CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela said on Friday it raided an office containing the local representation of U.S.-based brokerage Oppenheimer & Co. on suspicion of illegal foreign currency trading.

A statement from the public prosecutor’s office said intelligence agents raided the premises of local broker Brisbane, Mendes de Leon, Pettus y Asociados, as well as the private house of its director on Thursday.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Visitors tip-toe round a marble sarcophagus holding Hugo Chavez’s remains. Supporters sob as his voice booms from speakers. Foreign tourists photograph displays of his life from precocious rural schoolboy to radical president.

An army barracks on a Caracas hilltop has been transformed into a shrine and museum for the late president whose death a month ago shook Venezuela.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition presidential candidate tore into government leaders on Wednesday as false revolutionaries lining their pockets while professing faith to the late Hugo Chavez’s radical socialism.

Trailing in opinion polls ahead of the April 14 vote, Henrique Capriles is attacking acting President Nicolas Maduro and other senior officials as a corrupt and incompetent coterie unable to solve Venezuelans’ basic problems.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition presidential candidate tore into government leaders on Wednesday as false revolutionaries lining their pockets while professing faith to the late Hugo Chavez’s radical socialism.

Trailing in opinion polls ahead of the April 14 vote, Henrique Capriles is attacking acting President Nicolas Maduro and other senior officials as a corrupt and incompetent coterie unable to solve Venezuelans’ basic problems.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s acting President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Henrique Capriles square off in an April 14 vote to succeed late leader Hugo Chavez.

Following is information about the two candidates and their policies:

NICOLAS MADURO

* A trade union leader who used to drive a bus for the Caracas public transport system, the burly and moustachioed Maduro, 50, is a staunch Chavez loyalist chosen by him as his preferred successor.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Seen for years as the soft touch in South American football, Venezuela’s fast-maturing team are inching closer to a first World Cup appearance in a potential triumph for their young home-grown coach.

After a traumatic few weeks for Venezuelans over the death of President Hugo Chavez and start of an acrimonious election campaign to replace him, Tuesday’s 1-0 win over Colombia was a rare moment of national unity and celebration.

MATURIN, Venezuela (Reuters) – Emerging from his bus, Venezuela’s opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles is engulfed by frenzied female supporters who push past bodyguards to hug, kiss and photograph their idol.

Most are young and have been waiting for hours under the sun to see him. Laughing and punching his fist in the air as he wades through his fans, Capriles emerges on stage moments later to roars from the crowd and screams of “Marry me, skinny!”

MATURIN, Venezuela (Reuters) – Emerging from his bus, Venezuela’s opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles is engulfed by frenzied female supporters who push past bodyguards to hug, kiss and photograph their idol.

Most are young and have been waiting for hours under the sun to see him. Laughing and punching his fist in the air as he wades through his fans, Capriles emerges on stage moments later to roars from the crowd and screams of “Marry me, skinny!”

CARACAS, March 25 (Reuters) – Venezuela launched a new
foreign currency auction on Monday with a first offer of $200
million to businesses, widely expected to represent another
partial devaluation of the bolivar.

The South American OPEC member’s socialist government
devalued the fixed rate of the country’s currency, the bolivar,
from 4.3 to 6.3 against the dollar last month.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Hugo Chavez’s protege and the new flagbearer of socialism in Venezuela has lost no time proving his loyalty in public – in fact, 3,456 times in just 16 days.

That is the number of times acting President Nicolas Maduro has mentioned Chavez in speeches since his mentor’s death from cancer on March 5, according to a local tracker.