"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad received his close Latin American ally Hugo Chavez on Tuesday and welcomed the Venezuelan president's support against the Islamic Republic's western 'bullies'.
The leaders of the two major oil exporters inspected a guard of honour before heading into talks which Iranian media said were aimed at boosting cooperation in the oil, gas, and petrochemical sectors.
'The progressive and fraternal stance of Venezuela in condemning sanctions against Iran imposed by the bullying powers is indicative of the deep and firm ties between the two countries,' Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the student news agency ISNA."
...Salas decided to go undercover with his hidden cameras after the bombings that killed 191 people on Madrid commuter trains on 11 March 2004. He had been as stunned as other Spaniards by the blasts, despite the country's experience of Basque terrorist group Eta. "I wanted to know what goes through the mind of a person who is capable of killing for an ideology."
Salas's previous undercover investigations – as a skinhead supporter of Real Madrid football club, and in the world of prostitute-trafficking – had taken him to the heart of some of the most violent groups in Spain. "My aim was to understand terrorism in the same way that I came to understand skinheads or prostitute-traffickers."
...Salas picked the Venezuela of President Hugo Chávez as his base. "I had been told Venezuela was a mecca of international terrorism," he says. "The Farc group from Colombia was there, as were people from Eta." Numerous other small revolutionary groups had also set up under Chávez's benevolent gaze. There, in what the New Yorker journalist Jon Lee Anderson calls "the parallel reality that is the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela today", Salas established himself as yet another niche radical – flying the flag for Palestine and running a local branch of Hezbollah. More importantly, he got close to the family of Ilich Ramírez Sánchez – Carlos the Jackal.
...By tracking the Arabic news channel al-Jazeera, Venezuelan TV and the internet for mentions of The Jackal, Salas discovered that Chávez himself was one of his biggest fans. "For him, Carlos is not a terrorist but a revolutionary – a model internationalist, like Che Guevara. Just as Che went to fight for other peoples, so Ilich went to fight for the Palestinians. Whenever Chávez mentioned The Jackal, I would record it and send it to him, which he loved."
Not that Salas agrees with Chávez's view of The Jackal. "He is considered responsible for 82 killings; I don't call that being a revolutionary. I call him a terrorist." – though he would probably not, he admits, use the term to his face. "It helps that he is in jail."
...In Venezuela's fringe community of political extremists, he bumped into people from Eta, the Túpac Amaru (a group of armed Venezuelan radicals who support Chávez), and other groups. Repeated requests for hands-on training eventually saw him invited to a camp in Venezuela, where he learned to handle pistols, rifles and machine guns, including a Kalashnikov AK-103, an Uzi sub-machine gun, the American M4 carbine and a Belgian-designed FN FAL. He also practised with a sniper's telescopic sight and received explosives training. "I learned all that a jihadist might need to take his message of terror to a city in Europe or the United States," Salas says. "There was nothing glamorous about it. It was just a question of learning to kill better."
His instructors included a Venezuelan army colonel, though Salas insists the camp was not run by the Chávez regime. "It just so happened that my instructors, as well as being supporters of revolutionary causes, were Venezuelan army officers."
...So what conclusions does Salas draw from rubbing shoulders with international terror? His answer is coloured by the fact that half a dozen people he met during his investigation have since died – often violently. "I don't justify violence, but I can understand it. I never found any glamour or sophistication in that world, nor anyone especially intelligent – except for The Jackal. Terrorists really have only two ends – they either die or go to jail. You have to be a bit stupid to do that."
"Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Monday that his government is carrying out initial studies into starting a nuclear energy program.
Chavez brought up the issue during a news conference, saying the South American country needs an atomic energy program.
'We're taking on the project of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, and they aren't going to stop us,' Chavez said. 'We need it and we're carrying out the first studies.'
Chavez is a close ally of Iran and has defended the Iranian nuclear program, saying he is sure Iran is not making atomic weapons in spite of U.S. and European suspicions."
Just after the legislative elections in which he lost his "supermajority". Wasn't Venezuela one of the most important oil producers in the world? So, why do they need nuclear energy? Just the same Iran needs it?
"An indictment was handed down Aug. 30 by the Southern District Court of New York that shows a connection between Hezbollah - the proxy army of Iran and a designated terrorist organization - and the drug cartels that violently plague the U.S.-Mexico border.
In short, a well-known international arms dealer was trying to orchestrate an arms-for-drugs deal in which cocaine from FARC - the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which works with Mexican drug cartels to take cocaine into America - would be traded for thousands of weapons housed by a Hezbollah operative in Mexico.
