CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuela pulled the plug on Friday on a publicity campaign against the left-wing government's proposed changes to property legislation that critics dub "the Cuban law." Diosdado Cabello, a senior official, ordered think-tank Cedice to withdraw a series of advertisements. read more...

---

CARACAS, Venezuela (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela and China Development Bank Corp. are discussing a third $4 billion infrastructure loan to be paid in oil, President Hugo Chavez said. “This bank is the one with the most money in the world,” Chavez said late Thursday on state television. read more...

---

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuela will demand that oil companies pay an high premium of between $500 million and $1 billion to participate in the development of the Carabobo oil block in the OPEC nation's giant Orinoco heavy crude belt. The premium is to be paid by consortiums that win a tender round. read more...

---

CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) -- The US ambassador to Venezuela has returned to Caracas, restoring diplomatic ties that were ruptured nine months ago with his expulsion in a row with President Hugo Chavez, the US embassy said. US Ambassador Patrick Duddy arrived here late Wednesday. read more...

---

CARACAS, Venezuela (Bloomberg) -- Petroleos de Venezuela SA, the state oil company, will register its $3 billion bond offering in international markets, making it easier for investors to use the securities to obtain dollars before they mature in 2011. The bonds will be registered with Euroclear or Clearstream. read more...

---

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (Reuters) -- The interim president picked to rule Honduras after the army ousted leftist President Manuel Zelaya said the coup had saved the country from swinging to a radical Venezuelan-style socialism. Roberto Micheletti said Zelaya had lost respect for the law. read more...

---

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez put his troops on alert over a coup in Honduras and said he would respond militarily if his envoy to the Central American country was killed or kidnapped. The socialist Chavez leads a group of leftist countries that includes the government of Honduras. read more...

---

NEW YORK, USA (Reuters) -- Venezuela does not rule out devaluing its currency, but the government is mindful of the impact of such a move in the country's already high inflation rates, Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez said on Saturday. Venezuela's fixed exchange rate of 2.15 bolivares per US dollar is seen as unsustainable. read more...

---

CARACAS, Venezuela (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he may end the broadcast concession for private television network Globovision, which would mark the second channel he’s removed from the public airwaves in two years. Chavez said Globovision is breaking laws by inciting violence. read more...

---

CARACAS, Venezuela (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela’s bolivar plunged as much as 4.1 percent in unregulated trading after the government said investors won’t be able to use a new $3 billion bond offering to obtain dollars until 2011. The bolivar was down 1.2 percent to 6.70 bolivars per dollar after earlier declining. read more...

---

WASHINGTON, USA (AFP) -- The US and Venezuelan ambassadors who were expelled in a dispute last September will return to their posts in Caracas and Washington after both sides gave the all-clear, a US official. The Obama administration has taken steps toward improving ties with the government of Venezuela. read more...

---

CARACAS, Venezuela (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela’s government and central bank approved a bond sale by state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez said Thursday in Maracay, Venezuela. The bonds will be denominated in bolivars and the money will be used for domestic operations. read more...

---

ROSEAU, Dominica -- Venezuela is seeking to increase its already significant investment portfolio in Dominica with the establishment of a state-of-the-art coffee processing plant and a branch of the ALBA Bank here. The announcement came from Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez in Dominica recently. read more...

---

MARACAY, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuela is seeking a loan to help develop its gold and diamond mining sector, to be partially paid with the mineral output of the projects, President Hugo Chavez said on Wednesday. Chavez has increased state control over mining, oil and other sectors of the economy. read more...

---

MARACAY, Venezuela (AFP) -- Venezuela and the United States are restoring their ambassadors withdrawn amid a diplomatic spat in September, Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said Wednesday. Recently, Chavez expressed his wish to return his country's ambassador to the United States. read more...

---

CARACAS, Venezuela (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela’s government is reviewing the possibility of allowing state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA to issue bonds this year, Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez said. Newspaper El Universal reported June 21 that Venezuela had already given the go ahead to sell bonds. read more...

---

MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) -- Russia and Venezuela signed a deal Tuesday to set up a new bank with starting capital of four billion dollars (2.9 billion euros) to fund joint projects as Moscow ramps up its role in South America. The agreement was signed at Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's residence near Moscow. read more...

---

CARACAS, Venezuela (Bloomberg) -- Japan may cancel a planned $1.5 billion loan for Venezuela’s El Palito and Puerto La Cruz oil refineries after the South American nation seized Japanese company assets. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is risking as much as $33.5 billion in Japanese investment. read more...

---

HAVANA, Cuba (ACN) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced that Ecuador, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Antigua and Barbuda will join this week the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), a Latin American and Caribbean bloc for integration and cooperation. According to Prensa Latina news agency... read more...

---

ROME, Italy (Reuters) -- A top Sicilian mafia boss on Italy's list of 30 most dangerous men has been arrested in Venezuela, the interior ministry said on Sunday. On the run since 2001 for mafia links and drug trafficking, Salvatore Miceli, 63, was arrested in Caracas during the night by Italian police and Interpol agents. read more...

