Venezuela recalls Colombia envoy

Written on 7:37 PM by yahoo

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- President Hugo Chavez's government called its ambassador back to Caracas for talks.

The two countries' leaders have exchanged increasingly sharp words since Colombia's conservative Alvaro Uribe last week ended Chavez's efforts to broker a prisoner swap to free hostages held by Colombian rebels, including three U.S. defense contractors and French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt.

The guerrillas on Tuesday issued their first statement on recent events, saying that Chavez's participation in the fledgling talks had been "the only hope" for a deal.

Venezuela's foreign ministry announced it had called home Pavel Rondon, its ambassador in Bogota, "to oversee an exhaustive evaluation of bilateral relations."

A foreign ministry official said Rondon has been in Caracas since Saturday.

But Colombia's foreign minister, Fernando Araujo, vowed not to recall Colombia's ambassador in Caracas, insisting his government's dispute is with the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, not Venezuela.

"The enemy of the Colombian people is the FARC," Araujo told a news conference.

The Andean neighbors share a 1,380-mile border and $5 billion in trade last year, maintaining friendly relations despite sharp ideological differences -- until now.

Uribe last Wednesday booted the leftist Chavez and a Colombian senator from talks with the FARC, saying the Venezuelan leader had violated the conditions of his involvement by speaking directly to the head of Colombia's army.

"Uribe's attitude is wretched, very wretched, to suspend the humanitarian mediation of President Hugo Chavez and Senator Piedad Cordoba, when it was the only hope for achieving a prisoner swap in Colombia," the guerrilla commander known as "Ivan Marquez" said a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press.

The rebel leader, who had traveled to Caracas to meet with the Venezuelan president earlier this month, thanked Chavez and Cordoba for trying to stimulate talks.

Since taking office in 2002, Uribe's government has had no face-to-face talks with the rebels. Some FARC hostages have been held for more than? 10 years.

Chavez on Sunday said he was putting relations with Colombia "in the freezer," calling Uribe a "liar" and accusing him of "not wanting peace."

Uribe replied hours later, claiming that Chavez is pushing an "expansionist project" across Latin America and seems to want Colombia to fall "victim to a terrorist FARC government".

The rebel force is holding 46 high-profile hostages whom it has pledged to release in exchange for hundreds of imprisoned guerrillas.

Uribe in August invited Chavez to help broker a deal with the leftist rebels, who are sympathetic to the Venezuelan leader's socialist ideals.

Colombia, Washington's closest ally in South America, has received billions of dollars in U.S. military aid in the past seven years to fight the FARC and the world's largest cocaine trade.
by cnn

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The price of vice increases in Venezuela

Written on 7:58 PM by yahoo

CARACAS, Venezuela (CNN) -- The price of sin rose Monday in Venezuela where President Hugo Chavez is on a campaign to make Venezuelans cut back on drinking and smoking.

"Everyone's shocked," said Leonora Marino, owner of Bodegon Marino in Valencia, Venezuela, west of Caracas.

On Monday evening, she was still changing the prices in her store as her customers looked on and complained, she told a reporter.

Alcohol is now 10 percent more expensive; cigarettes are 20 percent pricier.

"Really, it's difficult to buy at these prices," she said, then joked, "They say they're going to stop eating so that they can continue drinking."

The Venezuelan government is placing a higher tax on alcohol and cigarettes in an effort to cut consumption and prevent what it views as the social, economic and moral consequences of drinking and smoking, said Jose Vielma Mora, superintendent of Seniat, the government body that oversees the collection of taxes.

Taxes on whiskey, brandy, cognac and other drinks that don't come from cane sugar have been raised $1.79 (3,838 bolivares) per liter, the government-run Bolivarian News Agency said.

"It's unfair because, in the end, the consumer is the one who pays," said Fernando Fernandez, a liquor exporter.

Chavez has described whisky as a drink for rich people, not for revolutionaries.

"We cannot be spending the international reserves of this country on whiskey," he said.

The moves represent the first steps toward transforming each Venezuelan into what Chavez calls "the new man." Chavez has cited the life of revolutionary socialist icon Ernesto "Che" Guevara as an example of how to lead a more pure life.

In April, Chavez told a graduating class of medical students in Caracas, Venezuela, that the level of consumption of alcohol in the country represents a threat to public health and ought to make residents feel ashamed, according to an ABN report.

"The vice causes much harm, not only to individuals, but to the collective health of the nation," said Chavez, who said the dangers result in an increase in car wrecks and domestic violence.

For his part, he has said he drinks too much coffee.

Also effective Monday, stores near schools, churches or cultural centers will not be granted licenses to sell alcohol.

Taxes on cigarette imports have also increased, from 50 percent to 70 percent of the total price.

On the street, some people said they don't understand the motivations for the increase, but predicted their consumption would not change.

"The Venezuelan is not going to stop drinking or smoking," said one person.

Chavez also plans to increase taxes on luxury items such as Hummers, which are imported privately and at great expense. There is no Hummer dealership in the country.

Higher oil prices in recent years have translated into higher consumption in petroleum-rich Venezuela. Last year, car sales increased by about 70 percent, according to the CIA World Factbook.

But Chavez, who was in Cuba Monday visiting communist leader Fidel Castro, said he wants to focus less on material goals for Venezuela's 27 million people, 38 percent of whom live in poverty

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