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Venezuelan policemen inspect the area in front of Colombia`s consulate after a blast in Caracas February 25, 2003. Explosions hit a Spanish Embassy building and the Colombian consulate just a day after President Hugo Chavez, whose self-styled 'Bolivarian Revolution' aims to help the poor, accused the United States and Spain of siding with his enemies and warned Colombia he might break off diplomatic relations. There were no immediate reports of casualties. REUTERS/Jorge Silva Venezuelan policemen inspect the area in front of Spanish embassy after a blast in Caracas February 25, 2003. Explosions hit a Spanish Embassy building and the...

CARACAS, Venezuela - A leading opponent of President Hugo Chavez who helped command a two-month national strike was ordered held under house arrest Sunday. Also, Caracas police said Sunday that pro-Chavez gunmen killed one police officer and wounded five others who had attended a colleague's funeral nearby. Tensions have been high between Chavez's administration and police. A judge placed under house arrest strike co-leader Carlos Fernandez, president of the Fedecamaras business chamber. Fernandez was seized Wednesday at gunpoint by secret police on charges including treason, rebellion and inciting criminal acts. The judge struck down three of the charges, including treason,...

<p>Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Thursday instituted new currency-exchange controls that will severely hurt many Venezuelan businessmen, and could paralyze the whole country economically. Under a new fixed exchange rate, the dollar - which on the black market is worth about 2,500 Venezuelan bolivars - will sell for 1,596 bolivars and be bought for 1,600 bolivars. Mr. Chavez appointed Capt. Edgar Hernandez Behrens, who helped him stage a bloody but failed coup in 1992, head of the exchange agency. Mr. Chavez said the agency's "orders will be: not one dollar to coup mongers." He cloaked his financial retaliation against his opposition in a populist tone: "Bolivars are for the people."</p>

It was with extreme satisfaction that I read Jonathan Gurwitz's article on Venezuela ("Roily Venezuela needs support in creating change, Dec. 18), reprinted in the Caracas Daily Journal. Having lived, run a business and raised a family here for the last 27 years, it is heartening to see that the international press is finally coming to their senses in regard to what is happening in this beautiful country. For too long, most foreign journalists, the Organization of American States, governments as well as many non-government organizations such as the Carter Center, have allowed the Chavez regime's "democratic credentials" to blind...

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Angry motorists protested at empty service stations Friday as Venezuela's government struggled to overcome fuel and food shortages caused by a general strike aimed at toppling President Hugo Chavez. Despite the protests, Chavez declared in a nationally broadcast speech that, thanks to efforts by his government, the worst of Venezuela's energy crisis was over. Long gas lines will disappear "in a few days, weeks," Chavez said as he condemned the strike, which he calls an "economic coup" against him. About 1,000 Chavez supporters rallied Friday at the Supreme Court to urge justices to ban a proposed referendum...

CARACAS, Venezuela - Gasoline pumps have almost dried up and staple food stocks in many places are dwindling, but President Hugo Chavez still commands broad support, especially among Venezuela's majority poor. Chavez's foes launched a general strike on Dec. 2 to force him to resign or allow early elections, before a possible recall vote in August. They are betting that strangling Venezuela's oil-dependent economy will motivate Venezuelans to demand his resignation or force a vote. But millions of people, especially among Venezuela's poor and working class, insist they won't allow a return of the two-party system that Chavez displaced in...

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Shrugging off a Supreme Court ruling to give up military control of the Caracas police, Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez on Thursday vowed to defend his "revolution" despite an opposition strike that has throttled the country's vital oil industry. Chavez, who survived a coup in April and is resisting calls to resign, also vowed to purge state oil firm PDVSA from what he called "coup plotting oil elites" as he intensifies efforts to crack down on an 18-day-old strike that has blocked shipments from the world's fifth-largest petroleum exporter. "Behind the attempt to stop PDVSA there's...

<p>CARACAS, Venezuela - Bolivarian Circles, the Cuban-inspired neighborhood vigilante groups charged with protecting the populist revolution of President Hugo Chavez, are being armed with weapons diverted from the military, according to army officers.</p> <p>The increased firepower raises the risk of violence between them and anti-Chavez groups who have marched almost daily to protest the president's order last week to fire the chief of the Caracas city police and place his forces under the control of the national guard.</p>

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Clashes between Venezuelan troops and supporters of President Hugo Chavez killed one person, wounded 20 and prompted an appeal for peace from the head of the Organization of American States. National Guardsmen and police on Tuesday battled dozens of pro-Chavez activists who had surrounded city hall, trapping the mayor and opposition leaders inside for several hours. The opposition is calling for a referendum on the president's continued rule. Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters, but they repeatedly regrouped to throw rocks, fire shots and burn tires in the streets. A National Guard soldier and...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuela's government and opposition sparred Monday over President Hugo Chavez's demand that four military officers be tried for rebellion in an April coup. Chavez insisted Sunday that the Supreme Court indict the four officers for leading an April 12-14 coup, warning that his supporters won't accept a ruling exonerating the officers. Clashes between Chavez supporters demanding indictment and police have wounded at least 24 people over the past week. "Do you think the people will stand for this?" Chavez said. The opposition Democratic Action party on Monday accused Chavez of threatening the Supreme Court judges and...

