“I gave my word and after the required legal proceedings, he will be extradited to Venezuela. I am a man of my word,” the Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said. Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos informed on Tuesday that his government would extradite Syrian-born businessman Walid Makled to Venezuela. Makled has been accused of drug trafficking. During the presentation of his report entitled "100 Days in Office," Santos said that he had made that commitment...

In the context of the meetings held on November 15 and 16, the political parties which are members of Socialist International (SI) agreed that with his statements, General Rangel Silva “violates democratic principles and the political rights of citizens” Socialist International, a worldwide organization of social democratic, socialist and labor parties, which met in Paris on November 15 and 16, declared that the statements made by Major General Henry Rangel Silva, the head of...

Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez on Tuesday said that Venezuela's "nuclear development" poses a serious threat to the region's security, reports W Radio. Speaking after receiving an award from Spain's International Observatory of Victims of Terrorism, Uribe said that Venezuela's "arms race" is very dangerous both for the security of its own citizens and Venezuela's neighbors. Uribe added that the Venezuelan government has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation...

Colombia's Foreign Ministry says it will continue efforts to have Israeli mercenary Yair Klein extradited to Colombia. Klein has been convicted in Colombia for training paramilitaries and drug gangs, including Pablo Escobar's Medellin Cartel. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in April blocked the extradition of the Israeli, who is finishing a three-year sentence in a Russian jail this week. Klein's lawyer announced Monday that his client will be deported to Israel, where he does not...

The government of President Hugo Chávez seeks to control the ideas of the media and impose silence, warned a report presented to the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA). The report on freedom of expression in Venezuela, which was presented in the context of the 66th General Assembly of the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA), considered that the Venezuelan government has decided to use the seizure of companies as a means of social control and therefore it needs the silence of...

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos was among the keynote speakers. Concomitantly, in Cádiz, Spain, the International Association of Broadcasting (IAB) held its 40th general assembly. Both international organizations lashed out at Venezuelan government onslaught on the media and their representatives which are critic of the government November 8 "Chávez needs silence of the media," IAPA cautions The government of President Hugo Chávez seeks to control the...

Spain expects to "maintain a cooperation" with Venezuela "in the fight against terrorism," at a time when the Spanish justice requested the extradition of the Spanish-Venezuelan citizen Arturo Cubillas, who has been accused of training members of the Basque armed group ETA in Venezuela. "We, as Spanish authorities, expect to keep cooperation in the fight against terrorism with Venezuelan authorities," Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jiménez said in a...

The recent border dispute between Costa Rica and Nicaragua is a sign of an ambitious plan by Venezuela, Iran and Nicaragua to create a "Nicaragua Canal" linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans that would rival the existing Panama Canal. Costa Rica says that last week Nicaraguan troops entered its territory along the San Juan River - the border between the two nations. Nicaragua had been conducting channel deepening work on the river when the incident occurred Sources in Latin...

The United States faced public scrutiny of its human rights record at the United Nations for the first time Friday during an examination before the Geneva-based council as part of the "Universal Periodic Review," a procedure that requires all UN member states to allow their counterparts to grade their conduct. The United States' most outspoken critics - Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela - opened the session with scathing accounts of U.S. policies. While Venezuela criticized the...

Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez is an "anti-US dictator" similar to his Zimbabwe's counterpart Robert Mugabe. He is bringing his country to "ruin," said former US President George W. Bush in his memoirs entitled Decision Points that went on sale on Tuesday in the United States. In the chapter entitled Freedom Agenda, in which Bush discusses the democratic situation in several countries, the former US president considered that with Chávez's inauguration,...