CARACAS — Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro said Washington was making a “grave mistake” in not acknowledging his victory in the controversial April 14 presidential election.

Maduro, 50, heir to the late leftist president Hugo Chavez, defeated opposition candidate Henrique Capriles, 40, by a razor-thin margin in the snap election to complete Chavez’s six-year term in office.

Capriles however has refused to concede defeat, claiming that the vote was riddled with irregularities.

In a May 3 interview with US Spanish-language network Univision, President Barack Obama refused to say whether Washington recognized Maduro as the winner of the April vote.

“I believe (the United States) is committing a grave mistake, one more in its policy towards Latin America,” Maduro said in an interview with the Caracas-based Telesur network.

“It is making a tremendous mistake because Venezuela plays a leadership role in Latin America and the world,” he said, highlighting the visit to Caracas on Sunday of Chinese ... Read More

BY TIM ROGERS

MANAGUA, NICARAGUA

Latin America’s least popular president finally has something to cheer about. Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla, whose approval ratings barely register in double digits, could receive an “Obama bounce” in the polls after the US president traveled to the capital city of San José and heralded her country as an exemplary leader for Central America.

In just his second visit to Central America and his first trip to Costa Rica, President Barack Obama this weekend called for new partnerships and increased integration with the region – especially in the areas of trade, innovation, and energy. Mr. Obama, who arrived in San José Friday afternoon to a rock star’s welcome of people lining the streets to cheer his motorcade, lauded Costa Rica for its historic commitments to democracy, peace, human rights, education and socio-economic development.

Costa Rican government officials and local pundits are proudly interpreting Obama’s visit as first-world recognition of their country’s new standing as an international ... Read More

BY JOE LEAHY

In 2010, when 60 Minutes came to Brazil to do a piece on the “World’s Next Economic Superpower”, the US television programme chose Eike Batista as the ambassador for the country.

“You know, in the last 16 years, Brazil has put its act together. This is it. Hello, time for Americans to wake up,” Mr Batista said with trademark brashness.

In retrospect, the discovery by primetime TV of Brazil’s economy should itself have been a sell signal for investors that a long boom in Latin America’s biggest economy, fuelled by high commodity prices and credit, was peaking.

It was also a high-water mark for Mr Batista. In only a few years he had amassed a paper fortune that until last year was estimated by Forbes to be worth about $30bn through the listing of his X group of mostly start-up companies. This year, the bubble surrounding the group burst after his oil and gas explorer, OGX, ... Read More

After an ill-advised overture to Hugo Chávez’s government last November, the Obama administration has regained its footing with a strong, principled stance on Venezuela’s contested election. Based on the razor-thin margin and opposition protests of irregularities, the administration has yet to recognize as the winner Vice President Nicolas Maduro, Chávez’s anointed successor, and has instead supported a review of the vote count.

In appearances before both the House and Senate in recent days, Secretary of State John Kerry re-affirmed that position “so that the people of Venezuela who participated in such a closely divided and important election can have the confidence that they have the legitimacy that is necessary in the government going forward.”

He said, “I don’t know whether it’s going to happen. … [But] obviously, if there are huge irregularities, we are going to have serious questions about the viability of that government.”

Kerry’s statements brought the predictable howls of protest from Venezuela. “It’s ... Read More

BY JIM WYSS

CARACAS – When Nicolás Maduro is sworn-in as Venezuela’s president Friday, he’s hoping the cheers of his supporters will drown out the sound of protesters clanging pots and pans that is expected to erupt over the city.

Less than a week after winning a contested election by less than 275,000 votes, Maduro, 50, is being accused of stealing the race by a newly empowered opposition that is demanding a recount.

Maduro, in turn, is accusing his rival, Henrique Capriles, of trying to derail democracy, inciting violence and laying the groundwork for a coup. He has also threatened to revoke Capriles’ governorship and throw him in jail.

Partisan clashes have led to at least eight deaths, more than 130 arrests and one congressional fistfight.

This isn’t how the legacy of the late-President Hugo Chávez was expected to play out.

During his 14 years in power, Chávez was an electoral juggernaut, winning four presidential races by ... Read More

BY RICK MACINNES-RAE

It is not just Venezuelans who are looking anxiously at their post-Hugo Chavez future.

