“Venezuela” on The Daily Caller

Venezuelan presidential candidate Henrique Capriles on Monday called for “balanced elections” and criticized the use of government money and slanted coverage in state media as President Hugo Chavez seeks re-election. (more)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Outmatched time and again at the polls by President Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan’s opposition leaders are trying a new strategy to unseat the populist leader this year, holding the nation’s first presidential primary to choose the strongest challenger. (more)

For the fourth year in a row, the United States has fallen on the Heritage Foundation’s international Index of Economic Freedom. For 2011, the U.S. fell from 9th to 10th, just behind Ireland. (RELATED: IMF providing bailout support to heavily indebted Ireland)
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CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela is offering free surgeries for women to remove faulty French-made breast implants, the country’s top health official said. (more)

CARACAS, Venezuela — President Barack Obama’s sharp criticisms of Venezuela’s human rights record and its ties to Iran are heightening tensions with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who on Monday responded by calling Obama a “clown” and telling him to mind his own business. (more)

While waiting to collect her mother’s luggage at LAX, actress Maria Conchita Alonso confronted vocal Hugo Chavez supporter Sean Penn, calling him “a communist asshole,” WMAL reports. (more)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says his government would be open to negotiating with Exxon Mobil Corp. in a dispute over the nationalization of an oil project in the country. (more)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan police rescued Washington Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos on Friday, two days after he was kidnapped, officials announced. (more)

OPEC’s proven crude oil reserves rose 12.1 percent in 2010 to 1.19 trillion barrels led by Venezuela, which has surpassed Saudi Arabia as the group’s largest reserves holder, OPEC said in its Annual Statistical Bulletin. (more)

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez headed to Cuba Saturday for an unknown period of time for chemotherapy after giving up some powers and saying doctors had found no malignant cells in his body after cancer surgery last month. (more)

Caracas, Venezuela — Something wasn’t quite right, Hugo Chavez recounted. And the Venezuelan president’s mentor, 84-year-old Fidel Castro, noticed straight away. (more)

What would it mean for Venezuela and Cuba if Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez died or was too incapacitated to govern? (more)

BERLIN – The Iranian government is moving forward with the construction of rocket launch bases in Venezuela, the German daily Die Welt wrote in its Friday edition. (more)

CARACAS (Reuters) – Capitalism may be to blame for the lack of life on the planet Mars, Venezuela’s socialist President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday. (more)

CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chávez is known to have expressed little patience for imported leisure pursuits like golf or Scotch whisky tippling. Now he has reserved some ire for another practice that is beloved in Venezuela: breast augmentation surgery. (more)

Speaking to state TV from outside a ruined building, he asserted: “I am in Tripoli and not in Venezuela.” (more)

CARACAS, Venezuela, Feb. 3 (UPI) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, beset by problems of economic slowdown for the second consecutive year, announced he would fight on and seek re-election next year for a third six-year term. (more)

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sought to end a diplomatic stand-off with the United States on Tuesday by suggesting it name Bill Clinton, actor Sean Penn or director Oliver Stone as its envoy to Caracas. (more)

Hugo Chavez, the yanqui-hating dictator of Venezuela, will not accept Washington’s proposed emissary and has dared the United States to break diplomatic relations. It seems Ambassador-select Larry Palmer’s sin is that he did not applaud Chavez when he used his rubber-stamp parliament to perpetuate his dictatorial regime. The State Department’s limp-wristed response was to cancel the visa of the Venezuelan ambassador. That, and silence from the White House, told the megalomaniac in Caracas exactly what the United States will do when Iran finishes building a nuclear missile base in Venezuela — absolutely nothing. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez dared the U.S. to expel his ambassador in retaliation for his move to reject the U.S. envoy to the South American country. On Wednesday, that’s just what the Obama administration did. (more)