JANUARY 2008

RAUL CASTRO TOPS FIDEL IN CUBA ELECTION

       HAVANA, CUBA  -- Acting dictator Raul Castro - not his older brother Fidel - was the top vote-getter in Cuban parliamentary elections, according to official results Wednesday.  The 76-year-old Raul received 99.4 percent of votes cast in the family's base of Santiago in eastern Cuba - a percentage point more than Fidel got. Both brothers easily won re-election to the rubber-stamp legislature known as the National Assembly of Popular Power, as did all of the 614 candidates presented to the island's 8.4 million voters on Jan. 20.

    The unopposed candidates needed to get at least half the votes cast in their districts and none came close to losing. The lowest figure - 73 percent - went to Barbaro Osmani Lago, from the western province of Pinar del Rio. There was only one choice for each office and organized campaigning was forbidden. While membership in the Communist Party was not required, only party loyalists achieve leadership positions.

    Raul, who is also defense minister, bested his brother in the 2005 parliamentary vote too, getting 99.75 percent compared to Fidel's 99.01. The younger Castro has been governing Cuba since his brother underwent emergency intestinal surgery in July 2006 and provisionally ceded power. Despite his illness, the elder Castro remains head of the Council of State, Cuba's supreme governing body. The new parliament convenes Feb. 24 and will choose a new council from its members. Fidel has not said whether he wants to remain head of state or retire.

VENEZUELA RATED AS HIGH-RISK COUNTRY FOR INVESTMENT

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA  -- Complex risks, arbitrary policies and a wave of nationalizations have turned Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia in countries with a high risk for investments, while other countries such as Peru, have improved as to economic stability and are viewed as moderately risky. According to the 2008 Political and Economic Risk Map prepared by insurance company AON, disclosed Wednesday in Madrid, 25 out of the 50 world's largest economies show a "high level of political and economic risk," Efe reported.

    Among the major risks, the survey pointed to exchange, economic and political risks as the key factors for decision-making in the business sector, as they provoke large loses among foreign firms and investors every year. AON Credit's Javier Valero said the political situation has deteriorated in some countries, and were placed under the category of high-risk countries in the map of the insurance company.

    Among high-risk countries there are Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia, where the major risk factors are present, including money transfers, strikes and social instability, political interferences in the economy, terrorism, war and unpaid debt. According to Valero, in Venezuela, with six risk icons, there is a risk of "political interference" as "you have the sense that the State is warning it may take legal actions against business ownership."

VENEZUELAN DIPLOMAT ACCUSED OF ILLEGAL CAR TRADING IN ARGENTINA 

      BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA  -- A Venezuelan diplomat and an Uruguayan diplomat are included in a ring of irregular trading of luxury cars imported in Argentina under special licenses, as shown by the first proofs produced in this scandal under scrutiny by the Argentinean justice, local newspapers reported on Wednesday.  The proofs point to Uruguayan Myriam Fraschini de Pastori and Venezuelan Orán Jesús Primera Petit, stressed Argentinean daily newspapers La Nación and Clarín, respectively, quoting official sources.

    According to La Nación, one of the vehicles under investigation was purchased by folklore singer Oscar "El chaqueño" Palavecino from Fraschini de Pastori, who in 2005 was a counselor minister with the Uruguayan Embassy. But she no longer is in Buenos Aires, Efe reported. Marcelo Arancibia, Palavecino's lawyer, said the singer bought a Hummer H2 "in good faith" at USD 112,000. The title of ownership shows that the truck was imported in Argentina under a special tax-exempted diplomat license.

     Clarín reported that judge Marcelo Aguinsky is in charge of the case of Venezuelan colonel Orán Jesús Primera Petit, whom the Argentinean Foreign Ministry granted a diplomat license to import a Lamborghini one month after he ceased in his role as military attaché in the Venezuelan Embassy. The vehicle -valued at more than USD 200,000- was promptly cleared in the customs service, without meeting the minimum term of nine months under diplomatic license, as provided under the law.

01-30- 2008

SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN WON THE FLORIDA REPUBLICAN PRIMARY

       MIAMI, FLORIDA  --  Sen. John McCain won the Florida Republican primary with 37 percent over Romney. Giuliani had 15 percent of the vote, followed closely by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee who held 14 percent. A top campaign official from McCain's camp has been in "ongoing discussions" with Giuliani's campaign about endorsing McCain's candidacy, a GOP official familiar with talks told CNN Tuesday.  A source close to Giuliani confirmed that discussions were taking place and said there is talk among the staff that an endorsement could come Wednesday in California.

    The source said McCain and Giuliani need to talk, but "we are working to make it happen." "Tonight, my friends, we celebrate. Tomorrow, it's back to work," McCain said as he claimed victory. "We have a ways to go, but we're getting close, and for that, you all have my profound thanks." McCain benefited in his wins in New Hampshire and South Carolina from independent and cross-over voters. McCain, Romney and the three other candidates engaged in a civil debate in Florida on Thursday night. But since Friday, the McCain and Romney camps, and the candidates themselves, have fired away at each other over the war in Iraq, the economy, illegal immigration and border security, campaign finance reform and the environment.

    Florida is a closed primary, which means that only registered party members may vote in their own party's primary. McCain won primary contests in New Hampshire and South Carolina, thanks in part to the backing of independent voters who cast ballots in the Republican contests. Nearly 1 million Florida voters cast their ballots through early voting and absentees -- a sign the state will probably experience a record turnout even though party sanctions have rendered the Democratic contest meaningless.

AUTHORITIES BEAT VENEZUELAN STUDENTS OUTSIDE COURTROOM 

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA  -- A group of students trying to stage a demonstration Tuesday morning outside the courtroom of northwestern Zulia state to support political prisoners was attacked by security guards. The peaceful demonstration became a fight that left students hit and injured.

    Students planned to chain themselves to the gates of the courthouse to demand the authorities to speed up legal proceedings against political prisoners.

FORMER DEFENSE MINISTER BADUEL REJECTS BELLIGERENT STATUS FOR FARC

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA  Venezuela's former Defense Minister Raúl Baduel Tuesday rejected President Hugo Chávez's proposal to recognize the belligerent status of the rebel Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC).

    Baduel -formerly a close Chávez's ally- compared the Venezuelan ruler's proposal to the fact of acknowledging an "outlaw" state.

VENEZUELA IMPORTS 30 PERCENT OF FOODSTUFF FROM COLOMBIA

      BOGOTA, COLOMBIA --  Venezuela is facing "serious problems regarding food supply" and the concept of smuggling should be closely reviewed, according to the chair of the Venezuelan Council for Trades and Services Nelson Maldonado. "The government is well aware of who is involved in smuggling and who is not," he added.

    According to Maldonado, tense Venezuela-Colombia relations are particularly going to hit consumers and traders. "Thirty percent of the food we eat in Venezuela comes from Colombia, and I am talking about food items such as eggs, beef, etc. All of this is produced in Colombia."

    Maldonado slashed out at President Hugo Chávez's intervention in the economy and forecast this year would be marked by "uncertainty."  "As the government intervenes in the economy, it creates these difficulties."

01-29- 2008

VENEZUELAN CONGRESS CLAIMS THE US IS PAVING THE WAY TO INVADE THE COUNTRY

       CARACAS, VENEZUELA -- The Venezuelan Legislature endorsed a resolution rejecting the statements made by the US Drug Czar John Walters, who last Sunday accused President Hugo Chávez of becoming a "facilitator for drug traffic to Europe and other places in this hemisphere."

    The head of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Saúl Ortega, proposed condemning Walters' remarks, and claimed that Washington "is using drug traffic as a political weapon to interfere" in Venezuela.

    Ortega -like most of the deputies who took the floor in Congress on Thursday- reminded the US invasion of Panama to overthrow military dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega. Ortega argued that Walters' criticisms are part of "a political plot trying to pave the way to attack Venezuela."

THE FARC REBUT EUROPE'S SUPPORT FOR COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT URIBE 

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA  -- Iván Márquez, one of the seven leaders of the directorate of the rebel Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC), criticized both Spain and the European Union (EU) for their support to Colombian President Álvaro Uribe's government during his recent visit to Europe. Spain and the EU "are sheltering Uribe in a niche coated with the Teflon of infamy," said the commander of the FARC in a press release published Sunday on the website of the news agency Agencia de Noticias Nueva Colombia (Anncol), which usually publishes the communiqués issued by the guerrilla group, AP quoted.

    Uribe "is welcome by the Borbón (Spanish King Juan Carlos I) in his hangover, as well as the perverse (Javier) Solana (Foreign Affairs Secretary of the EU), and Spanish President (the head of the Spanish government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero), who should rather recognize the self-determination of the Basque Country instead of endorsing scoundrels," Márquez said.

    He added that Uribe remains in office "thanks to the military and political support from the US government, and the Spanish King and government." Additionally, Reyes said the FARC "are ready" for a swap of hostages, adding that "the (Colombian) government will have to accept it."

FRANCE ASKS COLOMBIA FOR CAUTION REGARDING SIEGE ON THE FARC

      PARIS, FRANCE  --  France urged Colombia to refrain from taking any move that may "endanger" the lives of the hostages -including French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt-, following President Álvaro Uribe's decision to besiege the areas where the rebel Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) is holding people as hostages.

    "France has a widely known steady position: nothing should be done that may endanger the hostages' lives," the assistant spokesman of the French Minister of Foreign Affairs Frederic Desagneaux told reporters.  The spokesman would not say whether Uribe's order to locate and besiege such areas would endanger the hostages' lives, as their relatives fear, AFP reported.

    Last Sunday, Yolanda Pulecio, Betancourt's mother, accused Uribe of risking the hostages with his order to besiege the areas where they may be held. "This declaration shows that he (Uribe) does not care about the lives of the hostages, and that he has no trouble putting their lives at stake," Pulecio said.

01-28- 2008

hugo chavez said that colombia is plotting attack against venezuela

       CARACAS, VENEZUELA --   Hugo Chavez accused neighboring Colombia and the United States of plotting a military "aggression" against Venezuela. "I accuse the government of Colombia of devising a conspiracy, acting as a pawn of the U.S. empire, of devising a military provocation against Venezuela," Chavez said. "A military aggression is being prepared," Chavez added, saying that Washington aims to "oblige us to respond, and later a war could be set off." He cited intelligence reports but did not offer evidence to support his claim.

     Venezuela and Colombia have been locked in a diplomatic crisis since November, when Colombian President Alvaro Uribe ended Chavez's mediation role with Colombia's leftist rebels in seeking a hostages-for-prisoners swap. Chavez warned Colombia not to attempt a "provocation," warning that it would trigger a decision by Venezuela to cut off all oil exports.
"In that scenario, write it down: the price of oil would reach $300, because there wouldn't be oil for anyone," Chavez said. "The invaders would have to step over our dead bodies."
   
     Chavez has repeatedly accused Washington of plotting to oust or kill him, though it was the first time he has accused Colombia's U.S.-allied government in such strident terms. He spoke as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in Colombia, saying she and two other senior American officials who have visited Bogota recently "came to attack Venezuela" in their remarks. Rice did not mention Chavez during her earlier public statements in Colombia.

HUGO CHAVEZ URGED HIS LATIN AMERICAN ALLIES TO PULL RESERVES FROM US

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA  -- Hugo Chavez urged his Latin American allies to begin withdrawing billions of dollars in international reserves from U.S. banks, warning of a looming U.S. economic crisis. Chavez made the suggestion as he hosted a summit aimed at boosting Latin American integration and rolling back U.S. influence. "We should start to bring our reserves here," Chavez said. "Why does that money have to be in the north? ... You can't put all your eggs in one basket."

    To help pool resources within the region, Chavez and other leaders launched a new development bank at the summit of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Nations of Our America, or ALBA. The left-leaning regional trade alliance first proposed by Chavez is intended to offer an alternative, socialist path to integration while snubbing U.S.-backed free-trade deals. Chavez noted that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Colombia in recent days, saying "that has to do with this summit."

    "The empire doesn't accept alternatives," Chavez told the gathering, attended by the presidents of Bolivia and Nicaragua and Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage. Chavez warned that U.S. "imperialism is entering into a crisis that can affect all of us" and said Latin America "will save itself alone." The ALBA Bank is "being born with the aim of boosting development in our countries," Venezuelan Finance Minister Rafael Isea said Saturday as he and other officials gathered at the bank's Caracas office for an inaugural ceremony.