Cubans, too, have much to lose if Venezuela’s government changes after the April 14 election, and they’re not happy about it.

In campaign speeches, Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles is threatening to axe the long-time lifeline Venezuela has been providing to Cuba in the form of heavily discounted oil.

For 13 years, the small Caribbean state has depended on Venezuela for nearly 100,000 barrels a day of petroleum — to light Cuba’s homes and the hotels that underpin its tourist economy — at discount prices that amount to an estimated $6-billion subsidy over the six-year life of the current agreement.

“The giveaways to other countries are going to end,” Capriles told a student rally in Zulia recently. “Not another drop of oil will go toward financing the government of the Castros.”

The market-friendly Venezuelan governor is no fan of the ... Read More

BY EZRA FIESER

CARACAS, VENEZUELA

Venezuela’s seasonal downpours used to open a small river that flowed through Amada Quintana’s dirt-floor house perched on a hillside slum here. But President Hugo Chávez fixed that. Workers from one of his poverty-fighting Bolivarian Missions came to her home, poured concrete floors, attached a sturdy roof, and rebuilt cracked walls.

Other programs he created provided her a free basic education and set her up with a government pension, even though she never paid into a retirement account. She receives $300 a month, more than enough to cover expenses.

For poor Venezuelans like Ms. Quintana, there were few things Mr. Chávez didn’t fix.

“I can’t tell you just one thing that he did, because he changed Venezuela completely,” says Quintana, wearing an “I am Chávez” T-shirt.

Chávez, whose death was announced March 5, built his legend among the poor by providing free health care, education, and housing alongside subsidized gasoline, food, ... Read More

It’s been roughly over 100 days since acting President Nicolás Maduro has overtaken power in Venezuela and has left a trail of leads on how terrible it would be if he won the presidential race on April 14.

So pay heed to this, people!

A bigger shadow has been cast over the nation’s economic outlook due to the following reasons:

An accumulated inflation of 5% during the first two months of 2013, almost double the rate registered during the same period in 2012. Food shortage levels in the Metropolitan area of Caracas are the highest since 2008. Liquid international reserves totaled $4.03 billion through February 28, less than four weeks of exports equaling $4.13 billion. Paying off our external debt remains extremely difficult as both of our Chinese and Russian partners seem not to trust in the Government’s management anymore. The foreign exchange reserves destined to expenditures dried up as the Government decreed two devaluations; the first ... Read More

BY CARLOS ALBERTO MONTANER

Raúl Castro’s regime wants to change the general perception about Cuba. It is intent on displaying an image that fundamental changes are taking place on the island, but that’s not true.

Cubans are better able to speak on the phone or enter the hotels, restaurants and stores that used to be reserved for tourists. They can open minuscule family businesses to provide services or are allowed to exploit small parcels of land to produce food. But none of that is essential.

These are nothing but token gestures intended to alleviate the disastrous economic consequences of a system that’s mostly unproductive in a material sense and cruelly harmful in an emotional sense.

What is the essence of that and all other totalitarian tyrannies? It’s evident: the monstruous fact that one person, one group of big shots or a party makes all the basic decisions, tramples on the will of individuals and ... Read More

BY STEVEN MUFSON

Five years ago, a full-page ad blasting Exxon Mobil appeared in the Venezuelan newspaper Ultimas Noticias. Drawings of drops of oil went from black at the top of the page to red at the bottom. “Exxon turns oil into blood,” the bold-face text declared. Addressing “Exxtranjero” — the Spanish word for foreigner, with an extra “x” — it used a slogan from the Spanish Civil War that roughly translates as “you will not pass.”

The ad summed up the combative relationship the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez had with some international oil companies and how he used his country’s vast oil riches as a political tool and weapon. Abroad, he pushed for crude prices of $100 a barrel. At home, subsidies have kept fuel prices down around 8 cents a gallon.

