The latest complaint among the Venezuelan opposition to President Hugo Chávez revolves around his decision to bring Cuban Minister of Information Technology and Communications Ramiro Valdés to Venezuela to help rectify the current electrical crisis, intensified by diminishing water levels at the country’s primary hydroelectric dam.

Yesterday, Admiral Dennis Blair, National Director of Intelligence, presented the Annual Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The report designated Venezuela a "Leading Anti-US Regional Force.”

On January 19, Spanish newspaper ABC, a newspaper of record in Spain, published a story entitled Chavez accuses US of causing earthquake in Haiti. The story was quickly picked up by websites around the globe, however no such thing was ever uttered by Chavez.

Vice-president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Alberto Muller Rojas, argues that it was "an error to turn bureaucrats into the leaders of the PSUV and in this interview he looks at how bureaucracy has affected the party's relationship with the bases, and speculates what impact this could have on the upcoming parliamentary elections.