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Nine people were shot and wounded in violent disturbances in Venezuela on Thursday after the Supreme Court rejected a preliminary proposal to put on trial four military officers accused in April's uprising against President Hugo Chavez. After police clashed with supporters of the populist leader clamoring against the ruling, at least eight civilians were wounded by gunfire and a police officer was shot in the leg, authorities said. Several other officers suffered minor injuries in the clashes. "They have taken eight people wounded by gunfire to Lidice Hospital," police commissioner Leobaldo Navas told local radio. Navas...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - With clashes already erupting outside the Supreme Court, many Venezuelans fear more violence and military unrest over a court decision on whether to try four high-ranking officers for rebellion in an April coup. Venezuelans widely consider the pending decision to be a test of the court's alleged loyalty to President Hugo Chavez's leftist government. The court has been accused of siding with Chavez, who revamped Venezuela's judiciary after his 1998 election. Hearings in the case have sparked clashes between so-called "Chavistas" and government opponents who support the officers. Police used tear gas and fired shots into...

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuela's Supreme Court postponed until next week a final ruling on four alleged military coup plotters after police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse several hundred rioting supporters of left-wing President Hugo Chavez. More than 1,000 riot police and National Guard soldiers sealed off a section of central Baralt Avenue outside the court building to break up fighting between the pro-Chavez militants and smaller groups of opponents of the government. Black smoke rose from the rubble-strewn avenue after stone-throwing Chavez supporters fought running battles with police and set fire to tires and piles of...

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela's Supreme Court on Tuesday overruled a judge's decision to free three men accused of homicide in the shooting deaths of opposition protesters that provoked an April coup. The court ordered a lower tribunal to arrest the men and then determine if they should be held without bail. On July 11, Judge Norma Sandoval ruled that videotape allegedly showing the men shooting at protesters during an opposition march on April 11 was inadmissible as evidence. Sandoval ordered Caracas city councilman Richard Penalver, Rafael Cabrices and Henry Atencio released from custody. The three, all members of President Hugo...

CARACAS, Venezuela - Ruben Figueroa left his job and family to spend day and night beneath a bridge near the presidential palace. His mission: to defend President Hugo Chavez - with his life if necessary. "First, they have to kill me. They have to kill my friend. They have to kill a lot of people," said the 40-year-old former customs official who belongs to a civilian group called "The Guardians of the Palace." On Thursday, Figueroa's group will face off with a march called by opposition groups commemorating the April 11 coup that ousted Chavez for two days; 18 people...

CARACAS - Amid new threats of a military coup, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has purged nearly half the armed forces leadership and replaced it with younger officers believed to be loyal to his leftist ideals. Chávez has removed so many generals and admirals since a failed coup last month that he has been obliged to appoint some lower-ranking colonels in their place, further irking proud commanders by bypassing requirements that top officers fill top posts. But the crackdown has not stopped secret groups of mid-level officers from issuing threats, including one last weekend, to topple Chávez unless he amends his...

CARACAS, Venezuela -- When President Hugo Chavez is to appear at a public event, Carmen Zambrano puts the word out in her shantytown neighborhood. Within hours, people start knocking at her door with letters for her to deliver to the president or one of his aides. "Last week, I took about 10 letters," the 45-year-old tax inspector says. "They mostly ask for medicine or surgeries. In two or three days, the president's people are calling." It's all part of a day's work for Zambrano as leader of a Bolivarian Circle, part of a grass-roots network that spreads the populist Chavez...

CARACAS - Officially, Bolivarian Circles are groups of poor Venezuelans organized by populist President Hugo Chávez to carry out such neighborhood activities as cleaning up garbage and fixing potholes. But Chávez's opponents allege that they are armed gangs of pro-Chávez radicals and thugs who terrorize them, attack their street marches, shoot up their offices and cruise Caracas streets in menacing motorcycle packs. Perhaps more than any other action, the creation of the Bolivarian Circles has heightened the impression -- consistently denied by Chávez -- that he is building his own political army. As a result, the groups have become a...