FORMER INDONESIAN DICTATOR SUHARTO DIES AT 86

      JAKARTA, INDONESIA --  Former dictator Suharto, an army general who crushed Indonesia's communist movement and pushed aside the country's founding father to usher in 32 years of tough rule that saw up to a million political opponents killed, died Sunday. He was 86. Suharto had been ailing in a hospital in the capital since Jan. 4 when he was admitted with failing kidneys, heart and lungs. Doctors prolonged his life for three weeks through dialysis and a ventilator, but he lost consciousness and stopped breathing on his own overnight before slipping into a coma Sunday.

     A statement issued by chief presidential doctor Marjo Subiandono said he was declared dead at 1:10 p.m. The cause of death was given as multi-organ failure. Doctors did not try to revive him when his heart stopped beating because it was too weak, said Dr. Joko Raharjo. "All his children were at his bedside," he said. The office of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced a week of national mourning, calling for flags to be lowered to half-staff, and the body taken by motorcade to the family home.

     Finally toppled by mass street protests in 1998, the U.S. Cold War ally's departure opened the way for democracy in this predominantly Muslim nation of 235 million people and he withdrew from public life, rarely venturing from his comfortable villa on a leafy lane in the capital. Suharto had ruled with a totalitarian dominance that saw soldiers stationed in every village, instilling a deep fear of authority across this Southeast Asian nation of some 6,000 inhabited islands that stretch across more than 3,000 miles.

01-27- 2008

SECRETARY CONDOLEEZZA RICE PUSHES FREE-TRADE DEAL WITH COLOMBIA

      BOGOTA, COLOMBIA  -- Colombia's problems with violence -- particularly labor strife -- could get worse unless Congress approves a free-trade deal with the country, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. Rice's visit Friday is the latest, most high-profile one in a coordinated campaign by Colombia and the White House to win over skeptical Democrats and revive the trade pact, which was first signed in 2006 but has not yet been passed by Congress.

     "[I'm here] to say very strongly that whatever the challenges facing Colombia, they are not going to be easier if this free-trade deal does not pass," Rice said Thursday in the Andean nation's second-largest city, Medellin. "In fact, they will be harder."

    The Bush administration's support for the free-trade deal is not because we believe that the Colombian story is perfect or complete," Rice told reporters, "but because we believe that in the context of the growth and economic activity that the free trade agreement will produce, Colombia will be better able to meet its problems." Earlier, en route to Colombia, Rice told reporters, "It's very obvious that just a few years ago, I think you could have said that Colombia was in danger of being a failed state, and it's come back from that."

COLOMBIAN OFFICER: THE FARC AND ELN ARE HOLDING HOSTAGES IN VENEZUELAN TERRITORY

      BOGOTA, COLOMBIA  -- Rebel Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) are actually holding hostages in Venezuela, even though the Venezuelan government denies it, General Freddy Padilla de León, the commander of the Colombian Military Forces said in an interview published on Monday.

     "Yes, of course those kidnappings exist, and it is regrettable," Padilla de León told Bogota-based daily newspaper El Tiempo. He explained that such cases are recorded in the registers kept by anti-kidnapping military and police units in Colombia.

    According to Padilla de León, the FARC and the ELN "have kidnapped Colombians and taken them to Venezuela, and have also kidnapped Venezuelans and are keeping them in Venezuela. This is an issue that even Venezuelan cattle-raisers have reported," he added.

VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION LAUNCHES PACT FOR UNITY 

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA  -- Representatives of opposition Acción Democrática (AD), Causa R, Copei, Partido Popular, Movimiento Al Socialismo (MAS), Primero Justicia (PJ), Proyecto Venezuela, Alianza Bravo Pueblo (ABP) and Un Nuevo Tiempo (UNT) parties Wednesday disclosed a draft unity agreement to secure union in the regional vote this year.

    The proposal includes a commitment to build unity, "a democratic alternative particularly focused on the problems facing the Venezuelans," said César Morillo, member of UNT.  In a press conference, he read a 10-item document explaining the goals the opposition organizations have set, particularly the need to unite to win the October election.

    The opposition parties decided to initial the pact on January 23, on the 50th anniversary of the overthrow of dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez. Opposition leader Enrique Mendoza said the regional election would be marked by surprises, as based on recent polls the popularity of President Hugo Chávez's government is diving.  He explained that some 80 percent of Venezuelans reject pro-government mayors nationwide, with rejection against some pro-government governors at 90 percent.
 

01-26- 2008

SECRETARY GENERAL JOSE INSULZA BELIEVES THE FARC ARE INVOLVED IN ACTS THE OAS VIEWS AS "TERORIST" 

      LA PAZ, BOLIVIA  --  Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) José Miguel Insulza Friday in Bolivia said the rebel Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces are perpetrating acts classed as "terrorist" under the Inter American Convention.

    The Convention "clearly categorizes some actions performed by the FARC as terrorist," Insulza said in a news conference in La Paz, during the second and last day of an official visit to Bolivia, Efe reported.   Insulza therefore ratified the opinion he voiced last Wednesday in Washington following a session of the OAS Permanent Council.

     A debate about the FARC's status emerged following a proposal made by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez to remove the guerrilla group and the rebel National Liberation Army (ELN) from the lists of terrorist organizations. "How can you possibly avoid classing the FARC as terrorist? Let them stop attacking civilians and kidnapping people," Insulza declared.

A VENEZUELAN LAWYER ADMITS BEING AN ILLEGAL FOREIGN AGENT IN THE UNITED

      MIAMI, FLORIDA  --  A Venezuelan lawyer hired by his country's government last year to put a lid on a political scandal involving campaign cash for Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner pleaded guilty in Miami federal court Friday morning to being an illegal foreign agent in the United States. Moises Maionica, 36, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring and acting as an agent in the United States for the Venezuelan government.

    Maionica, who works as a corporate lawyer in Venezuela, is cooperating with the federal investigation, which has implicated four others in a plot to cover up a campaign donation of $800,000 in cash to Kirchner. He faces up to 10 years in prison. His sentencing is set for April 4. Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson had been caught Aug. 4 with the campaign money upon arrival in a chartered plane at a Buenos Aires airport. Antonini, wanted on customs violations in Argentina, returned to Miami days later and began cooperating with the FBI.

    He wore a wire during meetings with the unregistered Venezuelan agents. The FBI also had taps on his phone to record conversations with them. A total of 41 recordings from Aug. 23 to Dec. 11 were filed as evidence, court records show. Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Mulvihill said in recent hearings that the Argentine and Venezuelan governments collaborated on the coverup to combat a ''public relations disaster'' that erupted after the suitcase story broke last August.

SEVEN CUBAN DANCERS DEFECT IN MEXICO

      MIAMI, FLORIDA  -- At least seven young members of the Spanish Ballet of Cuba have defected during an arts festival in the Mexican city of Mérida, and four of them already are in Miami.

    They were the latest in a wave of defections by artists that in December alone brought to Miami three top dancers in the Cuban National Ballet, four members of the Cuban National Circus, six members of the musical group Los Tres de La Habana and top TV personality Carlos Otero. Spanish Ballet dancers Cindy Argüelles and Lisandra Frontella, both 20, Daryl Pérez, 19, and Erick Pupo, 18, arrived in Miami on Sunday, just three days after they defected.

     The Spanish Ballet, Cuba's top group devoted to Spanish dances, was in Mérida for the International Arts Fair held from Jan. 5 to 20. The group performed Carmen on Jan. 17 and 18. Pérez said that after the show on Jan. 17, three other dancers defected, including top star Liliana Fagoaga. He identified the others as Marloon Rodríguez and José Luis Uz, and said they are hiding in Mexico while trying to reach the United States. Pérez, who joined the troupe three years ago, said he had decided to defect at the first chance.

01-25- 2008

HUGO CHAVEZ TO PURCHASE ATTACK HELICOPTERS FROM RUSSIA

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA  --HUGO CHAVEZ GOVERNMENT  placed an order with Russian weapons manufacturer Rostvertol for attack helicopters MI-28N.  The firm's director Boris Sliusar said it was "premature to talk about deadlines and quantities," because "the agreement is yet to be initialed." However, he said the first units were likely to be delivered in the first half of 2009, news agency Ria Novosti said.

     Mi-28N choppers -known as "Night Hunter"- are last-generation attack helicopters with a major goal to provide air support to terrestrial troops, regardless of weather conditions. With an outstanding flight speed (186 m/h), it is virtually invisible to anti-aircraft defense. It features a two-place armored cabin and is equipped with state-of-the-art air weapons allowing hitting target under poor weather conditions.

     The first MI-28N choppers manufactured by Rostvertol were delivered last Tuesday to the Russian Defense Ministry. Chávez showed interest in the "Night Hunter" in July 2007, when he visited the manufacturing plant. Venezuela has purchased from Russia multi-purpose cargo helicopters Mi-17, combat helicopters MI-35, and choppers MI-26, viewed as the largest helicopter in the world.

COLOMBIAN INTELLIGENCE: HUGO CHAVEZ GOVERNMENT IS PROVIDING AMMUNITION TO THE FARC  

      BOGOTA, COLOMBIA  --  HUGO CHAVEZ GOVERNMENT is regularly supplying ammunition for some 15,000 AK rifles used by the rebel Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ALN), Colombian military intelligence officers said, according to daily newspaper El Nuevo Herald.

    The sources claimed their evidence came from inspections of weapons and ammunition seized from guerrillas in northeastern Colombia, on the border with Venezuela, and the testimony of deserters from the FARC and ELN, Efe reported. El Nuevo Herald said the Colombian sources do not know whether the provision of ammo is made under President Hugo Chávez's command or if it comes amidst corrupt practices by Venezuelan military and police officers.

     The FARC's use of Venezuelan-made ammunition was reported by more than 10 of the some 95 guerrilla members who defected in Colombia, the officers added. The only factory in South America that makes the 7.62x39 ammunition for AK-47 assault rifles is the Venezuelan state-run Compañía Anónima Venezolana de Industrias Militares (Cavim).

FARC PROCLAIM THEY ARE A STATE UNDER FORMATION IN COLOMBIA 

      BOGOTA, COLOMBIA --  The Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) are a belligerent force, as both previous governments in Colombian and a number of foreign governments have acknowledged, as well a State under formation, said the rebel group's number two man Raúl Reyes in an interview published on Wednesday.

     "The FARC are a belligerent force acknowledged by previous governments in Colombia and the world," Reyes told communist weekly publication Voz replying to a questionnaire over the Internet. Reyes was referring to President Hugo Chávez's proposal to recognize the political status of the rebel groups FARC and National Liberation Army (ELN). The Venezuelan ruler also suggested removing the guerrilla organizations from the US and European Union lists of terrorist groups, AFP reported.

     "The gestation of the new Bolivarian, socialist State in the FARC is indisputable," Reyes added. President Álvaro Uribe, as well as Washington and the EU, has rejected Chávez's proposal. Further, Reyes said a swap of 40 civilian hostages for 500 FARC troops in jail "requires the immediate demilitarization" of the municipalities of Pradera and Florida (south Colombia).

01-24- 2008

HUGO CHAVEZ CALLS PRESIDENT ALVARO URIBE "COWARD" AND "PAWN OF THE EMPIRE"

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA  --While last week the Colombian government asked  Hugo Chávez to "stop the attacks," on Sunday the Venezuelan ruler branded his Colombian counterpart as "coward" and "unworthy," among other things. The reason behind Chávez's new attack against Colombian Presient Alvaro Uribe were the statements US drug tsar John Walters and the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Glen Mullen made in Bogota against Chávez.

     "The Colombian government calls for backups to make an attack, and the gringos come right away. The chief of the gringo military came to Bogota three days ago and said Chávez was a threat. On Saturday, (US President George W.) Bush's drug tsar came and said that Chávez is the world's drug trafficker. Obviously, all of this was fostered by the Colombian government, which put them there to attack us," said the Venezuelan ruler during the 301st edition of his weekly radio and television show Aló Presidente (Hello, President), broadcast from Machiques, northwestern oil-rich Zulia state.

