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CARACAS, Venezuela — For the better part of a decade, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has spent billions of dollars of his country's oil revenue to challenge U.S. interests, build influence around the world and fund a self-styled socialist revolution at home. Yet as Chavez moves from one international crisis to another— most recently a near military confrontation with neighboring Colombia , an important U.S. ally— many wonder how long his oil-funded wild ride will last. Not long, analysts in Venezuela and abroad said, if production continues to decline at the country's state-run energy company, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. , known...

Sunday's defeat likely to hurt Chavez's international standing By Pablo Bachelet, McClatchy Newspapers Mon Dec 3, 7:20 PM ET WASHINGTON — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's stunning loss in a constitutional referendum Sunday has dealt a severe and possibly fatal blow to his ambitions to spread his political ideology and succeed Fidel Castro as the leader of Latin America's anti-American left, analysts and U.S. officials said Monday. Few analysts were willing to bet that Chavez won't recover and try again to strengthen his grip on power in Venezuela . But the rejection of his proposed constitutional changes hurt Chavez because it...

CARACAS, Venezuela - Soldiers used tear gas, plastic bullets and water cannons to scatter tens of thousands who massed Thursday to protest constitutional reforms that would permit Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to run for re-election indefinitely. Led by university students, protesters chanted "Freedom! Freedom!" and warned that 69 amendments drafted by the Chavista-dominated National Assembly would violate civil liberties and derail democracy. It was the biggest turnout against Chavez in months, and appeared to revive Venezuela's languid opposition at a time when the president seems as strong as ever. Students promised more street demonstrations over the weekend, but no opposition-led...

Israel's Ministry of Defense and some of the country's leading industry executives repeatedly squashed Venezuelan bids to buy high-resolution commercial satellite imagery. According to a lawsuit filed July 2 in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Venezuela's potential procurement deals were sabatoged twice and more recently a personal offer by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to buy a significant equity stake in ImageSat International (ISI), a local satellite operating firm, was ignored. In their lawsuit, the ISI minority shareholders accuse major investors and the firm's current management of "spurning lucrative ... opportunities in Venezuela in order to devalue the company [Imagesat]."...

CARACAS (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of protesters on Saturday denounced President Hugo Chavez's plans to close an opposition television channel, accusing their leader of maiming Venezuelan democracy as he forges a socialist state. Chavez says RCTV, the country's oldest private broadcaster, supported a bungled coup against him in 2002. He has had a long-running battle with opposition television stations, calling them "horsemen of the apocalypse." "Let us defend democracy, let us defend freedom, let us defend free independent media such as RCTV," RCTV's managing director, Marcel Garnier, told demonstrators in Caracas.

Voting machine provider Smartmatic Corp. and its Venezuelan owners will avoid a full U.S. national security investigation by putting the firm's Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. U.S. subsidiary up for sale. Attention has been focused on the firm because of reports it has had business connections with the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who frequently attacks U.S. policy. In an announcement Friday, Smartmatic said it has withdrawn from a review process that was scheduled to be carried out by the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which reviews foreign investments and acquisitions to determine whether they hold...

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.

I have just returned from Cooper Union in New York, where I saw Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez give a long winded speech. Chavez was in New York to speak before the United Nations and to shore up Venezuela's bid for a seat on the Security Council. Though I have seen Chavez give dozens of speeches on TV and just came out with my book entitled Hugo Chavez: Oil, Politics, And The Challenge To The U.S. (recently released by St. Martin's Press), I had never seen the president speak in person. I received word of the event through the Venezuelan Information...

In their stupid and criminal arrogance the US authorities proclaimed victoryVHeadline.com commentarist Chris Herz writes: We may be sure that experienced military men like Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias, General Baduel and their colleagues study the Iraq War carefully for clues to better the protection and defense of the Bolivarian Republic.No one should be surprised at this; no one offended.The leadership of any country must survey the world around them for possible threats to the sovereignty of their nations and the self-governance of their people. That is the first duty of a national government: In a word, the defense of...

