/IPS ENVIRONMENT BULLETIN/ VENEZUELA: Indigenous Waraos Demand End to Oil Exploration

Indigenous Warao communities in the Orinoco River Delta are demanding an immediate end to oil exploration by transnational companies in three areas of their homelands.

ANDEAN COMMUNITY: Will Fujimori go to Sucre?

If Peru does not enter the Andean free trade group by next Tuesday, "only four of us will go to Sucre," said Venezuela's Industry and Trade Minister Freddy Rojas.

ANDEAN COMMUNITY: Will Fujimori go to Sucre?//REPEAT//

If Peru does not enter the Andean free trade group Tuesday, "only four of us will go to Sucre," said Venezuela's Industry and Trade Minister Freddy Rojas.

LATIN AMERICA-FINANCE: Leading Markets Fell in New York’s Wake

Latin America's leading stock exchanges suffered a drop in March with respect to February, dragged down by the New York stockmarket, according to a report released here Thursday.

VENEZUELA-INDIGENOUS: Waraos Demand End to Oil Exploration

Indigenous Warao communities in the Orinoco River Delta are demanding an immediate end to oil exploration by transnational companies in three areas of their homelands.

ENVIRONMENT-VENEZUELA: Proposed Jaguar Hunt Sparks Outrage

A government proposal that would allow hunters to kill 50 jaguars annually has outraged wild life conservationists and environmental groups who are fighting for the survival of the species.

COMMUNICATIONS-WOMEN: Gender Perspective of the Internet

Life in cyberspace, where more and more men and women communicate via the Internet, is becoming more like that on earth. Sexual innuendo across the Intenet is rampant to the point where "virtual reality is just like real life: machismo is everywhere!" says communications analyst Samira Saba Garcia.

VENEZUELA-INDIGENOUS: Waraos Analyse Impact of Oil Drilling

The Warao indigenous people living in the Orinoco delta in northeastern Venezuela are alarmed at the impact intensive oil drilling could have on their habitat and way of life.

MUSIC-VENEZUELA: Two Teenage Sensations Cause Musical Storm

Teenage singers Florentino and Servando Primera, the sons of famous protest singer Ali Primera, have re- emerged on the Venezualan musical scene as a sensational new duet after their earlier career in the child-band Salserin.

VENEZUELA: Caldera Full Steam Ahead, Despite Social Unease

Venezuela's President Rafael Caldera showed he could be dangerously out of touch with a reality of strikes and social tension in a nation where foreign reserves are swelling while the people go hungry.

VENEZUELA-JUSTICE: Tough Task for 24-Year-Old Prison Director

Monica Fernandez smiles when she says the most commonly asked question put to her is "What's a girl like you doing in a job like this?"

VENEZUELA: Anti-Caldera March Spreads Rumours and Tension

A march of university staff, students and other unions in conflict with the Refael Caldera government and its neoliberal economic programme, here Wednesday, loosed a wave of destabilising rumours.

AMERICAS: FTAA Negotiations to Start March 1998

Negotiations to establish the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) will be launched in March 1998, lasting between five and seven years, and promoting a contient free of tariff and customs barriers by the year 2020.

/IPS ENVIRONMENT BULLETIN/ VENEZUELA: NGO Strength Big Factor in Sustainable Development

The emergence of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as a driving force toward global sustainable development is one of the more positive results of the 1992 Earth Summit, according to leading Venezualan environmental official Arnaldo Jose Gabaldon.

ENVIRONMENT: NGO Strength Big Factor in Sustainable Development

The emergence of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as a driving force toward global sustainable development is one of the more positive results of the 1992 Earth Summit, according to leading Venezualan environmental official Arnaldo Jose Gabaldon.

AMAZON: Venezuela’s Indigenous-Based Municipal Divisions

The 19 indigenous groups of the Venezuelan Amazon agreed to divide their territory into municipal areas, in an unprecedented move yet to be approved by the white authorities.

VENEZUELA-ENVIRONMENT: Network to Fight Dangers of ‘New Oil Age’

A broad range of groups concerned with the environment have banded together in Venezuela in the face of intensive oil exploitation planned by the State in conjunction with foreign firms.

LATIN AMERICA: Integration and Future Democracy

The integration process in Latin America is essential for the region to be able to overcome the widespread problem of increasing poverty, says the president of the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino), Juan Adolfo Singer.

VENEZUELA: Kidnappings and Clashes Heat up Border with Colombia

A wave of kidnappings and clashes between Colombian rebels and the Venezuelan military have bolstered the image of the border area as a sort of "Far West" disputed by bandits, drug gangs and guerrillas.

VENEZUELA-CRIME: Notorious Prison to be Demolished

The first thing that overcomes any visitor to Venezuela's notorious Catia prison is the stench left left behind when its inmates were transferred to new penitentiaries.

ANDEAN COMMUNITY: Institutional Crisis, the Sign of the Times

Venezuela had three presidents in ten days in 1993, Ecuador has just broken records by having three at the same time, Peru's leader bent the other powers to his will in a 1992 coup, and his Colombian counterpart faced a political trial in 1996.