Iran is expanding its diplomatic and economic ties with Venezuela but has no military presence in the South American country, a US general said on Tuesday.
The comments came as Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez denied allegations from the Pentagon that members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force were stationed in his country.
The leftist leader, who often heaps scorn on the United States, called a recent report "absolutely false" at a military ceremony.
The head of US Southern Command, General Douglas Fraser, said Iran was bolstering its relations with Venezuela.
"We see a growing Iranian engagement with Venezuela," Fraser told reporters.
Iran has a "diplomatic, commercial presence" but, "I haven't seen any evidence of a military presence," he said.
It would be somewhat helpful if they just firstly agree, then write the reports and then speak in public, instead of publishing reports and after critizise those same reports. In this case, the report says just the opposite to what this guy says. There is no middleground here: or Iran has military presence in Venezuela or it hasn't.
What they don't get is that each error diminish their capacity to convince people about what they say. And that's not really helpful...
Hugo Chavez is starting to use Twitter to counter his opponents online, forcing a president who often talks for hours to sum up each thought in 140 characters or less.
Chavez urged Venezuelans to watch his newly created account - chavezcandanga - after midnight Tuesday, saying "at that point is when I let loose."
His first tweet in Spanish popped up at 14 minutes after midnight: "Hey how's it going? I appeared like I said I would: at midnight. I'm off to Brazil. And very happy to work for Venezuela. We will be victorious!!"
By late Tuesday, the socialist leader had more than 18,000 followers before posting a single tweet, and that increased to more than 23,000 early Wednesday.
On the 200 anniversary of Venezuelan independence's acts:
Raúl Castro said that Venezuela and Cuba “are increasingly the same thing” and added that he goes back to Cuba very satisfied, because "all our meetings are very important, whether we hold htem here or in Habana”.
On the other hand, Hugo Chávez, took his chance to ratify that he agrees with the "magnificent"speech that Bolivian president, Evo Morales, gave, in which he spoke about "Mother Earth".
That speech was pretty interesting indeed. In it, Evo Morales, who was named "World Hero of the Mother Earth (Pachamama)" by the UN last year, has said that coke serves as a plunger and transgenic chickens produce baldness and homosexuality because for growing them, female hormones are used. He also critisized in similar ways Dutch potatoes (video in Spanish).
Evo is also supporting "Coca Colla", a drink made with cocaine, which its producers are hoping would be a Coca-Cola's competitor in the market. No imperialistic drinks in Bolivia!!
If these guys didn't have power over so much people (and in Cuba's case for so many years, now) this would be funny. As it is, they are only a disgrace.
Iran is increasing its paramilitary Qods force operatives in Venezuela while covertly continuing supplies of weapons and explosives to Taliban and other insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to the Pentagon's first report to Congress on Tehran's military. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF), the Islamist shock troops deployed around the world to advance Iranian interests, "maintains operational capabilities around the world," the report says, adding that "it is well established in the Middle East and North Africa and recent years have witnessed an increased presence in Latin America, particularly Venezuela."
Ibrahim Za'ir, columnist for the Syrian government daily Al-Thawra, stated
that the U.S. had carried out the attacks with the aim of forcing Russia into making concessions to help resolve the crisis with Iran, and also to push Russia into signing the arms reduction treaty: "Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declared that regional and international elements may have been behind the criminal operation that caused... the killing of 40 innocent civilians...
"Like the innocent victims of terror operations in Moscow, Dagestan, and other places in the world, the perpetrators of these operations also did not know the political goals of the operations [that they carried out]. [These perpetrators are] young men or women, in the full flower of their youth, who have been brainwashed with hatred and whose minds have been filled with elements of religious and ideological consciousness removed from the textual context of the books [holy to] the monotheistic religions – particularly [those] of the religion of Islam [i.e. the Koran] that bans the killing of innocents.
"But the planners of the terror operations know full well how to exploit the religion to accomplish their unique goals. It is they who are the most distant from Islam and its commandments... [The fact is that] the leader of the terror operations in the Caucasus, who was killed by Russian intelligence about a month before the recent Moscow operations, was... Sa'id Buryatsky, a Russian whose real name is Alexander Tikhomirov, who was connected to several foreign intelligence networks, particularly the American CIA.
"The U.S.'s condemnation of this does not mislead us. Many terror organizations have weapons and explosives... manufactured by the U.S. and Israel, sent to them via Georgia and other countries close to the U.S.
