Apenas un día antes de que regimientos leales y una iracunda pueblada le devolvieran el mando, Hugo Chávez permanecía atrincherado en el palacio de Miraflores de Caracas, sede del Gobierno venezolano. Era un hombre profundamente abatido, dispuesto al suicidio, convencido de que el golpe cívico castrense del 11 de abril del año 2002 contra su presidencia había triunfado. "¡No te inmoles!", le pidió Fidel Castro, telefónicamente, la madrugada del día 12. Alarmado por el derrumbe emocional de su amigo y aliado, el líder cubano pidió ayuda al presidente José María Aznar (1996-2004) para salvar su vida y concederle asilo en España, según afirma en sus memorias sobre aquella crisis el obispo Baltasar Porras, ex presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal Venezolana (CEV).

Este documento define las Líneas Generales del Plan de Desarrollo Económico y Social de la Nación para el período 2007 – 2013. A partir del 2 de febrero de 1999, se inició un proceso de cambio en Venezuela orientado hacia la construcción del Proyecto Nacional Simón Bolívar, el cual continúa en esta nueva fase de gobierno para profundizar los logros alcanzados por los lineamientos del Plan de Desarrollo Económico y Social 2001 – 2007. En este próximo período 2007 – 2013, se orienta Venezuela hacia la construcción del Socialismo del Siglo XXI, a través de las siguientes directrices.

Gabriel Guerrero quería estudiar medicina en Venezuela, pero su sueño terminó en pesadilla. Después de insistir por más de cuatro años en la Embajada de Venezuela en Bogotá, el 12 de abril pasado Gabriel Guerrero pensó que por fin iba a cumplir su sueño de estudiar una carrera universitaria

En este Informe se reporta la observación del proceso de las Elecciones Presidenciales 2006, con énfasis en las condiciones existentes en cuanto a las garantías del proceso comicial. Las últimas cuatro (4) elecciones realizadas en Venezuela antes de las Elecciones Presidenciales de 2006 se caracterizaron por la implantación de una compleja red tecnológica, incluyendo máquinas electrónicas para la captura de las huellas dáctilar de los votantes, para el acto de votación y para la totalización de los votos, así como para otras etapas del proceso electoral,enmarcadas en un proceso de automatización progresiva conducida desde el Consejo Nacional Electoral (CNE).

After eight years in power, President Hugo Chávez won an overwhelming re-election in December 2006. Flush with oil revenues, bolstered by high approval ratings and at the start of a six-year term, he expresses confidence about advancing what he calls his Bolivarian Revolution, named after Simón Bolívar, the country’s independence hero, and installing his still only vaguely defined “Socialism of the 21st Century”. There are concerns in Venezuela and much of the hemisphere, however, that to do so the ex-colonel and one-time coup leader may be willing to sacrifice democratic principles. He is not yet a dictator and for the most part has not tried to act in a dictatorial manner, but the trend toward autocracy is strong. If he continues to build personal power at the expense of other institutions and militarise much of the government and political life, there will be serious risks for internal conflict, especially if the oil boom that cushions the economy falters.

Venezuela says it is beefing up its military capabilities -- including plans to develop the region's largest submarine fleet -- in preparation for any "asymmetrical conflict" with the United States.

Un diagrama se confunde con fotos del Che, Bolívar, Jesucristo y Chávez en la página 9 titulada "Fuentes de inspiración". Es sólo una de las 83 hojas del archivo "Nueva etapa" desplegado en la portátil de la que se vale el ex oficial, ex senador y ex vicecanciller, William Izarra, para cumplir la misión que encabeza desde 2004: difundir y explicar, vía power point, los fundamentos del llamado socialismo del siglo XXI y los preceptos básicos de esta revolución.

To no one's surprise, Venezuela's authoritarian president, Hugo Chávez swept to re-election victory on December 3. Chávez clearly intends to turn Latin America and the Caribbean toward authoritarianism and closed markets. To counter those aims, the United States must ratify promised trade ties with allies.

A video that is becoming an official instructional document for Venezuelans shows strongman Hugo Chávez in front of his audience, a group of open-mouthed Venezuelan bureaucrats in rapture at the inventiveness of their boss. In this video he describes his ideas on the economy and, more particularly, on currencies and bartering, establishing points of doctrine to guide the new, revolutionary Venezuela. As the video starts we see Chávez holding a piece of paper where he has drawn two circles. One of the circles, he says, represents production. The other represents the community market. Chávez starts his lecture by telling the audience that, about 20% of the production should be donated, given away for free. The rest of the production, he says, should go to the community market and sold there.

