CARACAS, Nov 9 (Reuters) – The U.S. government’s chief
antagonist in Latin America, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, has
advised newly re-elected U.S. President Barack Obama to avoid
further entanglement in international conflicts and concentrate
on fixing internal problems.

“He should reflect first on his own nation, which has a lot
of economic and social problems. It’s a divided, socially
fractured country with a super-elite exploiting the people,” the
socialist president said late on Thursday in his first reaction
to Obama’s victory this week.

CARACAS, Oct 23 (Reuters) – Demoralized by their failure to
unseat President Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s opposition hopes to
bounce back in December state elections that provide a chance to
curb the socialist president’s power.

The opposition holds seven of Venezuela’s 23 states and is
fighting to at least keep those by appealing to voters’ worries
over uncontrolled crime, cronyism and sputtering services.

CARACAS, Oct 10 (Reuters) – Venezuela’s President Hugo
Chavez named Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro as his new
vice-president on Wednesday in the first change of cabinet after
Sunday’s re-election.

A former bus driver and trade unionist, Maduro replaces
Elias Jaua, who will run for the state governorship of Miranda
against opposition leader and defeated presidential candidate
Henrique Capriles in a December gubernatorial vote.

CARACAS, Oct 10 (Reuters) – Defeated presidential candidate
Henrique Capriles sought to rally Venezuela’s crushed opposition
for December gubernatorial elections and said he appreciates an
end to the barrage of insults from President Hugo Chavez.

The energetic state governor said he had put Sunday night’s
loss to Chavez by 11 percentage points behind him and was ready
for the challenge in December.

CARACAS (Reuters) – An ebullient President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday hailed his comfortable re-election as evidence of Venezuela’s “perfect” democracy and mocked his foes’ depiction of him as a dictator.

The long-serving socialist leader won Sunday’s poll with 55 percent of the votes on record turnout of 81 percent. The result was quickly accepted by losing opposition candidate Henrique Capriles.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s young opposition leader Henrique Capriles began election day on Sunday jovially donning his “lucky shoes” – but ended it gravely trying to stem the tears of shattered supporters.

Yet another victory for Hugo Chavez, this one giving him a new six-year term, was too much to bear for some of the volunteers and fans who coalesced around Capriles for the opposition’s best shot at unseating the president since he was elected 14 years ago.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s socialist President Hugo Chavez comfortably won re-election on Sunday, quashing the opposition’s best chance at unseating him in 14 years and cementing himself as a dominant figure in modern Latin American history.

Chavez’s victory will extend his rule of the OPEC member state to two decades, though he is recovering from cancer and the possibility of a recurrence hangs over him.

By Brian Ellsworth and Andrew Cawthorne

(Reuters) – Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez faces opposition challenger Henrique Capriles on Sunday in what looks like the former soldier’s toughest election in 14 years of socialist rule.

The following are key facts about Chavez and Capriles, and their policy plans:

FACTS ABOUT CHAVEZ

* Born to a poor family in the Venezuelan plains in 1954, Chavez aspired to be a painter and then a professional baseball player. He often explains politics in baseball metaphors.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelans packed supermarkets on Friday to stock up on food and other essentials in case of trouble around Sunday’s presidential vote, which was shaping up as the biggest electoral challenge of Hugo Chavez’s 14-year rule.

Energetic young state governor Henrique Capriles has gained momentum in the closing days of the campaign and he seemed to have the opposition’s best chance of unseating Chavez since the socialist president came to power in 1999.

CARACAS, Oct 1 (Reuters) – Venezuelan opposition leader
Henrique Capriles pledged to help C olombia in its peace talks
with rebels and distance himself from Iran should he defeat
President Hugo Chavez in an increasingly tight race ahead of
Sunday’s election.

The government of neighboring Colombia is due to start talks
with Marxist FARC guerrillas this month in Oslo to try to end
five decades of conflict. Chavez’s government, accused by Bogota
of backing the rebels in the past, supports the talks.