"Against this backdrop, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's trip to Venezuela to sign 30 agreements with President Hugo Chavez can be understood. Several U.S. and Western newspapers [saw these agreements] as Russia's response to Washington, and as an indirect accusation against it, vis-à-vis the two Moscow subway bombings... [Washington had] hoped that this terror operation would pressure the Russian leadership to make many concessions in all things regarding the signing of the Strategic Missile Arms Limitation Treaty – SALT II [sic][1] with Russia not demanding that the U.S. stop its missile defense project in Eastern Europe and change its position towards Iran, and [forcing] Russia to impose harsh sanctions on Iran [in accordance with Washington's wishes]...
Syria, that country which is a dictatorship and which is giving Scud missiles to Hizbullah.
China has supplanted the US as Brazil's biggest trading partner, a boom repeated across the region. Once almost invisible in Latin America, China has seen its trade here rise from $10bn a year in 2000 to well over $100bn today. Latin officials are rolling out the red carpet to Chinese delegations and hopping on planes not only to Beijing but also Guangzhou, Nanking and Shanghai.
Unlike the Russians, who grab attention by sending warships to visit anti-US leaders, such as Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, but struggle to deliver economic deals, the Chinese are all business. They are importing soy from Argentina, copper from Chile, iron ore from Brazil and zinc from Peru, and export clothes, cars and electronic equipment across the region.
The trade helped Latin America to weather the global economic crisis, but there is concern about a "neo-colonial" pattern in which the region's commodities are sucked abroad while industry loses out to cheap imports aided by China's undervalued currency. When Argentina accused China of dumping goods, Beijing bared its teeth and banned Argentine soya oil, citing safety concerns.
Just yesterday, Chávez announced more investments from China:
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.
He spoke Saturday during a televised appearance attended by China's natural resources minister.
Chavez is providing few other details about the investments.
This change is related with the lack of Human Rights' requirements China imposes.
Chavez raises sword before militia loyalists (seattletimes.nwsource.com). Chavez rallied the civilian militia at an outdoor speech while marking the anniversary of a failed 2002 coup against him. Organizers estimated about 35,000 militia members in the crowd, which filled a downtown avenue in Caracas... "If they were to do it ... you know what you would have to do. Simply take all power in Venezuela, absolutely all, sweep away the bourgeoisie from all political and economic spaces, deepen the revolution," he said.
Honduras' interim government closed its main airport to all flights on Monday after blocking the runway to prevent the return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Clashes with his supporters caused the first death in a week of protests.
Police and soldiers blanketed the streets of the capital early Monday, enforcing a sunset-to-sunrise curfew with batons and metal poles. Civil aviation authorities announced a 24-hour ban on all flights at the country's main airport starting Monday morning.
Soldiers clashed Sunday with thousands of Zelaya backers massed at the airport in hopes of welcoming home the deposed leader removed a week earlier.
But military vehicles and soldiers blocked the runway. Pilots of the plane loaned by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez circled the airport and decided not to risk a crash.
Zelaya instead headed for El Salvador, and vowed to try again Monday or Tuesday in his high-stakes effort to return to power in a country where all branches of government have lined up against him.
Zelaya is banking on the confrontation keeping the pressure on the new Honduran government, reported CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier.
"I call on the Armed Forces of Honduras to lower their rifles," he said late Sunday at a news conference, flanked by the presidents of El Salvador, Argentina, Paraguay and Ecuador, and the secretary-general of the Organization of American States, Jose Miguel Insulza, who flew there from Washington.
"I am risking myself personally to resolve the problems without violence," said Zelaya,
If he was really interested in resolving the problems without violence, he would never return there. He just wants power back.
Meanwhile it looks like that shots which hurt several demonstrators, were fired by other demonstrators who were supporting Zelaya.
Maria Anastasia O'Grady has written a very good piece in WSJ titled: "Honduras defends its democracy".
There is a very interesting connection in drug trade: FARC-Venezuela-Honduras. Actually, 40% of the drug which enters in Europe comes from Venezuela.From this blog we have more interesting data:
Honduras and other Central American nations have become major transshipment points in recent years for Colombian cocaine, particularly as Mexico’s government cracks down on cartels.
The drugs arrive in Honduras on non-commercial aircraft from Venezuela and increasingly in speedboats from Colombia, according to the Key West, Florida-based Joint Interagency Task Force-South, which coordinates drug interdiction in region.
