News stories by Humberto Marquez, page 5

CARACAS, Jul 30 (IPS) - Venezuela is gearing up to pass a new law to combat discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS, in a country where the epidemic claims nearly 4,000 lives and infects 11,000 mainly young people every year, including increasing numbers of women.

CARACAS, Jun 04 (IPS) - Although Venezuela has 520 long rivers, taps often run dry, many poor neighbourhoods depend on tanker trucks, water rationing remains a reality, and in some areas water quality is very poor.

CARACAS, Mar 07 (IPS) - Seven of the 20 people killed in the street protests that have shaken Venezuela since the second week of February were shot in the head, a testimony to the role being played by firearms in the political struggle in this oil-rich country.

CARACAS, Feb 17 (IPS) - Violence on the streets of Venezuela, with anti-government protests in the capital and 12 other cities, is a sign of hardening stances by both the government and its opponents as President Nicolás Maduro takes a trial-and-error approach to the economy in crisis.

PUERTO AYACUCHO, Venezuela, Nov 26 (IPS) - The presence of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) is evident in Venezuela's Amazon region, where the guerrillas can be seen on speed boats, in camps, or interacting with local indigenous communities.

CAÑO DE UÑA, Amazonas, Venezuela, Nov 19 (IPS) - "All of the countries of the Amazon basin say they want to protect the environment, but they all have agreements with transnational corporations for the construction of roads or for mining and exploitation of forests," Curripaco indigenous leader Gregorio Díaz Mirabal, from the south of Venezuela, told Tierramérica.*

CARACAS, Aug 07 (IPS) - The Venezuelan government's plans to develop tourism infrastructure on virtually uninhabited highly biodiverse small islands in the southern Caribbean have triggered warnings from environmentalists.

CARACAS, Apr 15 (IPS) - The political polarisation in Venezuela became even more marked as the country emerged from Sunday's elections basically divided in half, between two sectors that are antagonistic and reluctant to try to understand each other.

CARACAS, Jan 24 (IPS) - Governments of countries in the Americas are relying on the passage of time and a relatively peaceful political atmosphere to sort out the unprecedented institutional situation in Venezuela, whose ailing president Hugo Chávez is out of the country, while the executive team tasked with carrying out his former mandate continues in office.

CARACAS, Jan 09 (IPS) - While Hugo Chávez is being treated for serious illness in Havana, the premise of government "continuity" is winning out in his home country, along with plans to postpone his swearing-in ceremony for a new term as president of Venezuela, due to take place on Thursday Jan. 10.