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The former British Ambassador to Venezuela said: "but Chavez is an incredibly popular figure, is he not?" I must confess, I hate that type of argument. It means little, in my book, given that I am part of that 52% of Venezuelans who are at the receiving end of Chavez's hatred. So I replied: "you give anyone the access to the kind of money that Chavez has got control over, and even a chimpanzee would become incredibly popular." Laughter. Followed by "well, that's true." See, we have had to put up with such comments for too long.

By Walter Molano, BCP Securities, LLC | As Colombia transforms itself into an oasis of prosperity, Venezuela descends deeper into the dungeons of hell. Some academics propose that a country's leadership has a limited impact on a nation's trajectory. They argue that it is more dependent on its natural endowments, social structure as well as random exogenous factors. However, this is not the case with Venezuela.

A few years ago, searches for Venezuela in Google News use to return about 3,000 results. Today, it returns more than 25,000. Alas such explosion of news articles does not mean that objective coverage has increased eight fold. It continues to be lacking. Take for instance news that Hugo Chavez vetoed universities and tax increase laws. Thus far, AP bureau in Caracas sent a wire, from Ian James, that was picked up by the New York Times and Business Week.

Got a call this morning from the BBC World Update programme, requesting my comment on the current spat between Hugo Chavez and the USA, over US Ambassador to Venezuela designate Larry Palmer.

Published in Gaceta Oficial no. 39.577, on Monday 20 December 2010 (page 2 & 3), Hugo Chavez's lame duck congress announced the creation of a partnership ("empresa mixta"), with Petropars UK Limited, a London-based entity that is wholly-owned by Petropars Ltd [board].