Venezuelan middle class flees Chávez rule of hate By Sophie Arie in Caracas (Filed: 05/03/2006) Venezuela's once-thriving middle class is packing its bags and fleeing the country, afraid for the future as the socialist president, Hugo Chávez, calls on the slum-dwelling masses to rise up and seize wealth from those better off than themselves. Growing numbers of professionals, business owners and shopkeepers are fed up with the climate of hostility that the Left-wing president has encouraged in his effort to boost his populist credentials. President Hugo Chávez María Carolina García was blowing up helium balloons in her party-decorations shop in...

U.S. Expels Venezuelan Envoy After Chavez Ousts U.S. Navy OfficerState Department describes action as appropriate response to Chavez's decision By Lauren MonsenWashington File Staff Writer Washington -- In response to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's February 2 decision to order the expulsion of a naval attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, the United States has declared Jeny Figueredo Frias, a diplomat at the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, "persona non grata."The dispute, which further exacerbates tensions between the two countries, began with Chavez accusing U.S. naval attaché John Correa of espionage.  The U.S. Embassy forcefully has denied the charge and...

Communism is not dead in Latin America. In fact, the dominoes are falling south of the border, but no one seems to be noticing. “It’s a new day. Communism is dead. It’s even dead in Cuba.” So declared Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing in May 2002. “I hate to say it,” she continued, “it’s dead.” The senator’s proclamation was a surprise, no doubt, to Fidel Castro, whose regime was (and is) alive and as Red as ever. It also must have come as welcome news to the people of Cuba, still suffering, after nearly half...

Early on the morning of March 16th, 1984, William Buckley left for work at the American embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. Officially, Mr. Buckley, a decorated veteran of the Special Forces, served as the political officer at the embassy. In reality, however, Mr. Buckley was the embassy’s CIA station chief. On his way to the compound, Buckley’s car was stopped by a group of masked men, who forced him from his car at gunpoint. His assailants would later be identified as terrorists from the group Islamic Jihad, which served as an alias for the real perpetrators, Hezbollah. The circumstances surrounding the...

Havana - Fidel Castro warned that the life of leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is in danger, and said he would blame the United States if his close friend and ally is killed. Castro's remarks came during a six-hour speech that lasted until 4 a.m. Saturday and closed an international globalization conference in Havana attended by hundreds of economists. "If Chavez is assassinated, the responsibility will lie entirely with the president of the United States," Castro said, neglecting to provide details, but noting that President Bush has encouraged Chavez's opponents in the past. The Cuban leader said Chavez's left-leaning "revolution"...

Are we reliving Chile's history ? while we look at the events in Venezuela today. Or is it that we forgot our history, and we are ready to make the same mistakes all over again?

THE terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal is again refusing food to protest against conditions in prison, where he is serving a life sentence, one of his lawyers said today. The Venezuelan, whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, stopped eating last Wednesday and said he will continue the strike "as long as necessary," attorney Isabelle Coutant Peyre said by telephone. She said he is protesting against being kept in isolation, "provocative and unjustifiable" body and cell searches, and authorities' refusal to let him access his prison bank account for food and other necessities. He is imprisoned at a high-security...

 For Immediate Release Jan 28, 2003 Contact: Press Office202-646-5172 9/11 VICTIM SUES CHAVEZ & VENEZUELA FOR TERRORIST ACTS Evidence That Chavez Aided Bin Laden & Al Qaeda PRESS CONFERENCE DATE: Wednesday, January 29, 2003TIME: 9:30 a.m.PLACE: Sheraton Biscayne Bay Hotel, Room C 495 Brickell Ave., Miami, FL 33131 (Washington, DC / Miami, FL) Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption and abuse, said today that it has filed suit on behalf of a victim and survivor of the September 11th terrorist attacks against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, its President, Hugo Chavez, and the...

Venezuelan Troops Seize Police Weapons By STEPHEN IXER, Associated Press Writer CARACAS, Venezuela - Soldiers seized most of the heavy weapons and anti-riot equipment from Caracas' police force Tuesday, police said after President Hugo Chavez threatened to increase the military's control over the force and accused it of siding with his opponents. Troops searched most of the capital's police stations at dawn and confiscated all weapons except .38 revolvers, said police chief Henry Vivas. The seizure could raise tensions in a 44-day-old general strike aimed at ousting Chavez, which has been marked by almost daily street protests, including clashes between...