“He’s a charmer. He’s a liar,” said one oil industry executive who knew Chavez, speaking on condition of anonymity to protect business relationships. ... Read More

The struggle for Venezuela’s future begins now — and the stakes couldn’t be higher. The Obama administration can either stand by and watch the country become a satellite of the Castro regime promoting instability and maintaining dangerous alliances with Iran and other U.S. enemies, or it can try to influence events in a positive direction, meaning a return to constitutionality and a reformed electoral system that allows the Venezuelan people to freely and fairly determine their future.

It will not be easy, given the amount of bad actors and levels of acrimony, polarization, and socioeconomic chaos that Hugo Chávez has left in his wake. Yet it presents an extraordinary opportunity to pull Venezuela back into the peaceful community of regional nations, after more than a decade of Chavez’s trouble-making that has set back regional prospects for stability and economic development.

What we know right now is that Chávez’s successors evidently have decided ... Read More

Where Hugo Chavez was a charismatic whirlwind, his deputy has always come across as just the opposite: a quiet man.

It fell to Nicolas Maduro to announce to Venezuelans that their leader was dead.

President Chavez named his 50-year-old vice-president and foreign minister as his preferred successor following the recurrence of his cancer.

“He is a complete revolutionary, a man of great experience despite his youth, with great dedication and capacity for work, for leading, for handling the most difficult situations,” Mr Chavez said.

Analysts said that by naming Mr Maduro as his successor, President Chavez appeared to be trying to boost the vice-president’s standing ahead of any potential rivals within the “chavismo” political system built up around the Venezuelan leader.

Mr Maduro, a former bus driver with a bushy black moustache, became one of the president’s closest advisers. He was made foreign minister in 2006 and in October last year, following Mr Chavez’s ... Read More

BY CARLOS ALBERTO MONTANER

Panama’s former ambassador to the Organization of American States, Dr. Guillermo Cochez, a person who is usually well informed, affirms that Hugo Chávez, president of Venezuela, died a few days ago and challenges the government of that country to prove otherwise. How? In the only credible manner: by producing the sick man or, failing that, his cadaver.

Until now, the spokesmen of Chavismo — Information Minister Ernesto Villegas, Vice President Nicolás Maduro, National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello — have said contradictory things, but they are beginning to spoon out bad news about Chávez’s health, as if they were preparing public opinion to announce the fatal outcome as described by Cochez.

If, in fact, Chávez has died, they have to announce it that way, because so far they’ve played with the deception that he was gradually improving. That was a lie to which Fidel Castro himself lent his already minimal credibility, publicly ... Read More

Alas, Hugo Chávez will not live long enough to atone for his abuse of millions of Venezuelans nor to correct the corrupt and destructive policies that have wrecked the country he leaves behind. Moreover, although his cronies and their Cuban handlers are maneuvering to hold on to power, a Chavista succession is neither stable nor sustainable. With more audacious leadership among Venezuela’s democrats and intelligent solidarity from abroad, Chávez’s legacy might be buried with him.

The foundations of Chavismo are being shaken by an impending socioeconomic meltdown, a faltering oil sector, bitter in-fighting in his own movement, complicity with drug-trafficking and terrorism, rampant street crime, the inept performance by Chávez’s anointed successor, and growing popular rejection of Cuban interference, corrupt institutions, and rigged elections. Beset by these challenges and with Chávez no longer at the top of the ballot, the regime will use every advantage to engineer a victory in a special election to choose ... Read More

Lifting the ban for U.S. tourists to travel to Cuba would be a major concession totally out of proportion to recent changes in the island. If the U.S. were to lift the travel ban without major reforms in Cuba, there would be significant implications:

Money from American tourists would flow into businesses owned by the Castro government thus strengthening state enterprises. The tourist industry is controlled by the military and General Raul Castro, Fidel’s brother. American tourists will have limited contact with Cubans. Most Cuban resorts are built in isolated areas, are off limits to the average Cuban, and are controlled by Cuba’s efficient security apparatus. Most Americans don’t speak Spanish, have but limited contact with ordinary Cubans, and are not interested in visiting the island to subvert its regime. Law 88 enacted in 1999 prohibits Cubans from receiving publications from tourists. Penalties include jail terms. While providing the Castro government with much ... Read More