    On Sunday, former US diplomat Myles Frechette, an ex US Ambassador to Bogota, ratified the claims made by the US drug tsar and told Colombian network Radio Caracol that the Venezuelan president allowed "the operation of airplanes flying in and out his country carrying drugs." Chávez labeled President Uribe as "a mere and sad pawn of the US empire meant to move against the Latin American peoples." "A man like that is unworthy of being the president of a country. He is a coward, liar, troublemaker, and plotter. Uribe is good to be a mafia boss. Don Vito Corleone pales besides a man like Álvaro  Uribe, who has strong link to the paramilitary, but he enjoys the gringos' protection because he is their paw," Chávez said.

THOMAS SHANNON: THE US IS OPEN TO DIALOGUE WITH VENEZUELA

      WASHINGTON, D.C. -- US Under Secretary of State THOMAS SHANNON once again (HE HAS DONE IT MANY, MANY TIMES BEFORE) invited Hugo Chávez to talk to the United States about COOPERATION in "specific areas" of their bilateral relations, particularly anti-drug efforts. Chávez HAS REJECTED this invitation in the past. Regarding the fight against drug traffic, the Venezuelan ruler replied by discontinuing Venezuela-DEA cooperation program.

    "Our relations with Venezuela have gone through a hard period," he said. "However, we have sent signal for opening up such relations. We aim at opening to focus on specific areas in which we believe our relations may improve." Shannon stated one of the "highly important" fields he would like to improve was the battle against drug traffic, which should be waged as "multinational war, rather than on a country-by-country basis," AP reported.

     In this context, he said, at the end of 2007 President George W. Bush proposed the Merida Initiative - USD 1.4 billion program for Mexico and seven Central American countries intended to complement the regional efforts under way in Colombia and the Caribbean. "Unfortunately, we do not have any strategic plan with Venezuela." "We would like to have it."

THE VENEZUELAN GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCED THAT IT WOULD DENOUNCE THE US BEFORE OAS 

      WASHINGTON, D.C. --  The Venezuelan Government announced that it would denounce before the Organization of American States (OAS) recent "aggressions" from the United States.

    The complaint stems from US officials' statements, according to which Venezuela is permissive regarding the drug traffic in Latin America.

     Last week, US Drug Czar John P. Walters said in Bogota that Venezuela was not taking efficient moves to fight drug smuggling. In response to these remarks, Venezuelan ambassador to the OAS Jorge Valero will request the floor on Wednesday in order to "denounce aggressions," reported the Venezuelan embassy in Washington.

01-21- 2008

HUGO CHAVEZ SAYS HE CHEWS COCA DAILY

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA  --Venezuela's controversial Hugo Chávez has revealed that he regularly consumes coca -- the source of cocaine -- raising questions about the legality of his actions. Chávez's comments on coca initially went almost unnoticed, coming amid a four-hour speech to the National Assembly during which he made international headlines by calling on other countries to stop branding two leftist Colombian guerrilla groups as terrorists and instead recognize them as ``armies.''

       ''I chew coca every day in the morning . . . and look how I am,'' he is seen saying on a video of the speech, as he shows his biceps to the audience. Chávez, who does not drink alcohol, added that just as Fidel Castro ''sends me Coppelia ice cream and a lot of other things that regularly reach me from Havana,'' Bolivian President Evo Morales ``sends me coca paste . . . I recommend it to you.'' ''It is another symptom that [Chávez] has totally lost the concept of limits,'' said Aníbal Romero, a political scientist with the Caracas Metropolitan University. ``It shows Chávez is a man out of control.''

     More seriously, Venezuelan and Bolivian analysts said Chávez's comments amount to a dangerous endorsement of a substance controlled around the world, and perhaps even an illegal act by a very public head of state. ''If he is affirming that he consumes coca paste, he is admitting that he is consuming a substance that is illegal in Bolivia as well as Venezuela,'' said Hernán Maldonado, a Bolivian analyst living in Miami. ''Plus, it's an accusation that Evo Morales is a narco-trafficker'' for sending him the paste.

FORMER AMBASSADOR FORECASTS LIKELY CARACAS-BOGOTA CLASH

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA -- Former Venezuelan Ambassador to Colombia Fernando Gerbasi Friday did not rule out a likely military confrontation between Bogota and Caracas, as a consequence of President Hugo Chávez's support to the rebel Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC).

     "I would not rule out this idea. I do not think it could happen anytime soon, but there is a possibility," Gerbasi told Bogota-based Radio Caracol, as quoted by AFP.

     He added that such possibility could become a fact if the insults continue to escalate and some moves are made "particularly by the Venezuelan government, to favor the FARC." Gerbasi explained that Chávez's attacks against his Colombian counterpart Alvaro are meant to distract Venezuelans and pave the way to stay in power forever without solving the problems hitting the country.

COLOMBIAN ARMY FREES TWO HOSTAGES KIDNAPPED BY  FARC  

      BOGOTA, COLOMBIA  --  The move came in Antioquia province, northwestern Colombia, hours after Oscar Velez, the auditor of a car manufacturer company and Gustavo Martinez, a family judge were reported missing by their relatives, the reports said. Colombian television images showed the operation to retrieve the two men in progress.

     General Luis Roberto Pico, the Army commander of the seventh military brigade told local media that Colombian soldiers, in rescuing the two men, engaged in fighting and killed a FARC rebel. "As a result from the combat we rescued two citizens that were kidnapped and also shot dead a guerrilla that belonged to the 34 FARC unit and confiscated his machine gun," he said.

     According to Pico, intelligence work allowed troops to carry out the searches to find the two hostages and to prevent rebels from taking them deeper into the jungle. Both Velez and Martinez were reunited with their loved ones following their rescue from the jungle. Colombia has one of the world's highest rates of kidnapping.

01-20- 2008

TODAY'S FRAUDULENT ELECTIONS MAY HASTEN CASTRO REIGN'S END

      HAVANA, CUBA  --Cuba's election TODay for the national legislature includes the ailing dictator Fidel Castro as a candidate, but experts say the vote may well be the first step toward his retirement. Castro has recently hinted he's willing to give up his role of president -- opening the door for the first time for the rubber-stamp National Assembly to become a critical force in choosing who runs the island, experts say. ''Is the Council of State going to elect a chief of state for the next five years a person who has not been seen in public for a year and a half?'' said Cuba expert Paolo Spadoni, a visiting assistant professor at Rollins College in Winter Park.

     ''To me, it's more probable that he will relinquish that role,'' he said. ``There's a good chance Fidel Castro will not be the next president.'' Cubans head to the polls Sunday to choose 614 members of the National Assembly. All the candidates are running uncontested and have virtually no chance of losing. Among them: Fidel Castro, 81, whose name will appear on the ballot representing Santiago de Cuba.

     Castro was nominated even though he turned over power to his brother Raúl ''temporarily'' in July 2006 after suffering from intestinal bleeding. Three surgeries later, he has not returned to office, and 75-year-old Raúl continues to run the nation. The elder Castro has only been seen in sporadic videos and photographs, the latest this week when he appeared in a video with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. ''I think, Fidel is ready to take on his political role in Cuba and his historical role before the world,'' Lula da Silva said after his meeting. He added that Castro was ''incredibly lucid'' and has ``impeccable health.'' But despite Lula da Silva's and others' assurances that Castro's health is on the upswing, experts say the next part of the Cuban election process could show otherwise.

FORMER POLITICAL PRISONERS FASTING TO PROTEST TODAY'S FRAUDULENT ELECTIONS IN CUBA

      HAVANA, CUBA -- The former political prisoner Ricardo Pupo Sierra, president Human Rights Civic Front in Cienfuegos, called for a fasting for Sunday, January 20 protesting against the fraudulent elections that the Castro regime will holding that day. 

    Pupo Sierra stated that these upcoming elections are not free and democratic elections, in addition to being a fraud is cheating the suffering people of Cuba.

     He stated that the vast majority of citizens will be voting vote forced by Agents of government organizations such as the Political Police, Defense Committees of the Revolution, Federation of Cuban Women, unions and other organizations affiliated to the Castro regime.

RUSSIAN ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF SAID THAT HIS COUNTRY COULD USE NUCLEAR WEAPONS AS PREVENTIVE MEASURE IN CASE OF MAJOR THREAT 

      MOSCOW, RUSSIA  -- Russia's military chief of staff said Saturday that Moscow could use nuclear weapons in preventive strikes in case of a major threat, the latest aggressive remarks from increasingly assertive Russian authorities. "We have no plans to attack anyone, but we consider it necessary for all our partners in the world community to clearly understand ... that to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Russia and its allies, military forces will be used, including preventively, including with the use of nuclear weapons," Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky said.

     The comments from the hawkish Baluyevsky did not appear to mark a policy shift for Russia, whose leaders have stressed the need to maintain a powerful nuclear deterrent and reserved the right to carry out preventive strikes to counter existential threats. But in most of their public remarks about preventive strikes, President Vladimir Putin and other officials have not specifically mentioned the use of nuclear weapons.

     Baluyevsky's remarks came at a time of increasingly strained relations between Moscow and the West, which are at odds over a range of issues and are embroiled in persistent disputes over U.S. plans for missile defense facilities in former Soviet satellite states that have joined NATO as well as alliance members' refusal to ratify an updated European conventional arms treaty. Like most saber-rattling by Putin and other Russian officials, the chief of staff's remarks appeared aimed at least in part at the United States, which Moscow accuses of endangering global security through aggressive actions such as the invasion of Iraq.

01-19- 2008

cuba is extending its intelligence reach to track u.s. military activities

      WASHINGTON,D.C.  --Cuba has extended its intelligence-gathering capabilities beyond the United States and Latin America to places where vital U.S. interests are at stake -- like Iran, Turkey, India and Pakistan -- a former top U.S. counterintelligence official told lawmakers Thursday.  Chris Simmons, a former counterintelligence officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency, said a series of intelligence setbacks for Cuba between 1995 and 2003 -- such as the dismantling of a network of spies in Miami, the closure of an intellingece center in Canada and the arrest of former DIA Cuba analyst Ana Montes in 2001 -- forced Cuba to tighten its intelligence operations.

     Today Cuba puts trusted top intelligence operatives in charge of key embassy postings and operates more with allies like Iran and Venezuela, Simmons said. Cuba's intelligence apparatus, considered one of the world's most formidable, numbers more than 11,500 agents, he said, of whom about 3,500 are focused on international operations. Cuba has resorted to employing more of what he called ''ambassador-spies'' -- top intelligence chiefs who have become diplomatic envoys. Before, Cuba placed such persons in the United States and with a few of Cuba's closest allies, like the Sandinista government in Nicaragua in the 1980s.

     ''We've seen a change in how they use ambassador-spies,'' Simmons said, to ensure that their intelligence centers ``never again get closed.'' Such top intelligence officers are also being dispatched to places where the United States has active military operations, he said. He said Cuba has established four new ''regional intelligence centers'' -- in Iran, India, Pakistan and Turkey. Simmons, who worked on Cuba for the DIA for a dozen years, has founded the Cuban Intelligence Research Center, based in Leesburg, Va.

LIKELY BREAKING-OFF WITH COLOMBIA MAY HIT VENEZUELA SERIOUSLY

      BOGOTA, COLOMBIA  -- The Venezuelan government's threats and discrediting remarks against Colombia are seriously undermining bilateral trade, upon which Venezuela is highly dependent for purchases of food staples such as eggs, chicken, milk, and beef, among others; car parts and spare parts, assembled vehicles, apparel, and footwear.

     Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos claimed "the Venezuelan people would be most seriously hit (by a breaking-off of bilateral relations), as they are faced with shortage. Many people are hit by food shortage, as food staples are missing in markets. Cutting trade with Colombia may result in serious damages," Colombian daily newspaper El Tiempo reported.

     Santos hoped "the trade and politic issues between our countries can be kept disconnected, just like it is the case of the United States and Venezuela, which continue to trade oil and goods." However, the Colombian official added, "We do not know how people are going to react on the other side (the Venezuelan government), as they are unpredictable. Let us hope that trade relations are not harmed, as that would hit Venezuela, given the significant amount of products Colombia sells to that country and which cannot be replaced easily. I hope we are as mature and responsible as to keep trade apart from diplomacy."

