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Dear Family and Friends, Zimbabwe has been slowly and painfully slipping downwards for the last six years but this week the pace moved into top speed. It has been a shocking week here and everyone is reeling as services and prices have suddenly taken on a life of their own. Petrol was 260 thousand dollars a litre three weeks ago. Last week it rose to 360 thousand a litre and this week it galloped to 500 thousand dollars a litre and then disappeared altogether. In the supermarkets the price increases are staggering and everywhere you see people bending down and...

Russia signs $1bln aircraft contract with Venezuela-Ivanov 18:01 | 21/ 07/ 2006 MOSCOW, July 21 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has signed a contract on supplies of military planes and helicopters to Venezuela worth over $1 billion, the defense minister said Friday. Sergei Ivanov said 30 Su-30 Flanker air-superiority fighters and 30 helicopters would be supplied to Venezuela. The Russian Su-30 Flankers will replace a Venezuelan contingent of U.S. F-16 multi-role fighters after Washington imposed an embargo on arms sales to the country May 15, which it says poses a threat to regional stability. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has moved...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said yesterday that he hopes world oil prices will not rise any higher but accused the US of stoking geopolitical tensions behind the rally. Chavez’s comments came in a speech inaugurating a new subway line in the capital of Caracas, during which he also pledged to divert any new revenues from surging oil prices to social and infrastructure development. He also said that he plans to enter into a joint venture with China to manufacture oil drills, instead of buying them from US companies. The world’s fifth-largest oil exporter, Venezuela sells most of its oil to...

London: The head of state-owned Sukhoi aircraft manufacturing holding said Tuesday he hoped the talks on the possible sales of Su aircraft to Venezuela would yield positive results. "We will be speaking later about any concrete results but I believe that they [the results] will be positive," Mikhail Pogosyan said at the 2006 Farnborough International Airshow. A source in the talks said the two countries had been negotiating the sales of 24 Su-30MK Flanker C air superiority fighters to replace Venezuelan contingent of U.S. F-16 multi-role fighters after Washington imposed an embargo on arms sales to the country. Venezuelan President...

(English-language translation) CARACAS - An Inter American Press Association (SIP) delegation lamented yesterday the local authorities' attitude of refusing to receive it to deal with the situation with freedom of the press in the country. The mission had anticipated meeting yesterday with Ciudad Bolívar Mayor Clemente Scotto to discuss the case of the Correo del Caroní daily, but [he] refused to receive the visitors. In Ciudad Bolívar, SIP spokesman and Freedom of the Press Commission Chairman Gonzalo Marroquín said they were concerned with the Correo del Caroní's situation and "we find ourselves with the unpleasant occurrence of our visit with...

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.

Latin America: As rumors fly about Fidel Castro's demise, truths about his regime's failures slip out. His vaunted overseas "free" medical program for the poor, once a propaganda coup, is falling apart. In Bolivia, at least 30 Cuban doctors out of 719 defected to freedom, according to Bolivian media. In Venezuela, 4,000 Cuban doctors out of 15,000 also fled the country, Union Radio reported. These Cuban doctors were at the forefront of Castro's last-ditch effort to rejuvenate his communist dictatorship. Castro cooked up the Venezuelan "Barrio Adentro" plan just three years ago with Hugo Chavez to obscure his record of...

You’d think George Bush would get down on his knees and kiss Hugo Chávez’s behind. Not only has Chávez delivered cheap oil to the Bronx and other poor communities in the United States. And not only did he offer to bring aid to the victims of Katrina. In my interview with the president of Venezuela on March 28, he made Bush the following astonishing offer: Chávez would drop the price of oil to $50 a barrel, “not too high, a fair price,” he said—a third less than the $75 a barrel for oil recently posted on the spot market. That...

Reported in the minute-by-minute sidebar on El nacional (Venezualan Newspaper) Internacionales Agencia internacional desmintió información de supuesta muerte de Fidel Castro La agencia internacional de noticias EFE desmintió haber divulgado información relacionada con la supuesta muerte del presidente de Cuba Fidel Castro. En horas de la mañana una emisora de noticias venezolana dijo citando a la agencia que el mandatario había fallecido. Es por ello, que EFE informó que en ningún momento ha difundido ese hecho. La agencia dijo haber presentado su reclamo a la emisora que reconoció publicamente su error. **** google translate. International agency denied information of supposed...

Madrid, Jul 10 (EFE).- Presumed Colombian drug kingpin Leonidas Vargas Vargas was arrested at the entrance to a Madrid hotel when it was found that he was carrying a forged Venezuelan passport, a police official reported Monday.