BY JAIME DAREMBLUM

According to a leading Spanish newspaper, Hugo Chávez’s doctors have told his family that the cancer-stricken autocrat will not recover from his illness and will not be able to resume the Venezuelan presidency. Perhaps that’s why his return to Venezuela was a relatively subdued affair. Chávez reportedly arrived from Cuba—where he has now received four surgeries—in the pre-dawn hours on Monday, February 18. “There were no television images or photographs of him descending from the presidential plane in a track suit and greeting officials on the tarmac, as there were in the past,” observed New York Times correspondent William Neuman, “raising questions about whether the government was seeking to keep a severely weakened president out of public view.” For that matter, Bolivian president (and Chávez acolyte) Evo Morales was not able to meet with Chávez during his February 19 visit to Caracas.

Chávez came home to a nation in crisis—a crisis largely of his own making. To ... Read More

HAVANA - Russia will lease eight jets worth $650 million to its Cold War- era ally Cuba and will partially write off the country’s multi-billion-dollar, Soviet-era debt under agreements signed during Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to Havana on Thursday.

Moscow will write off part of the $30 billion debt and will offer a 10-year refinancing plan for the remaining amount, according to the preliminary agreement, Russia’s industry and trade minister Denis Manturov told reporters on the sidelines of the talks.

“There was an accumulated debt on loans allocated by the Soviet Union and we have now prepared an agreement that should undergo all the necessary procedures,” he said.

Manturov said the final decision on debt settlement will be signed by the end of the year.

Russia will also lease three Ilyushin-96-400 long-haul jets, three AN-158 regional planes and two TU-204SM mid-range aircraft to Cuba under the agreements inked in the presence of Medvedev and Cuban leader Raul Castro.

Moscow ... Read More

BY PHIL GUNSON

“The painter — the one who holds the brush, who mixes the colors, the artist — is Hugo Chávez. If I hand over the brush, even to the person most dear to me, that person might begin to use other colors, because he has a different vision, and begin to alter the outline of the painting.”

– Hugo Chávez, 2007

All the signs indicate that the Hugo Chávez era is over. After more than two months of intensive care in a Havana hospital, and following his fourth operation for cancer in eighteen months, the Venezuelan president is now back in Caracas. Confined to a bed and unable to speak, thanks to a tracheotomy, he seems unlikely ever to resume his presidential duties, despite official assurances that he remains in charge. The outsized ego that dominated the country’s politics for a decade and a half and that aspired to continental leadership ... Read More

The Russian energy company Rosneft plans to deepen its cooperation with Venezuela and invest $10 billion to the country’s oil and gas projects.

Russian and Venezuelan officials have signed a deal covering offshore natural gas and oil projects and have agreed to create joint service and drilling ventures. Oil production in the projects with Russian participation could reach 50 million tonnes per year, Chief Executive of Rosneft, Igor Sechin said on Wednesday. Rosneft’s share of that would be around 15 million tonnes, he said.

Venezuelan oil reserves amount to 300 billion barrels. Along with Rosneft, a number of other Russian companies operate in Venezuela’s energy sector including Gazprom, Lukoil and Surgutneftegaz. They take part in five production projects, including the Junin-6 and Caraboo-2 oil blocks. Rosneft is also going to acquire TNK-BP’s 16.7% of stake in PetroMonagas, a joint venture of TNK-BP and Venezuelan state-owned company PDVSA.

Rosneft is also interested in Venezuela ... Read More

BY CHARLIE DEVEREUX & JOSE OROZCO

Venezuela will channel more resources from its oil exports to the central bank this year as it seeks to alleviate a shortage of dollars that has crimped imports, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said yesterday.

The government plans to reduce levies on the oil industry by changing rules on the so-called windfall tax that will now only be triggered on oil prices above $80 a barrel, instead of $70 a barrel. The move will reduce funding to President Hugo Chavez’s off-budget development fund known as Fonden and pump more dollars into the central bank, Ramirez said. The changes need to be approved by Congress.

The measure is part of an economic growth plan approved by Chavez as he undergoes treatment for an undisclosed type of cancer in Cuba, the minister said. A shortage of foreign currency led to a 53 percent plunge in the bolivar to 18.35 per U.S. dollar in the black market in ... Read More