Iran welcomes Chavez as partner against Western "bullies" [ WORLD BULLETIN- TURKEY NEWS, WORLD NEWS ]:
Related:
Obama: Nuclear Venezuela is OK by him.
Ahmadinejad: "Promise of God is that the enemies of our nations will go one day".

Photo: AFP.

FOXNews.com - Chavez: Venezuela Studying Nuclear Program:

"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?

If I were Colombian, I would be really worried.

Un update on this story. From La Prensa:

“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!

Related: Who cares about Honduras.