Chavez critic convicted in Venezuela

Former Gen. Raul Isaias Baduel was sentenced to a nearly eight-year prison term on charges of abuse of power, misappropriation of funds and violation of the military code while he was an officer according to the LA Times.

Baduel was once an ally of president Chavez. Baduel helped Chavez to restore his power after a military coup in April 2002. Baduel campaigned in 2007 against a constitutional amendment referendum to advance the socialist model and to enable the president to run for reelection indefinitely, which voters rejected. Baduel has been in custody since his arrest in April 2009.

Charges against him included the misuse of $3.9 million, a charge the court said it proved through testimony of army officials who said they never received money budgeted to them.

Baduel is not the only one that has been arrested for criticizing the government. In March, former Zulia state Gov. Oswaldo Alvarez Paz was arrested after saying Venezuela had become a narco-state and implying that Chavez was responsible.

Man arrested on suspicion of trying to kill Chavez

According to LA Times on April 29, a 28-year-old man was arrested on charges of suspicion, for trying to incite an assasination against Chavez.

Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami, says the man was detained on Thursday in the city of El Vigia. However, the man's identification has not been released.

El Aissami said the man has traveled frequently to Colombia and messages were found on his computer alluding to kill Chavez.

Venezuelan authorities have claimed numerous purported plots against Chavez in recent years, but none have led to arrests.

Chavez starts tweeting to battle opponents

Although president Chavez is a big critic of the media, on Wednesday he sent his first twitter message from his own twitter account named "chavezcandanga." His message read "Hey how's it going? I appeared like I said I would: at midnight. I'm off to Brazil. And very happy to work for Venezuela. We will be victorious!!" As many others, Chavez has joined the group of those who say "If you can't beat 'em, tweet 'em." according to the LA Times

Already, the president's Twitter account, "chavezcandanga," is one of the most popular accounts in Venezuela, with more than 79,000 followers in less than 24 hours after he sent his first message.

"Candanga" roughly translates to "devil" in some Latin American countries, though in Venezuela it can mean "rabble-rouser." More than 8.7 million Venezuelans were regular Internet users as of January, or about 30 percent of the population, up from 25 percent in 2008, according to Tendencias Digitales.Some 350,000 of those users were registered on Twitter, a tenfold increase from 2009. More than 5.4 million Venezuelans were registered as Facebook users.

Swimming race across the Orinoco River in Venezuela

An estimate of about 805 men and women gathered up on April 25, at the Orinoco river according to the LA Times. This competition is held every year at the Orinoco River. The competition is held to demonstrate the braveness and courage of the participants. Out of the 805 competitors only 520 finished all the way. The rest got pushed too far behind by the current and were not able to catch up.
"I like it because it's an event that's never the same. ... This year the Orinoco was very, very strong and the Caroni was very gentle," Alvarez said. "Since it depends a lot on the current, there's a lot of strategy involved."

History of Venezuela

Venezuela was explored by Columbus in 1498, at that time Venezuela was inhabited by Arawak, Carib, and Chibcha Indians. A Spanish explorer gave Venezuela its actual name which means "Little Venice."
Venezuela was one of the first countries that gained its independence over Spain in 1821, with the help of Simon Bolivar. In 1830 Venezuela became a republic, and after its independence Venezuela had periods of unstable dictatorship. Antonio Guzman Blanco governed from 1870 to 1888, developing an infrastructure, expanding agriculture, and welcoming foreign investment.
After Blanco then Gen. Juan Vicente Gómez became dictator from 1908 to 1935, when Venezuela became a major oil exporter. A military junta ruled after his death.
Venezuela drafted a new constitution on 1946. From then on, Venezuela had a democratic government. Many of them conducted the country in a good way and others did not do such a good job.
in 1999, president Hugo Chavez, took office pledging to fix the economy and other problems that Venezuela was going through. Chavez started to gain many supporters as well as opponents during his term. In 1999, Chavez re-wrote the constitution one more time and gave more power to his government.
Since 1999, Chavez has been the president of Venezuela and has been taking more and more control of many aspects of the country especially of the media in Venezuela.
To view more facts on Venezuela go to Infoplease.com

Venezuela and Russia develop new plans

The Venezuelan and Russian presidents met on April 3, to discuss future plans including the development of a space industry as well as a satellite site launch. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Hugo Chavez met also to discuss about weapon deals according to the LA Times.
Russia and Venezuela are also meeting to sign new agreements for energy, industrial and commercial projects. The new plans also include building nuclear power for Venezuela. "We aren't going to make an atomic bomb, but we are going to develop atomic energy with peaceful aims," Chavez said.

Venezuela arrests 8 Colombians suspected of espionage

President Hugo Chavez announced the arrest of eight Colombians on April 06. Chavez said that they were arrested because they are believed to have been spying on Venezuela's power plants according to the LA Times.
Chavez said the suspects were carrying computers, satellite telephones, photo cameras and identifications from the Colombian army. Investigators confiscated the cameras and found pictures of Venezuela's power grids.
Due to the recent power failures Venezuela has been experiencing, Chavez denounced purported sabotage of Venezuela's power grids.
"Who knows how many of these blackouts have been caused by sabotage?" he said. But Chavez did not offer any evidence of sabotage.
The identities of the suspects were not revealed.