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/ 15 January 2007
It was a cruel, bloody and terrifying era. Rebels slaughtered villagers in the mountains and hung dogs from power lines, their carcasses daubed with Maoist slogans. The state responded with a Machiavellian mix of assassination, bribery and intrigue that brought down the rebel leader but also triggered the fall of the president.
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/ 12 January 2007
On a day of two inaugurations separated by 2 100km, a late flight and an ideological time warp, it was apt for one of the new presidents to quote Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. Venezuela’s President, Hugo Chávez, was sworn in for a third consecutive term at a ceremony on Wednesday morning in the capital, Caracas, and several hours later, in Managua, Daniel Ortega was sworn in as President of Nicaragua.
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/ 17 November 2006
Another agreeable lunch ended at the Caracas Country Club with a bottle of Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon, the chef’s famous flan and a round of espressos. From their table in the sun-kissed courtyard the three businessmen could hear only the fountain’s gurgle, the murmur of other diners, the clink of glasses and the swish of waiters.
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/ 30 October 2006
Free train rides, free rock concerts, free baseball games, December bonuses in November: Christmas has come early to Venezuela. Or, to put it another way, an election is due. The government is striving for a feelgood atmosphere by unleashing a torrent of cash and promising more to come in the run-up to a poll in which President Hugo Chávez is seeking another term.
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/ 24 October 2006
Officially the ”Democratic Republic of Pavón” was a prison farm outside Guatemala City, a patch of scrubland where inmates would grow vegetables and tend livestock in one of Latin America’s more progressive penal institutions. Recently a very different image emerged.
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/ 20 October 2006
It could be the cover of a romantic ballad album, a man in a blue shirt with a soft gaze and a heartfelt paean that begins: ”Always, I did everything for love.” Meet Hugo Chávez, Venezuelan President, socialist revolutionary, globetrotting firebrand, Washington nemesis and now, in election campaign mode, a lover.
Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer talks to Rory Carroll about writing at 80, cheeky questions and mixed-race couples in the park.
Venezuela’s campaign for a seat on the UN Security Council is reaching a climax in the face of fierce resistance from the Bush administration. Hugo Chávez has invested billions of dollars and a year of globetrotting in cementing his position as a global player.
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/ 29 September 2006
If he ever tires of running Venezuela, Hugo Chávez would make an outstanding book club president, reports Rory Carroll in Caracas.
”It was an interesting few years. I was mugged, burgled and branded a liar. I betrayed the confidence of someone with HIV and chased a stranger in the hope of stabbing him. I listened to people moan from want of medicine while the wind howled through their shacks,” writes Rory Carroll.