Venezuela is already marked as one of the most dangerous countries with organized crime gangs, police corruption and impunity. The country had high murder rates as compared to global.

According to the state-run National Statistics Institute, there were more than 19,000 murders nationwide in 2009 and notified that more than 10 individuals are killed in Caracas every day.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced on Friday that they had arrayed troops and air units in defense in due to the rising conflicts with its neighbor Columbia.

While declaring the same, he also expressed great remorse for having to spend so much time in revising warfare plans against its neighbor.

A new law that mandates the central bank to choose what firms can trade dollars will allow the Venezuelan government to take control of Bolivar currency exchanges.

President Hugo Chavez signed the bill into law, then said on state television: "I don't mind more regulation if it's needed. Don't provoke me, bourgeois speculators and brokerages," the Merco Press reported on Monday.

According to officials, a onetime confidant of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was sentenced to almost eight years in prison for corruption and abuse of power.

The Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday that retired Gen. Raul Isaias Baduel was sentenced on Friday by a military court for his conviction on charges of abuse of power, misappropriation of funds and violation of the military code while he was an officer.

Although Baduel was part of a handful of military leaders who helped return Chavez to power after a short-lived military coup in April 2002, the two clashed, resulting in Baduel's resignation in 2007.

To replenish the country's depleted water reservoirs and defuse a worsening crisis over electricity and water shortages, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has put himself at the mercy of God and nature to bring timely rainfall.

He is spearheading a "Bolivarian revolution," inspired by 19th-century visionary Simon Bolivar, which aims to transform the country with popular democracy, economic independence and equal distribution of wealth, Chavez says.

In a statement, the country's central bank said that the Venezuelan economic system fell 3.3% during the last year (2009) amid the worldwide slump and a fall in oil revenues.

In December 2009, Nelson Merentes, president of the Banco Central de Venezuela (BCV), stated that preliminary figures showed that Andean nation's GDP slumped 2.9% in 2009.

In the statement issued Tuesday, the BCV stated that Venezuela's vital petroleum division dropped 7.2% during the same year, thanks largely to lower production by the world's fifth-leading oil exporter.

The much awaited, long-delayed Carabobo oil auction was finally taken into consideration but was forced to leave the final block unassigned.

Energy Minister Mr. Ramirez said a shoal of companies including the Chevron Corp. and Mitsubishi Corp. and Inpex Corp. was awarded the "Carabobo 3" block the group made a $500 million for drilling rights to the block, $1 billion for financing the oil firm, Petroleos de Venezuela.

The U. S. Geological Survey, in its recent report, has informed that Venezuela's Orinoco Oil Belt could have one of the World's largest crude deposits. The USGC estimates 513 billion barrels of recoverable heavy crude in the fields which are more than double than those held by Saudi Arabia.

USGS geologist Chris Schenk, who played a leading role in preparing the assessment, said that prevailing technologies used today for recovering crude could fail for extracting such a huge amount of oil from the fields.

The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez has announced that a chain of supermarkets controlled by France's Casino is being nationalized as the company has violated laws and indulged in price gouging after the devaluation of the Bolivar currency by the government.

Speaking on his weekly TV show the president said, "Because of multiple violations of Venezuelan laws the Exito chain will now belong to the republic, there is no way back."

Chavez has nationalized large projects in various sectors including major oil projects and also electricity and telecommunications companies among others.

Caracas, Jan 10 - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has announced a currency devaluation and the introduction of a two-tiered official exchange rate as his government aims to boost a sagging economy.

The official exchange rate of 2.15 bolivars to the dollar, in effect since 2005, will be replaced beginning Monday with a dual-rate regime.

Importers of essential items such as food, medicine and heavy machinery will be able to buy dollars at a rate of 2.60 bolivars to the greenback.

The school supply and science and technology sectors, as well as public sector imports and remittances, also will be favoured by that rate, which will represent a 17 percent devaluation.

Caracas, Jan 9 - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said a US military aircraft had violated the country's airspace for 15 minutes before being intercepted and driven out by two Venezuelan F-16s.

Chavez said the aircraft had flown from the Netherlands Antilles' island of Curacao, and was escorted out of Venezuelan airspace, but later returned for 19 more minutes.

"They are warplanes used for the imperial war, not - as (the US) claims - specialised aircraft to combat drug trafficking," he said during a cabinet meeting Friday.

Caracas, Jan 8 - Venezuela's auto sector produced 111,554 vehicles last year, a decline of 17.39 percent from 2008, the industry association said.

The fall in output was especially pronounced last month, when production was down 23.66 percent from November and 19.73 percent from the levels of December 2008, the association said Thursday.

Shortly before Christmas, President Hugo Chavez publicly called on Japanese auto giant Toyota either to resume production of four-wheel drive vehicles in Venezuela or shut down its operation in the nation.

Caracas, Jan 6 - Hit by a severe power crisis, Venezuela has announced that it may shut down a few aluminium and steel plants as part of the country's electricity conservation measures.

Caracas, Dec 29 - The US is preparing to attack Venezuela using Colombian soldiers under the pretext of attacking guerrilla camps supposedly located on Venezuelan soil, President Hugo Chavez has said.

Chavez Monday said during a military ceremony that "the verbal war" began several days ago when spokespersons of the Colombian government again accused Venezuela of having guerrilla camps on its territory and protecting rebel leaders.

Caracas, Dec 27 - Ten sailors on a Greek freighter were killed in a fire on board a Greek freighter off the coast of Venezuela, military officials said Saturday.

Another five sailors were injured in the fire, according to the commander of the Venezuelan Navy, Carlos Aniasi, who had telephoned with the ship's captain.

The Greek ministry for ship transport in Piraeus, Greece, said the freighter, the Aegean Wind, was about 90 sea miles off the coast of the South American country when the fire broke out on Christmas Eve, Thursday.

Caracas, Dec 26 - Nine crewmembers of a Greek-flagged cargo ship were killed when the vessel caught fire off the coast of Venezuela, officials said.

Venezuela navy chief Carlos Aniasi said the captain of the Aegean Wind freighter confirmed the toll Friday.

The fire broke out in the ship's engine room and spread rapidly. The ship was about 53 km northwest of La Blanquilla island, Venezuelan Coast Guard said. The ship set out from Brazil with a load of iron bound for the US.

Caracas, Dec 24 - Venezuela and China have signed several new accords, one of which calls for Caracas to sell 500,000 barrels of oil per day to the Asian country and another providing $1 billion in Chinese credit for Venezuelan mining projects.

The agreements were signed here at the end of a meeting of a high-level bilateral commission, in a ceremony presided over by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, Zhang Ping.

Caracas  - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the destruction of "illegal" pedestrian bridges at the border with Colombia was "routine," and said the government would continue to eliminate them.

Chavez said Saturday that the military had destroyed two bridges in the state of Tachira because they were used by traffickers of narcotics and other contraband.

Caracas - Venezuela's left-wing president Hugo Chavez Friday renewed his charges that the United States and Colombia had sealed a "devil's pact" to wage war against Venezuela to squash his Bolivarian socialism movement.

For the second time in little over a week, Chavez called for his military and the country's militia to prepare for war to protect the sovereignty of Venezuela against the threat posed by the US using Colombian soil.

Caracas  - At least 90 Colombians were arrested Thursday in the western Venezuelan state of Barinas for travelling without the required documents, Venezuelan authorities said.

The Colombians were travelling in three buses, General Vladimir Padrino, regional National Guard chief, told Venezuelan television.

"We are awaiting the relevant investigation. We do not understand why there was such a mass movement (of Colombians)," Padrino said, adding that he could not rule out that those arrested were paramilitaries.