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Venezuela's president has said he will nationalise a series of oil projects in the Orinoco river belt within months. Hugo Chavez was speaking as he signed a law granting him the authority to rule by decree for the next 18 months. Mr Chavez said the government the operations, run with five international oil firms, would be state-owned by the beginning of May. Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said that the government would seize the operations if no agreement was reached. Controlling stake "I have given instructions that on 1 May - 1 May - all the fields of the Orinoco Belt...

President Hugo Chavez dismissed Washington's concerns that Venezuela's democracy is under threat, saying a "dictatorship" led by President Bush poses a true threat to democracy around the world. Condemning the war in Iraq, the Venezuelan leader said that Bush and John Negroponte, a former director of national intelligence who is designated for the No. 2 position in the State Department, should be tried for "war crimes" committed by the U.S. military across the globe. "The two of them are criminals. They should be tried and thrown in prison for the rest of their days," Chavez told a news conference. "If...

January 31, 2007 - 8:41 PM Chavez gets powers to rule by decree By Christian Oliver CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's Congress on Wednesday granted President Hugo Chavez powers to rule by decree for 18 months as he tries to force through nationalizations key to his self-styled leftist revolution. The vote allows anti-U.S. leader Chavez, who has been in power since 1999, to deepen state control of the economy and other sectors of public life such as defence and security. Chavez's increasing centralization of power in the No. 4 oil exporter to the United States prompted rare public comments from U.S....

Have you seen the latest Citgo-sponsored commercial for Citizens Energy Corporation? At first glance you may have mistaken it for a Saturday Night Live sketch and watched it prepared for a good laugh. That is, until you'd realized it was all too serious. Until it struck you that a member of one of North America's most powerful political families may well be in bed with one of South America's most notorious and dangerous men. But it gets even more disturbing. The language used to rationalize this unholy alliance appears to be right from the playbook of the devout anarchist many...

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela plans to obtain air defense missiles to guard strategic sites such as oil refineries and major bridges against any air strike, a top military adviser to President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday. Gen. Alberto Muller said Venezuela is looking to buy surface-to-air missile systems from Russia or another country to defend "strategic points in the country." "They are for air defense," Muller told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "They are not for attacking anybody." Chavez, a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, has repeatedly warned against a possible U.S. invasion, and his government is...

CARACAS, Venezuela - Hugo Chavez has just about everything a president could want: popular support, a marginalized opposition, congress firmly on his side and a booming economy as he starts his new six-year term. Now, he's about to become even more powerful — the all-Chavista National Assembly is poised to approve a "mother law" as early as Wednesday enabling him to remake society by presidential decree. In its latest draft, the law would allow Chavez to dictate measures for 18 months in 11 broad areas, from the "economic and social sphere" to the "transformation of state institutions."

Venezuela's defense minister said Monday that the military is looking into building unmanned planes, possibly with help from allied countries such as Iran. Defense Minister Gen. Raul Baduel said the military considers unmanned, remote-controlled planes to be versatile for surveillance and border patrol flights. "There has been advancing work on the part of our military aviation on a project for pilot-less planes," he said. "They can stay in flight for various hours. They are guided by remote control and would avoid putting lives in danger while helping with border security." In this and other aviation projects, Baduel said President Hugo...

There can be little doubt that this nation's campaign in Iraq has distracted it from a threat no less serious in our own backyard: Radical socialists, led by Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, are sweeping into power in Latin America. Tut-tut, some world-watchers say; there may be a leftist movement in the region but it's nothing to worry about: We must learn to live with our Southern Hemisphere neighbors despite our differences. Never mind Mr. Chavez's latest "effort" to work with the United States: "Go to hell, gringos!" he said in an address this week. Chavez quickly has become a dictator, convincing...

Immigration: Leftists tout Hugo Chavez's trip down the socialist road as "reform" that rights past wrongs. What they never notice is that as property is confiscated and freedoms evaporate, talented Venezuelans are fleeing. In 2005, over 10,000 Venezuelans sought permanent residence in the U.S., more than twice as many as who sought admission to the U.S. in 1999, when Chavez first took office. Of these, about a tenth were people fleeing political persecution for asylum. As Chavez confiscates productive farms, sends red-shirted political rabble to take over apartments, shuts down TV stations, restricts government jobs and services to his friends,...

Latin America: Hugo Chavez's confiscations of U.S. properties are bad enough. But they're overshadowed by his bolder move to turn Venezuela into a dictatorship and put the entire region in peril. Chavez's declaration last week that he'll suspend Venezuela's constitution and congress for 18 months and rule by decree will turn Venezuela into a dictatorship. Checks and balances of democratic power sharing will end, and anyone who thinks Chavez will voluntarily return to democracy is a wishful thinker. Chavez openly calls himself a communist and has ambitious plans to expropriate even more businesses, farms and buildings. He's giving himself carte...