VENEZUELAN CONGRESS ADOPTS HUGO CHAVEZ'S PROPOSAL ON FARC BELLIGERENCY

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA  -- The National Assembly (AN) Thursday endorsed President Hugo Chávez's proposal to ask the Colombian government that it grants belligerency status to rebel groups Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) and National Liberation Army (ELN).

    According to the document approved, recognition of the rebel groups by the Colombian government would be a sign of will to "adopt a political treatment that creates confidence in future negotiations in the way to peace in Colombia".

    Likewise, the deputies agreed to reject the "unilateral lists imposed by the United States government," which brand as "terrorist" the "freedom movements and States not subject to domination."

01-18- 2008

hugo chavez AGAIN ACCUSES alvaro uribe OF BLOCKING PRISONERS SWAP

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA --  Venezuela accused Colombia's U.S.-backed government on Thursday of undermining efforts led Hugo Chávez to negotiate a prisoners-for-hostages swap with leftist rebels. Venezuela's socialist government took aim at Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, issuing a statement that his administration has ignored the plight of hundreds of rebel-held hostages and is ``obsessed with war.''

    ''The Colombian government has reached the extreme of obstructing and sabotaging the humanitarian missions led by the international community, putting the lives of innocent people at risk,'' Venezuela's foreign ministry said in its statement. It was the latest of several tense exchanges since Chávez last week won the release of two hostages and urged the world's governments to remove the Colombian rebels from lists of terrorist groups.

     The Colombian government on Wednesday complained that Chávez was ignoring crimes by the guerrillas. ''The Colombian government seeks any pretext to justify its military mind-set,'' Venezuela's statement said. It also said Colombia ``attacks President Chávez because he's the only one who has had success in freeing hostages and has explored the only path toward peace.'' Chávez denies supporting the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, saying he only seeks a peaceful end to the neighboring country's decades-long armed conflict. But his calls for removing the FARC and the smaller National Liberation Army from terrorism lists led critics to accuse his government of taking the guerrillas' side.

FREEDOM HOUSE: FREEDOM IS RETREATING IN VENEZUELA 

      WASHINGTON, D.C.  --  US-based human-rights organization Freedom House reported that freedom in Venezuela retreated in 2007, according to its report published on Wednesday. In the survey, the organization showed concern about the moves made by President Hugo Chávez in his attempt to spread his "21st century socialism or his Bolivarian revolution" to other countries in the region.
 
     Freedom House claimed that the backsliding was especially notable in market-oriented autocracies and energy-rich dictatorships, including Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and China. Such countries have engaged in a "pushback" against democracy, the document said. The independent think-tank found that democracy in the world in 2007 retreated for the second consecutive year, as one fifth of the countries worldwide have slipped back in political civil and civil liberties.

     In Latin America, only Cuba was ranked among what the organization called the "worst of the worst" in terms of political rights and civil liberties. The number of countries the organization labeled as "free" last year stood at 90, representing 47 per cent of the global population, and those considered partly free stood at 60, or 31 percent.

14 CUBAN MIGRANTS LAND ON RICKEMBACKER

      MIAMI, FLORIDA  --  With just the clothes on their backs, 14 Cuban migrants arrived along the Rickenbacker Causeway Tuesday morning shivering but happy. They were greeted by passing bicyclists who said in Spanish, ``Welcome to America. Viva Cuba!'' After taking off Monday night from the coastal town of Guanabo in a go-fast boat, the migrants -- nine men and five women, ranging in age from late teens to 60s -- arrived in South Florida about 6:30 a.m., they said.

     With temperatures dipping overnight, it was a cold trip, they added. Tuesday's arrival may signal that last year's accelerated migration from the island has not abated. ''I left my shoes behind. But I can buy new shoes here,'' said 29-year-old Dubiel Conde, who said he is industrial engineer. He also left behind his 67-year-old mother, his brothers and his sisters. He said his father, Jose, arrived during the Marial boatlift but has since died. His uncle still lives in Tampa, he said.

    Eddie Camejo, a Key Biscayne resident who frequently rushes out to greet migrants as they arrive, showed up and gave one man his shoes. Pedro Faustino Gonzalez-Mirabal, 43, broke down in tears. He left his entire family in Pinar del Rio, he said. The migrants were picked up by the Border Patrol about 8:30 a.m. City of Miami police officers stayed with the group until Border Patrol arrived, but two officers had to leave, responding to a burglary in progress.

01-17- 2008

washington post says hugo chavez is an ally to kidnappers  

      WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Washington Post Wednesday editorial claimed that President Hugo Chávez, by stating that the rebel Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) possessed a "Bolivarian" political project, has associated his own agenda to that of a group both the US and Europe view as a terrorist and drug trafficking organization. Last week, following the unilateral release of two hostages held by the FARC, Chávez said that the group waging an armed conflict in Colombia for more than 40 years now had a political agenda that both Colombia and the international community should recognize as a prerequisite for peace, AP reported.

    The editorial asserts that following the FARC move, many wondered what the FARC would ask for in exchange. And the "shocking answer" came on the following day, when Chávez, in a four-hour address to the Congress, demanded that they be recognized as "a genuine army," just like another Colombian rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN).

    "In short, Mr. Chávez was endorsing groups dedicated to violence and other criminal behavior in a neighboring Latin American democracy, and associating his agenda with theirs," said the daily newspaper in an editorial entitled "Ally to Kidnappers - Venezuela's Hugo Chávez endorses Colombian groups known for abductions, drug trafficking and mass murder." "No wonder even governments allied with Mr. Chávez, such as those of Argentina and Ecuador, recoiled from his appeal. Latin American leaders who until now have seen in Mr. Chávez a crude populist who buys his friends with petrodollars are faced with something new: a head of state who has openly endorsed an organization of kidnappers and drug traffickers in a neighboring, democratic country.

president bush to opec: increase oil

      RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA  -- President Bush called on Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing nations to increase the supply of oil Tuesday in hopes of lowering gas prices and avoiding a U.S. recession, but this nation's oil minister said such action would be premature. "We will raise production when the market justifies it," said Ali Al-Naimi, minister of petroleum and mineral resources for the world's largest oil-producing nation.

     Bush planned to raise the issue of oil prices with King Abdullah at his ranch near here, where he was having dinner with the king. Earlier, Bush told reporters that "OPEC should understand that if they can put more supply on the market, it will be helpful."  With oil prices hovering around $100 a barrel, the ability of oil-producing nations to bring down prices has become a subtext of Bush's most extensive trip to the Middle East during his presidency.

     As he prepares to wind up the trip Wednesday in Egypt, Bush has focused mostly on pushing an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, aligning the Arab world against Iran and promoting democratic reforms.MBush said high oil prices are "painful for our consumers" and "could cause the U.S. economy to slow down." Al-Naimi said the health of the U.S. economy is a concern but added, "there is no problem with supply and demand." "We don't want to see the U.S. economy go into recession," Al-Naimi said. "But what impacts the U.S. economy is more than just the price of oil."

COLOMBIAN IS FILLING PROTEST AGAINST CHAVEZ'S PROPOSAL OVER FARC

      BOGOTA, COLOMBIA --Colombian High Commissioner for Peace Luis Carlos Restrepo Wednesday declared that the Colombian government is making a verbal protest before Caracas to rebut President Hugo Chávez's petition that the rebel Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) are no longer called terrorist.

    Restrepo told Colombian reporters that Álvaro Uribe's administration is forwarding the communication to Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro.   "There cannot be interference with the Colombian domestic affairs. We are a sovereign state and all we are asking the world is not acquiescence to terrorists, but cooperation to fight terrorism," Restrepo told radio station La FM. 

    He reminded that there are resolutions issued by the Organization of American States and the United Nations about the non-interference with the domestic affairs of other states and the rejection against terrorism. He added that such conventions could not be disregarded, DPA reported.

01-16- 2008

us rejects hugo chavez call to drop colombian rebels from terror lists

      WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The United States on Monday brushed aside Hugo Chavez's call for governments to stop classifying the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, rebel group as terrorists, reported AP. "You'll excuse me if we don't take that advice," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. "They earned their way onto the terrorism list."

    McCormack said he was not aware of any change in behavior that would merit the group being removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. Chavez has said that recognizing the FARC as a legitimate insurgent group - rather than terrorists - would be a first step toward possible peace talks. Colombia's government already has firmly rejected the suggestion.

    The European Union joined Washington in classifying the FARC as a terrorist group in 2002, outlawing all economic support for the guerrillas. The FARC has 14,000 people it says are fighting for a fairer distribution of wealth. It funds itself mainly by drug trafficking. The government says it holds some 750 hostages, either for ransom or political leverage.

THOMAS SHANNON REGRETS ARGENTINA'S NEGATIVE REACTION TO ANTONINI CASE

      BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA  --  US Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America Thomas Shannon described as "regrettable" the reaction of the Argentinean government vis-à-vis a US federal probe into the so-called "the suitcase scandal" which splatters Buenos Aires.

    "The first reaction to the facts was regrettable," Shannon said in an interview Argentinean daily newspaper Clarín published Sunday, when asked about a US investigation into the case of the undeclared USD 800,000 Venezuelan-US businessman Guido Antonini Wilson unsuccessfully tried to smuggled in Buenos Aires last August 4.  Shannon, however, said that recently the Argentinean chief of cabinet, Alberto Fernández, "publicly said this is a case managed by the US judiciary authorities, and that it should be allowed to evolve only in the US judiciary."

    A Miami federal attorney delving into a case of allegedly illegal espionage activities by Venezuelan covert agents in the US, filed evidence that the USD 800,000 were meant to fund the presidential campaign of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who was elected last October and took office from her husband Néstor Kirchner last December 10.

US COURTS TO SET DATE FOR TRIAL RELATED TO THE "SUITCASE SCANDAL" 

      MIAMI, FLORIDA  -- A US federal judge Tuesday in Miami is setting the date for a trial against four defendants accused of plotting and acting in connection with the so-called "suitcase scandal," the Southern Florida Federal Attorney General Office said on Monday. "This hearing is intended to set the dates for the trial and legal proceedings to be pursued in the future," said Attorney General Office spokesman Yovanny López.

    The four defendants -who pleaded not guilty of the charges against them- are Venezuelans Carlos Kauffmann (35), Moisés Maionica (36), and Franklin Durán (40), as well as Uruguayan Rodolfo Edgardo Wanseele Paciello (36).  A fifth defendant in the case, Venezuelan Antonio José Canchica Gómez (37), is still at large, Efe reported.

    Last Thursday, the Attorney General Official delivered to the four defendants the pieces of evidence the prosecution based upon to indict them for allegedly plotting and acting in the US as Venezuelan government agents. The evidence includes 49 audio and video recordings, pictures, objects, and statements made by the defendants following their arrest.  Authorities claim the pieces of evidence point to the alleged involvement of the four defendants in a plan to conceal the origin and destination of the USD 800,000 confiscated from Venezuelan-US citizen Guido Antonini Wilson in Buenos Aires last August 4. The money was supposedly intended to fund the presidential campaign of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

01-15- 2008

HUGO CHAVEZ URGES COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT ALVARO URIBE TO ENFORCE GENEVA AGREEMENTS 

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA  --  For the third day in a row, President Hugo Chávez on Sunday advocated the acknowledgment of the belligerency of the rebel Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) -and obliquely referred to the National Liberation Army (ELN).

    According to Chávez, the situation facing Colombia is the result of "a guerrilla that is not controlled by any laws whatsoever," and that the rebel groups control territories "where nobody else gets." Consequently, Chávez asked his Colombian counterpart Álvaro Uribe to "take fearless steps" and enforce the Geneva agreements in the Colombian armed conflict. On Sunday, during the 300th edition of his weekly radio and TV show, in central Guárico state, and accompanied by Colombian politician Consuelo González -recently freed by the FARC and delivered to Chávez- and by Colombian opposition senator Piedad Córdoba, Chávez said the reason behind his actions is the search for peace, as Venezuela is seriously hit by the Colombian conflict.

    "President Uribe, if you acknowledge the status of belligerent to the FARC, and the FARC accept it, the protocols of Geneva would be enforced, and the FARC would be forced to abandon kidnappings. I do not agree with kidnappings. I think they are terrible. I do not agree with keeping a person in the jungle for six, 10 years. That runs counter human nature, no matter who does it," he said

SPAIN KEEPS THE FARC IN ITS BLACK LIST

      MADRID, SPAIN  -- Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Miguel Ángel Moratinos said Spain is not changing its stance regarding the rebel Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces, which are viewed as a terrorist group by the country, as well as the remaining member states of the European Community.

