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Venezuela to Nationalize Gold Industry
President Hugo Chávez says he plans to take over Venezuela’s largely underdeveloped gold mining industry in an attempt to boost international reserves, reports WSJ.
Chávez has already nationalized banks, telecommunications, oil fields, the power sector, and hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland.
Speaking on state television via telephone, Chávez said he would introduce a new Read more…
Chávez’s purchase of $15 billion in weapons causes concern in Latin America
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s purchases of weapons totaling more than $15 billion causes concern in Latin America.
With the acquisition of hundreds of tanks, helicopters and bulletproof vehicles as well as submarines and missile networks, Venezuela is arming itself at a speed unprecedented in the history of the South American country.
Experts consulted by El Nuevo Herald have said that Hugo Chávez’s has created unrest in the region with purchases to expand its military that total more than $15 billion.
The analysts warned that the purchases are made in an improvised fashion, following a “dubious” process with no bidding or prior studies, which could lead the country to acquire a Russian technology difficult to adopt and rejected by segments of the National Armed Forces.
The funds Chávez is using for the purchase of these new weapons, the largest in the nation’s history, are in Read more…
Libya: Colonel Gaddafi ‘flees’ to Venezuela as cities fall to protesters
Credible Western intelligence reports say that Muammar Gaddafi has fled Libya and is on his way to exile in Venezuela, according to William Hague, the foreign secretary.

Following an emergency EU meeting of foreign ministers on the situation in Libya, Mr Hague was asked if Britain, or other Western countries, knew if Col. Gaddafi had left Tripoli.
“About whether Col. Gaddafi, is in Venezuela, I have no information that says he is although I have seen some information that suggests he is on his way there,” he said.
British officials stressed that Mr Hague was referring “not to media reports but information from other channels”. “This is credible information,” said a diplomat. Read more…