Venezuela Strengthens Ties with Syria

On his visit to Syria in September, Chavez announced the five trade, agriculture and energy cooperation agreements, which were signed this Monday, October 26^th.

In a different deal, Telesur, the 24 hour Pan-Latin American television network created by Chavez, to counter U.S “hegemony” like CNN, will begin broadcasting its shows in Syria. For more see: Source

To remind you of Chavez’s busy schedule in September this year, Al Jazeera’s correspondent Dima Khatib (only foreign correspondent traveling with Chavez) kept a daily reporters dairy. See: Source

Upon their arrival in Damascus, Khatab reported on Chavez's and al-Asad's meeting: "Let's make a new organization which would group all the countries of the axis of evil!" Chavez joked with al-Assad."

Venezuela Places Barriers on Israeli Tourists

The most recent crisis between Israel and Venezuela concerning Israeli tourists who were not issued visas to travel to Venezuela, highlights the non-existent diplomatic relations between Venezuela and Israel, as well as Venezuela’s and Iran’s growing friendship.

The group of Israeli tourists was supposed to visit Venezuela this week but the trip was canceled after what seems to be absurd demands by the Venezuelan government.

First of all, there are no Venezuelan diplomats in Israel. Venezuela removed Israel’s ambassador in January therefore severing diplomatic relations. Israel followed by expelling the Venezuelan ambassador. Therefore these Israeli tourists had to obtain their visas through a consulate outside of Israel.

Finally Venezuela informed the tourist agency, Echo Outdoor Touring that they will accept the visas in none other than, Amman (Jordan) expecting them to appear there with the documents. Echo’s CEO says that this placed another barrier as people are afraid to travel there and in the end the trip had to be canceled due to “excessive demands and inflexibility” on part of Venezuela’s government.

This article (See here) further goes on to say that Iranians have a different treatment in Venezuela. In July the Israeli diplomat in Latin America, Dorit Shavit said that Venezuela issues fake documents to Iranians to make travel easier in the region.

Israel is threatened by Chavez’s relationship with Iran, his support of their nuclear program and the fact that Chavez has among other things condemned Israel accusing them of “genocide” against the Palestinians.