    Moratinos stressed that Spain has "always" been in the EU -an organization that regards the FARC "as a terrorist group, and we are not going to change that," Efe quoted. Moratinos was replying to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who asked the European Union to remove the FARC from a list of terrorist organizations. The diplomat claimed that such a stance "does not prevent us from seeking a humanitarian agreement," and advocated for renewed efforts for the release of the hostages held by the FARC.

     Meanwhile, Baltasar Garzón, a judge of the Spanish high court, branded as "absolutely condemnable" "the fanfare or circus show" Chávez staged to get the release of two Colombian hostages held by the FARC. "Besides excessive, I think it was absolutely condemnable," the justice said. Regarding Chávez's petition to remove the guerrilla groups from the lists of terrorist organizations worldwide, Garzón argued the proposal was "cynical," and showed "little idea of" the actions these groups have performed for more than 30 years.

MEXICO ALSO KEEPS THE FARC IN ITS BLACK LIST

      MEXICO CITY, MEXICO  --  Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda said that "either by himself or with allies," President Chávez has enough influence to make the FARC mend their "fiasco." According to Castañeda, the release of Clara Rojas and Consuelo González -who were freed thanks to Chávez's mediation- showed the influence Chávez has on the FARC. "Their release shows that Chávez, either by himself or with allies, has real ascendancy over the FARC. Therefore, he may talk them into repairing the damages they made with a fiasco such as the episode of Emmanuel (Rojas' son born in captivity)."

    "The Venezuelan and international public opinion no longer buy this kind of maneuver. The question is not how Chávez scored, but who passed the ball," Castañeda added. José Obdulio Gaviria, an aide of Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, said: "The FARC are not a state under construction or a belligerent force or an insurgent political party, but they are a gloomy terrorist organization," that holds people hostage.

    According to press reports in Colombia, the FARC were "devising an international plan" to seek their removal from the list of terrorist groups. Therefore, they secretly with a number of European and Latin American government representatives to boost their initiative.

01-14- 2008

president bush condemns iranian threat to world security

      ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES -- President GEORGE W. Bush said Sunday that Iran is threatening the security of the world, and that the United States and Arab allies must join together to confront the danger "before it's too late." Bush said Iran funds terrorist extremists, undermines peace in Lebanon, sends arms to the Taliban, seeks to intimidate its neighbors with alarming rhetoric, defies the United Nations and destabilizes the entire region by refusing to be open about its nuclear program.

    "Iran is the world's leading state sponsor of terror," Bush said in a speech he delivered about mid-way through his eight-day Mideast trip that began with a renewed push for an Israeli-Palestinian peace pact — an accord he said whose "time has come."

     "Iran's actions threaten the security of nations everywhere," Bush said. "So the United States is strengthening our long-standing security commitments with our friends in the Gulf, and rallying friends around the world to confront this danger before it is too late." Bush lauded democratic reforms in Gulf nations ruled by authoritarian leaders. "This new era is being built with the understanding that power is a trust that must be exercised with the consent of the governed," Bush said. back peace efforts. U.S. officials say they do not regret supporting the election.

HUGO CHAVEZ SHOCKED COLOMBIA BY SAYING THE FARC AND ELN WERE 'INSURGENT FORCES' WITH 'RESPECTED' POLITICAL AIMS 

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA  -- A stunning call by Hugo Chávez for Colombian guerrillas to be treated not as terrorists but as respected ''insurgent forces'' was angrily rejected in Bogotá Friday before Chávez even finished his speech. In his annual address to the National Assembly, Chávez said the two leftist guerrilla groups -- the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and the smaller National Liberation Army, or ELN -- were ''not terrorists but real armies that occupy territory'' and should be recognized as an "insurgent force.''

    Going a step further, Chávez -- who has consistently professed his neutrality in the Colombian conflict despite his leftist policies -- said the two groups had a political project ``that is respected here.'' Bogotá has long branded the FARC and ELN ''narco-terrorists'' because of links to cocaine trafficking. The U.S. government and the European Union list the FARC as a terrorist organization.

     Before Chávez had even finished his four-hour speech, Colombian Interior Minister Carlos Holguín said his government ''could not accept a request of that nature,'' and added that its description of the guerrillas as terrorists was ``not gratuitous [but] derives from the actions they carry out.'' A spokesman for Colombian President Alvaro Uribe later read a statement saying that under no circumstances would the government recognize ''terrorist'' groups. The FARC's motivation is ``not ideological -- to the contrary, it is to accumulate money derived from cruelty and illicit business.'' ''Our position has not changed: The FARC is a foreign terrorist organization,'' said State Department spokeswoman Heide Bronke.

IRAQ'S PARLIAMENT HAS APPROVED LEGISLATION TO ALLOW FORMER MEMBERS OD SADDAM HUSSEIN'S BAATH PARTY TO BE REINSTATED TO GOVERNMENT  

      BAGHDAD, IRAQ  --  IRAQ'S PARLIAMENT HAS APPROVED LEGISLATION TO ALLOW FORMER MEMBERS OF SADDAM HUSSEIN'S BAATH PARTY TO BE REINSTATED TO GOVERNMENT JOBS. The legislation was a key benchmark sought by the United States for measuring progress towards national reconciliation.

    The measure approved Saturday had been stalled in parliament. It will relax restrictions on the right of former Baathists to fill government posts. Those restrictions were put in place after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Iraqi Shi'ites persecuted under Saddam Hussein's rule had opposed the law.

    Thousands of Baath officials were dismissed from government jobs after Saddam was ousted from power in 2003. Their dismissal deepened sectarian tensions between Iraq's majority Shi'ites and once-dominant Sunnis.

01-13- 2008

FIDEL CASTRO-LULA DA SILVA MEET UNSURE; CASTRO'S HEALTH MAKES A MEETING BETWEEN THE TWO UNCERTAIN

       BRAZILIA, BRAZIL  -- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will visit Cuba next week offering investments, but Fidel Castro's health makes a meeting between the two uncertain, Lula's spokesman said on Thursday. Castro has only appeared in videos and photographs since undergoing emergency stomach surgery in July 2006, when he handed power to his brother, Raul. With Fidel Castro's full condition a state secret, it is unclear whether the 81-year-old will resume office. Both leaders intend to meet, but because of Castro's health the encounter could not be confirmed, Marcelo Baumbach, presidential spokesman, told a news conference.

    "It is very likely that the meeting will happen, everybody wants it to happen ... but at this moment it's necessary to hear the opinion of the physicians ," Baumbach said. He described Lula is a close friend of Castro. Some of Lula's closest allies were exiled in Cuba during Brazil's 1964-1985 military dictatorship. The Brazilian government wants to increase credit lines to Cuba for food imports as well as investments in industrial, agriculture and infrastructure projects, including the modernization of its hotel industry.

    Also on the agenda is a framework agreement for cooperation with Brazil's state-controlled oil company Petrobras <PBR.N> <PETR4.SA>, including the construction of a lubricants plant and oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, Baumbach said.  Petrobras is expected to train Cuban personnel and offer aid in refining and research. Lula, who will be accompanied by several ministers as well as the head of Petrobras, is due to arrive on Monday and spend 24 hours on the Caribbean island. He will also meet with acting President Raul Castro and National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon.

HUGO CHAVEZ SUGGESTS REFERENDUM TO APPROVE INDEFINITE REELECTION

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA  --  Even though the changes to the Constitution proposed by Hugo Chávez were rejected by the Venezuelan people in a referendum held last December, the ruler devised a new strategy to submit again his proposal, which would allow him to stay in power indefinitely. During his speech before the National Assembly to submit a report on his administration, Chávez said that he is planning a recall referendum on his mandate by 2010, and a consultative referendum on the possibility to emend the National Constitution in order to permit the indefinite reelection.

    "As I am entitled to call for a referendum, and I can call for a referendum on my own mandate," he said. "And the questions would be: 1) Do you agree to Hugo Chávez being the Venezuelan president? 2) Do you agree to make a minor amendment to the Constitution in order to permit the indefinite reelection? And this would be a binding question.  "I am not indispensable. But, God willing, and if I have life and health, I hope to be several years more at the revolution helm. I consider it necessary despite all the flaws we can have."

    Hugo Chávez Frías delivered a speech before the National Assembly on his administration, as provided for under the Venezuelan Constitution.  Congress Chairman Cilia Flores opened the session and congratulated the Venezuelan ruler for the operation Thursday to release Colombian politicians Clara Rojas and Consuelo González de Perdomo. Before submitting his report for 2007, Chávez reflected about the mission to rescue the two women. "We were in suspense for weeks, and yesterday we witnessed with great excitement the successful result of the Emmanuel operation." "There were so many attempts at sabotaging this process!" he exclaimed. "I pray to God for the United States empire -which has damaged the world so badly- comes to an end sooner than later," he added.

VENEZUELAN BANK SUPERINTENDENCE TO DELIVER FINDINGS OF FINANCIAL PROBE RELATED TO ANTONINI'S CASE

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA  --  The Superintendence of Banks (Sudeban) in the next few days is delivering the results of a financial probe conducted in connection with case of Venezuelan-US businessman Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson, the official news agency ABN reported.

    In a press release, Sudeban said its Financial Intelligence Unit (UNIF) last August launched an investigation into the financial and banking status of Antonini Wilson, to cooperate with the probe conducted by the Attorney General Office.

    Sudeban stressed the findings are classified information, and the Attorney General Office is to decide when they will be disclosed to the public.

01-12- 2008

HUGO CHAVEZ URGES THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO REMOVE THE FARC FROM LISTS OF TERRORIST GROUPS

       CARACAS, VENEZUELA  -- Hugo Chavez defended Colombia's leftist rebels as armies - not terrorists - on Friday, a day after triumphantly mediating the release of two of their hundreds of hostages.  Chavez urged the international community to remove the rebels from lists of terrorist groups, saying the only way out of Colombia's bloody conflict is to recognize their political aims. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the National Liberation Army "are not terrorists, they are true armies ... They must be recognized," Chavez said.

    "They are insurgent forces that have a political project," he told lawmakers. "I say it even though someone could be bothered by it." The FARC - Colombia's largest guerrilla group - has repeatedly asked world governments to remove it from their lists of foreign terrorist organizations. Chavez echoed that call, urging Europe and Latin American nations to resist what he called "U.S. pressure."

    The European Union joined Washington in classifying FARC as a terrorist group in 2002, outlawing all economic support to the guerrilla group, which is accused of large-scale drug trafficking, hundreds of kidnappings and attacks on civilians. Jose Obdulio Gaviria, a close adviser to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, reacted angrily to Chavez's call. "The FARC uses violence against a democratic government and civil populations. In the canon of international law, that makes them a terrorist group," Gaviria said.

COLOMBIA: CHAVEZ'S REQUEST ABOUT REBEL GROUPS IS "DISPROPORTIONATE" 

      BOGOTA, COLOMBIA  --  The Colombian government Friday branded as "disproportionate"  Hugo Chávez's petition to acknowledge the Colombian guerrilla groups as political players and to stop calling such groups terrorist organizations, AFP reported.

    "This is a disproportionate proposal. The government cannot accept such a request," Colombian Minister of the Interior Carlos Holguín said.

    "No organization is branded as terrorist without reasons; that comes as a result of their actions," Holguín said, reminding that the FARC is an organization that plants bombs against unarmed civilians, kidnaps and kills women and children in actions unrelated to combats." Earlier on Friday, Chávez asked both Latin America and Europe to remove the FARC and the National Liberation Army (ELN) from the list of terrorist groups.

MEXICO TO DEVIATE ANY PRIVATE FLIGHTS ARRIVING FROM VENEZUELA

      MEXICO CITY, MEXICO  --  Mexican authorities are closely monitoring the airplanes arriving in local airports from Colombia, Venezuela, and Panama, claiming they are "high-risk" countries regarding drug traffic.

    Mexican daily newspaper El Universal Thursday reported that, in order to prevent drug traffic and seal off its southern border, the federal government was implementing a so-called Cleaning Operation, intended to deviate to three airstrips located southeast Mexico any private flights from Central and South American countries.

