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.

Chavez wants to regulate the Internet

President Hugo Chavez wants to regulate the Internet after Noticiero Digital a popular news website, posted information about some killings that happened in Venezuela. According to Chavez this information was false and therefore wants to regulate the flow of information on the Internet. "The Internet can't be something free where anything can be done and said. No, every country has to impose its rules and regulations," Chavez said in a televised speech on Saturday.
Noticiero Digital responded Sunday, posting a statement that Chavez's comments are "a serious threat against freedom of expression, threats that are becoming increasingly frequent in Venezuela, affecting radio stations, the press and now — Internet."
Chavez is also very critical of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, he believes that many people use these social networks to slander many public officials.

Chavez rejects two cable channels

The Venezuelan government rejected two cable channels on March 5, 2010. According to the telecommunication agency, the channel RCTV Internacional failed to meet a deadline for registering the channel. The other channel RCTV Mundo did not meet some of the programming regulations and consequently they were rejected.
Marciel Granier president of RCTV, accused the agency of rejecting the channels under Chavez's orders. Granier believes that Chavez "does not want them to exist" because their channels express criticism about Chavez government according to the LA Times

Power failure in Venezuela

During the last weeks Venezuela has been experimenting various electricity power failures according to the LA Times. On Thursday, president Chavez address' was interrupted due to a power failure. Chavez argues that the causes of the power failure are due to low levels of water at the Guri Dam. Others, however, blame Chavez and his lack of investment in electricity production.

Globalization in Venezuela

Globalization is a world know phenomenom, however globalization has its pros and cons. In developing countries, globalization may not necesarly be a positive factor. For example in Venezuela globalization takes more time to develop due to the type of goverment Venezuela has. Therefore, the goverment regulates many of the aspects that are part of globalization, such as the media. In Venezuela there are approximately, 201 AM radio stations and at least 25 FM stations in Caracas. Venezuela has 66 broadcasts stations and 7.167 million internet users according to the CIA.

Cultural Imperialism in Venezuela

Although, Venezuela does not have democratic government, I think that they are still vulnerable to Cultural Imperialism. Even though, some of their media is regulated by the president Hugo Chavez, they can still get and idea of what is going on around the world and see the different types of trends other countries are coming up with. Just like in other parts of the world, a McDonalds in Venezuela had to be shut down for 48 hours because the goverment thought that there were some irregularities with the financial aspect of the restaurants according to msnbc.

Cultural Imperialism in any part of the world can have its pros and cons. It can be positive in a way that allows people to be exposed to different cultures as well as different mentalities. On the other hand, however, it can harm the culture's customs and languages.