Chavez, who had the support of 52 percent of those polled compared with 48 percent for opposition candidate Manuel Rosales, has seen his lead dwindle from 13 points in September, AKSA President Alfredo Keller said. AKSA's poll, which assumed just two candidates, is the only one of five released in the past two weeks that shows Rosales gaining on Chavez.

American media attention is fixated on Venezuela's endemically deteriorating relations with the United States. In the shadow of this coverage, however, the Chavez government has dramatically improved its foreign commercial and diplomatic ties with many countries. During the next several years, these ties will be crucial for the development of Venezuela's petroleum sector, which has growth potential that is unrivaled anywhere in the world. Accelerating development of the petroleum sector could make Venezuela Latin America's wealthiest country within the next decade.

Más de la mitad de la población de Venezuela vive en la pobreza o la miseria, según los propios datos del régimen bolivariano y Hugo Chávez dedica los petrodólares, prácticamente los únicos ingresos del país, a comprar un puesto en el Consejo de Seguridad. La televisión Al Yazira calcula en 1.100 millones de dólares el coste de la campaña.

The commander of United States military activities in Latin America said Monday that Venezuela under President Hugo Chávez had become a destabilizing force, and that other countries in the Western hemisphere shared that concern.

Venezuela has long cultivated ties with Middle Eastern governments, finding common ground in trying to keep oil prices high, but its recent engagement of Iran has become a defining element in its effort to build an alliance to curb American influence in developing countries.

There are elections taking place this fall that will have a major impact on Americans. But we're not talking about congressional races at home. This balloting is for the five non-permanent U.N Security Council seats that will open up in 2007.

Venezuela is to build Latin America’s first Kalashnikov factory under a deal with Russia that has stoked fears in Washington about the oil-rich country’s arms procurement plans.

With the exception of Iran’s fiery Islamist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, no other world leader has perfected the role of “U.S. antagonist” better than Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez. With a close group of confidants that includes some the world’s most notorious U.S. bashers such as Cuba’s aging dictator Fidel Castro, Libya’s enigmatic Moammar Gadhafi and Bolivia’s ultra-nationalist Evo Morales – Chavez has quickly become one of the leading spokesman for the global anti-American movement.

Perhaps the most generous interpretation of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez is that he is a man who wants to help his nation’s long-neglected poor majority. He certainly appears to enjoy their support. According to most recent polls, his approval ratings hover around 55 percent.

Jorge Quiroga respondió al Presidente de Venezuela y le retó a frenar el Gasoducto del Sur y dejar de venderle petróleo a EEUU.

President Hugo Chávez is spending billions of dollars of his country's oil windfall on pet projects abroad, aimed at setting up his leftist government as a political counterpoint to the Bush administration in the region.

Dictators and strongmen enjoy basking in their own glory. Spain's Generalisimo Francisco Franco waved from balconies to arranged crowds. North Korea's Kim Jong-il once preferred to be called "Dear Leader." Uganda's Idi Amin loved to show off in race cars. Cuba's Fidel Castro turned olive-green fatigues and seven-hour speeches into trademarks.

Venezuela se encuentra inundada de dinero petrolero que desperdicia en programas internos y hemisféricos para asistir y cortejar a los pobres y a los poderosos. Mientras China está construyendo un sistema económico interno diversificado, Chavez, al igual que la mayoría de los caudillos latinoamericanos, reparte los botines existentes en lugar de crear oportunidades e instituciones para un futuro equilibrado y productivo, una vez que pase el auge petrolero.

With Iranian nuclear aspirations gaining notice, it's worth directing attention to the growing relationship between Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez. The Reagan administration repulsed Soviet efforts to set up camp in Central America. Iranian designs on Venezuela perhaps deserve similar U.S. attention.

The Venezuelan army is distributing a book that focuses on asymmetrical warfare, such as the war between the U.S. forces and Iraqi insurgents, and argues that 'revolutionary Islam' and U.S. religious extremism are moral equivalents.

Nowhere is the lack of a U.S. strategic approach to the Western Hemisphere more evident than in the unchecked rise of a self-absorbed, unstable strongman in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, who has made common cause with terrorists and the regimes that support them, and has developed a revolutionary ideology that has begun to plunge the Americas again into violence and chaos.

En este informe, el vicepresidente de la Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa, Juan Manuel Carmona, da cuenta de como es la costumbre, e incluso algunos casos puntuales, que implican violencias específicas a la libertad de expresión y de prensa en Venezuela.

El tema de la lucha contra la pobreza parece convertirse en una piedra en el zapato del presidente Chávez, y él está consciente de ello. El Instituto Nacional de Estadística muestra entre sus números que para el primer semestre del año 1999, cuando Chávez asumió la Presidencia, el índice de pobreza era de 42,8%, mientras que al cierre de 2004 era de 53%, según el presidente del INE.