real estate prices. Mayor Juan Barreto's office has ordered the "forced acquisition" of two golf courses and will soon issue another decree expropriating a third course in the ritzy hills of southern...

Over 50 secretaries-general of communist parties worldwide are to participate in a seminar called "Scientific Socialism: Contributions for its Construction," that is taking place at the Bolivarian University of Venezuela next July 18th-19th, said the official news agency ABN. The event was organized by the Venezuelan BolívarMarx Institute. The seminar is to address topics such as socialism, the Bolivarian process, electoral fraud in Mexico and other issues. Delegates from Puerto Rico, Mexico, United States, Japan, Canada, Colombia, Greece, Australia, Portugal, South Africa, Bolivia, Belgium, England and Spain are to attend the event.

Recent violence in Sao Paulo may just be the tip of the iceberg: Many parts of Brazil and indeed across Latin America, governments have capitulated to gangsters, and the rise of organized crime could end the recent leftward shift across Latin America. Garbage containers block the road into slum district Vigario Geral, one of the most dangerous favelas in Rio de Janeiro. A visitor approaches the barricade, two youths appear from the shadow of a nearby building. They're carrying machine guns, and handguns are tucked into their pants. "You want to go to church, right?" the older of the two...

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez brought up Carlos the Jackal during a meeting of oil producers Thursday, calling the Venezuela-born terrorist who once took hostages at an OPEC meeting "a good friend." Carlos, whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, gained notoriety during the Cold War for staging a string of bombings and assassinations. He is serving a life sentence for murder in France. Chavez recalled in his speech how Ramirez once in a letter referred to the Venezuelan leader's 1999 tour of OPEC member states. He said Carlos, "a good friend," said in the missive from his...

Caracas, while home to nearly a fifth of Venezuela’s 26 million inhabitants, is a city so poorly conceived in design that it appears to have sprung up from the ground, without warning, overnight. Nestled in a long and narrow valley, it is a tangled urban agglomeration of towering skyscrapers, cluttered streets, curving highways, world-famous shopping malls, and of course, ranchos that blanket the hills surrounding the city, covering every inch of exposed land as if they were fighting for daylight. Stacked haphazardly on top of each other, the red cinder block and tin-roof dwellings of the ranchos can be seen...

WASHINGTON Feb 27, 2006 (AP)-- Eleven cities have shown interest in playing host to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, twice the number of cities that applied to get the 2004 gathering. The DNC initially sent out letters to more than 30 cities, giving them an overview and finding out their level of interest. The 11 cities that said they were interested: Anaheim, Calif.; Dallas; Denver; Detroit; Las Vegas; Minneapolis; New Orleans; New York; Orlando, Fla.; Phoenix and San Antonio. Some of the cities are in critical swing states like Florida and Arizona, while others are in population centers like New...

Cindy Sheehan went to Caracas, Venezuela to put her thumb in the eye of the Bush administration. She was leading the World Social Forum, a far-left “alternative” to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, to cavort with fellow leftists. Less well known was that her trip was sponsored by the Venezuelan foreign ministry. The price of that was obligatory praise of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, who’s rapidly plunging in the opinion polls for his incompetence and corruption. “I admire President Chavez for his strength to resist the United States,” she said. Sheehan, who knows nothing of Venezuela, was easy to...

Hugo Chavez, Cindy Sheehan Highlight Socialist Forum: The Bush-bashing "Peace Mom" Cindy Sheehan will join leading third-world America-hater Hugo Chavez on Tuesday, when the two team up to address the 6th World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuela. Sheehan and Chavez will headline a list of yet-to-be-announced speakers from places like Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, and Colombia, according to the web site VHeadline.com. The Forum will officially commence after a 2-day street festival, which began on Sunday, Vheadline says. "Tens of thousands" of Chavez and Sheehan's fans helped kick off the event by staging a march under the slogan "Contra la Guerra...

U.S. antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan will open the World Social Forum in Caracas on Tuesday together with other political and cultural leaders from diverse nations with a mass action, organizers for the event said Sunday. Sheehan, mother of a dead soldier in Iraq who achieved notoriety from heading various antiwar actions against the government of George W. Bush, will give a speech at a march that will kick off the World Social Forum en the Venezuelan capital, said dará Edgardo Lander, a member of the organizing committee of the event. In the action for which the activist will assist, "she...

Latin America: Oil earnings have given Hugo Chavez a colossal sense of his own power at home and abroad. He's not limiting himself to small countries like Bolivia, though. Surprise: The U.S. is also in his cross hairs. Venezuela's president has targeted America and not just by organizing political fifth columns called "Bolivarian Circles" ... He's also getting himself good press for delivering discounted oil for his handpicked "poor" ... Chavez has won plaudits from the mainstream media for his newly launched program to deliver cheap heating oil to carefully "screened" low-income constituencies. Venezuela's state oil company, PDVSA, through its...

Latin America: With all the wounded puffery of a bully, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez last week singled out the president of Mexico with the hoary epithet of U.S. "lap dog." It's proof he's losing his own war over free trade. Ahead of July's Mexican presidential election, the four-point rise in the polls of Vicente Fox's PAN party on the heels of the Chavez outburst signals it's clearly backfiring. Mexicans are rallying around their president. Chavez attacked Fox precisely because Mexico is one of the world's leading emblems of free trade. It has signed 27 trade pacts, more than any other country...

Jesse Jackson's traveling circus reportedly flew to Caracas yesterday for a grandstanding visit with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. The announced visit came in the wake of ill-considered remarks from televangelist Pat Robertson who declared that the U.S. ought to try to assassinate Chavez. Jackson went there to show Chavez he's a 'man of peace and goodwill' and probably wanted to curry favor with him, given the opportunity presented by Robertson. And what better way to look good for his U.S. domestic constituents than to be seen in an abrazo embrace with telegenic Hugo Chavez? But a funny thing happened on...

President Chávez appears in VTV presidendo Cabinet President Hugo Chávez, finished with the conjectures that were woven around to his, after not appearing in the march of Saturday and not making the dominical program when presiding over the cabinet 428 from the government palace The agent chief executive referred that he was visiting his daughter in Barquisimeto reiterating that the suspension of Aló President had to the transmission of the game of World-wide Liga of Volleyball. The agent chief executive initiated his appearance before the screens of Venezuelan of Television announcing the approval of a series of credits and...

Caracas, May 29 (EFE).- Rumors swirled Sunday about the whereabouts of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who did not deliver a scheduled address to supporters a day earlier and whose weekly show was replaced by a volleyball match. "The president's program yielded its spot to the match between Venezuela and Brazil because of prior international commitments with the World Volleyball League," Communications Minister Andres Izarra said during a brief appearance on state-owned Venezolana de Television. The minister said Chavez's weekly show would return next Sunday. Izarra's statement at 11:35 a.m. (1535 GMT) was intended to put an end to the...