---

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- President Hugo Chavez has vowed to shake up the rules governing intellectual property rights on medicines and other products in Venezuela, the socialist's latest move against the private sector. Chavez ordered his trade minister to analyze the patent rules in the OPEC nation. read more...

---

CARACAS, Venezuela (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela’s National Assembly has passed a law that will put all primary chemicals factories in the hands of government-controlled joint ventures. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is taking over chemicals as part of an effort to gain control over what he calls “strategic industries.” read more...

---

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuela's government is interested in buying a minority stake that six Japanese companies said they want to sell in the Venalum aluminum smelter, Venalum's president said on Tuesday. The Japanese firms said they wanted to sell their stake after a dispute with the government. read more...

---

CARACAS, Venezuela (Bloomberg) -- The Venezuelan government took control of an instant coffee plant owned by an unnamed German company after officials from the company halted production and fired staff late last year, Trade Minister Eduardo Saman said on state television. Cafea CA was founded in 1976. read more...

---

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- A private Venezuelan TV news channel threatened with closure by President Hugo Chavez urged dialogue with the government on Saturday after authorities fined the station and raided one top executive's property. Chavez's targeting of Globovision has fueled concerns over press freedom. read more...

---

CARACAS, Venezuela (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela President Hugo Chavez has questioned the validity of patents and said the government may replicate packaging technology of Switzerland’s Tetra Pak Group to lower dependence on imports and foreign companies. Venezuela spent $63 million in May to import Tetra Pak packaging. read more...

---

BASSETERRE, St Kitts (JIS) -- Speaking at the 6th Petro-Caribe Summit of the Heads of State and Governments in Basseterre, St Kitts, Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding commended Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for his vision in creating PetroCaribe. He highlighted the value of the Agreement. read more...

---

BASSETERRE, St Kitts (CUOPM) -- PetroCaribe is one of the most progressive agreements that have been made in Western Hemisphere, said St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Denzil Douglas in an opening statement at the Summit of Latin American and Caribbean leaders on Friday in St Kitts. read more...

---

BASSETERRE, St Kitts (Reuters) -- Venezuela has agreed with the Dominican Republic to acquire a 49 percent stake in the country's Refidomsa oil refinery after the Dominican government bought out the half share in the plant held by Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Venezuela's oil minister said. read more...

---

BASSETERRE, St Kitts (Reuters) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez vowed on Friday to strengthen the PetroCaribe regional energy alliance that his nation funds, despite the drop in world oil prices over the last year. Chavez made the promise in St Kitts and Nevis at a summit of PetroCaribe leaders. read more...

---

NEW YORK, USA (Reuters) -- Standard & Poor's on Friday cut the credit rating of Venezuela's PDVSA oil company on liquidity concerns and uncertainty about the company's willingness to meet contractual obligations with some of its suppliers. At the same time, S&P affirmed Venezuela's sovereign credit ratings. read more...

---

BASSETERRE, St Kitts (AFP) -- Venezuela put on a show of force on Friday, spotlighting the success of its oil diplomacy at a summit of Caribbean basin countries which agreed to boost investment and strengthen its oil distribution network. Other member countries receive costlier refined products from Venezuela. read more...

---

WASHINGTON, USA (AFP) -- The United States on Friday called on the Venezuelan and other Latin American governments to stop intimidating the news media and take action to uphold a free press. On Tuesday, the International Press Institute denounced the deterioration of press freedom in Venezuela. read more...

---

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuela is set to nationalize the companies that run some of the Caribbean nation's main ports, the latest move by the socialist President Hugo Chavez to put key areas of the economy in state hands. The affected ports receive many of the imports that Venezuela depends on. read more...

---

CARACAS, Venezuela (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela’s bolivar gained for a fifth day in the unregulated parallel market on speculation the state oil company will sell dollar-denominated bonds in the local market, helping meet demand for the US currency. The bolivar gained 0.5 percent to 6.62 per dollar Thursday. read more...

---

CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) -- Venezuela's supreme court has rejected two suits brought by the embattled private television network Globovision in a legal struggle with President Hugo Chavez over control of the news media. The network says Chavez is trying to shut it down. read more...

---

ROSEAU, Dominica -- The aim of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to bring about energy security to Latin America and the Caribbean through his PetroCaribe project will manifest itself in a tangible way in Dominica on Saturday with the official commissioning of the new US$35 million fuel plant at Jimmit. read more...

---

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- The Venezuelan government of US-critic President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday ordered Coca-Cola Co to withdraw its Coke Zero beverage from the South American nation, citing unspecified dangers to health. The decision follows a wave of nationalizations. read more...

---

CARACAS, Venezuela (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela’s shipments of crude oil and refined products to Cuba gained 32 percent last year and sales to Asia doubled under President Hugo Chavez’s strategy of diversifying the country’s oil sales to rely less on the US. Sales to Cuba climbed by 28,000 barrels a day to 115,000. read more...

---

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuela will not nationalize all the oil service companies present in the country, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said, adding that gas and water injection units seized last month were "monopolistic." Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA has run up large debts with service companies. read more...

---