    "Special attention will be paid to the "high-risk" flights, that is to say, those coming from Colombia, Venezuela, and Panama, which are the origins of most drug shipments seized over the last year," said an official who spoke under condition of anonymity.

01-11- 2008

venezuelan choppers depart for colombia to pick up hostages

       SAN JOSE DE GUAVIARE, COLOMBIA  -- A mission to rescue two hostages held by the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) started early on Thursday, said Irma Álvarez, the spokeswoman for the Red Cross International Committee in Venezuela.

    "The operation is under way. The aircrafts departed for Colombia," Álvarez said, as quoted by AFP. The mission "is coordinated by the two governments (Colombia's and Venezuela's) and jointly with the FARC, which are going to release the two hostages."

    "For logistic reasons, we cannot provide further information right now. This is a delicate operation, and therefore we are asking people to be patient," Álvarez added.

HUGO CHAVEZ ANNOUNCED THAT THE TWO COLOMBIAN HOSTAGES WERE FREED

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA  --  Hugo Chávez announced that two hostages were freed by Colombian rebels Thursday, saying he spoke with the Colombian women by phone and they are being flown out of the jungle aboard Venezuelan helicopters.

    Chávez said in Caracas that Clara Rojas -- an aide to former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt -- and former Congresswoman Consuelo Gonzalez, would arrive in Venezuela within about three hours. The International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed the two women were turned over by rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.It was the most important hostage release in the Colombian conflict since 2001, when the FARC freed some 300 soldiers and police officers it had held captive.

    Chávez said he hopes it opens the way for a broader peace process in Colombia. ''Venezuela will continue opening the way for peace in Colombia. We are ready, and in contact, and we hope the Colombian government understands. I'm sure they will understand,'' Chávez said. ``The world wants peace for Colombia.''

RELEASED COLOMBIAN HOSTAGES MEET WITH HUGO CHAVEZ AND THEIR RELATIVES

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA  -- Colombian politicians Clara Rojas and Consuelo González, who were set free a few hours ago by the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC), met with their closest relatives in Maiquetía international airport, near Caracas.

    The aircraft arrived with both women accompanied by officials with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Venezuelan Interior and Justice Minister, Ramón Rodríguez Chacín.  International news network Telesur broadcast images of Rojas and González hugging their beloved, who were waiting for them together with Venezuelan Government officials.

    "I am living a dream, I have no words, please understand me," Clara de Rojas, mother of one of the two women released, told journalists while walking with her daughter for the first time since 2002. Meanwhile, the former hostage was smiling, reported AP.

01-10- 2008

PRESIDENT BUSH IN ISRAEL TO PUSH FOR PEACE

       JERUSALEN, ISRAEL  --  President Bush, in the Mideast to push along a peace deal by the end of his presidency, gave orders to both sides on Wednesday. He told Israelis that "illegal" settlement outposts in disputed land must go and told Palestinians that no part of their territories can be "a safe haven for terrorists."

    On that, Bush was echoing his ally and host, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who said in their joint news conference that "there will be no peace" unless attacks are halted from all parts of the Palestinian territories, including those not controlled by his negotiating partners in the Palestinian leadership. Olmert, however, said that both sides "are very seriously trying to move forward" on a peace agreement.

    On the first day of his eight-day Mideast trip aimed at encouraging a long-elusive Israeli-Palestinian agreement, Bush said: "I'm under no illusions. This is going to be hard work." Bush said he and Olmert also discussed Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions and an incident Sunday when Iranian boats harassed and provoked three American Navy ships in the strategic Strait of Hormuz. U.S. officials said Iran threatened to explode the vessels, but the incident ended peacefully. The president said "all options are on the table to secure our assets." He said serious consequences would follow another Iranian provocation. "My advice to them is don't do it," he said.

PHILIP AGEE, FORMER CIA AGENT, OUTSPOKEN AGENCY CRITIC DIED IN HAVANA AT 72

      HAVANA, CUBA--  Philip Agee, a former CIA agent who caused outrage by naming former colleagues, has died following ulcer surgeries, Cuban state media reported Wednesday. He was 72. Agee quit the CIA in 1969 after 12 years working mostly in Latin America at a time when leftist movements were gaining prominence and sympathizers. His 1975 book "Inside the Company: CIA Diary" alleged CIA misdeeds against leftists in the region and included a 22-page list of purported agency operatives, infuriating U.S. officials who said it had endangered agents' lives.

     Agee's U.S. passport was revoked in 1979. After years of living in Germany — occasionally underground, fearing CIA retribution — Agee moved to Havana. Granma, Cuba's Communist Party newspaper, said Agee died Monday night and described him as "a loyal friend of Cuba and fervent defender of the peoples' fight for a better world." Bernie Dwyer, a journalist with state-run Radio Havana, said in a Tuesday message posted to a Cuba e-mail group that Agee's wife "rang this evening to say he had died in hospital" where he had he been since Dec. 15.

    "He had several operations for perforated ulcers and didn't survive all the surgery," Dwyer wrote, adding that Agee was cremated Tuesday and that friends planned a remembrance ceremony for him Sunday at his Havana apartment. In 2000, Agee joined European investors and a state-run travel agent in opening a Web site to bring American tourists to Cuba. The site, cubalinda.com, offers package tours and other help with Cuban tourism that is largely outlawed for Americans.

COLOMBIA CAPTURES GUERRILLA LEADER

      BOGOTA, COLOMBIA  --  The army has captured a senior commander of Colombia's second largest rebel group, the government said Tuesday, calling it a major blow to the guerrillas that could push them closer to a peace deal.  Carlos Marin Guarin, who uses the nom de guerre "Pablito," was detained Monday in the capital of Bogota after months of intelligence gathering, army chief Gen. Mario Montoya said. He did not give further details on the operation.

    Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos called the capture "the most important ever" of a leader of the ELN, as the group is known by its Spanish initials. He added that it could help tricky peace negotiations with the rebels. "We know that on various occasions (Guarin) prevented the ELN's central command from signing a peace treaty with the government," Santos said. Among other crimes attributed to Guarin are the 1992 murder of the Roman Catholic bishop of the state of Arauca and more than 200 attacks on the U.S.-owned Cano Limon oil pipeline in northern Colombia, Santos said.

   He said Guarin oversaw military operations on three of the ELN's seven fronts nationwide. Government and ELN negotiators have been holding exploratory peace talks on-and-off since December 2005 in Cuba. The dwindling ELN, with 3,000 fighters, is considered a pale shadow of the much larger and more potent Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Although both are classified by the United States as terrorist organizations, the smaller ELN has mostly steered clear of Colombia's cocaine trade - a strategic move that has thinned its ranks and hurt its ability to attack the state.

01-09- 2008

VENEZUELAN BISHOPS CALL FOR RECONCILIATION  AND CONSENSUS

       CARACAS, VENEZUELA -- At the opening ceremony Monday of its 89th ordinary meeting, the Venezuelan Bishops' Conference (CEV) called upon the government and the opposition to unite, reconcile and work together to find a project of country agreed by consensus seeking "the good for all, with no exclusions."

    "We bishops have understood that the best service for our motherland at this time of serious divide is our staying united, working for reconciliation in the country, building bridges for mutual understanding between the sectors engaged in this conflict and contributing values and principles to foster peace," the CEV said in a document read by CEV chairman Monsignor Ubaldo Santana. 

HOUSE OF ALBA HOLDS FIRST INTERNATIONAL MEETING IN PERU 

      LIMA, PERU  -- The first international meeting of representatives of the so-called Houses of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) -an integration initiative bolstered by President Hugo Chávez- will take place next January 24-26 in the Peruvian region of Puno, on the border with Bolivia, organizers said, press reports quoted on Monday.

    Delegates from Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Peru are attending the meeting, the representative of the Houses of ALBA in Puno, Marcial Maydana, told Peruvian daily newspaper La República.  He added that the meeting is assessing the Peruvian policies to fight poverty -a problem hitting 50 percent of the Peruvian population, Efe reported.

    Last Sunday, in a press report published by daily newspaper Peru.21, Peruvian Vice-President Luis Giampietri, said that Peru's intelligence systems are trying to determine whether the meeting represents an interference with the domestic affairs. Houses of ALBA first emerged in Peru in mid-2006 with a goal to provide social help to Peruvians and promote President Chávez's politics. Ever since then, the presence of the ALBA branches has unleashed controversies about the alleged Venezuelan intervention in Peruvian domestic affairs, which the Venezuelan government has denied several times.

VENEZUELANS BLAME HUGO CHAVEZ GOVERNMENT FOR HIGH CRIME RATES

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA  -- The unusual interest Hugo Chávez -and therefore his government senior officials- have shown in tackling personal insecurity nationwide comes because Chávez wishes to restore his emotional connection with voters.

    "What is the worst problem facing Venezuela?" was the question posed by research firm Datanálisis in an opinion poll conducted following December 2 referendum on Chávez's proposed changes to the Constitution -which were rejected by voters. Increased crime rates are the worst problem hitting the country, according to 52.7 percent of respondents. High crime rates were followed by unemployment (16.7 percent), and inflation (6.4 percent).

    Datanálisis director Luis Vicente León suggested that Venezuelans believe the priority of Chávez's government should be solving political issues. Even Chávez's supporters believe that the Venezuelan ruler is favoring his Bolivarian revolution over the people's common problems. "Are you happy with the efforts Hugo Chávez's government has made to face personal insecurity?" 90.5 percent said No, with 8.2 percent of respondents showing some satisfaction about the government policies to fight crime. Further, 75 percent questioned Chávez's moves to eradicate corruption.

01-08- 2008

HUGO CHAVEZ TO SLOW DOWN REVOLUTIONARY CHANGES IN VENEZUELA

       CARACAS, VENEZUELA --  Hugo Chavez is putting the brakes on his drive for revolutionary change in Venezuela, shifting away from radical socialist reforms in favor of a pragmatic focus on everyday problems from soaring crime to trash-strewn streets.  The turn comes one month after voters rejected reforms that would have greatly expanded his power and enshrined socialist principles in the constitution. "I'm forced to reduce the speed of the march," Chavez said Sunday, telling new members of his Cabinet to "accept reality" and "put their feet on the ground." "This will be the year of the three R's: Revision, rectification and relaunching," he said.

    A close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, Chavez spent much of 2007 promoting his idyllic vision of a new Venezuela transformed through "21st-century socialism," and he began by nationalizing the country's electricity, telecommunications, natural gas and oil industries. But Venezuelans tugged on the reins in December, narrowly voting down his far-reaching constitutional changes - and forcing the former paratroop commander to rethink his strategy for remaking this oil-rich, yet poverty-stricken South American nation.

    Polls show that rising crime rates - among the highest in the Western Hemisphere - are a leading concern for Venezuelans. The Justice Ministry reported 9,402 homicides in the country of 23 million in 2005 but has yet to reveal complete figures for 2006 or 2007. "Insecurity and corruption, they are inherited evils that we must stop cold and not allow to continue expanding. If we don't stop them, they become the biggest enemy of our revolution," Chavez said Sunday during his weekly radio and TV show. "I call for us to fight more successfully against these scourges." "In a socialist country the streets cannot be filled with trash," Chavez said.

COLOMBIA GOVERNMENT REJECTS FUTURE INTERNATIONAL MISSIONS FOR HOSTAGE RELEASE 

      BOGOTA, COLOMBIA --  The Colombian government is not authorizing other international humanitarian missions such as the one that late December arrived in Villavicencio to witness the failed delivery of three hostages held by the leftwing Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) to President Hugo Chávez, Foreign Minister Fernando Araújo said Monday. "We are considering the possibility that the FARC meet their promote to deliver hostages Clara Rojas and Consuelo González, in which case we are ready to facilitate the delivery, but without authorizing the presence of international humanitarian committees," Araújo told radio station Caracol.

    He explained that the decision came because the international delegates who arrived in Villavicencio to witness the expected release bestowed no credibility to the stance of President Álvaro Uribe's government. "The mission -which came to Villavicencio thanks to a gesture of transparence and openness by the Colombian government- arrived in here making serious statements against the government and favoring the FARC. They always questioned the government's reports and trusted the lies of the FARC."