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has emerged as the United States' most formidable adversary in Latin America since Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba more than 45 years ago. Flush with oil money, a leftist ideology and virulent anti-Americanism, Chavez has solidified his control over Venezuela while using the country's wealth to raise his profile across the region. American policymakers have few options to counter the charismatic former paratrooper whose incendiary rhetoric and populist programs are popular on a continent gripped by poverty and resentful of American power. One U.S. priority is to foil Venezuela's bid for a...

CAIMITO, Cuba (Reuters) - They do not come to Cuba for the beaches and tropical mystique that draw more than 2 million other visitors each year. Instead they come to spend their vacations working in the countryside under a blazing sun, eating rice and beans and sharing a room without air-conditioning or toilet with seven others. They are so-called revolutionary tourists who arrive each year from about 50 countries for a "total immersion" in one of the world's few remaining socialist countries. "I call it a revolutionary vacation. I dedicate my free time to doing something concrete for the Cuban...

The Mayor of London has given his backing to reports of a gay revolution in Cuba. Ken Livingstone, who yesterday joined gay charity Stonewall to launch an anti-homophobic bullying campaign in schools, said Cuba should look to fellow Latino’s in Venezuela where the capital Caracas has been declared a “homophobia free zone.” He told PinkNews.co.uk: “The first time I went to Cuba in 1985, lots of people in the gay community said 'you've got to raise this issue.' The Cubans were completely honest about it and said: 'we made terrible mistakes in our early years and we regret it.’” Mr...

CARACAS, Venezuela - A landslide all but wiped out Wilfredo Rodriguez's small shoemaking business last year, entitling him to a loan from President Hugo Chavez's government - money he says he never would've found elsewhere. It came with strings attached - his workers get limited co-ownership and he must make mandatory donations to community projects. But no matter: the factory is thriving. Its 14 workers produce 1,200 pairs of shoes per month and has begun selling sandals to Cuba. Cooperatives and co-managed "social production" companies such as Rodriguez's shoe factory are the backbone of the new "21st century socialism" that...

The Irish rock star Bono has been unwittingly caught up in a row over a computer game that features a fictionalised invasion of Venezuela to counter a “power-hungry tyrant” who has seized control of the country and its oil. The computer game is played from the perspective of a mercenary who is dispatched to Venezuela with the guidance: “If you see it you can buy it, steal it, or blow the living crap out of it.” Called Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, it is made by Pandemic Studios, based in Los Angeles, in which a private equity firm established by...

BANJUL (Reuters) - Europe and the United States should apologize to Africa for the cruelties of slavery, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday, calling on African states to resist modern day U.S. colonialism. Attending a summit of African leaders in Gambia, Chavez said both Africa and Latin America had been blighted by slavery and colonialism for centuries, to the benefit of Europe and North America. "Africa is still weeping ... and Europe does not recognize it. Europe should apologize, get on its knees and apologize," Chavez, invited to attend the summit as a guest, told reporters. "They should lower...

by Mark Finkelstein July 5, 2006 As James Taranto suggested Monday in his WSJ 'Best of the Web' column, at some point you *can* question a person's patriotism. Cindy Sheehan surely passed that point long ago. But just in case there was any doubt, Sheehan made things clear this evening, flatly stating that she'd rather live under Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez than George Bush. Sheehan made her comments during a Hardball appearance, during which guest host Norah O'Donnell, sitting in for Chris Matthews, gave her a surprisingly rough ride. At one point, O'Donnell asked: "Why go stand by side by...

Venezuela's Chavez planning arms-for-oil trip to N. Korea Special to World Tribune.com EAST-ASIA-INTEL.COM Wednesday, July 5, 2006 North Korea and Venezuela are discussing a strategic alliance motivated by a common goal — expanding anti-American forces. During Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il in late July, the two countries are also expected to craft an oil-for-arms deal. Venezuela's leader is most likely to fly to Pyongyang at the end of July on the occasion of his planned trip to Russia on July 25. Chavez told reporters that he plans to discuss science and technology cooperation with...

06:42 GMT, Jul 03, 2006 Latest Headlines... Two Russian Su-30 fighter jets arrive in Venezuela MOSCOW/CARACAS. July 3 (Interfax-AVN) - Two Russian Su-30 fighter jets have landed in Caracas to join a military parade to mark the anniversary of Venezuela's independence from Spain on July 5, an official with the Russian defense and industrial complex told Interfax- AVN. "It has yet to be decided whether the planes will remain in that country until a contract is signed for the sale of 24 Su-30 fighter jets to Venezuela, or they will return home after the celebrations," the official said. sd md

Venezuelan Leader to Visit Kim Jong-il Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a fierce critic of the United States, said Saturday he will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Observers speculate that ideas for cooperation between the two countries could include an oil-for-missiles.