Humberto Márquez

Stories written by Humberto Márquez
Humberto, who joined IPS in 1999, has been a journalist for more than 25 years, specialising in international news. He worked for 15 years with Agence France-Presse (AFP), 10 as assignment editor in Caracas, covering Venezuela, the Caribbean and the Guyanas. He also worked for more than five years in the international section of the Caracas newspaper El Nacional. Márquez has covered various international conferences, regional summits, electoral processes in the Americas and Europe, conflicts and peace negotiations, tours by the Pope, the petroleum business, sports events and the state of prison systems.

VENEZUELA: Hunger Striker Dies in Land Dispute

By Humberto Márquez

Franklin Brito, who held several long hunger strikes since 2004 to defend ownership of his farm, became the first Venezuelan to fast to the death.

VENEZUELA: Opposition Hopes to Make a Comeback

By Humberto Márquez

The campaign for Venezuela's Sept. 26 legislative elections is officially on, and the opposition, which boycotted the last vote five years ago, is back in the running, hoping to win enough seats to act as a counterweight to President Hugo Chávez.

COLOMBIA-VENEZUELA: Bolivar’s Heirs Clash on Bicentennial

By Humberto Márquez

The latest political and diplomatic conflict between Colombia and Venezuela has coincided with celebrations of the bicentennial of the two countries' independence, won by their common liberator Simón Bolívar, whose ideals of integration continue to be undermined.

VENEZUELA: Chronic Oil Leaks Sully Lake Maracaibo, Livelihoods

By Humberto Márquez

Dark oil slicks are spreading from the middle of Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo towards the shores -- the wetlands, mangroves, beaches and docks. Oil is permeating fishing nets, coating the garbage dumped into the water, killing off wildlife and driving away residents and tourists.

COLOMBIA-VENEZUELA: Severed Ties, Fresh Ground for New Problems

By Humberto Márquez

The break in diplomatic relations between neighbours Colombia and Venezuela, ordered Thursday by the latter's President Hugo Chávez, bodes an escalation of tensions -- the outcome of which largely will be decided by Colombia's president-elect Juan Manuel Santos.

VENEZUELA-COLOMBIA: President Uribe Secures Legacy of Dispute for Successor

By Humberto Márquez

When out-going Colombian President Álvaro Uribe charged Thursday that leftist guerrilla commanders from his country are in hiding in neighbouring Venezuela, he went a long way towards ensuring that his successor, Juan Manuel Santos, will inherit a volatile diplomatic dispute.

Shanty town residents in Miranda hope for a better life with Zero Hunger. Credit: Fidel Márquez/IPS

Venezuela Starts Its Own “Zero Hunger” Programme

By Humberto Márquez

Standing between two wooden planks that shore up the front of her small makeshift house, 40-year-old Maribel Huerta talks about her family.

Poverty and environment inextricably linked. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS

LATIN AMERICA: Environment’s Poverty-Fighting Potential Largely Ignored

By Humberto Márquez

The environment remains a second-tier matter in Latin America and the Caribbean despite being interwoven with persistent poverty and stalled economic development in the region, according to a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme.

LATIN AMERICA: Torturers Lurking Behind Uniforms

By Humberto Márquez

"My daughter was brutally tortured, intimate parts of her body were beaten, her head was put in gas-filled bags and electric shocks were applied all over her body," Vidalina Vera, the mother of Wilmary Brizuela, told the Venezuelan Attorney General's Office.

Critical Media Hit by Legal Actions in Venezuela

By Humberto Márquez

Guillermo Zuloaga, owner of the Globovisión television channel has fled Venezuela to avoid an arrest warrant issued by a court a week after President Hugo Chávez complained that Zuloaga was not being held in prison pending trials for illegal business practices, and for remarks that were deemed "offensive" to the president.

FOOD: Something Smells Rotten in Venezuela

By Humberto Márquez

Tens of thousands of tonnes of basic foods rotted in the last year in shipping containers belonging to the Venezuelan government. Fully two-thirds of the food consumed by Venezuela's 27 million inhabitants is imported.

Venezuelan Prison Death Toll Continues to Rise

By Humberto Márquez

Yet another string of violent deaths in Venezuela’s prisons, along with the dire living conditions in many of them, have caught the attention of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which is demanding that the government adopt urgent measures.

Opposition Plans Return to Venezuelan Congress

By Humberto Márquez

Political sectors opposed to the Venezuelan government of President Hugo Chávez have elected 22 candidates in primaries, and selected another 143 by consensus, to compete in September for the 165 seats in the single-chamber parliament.

Women at a cooperative making shirts that are red, the president's trademark colour. Credit: Humberto Márquez/IPS

VENEZUELA: Mixed Results for Gender Policies

By Humberto Márquez

After years of paltry wages as a piecework seamstress, Elisa Manrique finally has the chance to leave the informal sector and poverty behind. Thanks to a small business loan from the Venezuelan government, she and a group of other women - including some of her daughters and a daughter-in-law - have been able to set up their own sewing cooperative.