CARACAS,Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuela is to take control of four small banks, government sources with knowledge of the action said, citing problems of solvency and the origin of funds. The move is not seen as causing wider problems for the financial system, analysts said. read more...

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SAN ANTONIO, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuelan soldiers on Thursday blew up two makeshift foot bridges that stretched across the border to Colombia in the latest incident to stoke a diplomatic dispute between the Andean neighbors. Colombia's government criticized the destruction of the bridges as aggression. read more...

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CARACAS,Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Wednesday the South American oil producer's economic slide was largely due to its compliance with OPEC-mandated production cuts. GDP shrank 4.5 percent in the third quarter of 2009, a second consecutive three-month contraction. read more...

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CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) -- An alliance between Iran and Venezuela is a necessity at this point in time according to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Venezuelan officials said here Wednesday. The Iranian leader made the comment during a visit to Tehran by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro. read more...

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CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuela on Tuesday announced a surprisingly large third-quarter economic fall, shocking analysts and leaving the South American oil exporter's economy on course for a bigger contraction then previously thought in 2009. It was the second straight quarterly drop this year. read more...

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CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuela's Petroanzoategui oil upgrader is down 44,000 barrels a day of production since Friday because of problems with a boiler, causing storage issues for the field's extra-heavy crude, sources said. A statement from PDVSA later confirmed a water-leak at a boiler. read more...

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BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) -- Colombia captured four members of the Venezuelan National Guard on Colombian soil and said on Saturday it would send them home in a gesture aimed at lowering diplomatic tensions between the neighbouring countries. The four were stopped by the Colombian Navy. read more...

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CARACAS,Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez says he will join a team of Cuban scientists on flights to "bomb clouds" to create rain amid a severe drought that has aroused public anger due to water and electricity rationing. Many countries have programs aimed at altering weather patterns. read more...

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CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuela failed to meet its Thursday deadline to finalize the conditions of the Carabobo oil project tender in the country's Orinoco heavy oil belt, private sector sources involved in the process said. Venezuela recently sweetened the terms of the tender by reducing the royalty rate. read more...

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SAN ANTONIO, Venezuela (Reuters) -- If South American neighbors Venezuela and Colombia are about to go to war, you would never guess it on the "Simon Bolivar" bridge. Trade may be down, but the bustle of cars and people is still incessant -- carrying Venezuelan gasoline one way, Colombian potatoes the other. read more...

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BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) -- Colombia brought what it called threats of war from neighboring Venezuela to the UN Security Council on Wednesday after Hugo Chavez, leader of the neighboring country, told his army to get ready to fight. The spat is unlikely to lead to armed conflict along the lengthy border. read more...

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CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuela's economy shrank in the third quarter for the second consecutive period, but the government is still debating whether South America's top oil exporter is now in recession, a senior official said. The official said the contraction was smaller than in the second quarter. read more...

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CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Battling with one of the world's highest murder rates, Venezuela on Wednesday crushed more than 30,000 guns seized from the streets during police raids this year. Policemen used blow-torches to chop up some of the shotguns and pistols. read more...

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WASHINGTON, USA (AFP) -- The United States on Tuesday called on Colombia and Venezuela to talk out their differences, before the growing tension over a US-Colombian military base deal gets out of hand. "We certainly don't think this is about the US," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said. read more...

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PUERTO AYACUCHO, Venezuela (Reuters) -- A potentially devastating outbreak of swine flu among the Yanomami Indians in Venezuela's Amazon rainforest appears to be contained after a rapid medical response in the isolated zone. Since the 1960s, the Yanomami population has been hard hit by illnesses. read more...

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CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuela stoked a diplomatic feud with Colombia on Monday by accusing its South American neighbor of "lies" and "hypocrisy" in a growing dispute that is threatening trade and regional stability. The spat is unlikely to lead to war, analysts say, but it is fueling tensions. read more...

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BOGOTA, Colombia (AFP) -- Colombia has said it will seek UN help after Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez instructed his military to ready "for war." Chavez urged his military leaders to prepare "for war" and to ready citizens to "defend the homeland," as tensions continue to mount with neighboring Colombia. read more...

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HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters) -- Cuba has chosen to pay a steeper price than it has to for Venezuelan oil so it can discourage itself from becoming too dependent on one source for energy, a senior Cuban official said on Friday. The Caracas agreement, begun in 2000 when oil prices were below $20 per barrel. read more...

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BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) -- Spying charges, troop movements and mysterious killings along the border between Venezuela and Colombia are stoking a long-running diplomatic dispute that some are calling the "Cold War" of the Andes. The feud between the two neighbors has usually stopped at sabre-rattling. read more...

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PORLAMAR, Venezuela (Reuters) -- International oil companies have formed at least five consortiums to bid on the massive Carabobo project in Venezuela's Orinoco heavy oil belt, sources involved in the process said. Carabobo is eventually expected to produce 1.2 million barrels per day. read more...