Chavez $1M Support for Al Qaeda Confirmed Chavez: Likes to talk, but suddenlysilent on $1M Al Qaeda payment Following the money trail In the world of terrorist financing, bank records naturally do not tell the true origin nor destination of funds. That's why no one will ever be able to find a check signed by Hugo Chavez with the payee's name as Osama Bin Laden. But there are other ways to get to the truth. The best is to talk to those who were involved. Therefore, investigators rely heavily on the testimony of the insiders who carried out the operations...

Chavez Spokesman Re-Affirms North Korea Support: "Model To Follow" Kim Jong Il, a Chavez role model By Johan Freitas, in Caracas Venezuela, already an ally of Cuba and Iraq, is now making overtures to also align itself with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Monday, in Caracas, a spokesman for the Hugo Chavez government sent a signal of support to North Korea's capital Pyongyang, and re-affirmed the ideological similarities of the two regimes. Education minister Hector Navarro, while attempting to open the country's leading university, Universidad Central de Venezuela, declared that he and the Bolivarian government stood firm in their...

More Facts Uncovered in Chavez - Al Qaeda Collaboration Major Juan Diaz Castillo:Planned $1M support forAl Qaeda, then defected By Luis Garcia, in Miami Whistle-blower Major Juan Diaz Castillo, pilot of the Venezuelan Airforce One, revealed more details of how president Hugo Chavez supported Al Qaeda in the aftermath of 9/11. In statements to the press in Miami Saturday, the defector shed new light on the terrorist support network recently uncovered in the highest level of the Venezuelan government. Major Juan Diaz Castillo, Chavez's personal pilot, was assigned the job of planning the delivery of the $1 million collaboration to...

9/11: Chavez financed Al Qaeda, details of $1M donation emerge Osama Bin Laden: 9/11 made Chavez happy. Hugo Chavez: Terrorism sponsor, $1M to Al Qaeda. His Ambassador, Walter Marquez: Bin Laden's link. His pilot, May. Juan Diaz Castillo: Planned the operation, then defected. By Johan Freitas, in Caracas, with Luis Garcia, in Miami High-level military defectors reveal new terrorist links between Al Qaeda and Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez. The man who control's the largest oil reserves in the Western hemisphere gave $1 million to the world's most wanted terrorist right after the 9/11 attacks. Hugo Chavez would not admit it...

Venezuelan navy seizes tankers as protests continue Navy troops have seized two oil tankers from strikers as Venezuelans took to the streets in protest and to search for money and food as a strike aimed at ousting President Hugo Chavez deepened. There are indications the government might be making headway in ending the impasse. Politicians on both sides of the crisis say they will consider a new proposal for elections next year. The government says an oil tanker is being loaded and long lines at petrol stations disappeared, indicating distribution networks are being rebuilt. "We are overcoming the crisis," Mr...

DOZENS KILLED IN NIGHTCLUB FIREAn estimated 47 people were killed after fire swept through a nightclub in the Venezuelan capital Caracas. The city's fire chief said most died of smoke inhalation.More than 500 people were inside the Guajira nightclub when the fire broke out.An investigation is under way to find out the cause.More follows...

QUESTION: Just to follow up, yesterday there were several Venezuelan high-level government officials here in Washington. They met several high-level officers of the US Government. Also, four of the alleged snipers who were identified by Stratford and other people arrived in Washington yesterday afternoon at Reagan National Airport. They were met by the Venezuelan chargé d'affaires. My question is, who are they going to meet? MR. REEKER: I have no idea. I am unaware of to whom you are referring. If you want to share that information, I can check into it with the Bureau. I am not aware of...

April 12, 2002 Venezuelan President Forced to Resign By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Agence France-PresseGen. Efraín Vásquez Velasco of the Venezuelan Army (seated, in a TV image) joined other officers Thursday night in rebelling against President Hugo Chávez. Associated PressPresident Hugo Chavez resigned Friday under pressure from Venezuela's military following street violence in which National Guard troops and pro-Chavez gunmen clashed with 150,000 opposition protesters. Associated PressTop Venezuelan military officers rebelled against President Hugo Chavez on Thursday after police fired on a march by 150,000 opposition protesters. Filed at 7:28 a.m. ET CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- President Hugo Chavez, the former army...