    The humanitarian mission in Villavicencio -95 kilometers southeast Bogota- included presidential envoys from Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Cuba, France, and Switzerland. According to Araújo, the group "questioned the moves of the Colombian government at all times." Further, he claimed, "some of its members, even after the real identity of Emmanuel was disclosed, and that it was known that the reason why the hostages were not released was that the FARC did not have Emmanuel, continue to cast doubts on the transparence and honesty of the reports filed by the Colombian government."

NINE TONS OF COCAINE FROM VENEZUELA SEIZED IN LISBON 

      LISBON, PORTUGAL --  THE Portuguese Police Monday said it seized over nine tons of cocaine hidden in boxes of frozen octopus in Lisbon Port, during an operation carried out together with the Spanish Police that resulted in the arrest of seven suspects.

    The drug, from Venezuela, was camouflaged in a container intercepted last December 22 upon its arrival in Lisbon, the Portuguese judiciary police said in a communiqué.

     In the container, the authorities found some 600 boxes weighting 40 kilograms each that reportedly held frozen octopus, AFP reported. In fact, in many of the boxes, the police found a frozen aqueous solution comprising remains of octopus and cocaine, with a total weight of 9.4 kilograms, the police explained.

01-07- 2008

AMERICAN-BORN AL QAEDA SPOKESMAN LASHES OUT AT U.S. IN NEW TAPES

       CAIRO, EGYPT --  Al Qaeda's American spokesman called on the terror network's fighters to greet President Bush with "bombs and booby-trapped vehicles" when he visits the Middle East later this week, according to a video posted Sunday. The rhetoric-packed video also featured the California-born Adam Gadahn tearing up his U.S. passport as part of a "symbolic" protest against Washington and marked the terror network's first message of 2008.

    "Now we direct an urgent call to our militant brothers in Muslim Palestine and the Arab peninsula ... to be ready to receive the Crusader slayer Bush in his visit to Muslim Palestine and the Arab peninsula in the beginning of January and to receive him not with flowers or clapping but with bombs and booby-trapped vehicles," Gadahn said in Arabic, though he spoke mostly in English during the video.

     Bush is scheduled to arrive in Israel on Wednesday for a weeklong regional trip that will also bring him to the West Bank, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Most of the 50-minute long video, titled "An Invitation to Reflection and Repentance," appeared to be aimed at ordinary Americans, with Gadahn saying Al Qaeda felt the need to release the statement after Washington's "defeat" in Iraq and Afghanistan and failed attempts by Bush and other diplomats to bring peace to the Middle East.  We felt it necessary to address the American people and explain to them some of the facts about these critical and fast-moving events," said the California-born Gadahn, who wore a white and red headscarf.

TRINIDAD REFUSES HUGO CHAVEZ'S INVITATION TO JOIN PETROCARIBE

      PORT OF SPAIN, TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO  --  Trinidad and Tobago will not join Petrocaribe, said Prime Minister Patrick Manning in his first remarks in this regard since the Petrocaribe third summit two weeks ago in the Cuban city of Cenfuegos.

    Manning's was the government official reply to an invitation made by Venezuela to become a party to the oil agreement in the context of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), reported TV6 News in Port of Spain.

    "This will not happen because this country is losing markets and they have proposed ALBA instead of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)," said the ruler. "Trinidad and Tobago has expressed clearly that we have convinced our Caricom colleagues to make Trinidad and Tobago the venue of FTAA. How could we join, then, Petrocaribe? How could we do it?" Manning added.

JINDAL STEEL & POWER (JSPL) GETS BOLIVIA NOD FOR $2BILLION DEVELOPMENT

      LA PAZ, BOLIVIA  --  Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL) has finally got an approval from the national congress of Bolivia for the development of the El-Mutun iron ore mine and setting up a 1.7 million tonne per annum steel plant, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange today.

    The proposed plans had divided the Bolivian President and the legislature with the President claiming that the agreement with JSPL violated the nation's constitution. According to Bolivian rules, any natural resource contract with private firms have to be approved by the Bolivian Congress to make them a law before they are implemented. JSPL has got the approval now, and the agreement is legally effective.

    JSPL had won a bid in June 2006 to develop part of the El-Mutun mines. Subsequently, in July 2007, it signed a contract with the Bolivian government for developing the mines and setting up sponge iron and rolled steel projects with an investment of $2.1 billion. The contracted mine contains an estimated iron ore reserve of 20 billion tonne.

01-06- 2008

A&M UNIVERSITY NAMED ELSA MURANO, A CUBAN-AMERICAN, AS ITS FIRST FEMALE PRESIDENT

       HOUSTON, TEXAS -- The governing board of Texas A&M University named a top official in Aggieland on Friday as the sole finalist for president of the College Station campus. Elsa Murano, 48, would be not only the first woman to lead the university but also the first Hispanic and native of Cuba. She is currently vice chancellor of agriculture for the A&M System and dean of the university's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She was previously undersecretary for food safety for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Before that, she was a faculty member at A&M.

    for public universities must name one or more finalists and then wait 21 days before firming up the appointment. As the only finalist, Murano is virtually certain to be awarded the job. The Board of Regents voted 8-1 to name her the finalist, with Regent Gene Stallings casting the no vote. Murano said she was thrilled to be named, even though, as she put it, she is not an Aggie, meaning that she didn't graduate from A&M. She looked and acted the part, though: She wore a maroon blazer for the occasion, and the first word out of her mouth at a news conference was "Howdy."

    "To say that this is a tremendous honor is an understatement," she said. "I'm completely overwhelmed" at the prospect of leading "the No. 1 land-grant institution in the country." Murano, who has served in her current posts since 2005, paid tribute to her Cuban roots. The Texas resident fled Cuba in 1961 with her family at age 2, shortly after Fidel Castro rose to power. The family lived in several Latin American countries before settling in Miami. "Only in America can a girl from Havana get to this point," she said.

COPEI NATIONAL LEADER ENRIQUE NAIME SAID SUITCASE HAD AN EFFECT ON venezuela VICE PRESIDENT'S case

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA  -- Dismissal of Jorge Rodríguez as Executive Vice-President is the result of the suitcase scandal, where businessman Guido Antonini Wilson tried to bring USD 800,000 in undeclared cash in Argentina, said opposition Copei national leader Enrique Naime.

    "The fact that President Hugo Chávez conceded that the Vice-President's shameful performance prompted him to make the decision to remove him, after making a great song about his appointment less than one year ago, is very serious," said the leader.

    Rodríguez "not only made a mess in the Antonini's case, but also put the country at stake when, according the US judicial investigations, he acted illegally to conceal the source and destination of these dollars." Further, Naime claimed that entrusting Rodríguez with the chair of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (Psuv) "ensures total chaos in that organization that has not been born yet."

DNA SHOWS COLOMBIAN BOY IS EX-HOSTAGE

      BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- DNA analysis indicates a 3-year-old boy living in a Bogotá foster home is the child of a woman held captive by leftist rebels for nearly six years, Colombia's top prosecutor said Friday. The results suggest President Alvaro Uribe was right -- and that the leftist rebels misled Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and the world when they promised to release the boy along with his mother, Clara Rojas, and another hostage from their jungle camps.

    The DNA analysis shows a complete match between the mitochondria in the blood of Rojas' mother and the boy, chief federal prosecutor Mario Iguaran announced, meaning that there is a ''very high probability'' that ``this boy belongs to the Rojas family.'' The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, promised two weeks ago to release the boy fathered by a leftist rebel, along with Rojas and former congresswoman Consuelo Gonzalez. Chávez assembled a team of international observers and invited filmmaker Oliver Stone to participate, along with a media horde.

     But the rebels never told Chávez where to pick up the hostages and blamed operations by Colombia's U.S.-backed military when it called off the liberation of the three hostages on New Year's Eve. Uribe meanwhile made the shocking announcement that the rebels couldn't keep their promises because they didn't have the boy, who had been living in foster care under a different name, Juan David Gomez, for more than two years. Venezuela complained that Colombia had not permitted its own team of specialists to take blood samples from the boy to make its own confirmation of the DNA results

01-05- 2008

FARC CHIEF, MANUEL MARULANDA, ANNOUNCES GENERAL OFFENSIVE IN COLOMBIA

        BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- The founder and chief of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) Pedro Antonio Marín, alias Manuel Marulanda and/or Tirofijo, announced a "general offensive" in a New Year message posted on a website related to the guerrillas.

    "It is advisable to cash in on the general crisis faced by the government and the tiredness shown by some military units to work on a general offensive," said Marulanda in his notice dated December 24 and released by the Bolivarian Press Agency (ABP), Efe quoted. Tirofijo urged his subordinate commanders to "launch armed actions in roads, lanes, jungle, urban centers, villages and garrisons, with no truce for the enemy, as they do it."

    The FARC leader made a call to "use different ways of action, mobilizations for very specific purposes, requests for peace from the State, human rights advocacy, civic strikes, reports on massacres and official outrage before domestic and foreign organizations of competent jurisdiction." The kingpin railed on the Colombian government for its failure to agree on a humanitarian swap where 45 hostages would be handed over in exchange of 500 imprisoned rebels.

MINISTER JESSE CHACON PROVIDES THE NAMES OF NEW COLLEAGUES

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA  --Brand-new Minister of the Secretariat of the Presidency Jesse Chacón listed on Friday during a press conference the names of the new ministers of the Interior and Justice, Communication and Information, and Finance, among other government agencies. Ramón Rodríguez Chacín will be the Minister of the Interior and Justice instead of Pedro Carreño. Andrés Izarra will be responsible again for the Ministry of Communication and Information.

    Vice-Minister of Funding for Endogenous Development Rafael Isea will succeed Rafael Cabezas as Minister of Finance. Cabezas resigned to run for Zulia state governor in an election scheduled ending this year, Reuters reported. Andrés Izarra, the chair of TV network Telesur to date, plans to implement President Hugo Chávez's "three R's" initiative at the Ministry of Information and related agencies.

    "We will revise and assess; we will make any amendment needed to bolster again, not only (community TV channel) TVes, but the whole mass media in the State hands, including agencies, publishing houses and radio stations. We will also review the role played by the Ministry of Communication and Information to give the government additional communicational capabilities," he said. President Chávez has presented what he calls "the three inverted R's" -revision, rectification and re-launch- a process to be undertaken by the government in the aftermath of a referendum last December on the constitutional reform. His insight includes a seemingly new stage in class relations.

HUGO CHAVEZ DECREE TARGETS AT PEACE, SAYS JOSE MIGUEL INSULZA, OAS SECRETARY GENERAL

      WASHINGTON, D.C.  --  Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary-General José Miguel Insulza lavished praise on Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's decision to pardon a group of ordinary convicts and declare amnesty for political prisoners or people persecuted for political reasons.

    Chávez's decision "shows his readiness to leave behind past grievances and disagreements and targets at peace and national rapprochement, which are the principal aims of democracy," said the secretary-general in a communiqué. Insulza expects that "Venezuela and all the countries in the region continue on the way to democratic progress, put their differences aside and join efforts to attain our common goals," Efe quoted.

    President Chávez issued last December 31st a pardon for political prisoners or political defendants, particularly the people involved in a coup attempt that overthrew him for 48 hours in 2002. The move covers also 36 convicts for state offences. The amnesty does not include government opponents who failed to appear before the court or fled the country.

01-04- 2008

MARULANDA BLAMES COLOMBIAN GENERALS FOR FAILED SWAP

        BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) kingpin Manuel Marulanda, alias Tirofijo, put the blame on some Colombian army generals for hindering a swap of hostages, according to a letter authored by him and released by Venezuelan state-run news agency Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias (ABN).

    "The irremovable of (Colombian) President Álvaro Uribe are one of so many pretexts in the mind of some generals to hamper the humanitarian swap," said the FARC commander in a letter dated December 24th, disclosed on Wednesday by ABN.

    Earlier this week, the FARC addressed a letter to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, where they announced that the handover of three hostages would be deferred in the absence of appropriate security conditions due to the operations of Colombian military, AP quoted.  The FARC had promised Chávez to free ex Congresswoman Consuelo González; former assistant to presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, Clara Rojas, and his son Emmanuel, born in captivity to a guerrilla man.  On December 28th, Chávez set an international operation in motion to pick up the hostages. However, the action came to a standstill three days after, following the FARC notice.

FARC SAID TO HAVE SET A DEADLINE TO RECLAIM ALLEGED EMMANUEL

      BOGOTA, COLOMBIA  --A man who was entrusted by the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) with the task of taking care of a child claimed that the guerrillas threatened to kill him if he failed to hand over the boy by December 30th, reported on Thursday the Colombian press.