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez smiles as he leaves an Indian ceremony in Zumbahua, 150 km (93 miles) south of Quito, January 14, 2007, on the eve of the swearing in of Ecuador's President-elect Rafael Correa. REUTERS/Stringer (ECUADOR)

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - fiery anti-American leaders whose moves to extend their influence have alarmed Washington - said Saturday they would help finance investment projects in other countries seeking to thwart U.S. domination. The two countries had previously revealed plans for a joint $2 billion fund to finance investments in Venezuela and Iran, but the leaders said Saturday the money would also be used for projects in friendly countries throughout the developing world. "It will permit us to underpin investments ... above all in those countries whose governments are making efforts to liberate themselves from the...

CARACAS, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Venezuela is "almost ready" to nationalize the foreign-run projects that develop the tarry, heavy crude of the Orinoco Belt into fuel, President Hugo Chavez said on Saturday. Foreign companies running the projects include Chevron (CVX.N), Conoco Phillips (COP.N), Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), Statoil, (STL.OL) and BP (BP.L). "We are now almost ready for the nationalization," Chavez said in an address to parliament. Chavez's increased rhetoric on the Orinoco projects comes as he deepens his socialist revolution, nationalizing utilities and stripping the central bank of its autonomy. Venezuela has long been pushing to take a 51-percent stake...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (L) receives his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas January 13, 2007. REUTERS/Miraflores Palace/Handout

Hugo Chávez intends to shut down Radio Caracas Televisión. He won't renew its license. The reason alleged by the government is that the company supported the muddled coup d'etat of April 2002. But that's not true. Col. Francisco Arias Cérdenas backed the coup passionately, as anyone who takes the trouble to find the video with his statements on YouTube can see, yet Chávez appointed him ambassador to the United Nations. What Chávez rewards or punishes is the degree of submission to his exalted person. He acts not on principles but on strategic calculations. If you kneel, he'll bedeck you with...

Hugo Chavez's autocratic model for governing Venezuela was doomed to failure. Over the long term, it is just not possible for one man, however charismatic, to dominate a society and economy as complex as Venezuela's. And now, with his latest power play, the plan to nationalize Venezuela's telecommunications and electricity industries announced on Monday, that moment may come sooner rather than later. The nationalization is sure to deal a painful blow to Venezuela's oil-dependent economy. And it will alienate many Venezuelans - not only private investors, but also the poor, who have the most to lose from economic decline. True,...

Democracy: Hugo Chavez's call to expropriate Venezuela's internationally held telephone and electrical firms is more than just an ambitious leader's bid to escalate socialism. It signals far worse actions ahead. Chavez's questionable re-election as president last month has emboldened him to imbue Venezuela with "21st-century socialism" as swiftly as possible, and news of expropriations seems to be a hard turning point toward dictatorship. Chavez didn't just announce a plan to expropriate the electrical company, 85% owned by U.S.-based AES, and CanTV, the internationally traded telecom. He also said he'd redefine all business contracts, confiscate four heavy-oil investments, take over the...

Porlamar 24.12.06 | Having being in my country for nearly 4 months now has given me much time to ponder about the utility of continuing with the crusade that I once embarked upon, that of reporting Venezuela’s crisis. When I started back in October 2002 an almost physical need to tell our side of the story prompted me to launch this site, learn to write in English, inform, counteract with facts other versions, lobby, investigate and create an outlet where I could vent the anger caused by the misinformation spread around about Venezuela. Much writing I did and many, many,...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said he will not renew the licence for the country's second largest TV channel when it expires in March 2007. In an address to troops, Mr Chavez said he would not tolerate media outlets working toward a coup against him. Radio Caracas Television, which is aligned with the opposition, supported a strike against Mr Chavez in 2003. Correspondents say this is Mr Chavez' first significant political move since his re-election earlier this month. Mr Chavez, who was returned to power by a wide margin on 3 December, said the head of the television channel, Marcel...

Try to imagine Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, dressed up as a bishop — the head bishop — of his own state-sponsored church. According to media reports coming out of Latin America, President Chavez is considering a proposal that would establish him as the high priest of his own form of evangelical Christianity, convert his cabinet members into bishops of a lower rank, and submit church activities to the civil and military power of his government. It is still unclear who is behind the proposal. Publicly, it has taken the form of a petition by leaders of “Centro Cristiano de Salvación”...