To combat that, Zelaya wanted to legalise drug consumption. I believe that would have been a major movement: everyone could take drugs freely. Yes, the rise on the offered drug would low the price, but the lower price and the freedom to take drugs would surely produce a rise in the people who take drugs. Regarding the rise in insecurity as a result of the drug cartels using the country to transport the drugs, I am not sure that would be ended just because of a legalization. Firstly, drug cartels are not only onto drugs, but diversify their business. So it's probable that, if a legalization arrived, they would smuggle tobacco or other things. Secondly, the legalization of drugs (as happens with tobacco) can't be done to allow any type of drug as there are some who are lethal. So, no one tells the supporters of legalization that there wouldn't be people who would take those drugs to proof their effects.
“Every one of these legislative or administrative measures are used to stop freedom of expression, while the worldwide trend is precisely to erase every limit to freedom of expression, as happens in the region with the abrogation of the crimes of insulting authorities or the elimination of censorship”, Abreu, ex president of the Interamerican Human Rights Court.
Tomás Terán, a member of the executive committee of the Movement to Socialism, denounced just yesterday that the announcement made by the Minister of Education, Héctor Navarro, related to the control of the MSM by the new Education Act, "only wants to control all the MSM's schedule to let Hugo Chávez achieve a total control of the information given to Venezuelan society".
He also added this Govt. action is not surprising nor improvised, but that "this law to control all the independent media is passed at the same time as the Criminal Procedure Organic Code to reach the real MSM censorship so much wanted by Chávez".
Some days ago, CONATEL (MSM authority) has revoked the concessions to 240 radios because they didn't give their information on time, but in the same press conference Venezuelan Minister Cabello added they wanted to "make a more democratic use of the MSM", as "27 families controlled 31% of the radios". And??
Recently International Press Society critisized the harrasment some MSM han in Venezuela. As the blog K-Minos says:
"No one can say there are no freedom of expression in Venezuela, but we can safely say that the freedom of expression is menaced and at risk, because of the hateful statements and speeches, because of the menaces expressed against journalists and MSM nearly daily, because of shutting radio channels just because they are denouncing regional leaders, because they consider internet as a luxury so as to stop the public from using it to "save", because of expelling from the country anyone who speaks uncomfortable ideas to the Government, whether they are HRW's director or a Spanish MP. Because of recording journalists' private conversations in a clear violation of the terms of our constitution and because of a lot of other cases that any of you can have knowledge of, just visiting any of the published dailies".
It's not the first time. Recently he was menacing Globovisión, because he does not like what the channel says, the latter in an important campaign against the TV station:
The government has raided the property of Guillerma Zuloaga, Globovisión's president, whom it accuses of usury and "environmental crimes". It has also fined the channel $4.2m (€3m, £2.5m) for allegedly failing to pay taxes six years ago. Such action has provoked widespread criticism that the government is harassing a powerful opponent.
Mr Chávez has made his feelings abundantly clear. "I can assure you, this network will not remain on the airwaves much longer" if it does not change its ways soon, he warned this week.
But now the General Prosecutor has had another idea: passing as a law the "MSM crimes": they pretend to punish as such, "every individual who, using false informations by any mean, would cause panic or maintain the citizenry in a state of anxiety", with 2-5 years in prison.
Of course, this is just another part of the same reality: the agression against the private property. Some days ago, they have forbidden some ads praising private property and against the law dubbed as "the Cuban Law".
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said his country is suspending oil supplies to Honduras over the recent coup in the Central American country, Spain's EFE news agency said on Friday.(...) "We have suspended shipments of oil" produced by Petrocaribe to the country, Chavez said in his television program on Thursday night.
The Venezuelan president said Petrocaribe energy supplies to Honduras had been planned for next week.
Petrocaribe is an oil alliance between Venezuela and Caribbean nations that allows certain countries to buy oil at preferential rates. Chavez denied claims that Venezuelan energy supplies to Honduras on preferential terms had constituted "financial assistance" to Zelaya.
And now, Chávez stops sending oil because he is really concerned about democracy and civil liberties in Honduras. How impressive!
President Hugo Chavez's government assumed control of Venezuela's third-largest bank on Friday — making the state the largest player in the nation's banking system.
The purchase of the Spanish-owned Banco de Venezuela gives Chavez's socialist government control over more than one-fifth of bank deposits as he tightens his grip over the economy.
“[The Santander Group] wanted to sell the bank to a Venezuelan businessperson who asked for permission, like the law requires. But now I say no... We are going to recuperate the Bank of Venezuela for all the people, since this is a country that is recuperating its wealth in order to put it at the service of the people,” Chávez announced.
At the service of the people: that's why he has gained control over more than one-fifth of bank deposits.
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