    According to the Colombian government, the 3-year-old boy is Emmanuel, the child born in captivity to hostage Clara Rojas. osé Crisanto Gómez, who is under the government protection, said that the FARC gave him the child to look after him. However, the authorities took responsibility for the child in view of his poor health conditions when he was admitted to a hospital, reported Bogota's daily newspaper El Tiempo.

    According to the newspaper, Gómez and his family were taken on Wednesday to Bogota in a police plane and he gave testimony for some hours at the Colombian Attorney General Office, Efe reported.

OPEC WEIGHS RAISING OIL OUTPUT

      YAKARTA, INDONESIA  --  The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) could opt to lift its output during its meeting next February 1st in Vienna, in the event of short supply, Indonesian governor to OPEC Maizar Rahman told Reuters on Thursday.

     According to Rahman, OPEC is able to increase the output by 500,000 bpd, but oil prices could gain strength anyway. "There is still the possibility that oil prices move up to the range of USD 100-110," said Rahman and noted that such a high value may affect adversely the economic growth of developing countries that do not produce oil.

    "Once this happens, oil prices should lower in the face of the feeble purchasing power of developing countries," he added.

01-03- 2008

80 PERCENT OF INCOMING COCAINE IN SPAIN GOES THROUGH VENEZUELA 

        MADRID, SPAIN  --  Anti-narcotic intelligence services, such as the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) are on the alert because 80 percent of the cocaine arriving in Spain comes from Venezuela, reported Spanish daily newspaper La Razón on its Monday edition.

    The ships loaded with illicit drugs that have been interdicted since 2003 passed through Venezuela. This is the case of Poseidon, containing three tons of coca; Caridad C, containing an equal amount; White Sands, containing 3,100 kilograms, and most recently, Fabio Gallipolli, which was intercepted in Cape Verde waters. Its storage area hid almost four tons, noted the newspaper quoting sources from the Spanish Organized Crime Information Center (CICO).

     For its part, DEA claimed that the Venezuelan army sells weapons to the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC), provides them with forged passports and even escorts air and sea cargos. The same sources noted that the illicit drugs from Venezuela to Europe and Mexico increased about 500 percent under the government of President Hugo Chávez. According to La Razón, quoting Colombian intelligence sources, there are 117 clandestine airstrips in Venezuela for drug-related activities.

ARGENTINEAN OPPOSITION LAMBASTES KIRCHNER FOR TIES WITH HUGO CHAVEZ 

      BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA  --Leaders of the Argentinean opposition lamented the failed release of three hostages, as trumpeted by the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC), and railed on ex Argentinean President Néstor Kirchner for his ties with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

     "The failed handover of Colombian hostages is regrettable," said Elisa Carrió, the leader of center-leftwing Coalición Cívica, the third political force in Argentina, told daily newspaper Clarín on Wednesday. "The demagogic handling of the situation by Kirchner and Chávez is immoral," said the ex presidential candidate.

    For his part, Ernesto Sanz, the head of opposition Unión Cívica Radical (URC), the second force at Congress, claimed that the move to free the FARC hostages "turned into quite a movie-like event." Kirchner, he said, "ended up by getting the country in troubles due to his dangerous liaisons" with the Venezuelan president.

OIL FUTURES HIT $100 A BARREL IN INTRADAY TRADING 

      NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK --The price of oil hit $100 a barrel for the first time ever in intraday trading Wednesday, prompted by a mix of long-term fears that supply will not meet demand and more immediate concerns of turmoil in oil producing nations. Speculation by oil traders is also believed to have contributed to the historic run up. In response, the White House issued a call for an increase in the production of domestic oil, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

     The Dow Jones Industrial average plummeted more than 200 points on news that oil had hit the psychologically important milestone. Light sweet crude for January delivery rose $4.02 to $100 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, according to a Nymex spokeswoman. The price later fell to $99.15. Long-term fears stemmed from a report that OPEC believes it won't be able to meet global demand by 2024.  Surging economies in China and India-- fed by oil and gasoline-- have sent prices soaring over the past year, while tensions in oil-producing nations like Nigeria and Iran have increasingly made investors nervous and invited speculators to drive prices even higher.

     In Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, bands of armed men invaded Port Harcourt, the center of the oil industry Tuesday, attacking two police stations and raiding the lobby of a major hotel, according to the Associated Press. “Although the violence has not impacted oil flow out of the country, it has reignited supply concerns as militant attacks have reduced Nigeria's crude output by roughly 20% since 2006," said John Gerdes, an analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey in a research note.  In addition, several Mexican oil exporters were forced to close Wednesday due to rough weather, which pushed prices higher.

01-02- 2008

COLOMBIAN EXPERTS TO PERFORM DNA TEST ON HOSTAGE'S RELATIVES

        CARACAS, VENEZUELA  -- Colombian experts will conduct DNA tests here Tuesday on relatives of FARC hostage Clara Rojas in an effort to determine whether a boy identified by Bogota as her son, Emmanuel, is in fact the child, who was to have been released along with the former Colombian vice presidential candidate and a former congresswoman under a plan crafted by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.  Ivan Rojas, a brother of Clara Rojas and uncle of the boy, told reporters at the presidential palace that Chavez allowed the five experts to enter the country after the Colombian government said Emmanuel might be in Bogota.  

    The group includes two Colombian Family Welfare Institute officials, two doctors and a specialist from the Attorney General's Office who are "all genetics experts," Ivan Rojas said.  The DNA samples will allow the testing of a boy who is in the care of the institute in Bogota to see if there is a match with his supposed uncle and grandmother, who have been in Caracas since last Thursday awaiting the hostage release promised by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, guerrilla group.  He said Chavez "cooperated immediately" to bring about the quick admission of the five experts into Venezuela and "offered the performance of other tests" in Venezuela.

     Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo told Colombian radio Tuesday that the government revealed its theory about the whereabouts of Emmanuel because it was in the national interest.  "We could not act in a secret manner. This was a matter that endangered the Colombian state," Restrepo said.  Restrepo said no "other explanation could exist for why the FARC did not go through (with the hostage release), because perhaps they wanted to recover the child so they could make a joint handover of all the hostages."  The foreign dignitaries who were supposed to witness the hostage handover left the Colombian city of Villavicencio late Monday after the guerrillas postponed the operation.

GUNMAN KILLS U.S. DIPLOMAT, DRIVER IN SUDAN

      JARTUM, SUDAN  --  An American diplomat working toward restoring peace in war-torn Sudan was shot and killed along with his driver early Tuesday as he headed home from a New Year's party in the Sudanese capital, his family said. U.S. officials are working with Sudanese authorities to determine whether it was a targeted attack or an isolated incident.

    John Granville, 33, was a U.S. Foreign Service diplomat from Buffalo, New York. His sister said he had telephoned his mother Monday to wish her a happy new year, and mentioned he was planning to attend a party. Hours later, the family received a call from U.S. officials that Granville had been shot sometime after midnight local time. Sudan is eight hours ahead of Eastern time.

    The Sudanese Interior Ministry identified the driver as 40-year-old Abdel Rahman Abbas and said the car was heading to a western suburb of Sudan's capital, The Associated Press reported. Abbas, who was killed instantly in the attack, was employed by the U.S. Embassy, said Walter Braunohler, a spokesman for the embassy. Granville died several hours later from his injuries. Granville's sister, Katie McCabe, said she believes hospital workers did not notice that her brother had been shot in the stomach -- in addition to the hand and shoulder -- which caused fatal internal bleeding.

SECOND SUSPECT IN ARGENTINE-VENEZUELA POLITICAL SCANDAL ARRAIGNED IN MIAMI 

      MIAMI, FLORIDA --  The second of four suspects accused in a purported scheme to hide the source of $800,000 sent in a suitcase to finance the campaign of Argentina's president pleaded not guilty in U.S. federal court Friday.  Uruguayan Rodolfo Wanseele Paciello, 40, is accused of failing to register as a foreign agent of Venezuela. His attorney, Orlando do Campo, entered the plea as Paciello stood beside him in leg shackles.

    A message left for do Campo by The Associated Press was not immediately returned Friday. The alleged ringleader of the group, Venezuelan Franklin Duran, 40, entered a not guilty plea Thursday. Investigators believe Duran helped orchestrate the Venezuelan government's efforts to cover up an attempt in August to give cash to the campaign of Argentinean President Cristina Fernandez, who was elected Oct. 28.

     Two other Venezuelans are charged: Moises Roman Majonica, 36, and Carlos Kauffmann, 35. Their arraignments are scheduled Jan. 7. All four men are in U.S. custody. If convicted, the four face up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines. The man who actually carried the suitcase, Guido Antonini Wilson, is wanted by Argentina for extradition to face money laundering charges, but U.S. prosecutors are treating him as a victim and witness and have declined to honor Argentina's request. Argentine and Venezuelan officials have vehemently denounced the U.S. court allegations as an effort to embarrass both their governments.

01-01- 2008

COLOMBIAN HOSTAGE RELEASE FAILS; ANOTHER TREMENDOUS POLITICAL EMBARRASSMENT  FOR HUGO CHAVEZ

        VILLAVICENCIO, COLOMBIA  -- Colombian rebels Monday said they would not now be able to release three hostages as planned, accusing the Colombian government of failing to guarantee the guerrillas' safety. The release of two women held for more than five years in the Amazon jungle, and a three-year-old boy born in captivity, hit a new snag Monday after days of frantic preparations.

    "Intense military operations in the zone make it impossible now" to release the three, the Marxist FARC rebels said in a statement read by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has been spearheading the delicate mission. "To continue under these conditions would endanger the lives of the people to be released, the other prisoners of war and the guerrillas carrying out this mission," the rebel statement added.

    Chavez said the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, one of the world's oldest insurgencies, had called for a "real ceasefire" before letting the hostages go. But Colombian President Alvaro Uribe denied reports of fighting and said Bogota had agreed to open a safe corridor for the mission, which is operating under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). "We were asked to establish a kind of strategic corridor. We accept this," Uribe said, adding "there has not been any fighting in this area."

COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT ALVARO URIBES SAID THAT THE REBELS WERE NO LONGER KEEPING EMMANUEL 

      VILLAVICENCIO, COLOMBIA  -- Colombian president alvaro Uribe, who arrived in this Colombian city earlier Monday to meet international observers taking part in "Operation Emmanuel," stressed his government had provided all the security guarantees that were asked for. "What has the attitude of the FARC been? One of lies, and cheating," Uribe said in a speech shown on television, accusing the rebels of deliberately delaying the hostages' release.

    Gonzalez and Rojas were snatched in 2001 and 2002 respectively. Rojas was a top aide to Franco-Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who was seized at the same time and was not due to be released with the others. But Uribe raised the possibility the rebels could not complete the handover of the hostages as they were no longer holding the little boy.

    "The FARC can't keep the promise to free the hostages because they no longer have the child, Emmanuel, in their power," Uribe said, suggesting instead that a boy found in July 2006 in southeast Colombia was Emmanuel -- he was being cared for in a children's home in Bogota. Uribe proposed that DNA tests be carried out on the child and Emmanuel's grandmother to see if they were related.

HUGO CHAVEZ: URIBE WENT TO VILLAVICENCIO TO DYNAMITE THE THIRD PHASE OF THE RESCUE OPERATION" 

      CARACAS, VENEZUELA --  HUGO CHAVEZ read out the FARC's letter explaining its failure to hand over the hostages, and he accused Colombian President Alvaro Uribe of sabotaging his rescue plan. "Uribe went to dynamite the third phase of this operation," Chavez said, adding that independent reports also pointed to an intensification of Colombian military activity in the area.

    Chavez said foreign envoys, including former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner, who are in Colombia to help the mission should now return home, although he also vowed to continue working for the hostages' release. Uribe, a conservative who has clashed repeatedly with Chavez, denied military operations had prevented the handover

    "The FARC terrorist group has no excuses. They have always used excuses to deceive Colombia and now they want to deceive the international community. They are lying," he said in the central city of Villavicencio, where the Venezuelan helicopters waited to be dispatched for the handover. He offered, however, to halt army patrols in an area designated by the FARC once they reveal the location of their captives.