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CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuela's consumer prices climbed 1.9 percent in October but were at their lowest monthly rate since June, the central bank said Thursday. Inflation has soared 20.7 percent in the first ten months of this year, four percentage points lower than the same period last year. read more...

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CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said on Wednesday that the OPEC nation would like to see a minimum oil price of $80 per barrel for 2010. When asked by reporters about goals for next year, Ramirez responded: "A floor of $80 and stability." read more...

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BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) -- Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe on Wednesday urged Venezuela not to create divisions like the "Berlin Wall" between the feuding neighbors as he sought to cool a crisis fueled by border violence and espionage charges. Ties between the countries have frayed over recent murders. read more...

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PORLAMAR, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuela's energy minister on Tuesday lowered the South American OPEC member's 2015 oil capacity target by 13 percent, but remained upbeat on expansion overall, especially in the Orinoco heavy oil belt.  Venezuela's capacity should rise from 3.0 million barrels per day. read more...

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SAN ANTONIO, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuelan soldiers blocked the main border crossing with Colombia on Tuesday after President Hugo Chavez's government said paramilitaries were behind the killing of two soldiers. Venezuela blamed Colombian paramilitaries for the murders. read more...

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CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Central Bank President Nelson Merentes said on Monday that Venezuela's inflation rate, one of the highest in the world, was his top concern and he hoped it would be down to single digits by 2012. The government forecasts 26 percent inflation this year. read more...

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HAVANA, Cuba (ACN) -- Cuba’s access to master’s degrees and postgraduate courses in Venezuela was highlighted at the 9th Joint Commission on Higher Education, held at Pueblo Guri, in the Venezuelan state of Bolivar. At the meeting the participants also acknowledged Cuba’s collaboration in the project. read more...

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CIUDAD OJEDA, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Five months after Venezuela nationalized dozens of oil service contractors in Zulia state, the once-bustling industrial dock on Lake Maracaibo is nearly abandoned, and the 16 red flags raised to celebrate the takeovers are already tattered and faded. read more...

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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AFP) -- Venezuela's state-owned oil giant PDVSA has agreed to buy nearly half of the government-owned Dominican Oil Refinery for 131.5 million dollars, Dominica's finance minister said. Talks to sell 49 percent of the refinery shares concluded late Thursday. read more...

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CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuela said on Friday it had arrested eight Colombians and two local residents suspected of paramilitary activities on the border between the two feuding South American neighbors. The arrests in Venezuela's western Tachira state were the latest incident. read more...

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BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) -- Brazil's Senate foreign relations committee approved Venezuela's request to join the South American trade bloc Mercosur on Thursday despite concerns over President Hugo Chavez's thwarting of democracy. The committee voted 12 to 5 in favor of Venezuela joinin.g read more...

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CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Thursday three men charged with spying for Colombia will be prosecuted and accused Washington of complicity in a case inflaming tensions between the neighbors. Bogota and Caracas often squabble about Colombia's internal conflict. read more...

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CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP): Oscar-winning actor and political activist Sean Penn may film a movie in Venezuela, according to the country's firebrand President Hugo Chavez. Penn "told me was very interested in a film project ... that would most likely be shot in part in Venezuela," Chavez. said. read more...

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CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez blamed Dutch company Philips on Tuesday for problems the country's health network has had with medical equipment and said the government reserves the right to take legal action. Chavez's comments echoed those by Cuba's Fidel Castro. read more...

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TORONTO, Canada (Reuters) -- Gold Reserve said on Tuesday that Venezuela had seized control of its Brisas gold property, deepening a dispute between the miner and Hugo Chavez's government and pulling the company's shares down 13 percent. Gold Reserve's rights to much of the deposit were taken away. read more...

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CARACAS, Venezuella (Reuters) -- Venezuela said that it had captured Colombian security agents it said planned to destabilize the government, heightening tensions in the ongoing diplomatic row between the Andean nations. Tensions were reignited over the weekend after the murders of 10 Colombian football players. read more...

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CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuela filed a complaint on Monday accusing Colombia's state security agency of spying in its territory in the latest salvo in a simmering diplomatic spat between the Andean neighbors. Venezuela gave no details of how Bogota's security agency had been spying. read more...

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CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuela said on Sunday at least 10 members of an amateur Colombian soccer team had been found dead after being kidnapped on its side of the border. Venezuelan Vice President Ramon Carrizalez told reporters the men were found with bullet wounds. read more...

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CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) -- At least 10 bus passengers were killed and another 12 injured when their vehicle collided with a truck on a main freeway in the Venezuelan capital, rescue officials said. "Eight people died at the scene and another two" died at local hospitals on Friday, said Victor Lira. read more...

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CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuela's PDVSA has sold all $3 billion of 2014, 2015, 2016 bonds despite waning demand in the latest issue compared with other offers this year, sources at the state oil company said. Some market players had expressed doubt this bond issue would be successful. read more...

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