The rumble over Venezuela's consulate in Miami continues. On Sunday, President Hugo Chavez insisted that his decision to close the office had to do with the safety of the staff there, and not any desire to hamstring the Feb. 12 opposition primaries. 

If you're unfamiliar with the spat, check out this story. 

"Now that we closed the consulate because of threats to our personnel, they accuse me of trying to sabotage the primary elections and that it's an abuse of the Venezuelans that live in Miami," he said during his Sunday television show. "Now they say we're the ones being abusive."

South Florida exiles are concerned they will have nowhere to cast their ballots as the coalition of opposition groups vote for a single candidate to face-off against Chavez in October. 

Chavez has said that Venezuelan exile groups were threatening the staff - a charge those groups deny. 

But during a US Department of State briefing last week, the spokesmen did acknowledge there had been...something.

Here's the Jan 17 exchange with Deputy Department Spokesman Mark C. Toner

MR. TONER: Well, I mean, obviously we take the security of all foreign missions very, very seriously. This is something, as you’re well aware, that we talk about in terms of other governments around the world, that we ask – urge them to uphold their obligations under the Vienna Conventions. We hold ourselves, obviously, to those same standards. If a Venezuelan official in the U.S. did receive any threats, those threats should be reported to the Department of State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, who also works with relevant law enforcement agencies to take appropriate steps to address them.

Obviously, the --

QUESTION: Have you received any reports of threats?

MR. TONER: Well, I’m – let me finish, Kirit.

QUESTION: Go ahead.

MR. TONER: The decision on how to manage its consulates and how to provide consular services to Venezuelan citizens is ultimately that of the Venezuelan Government. Now specifically to Kirit’s questions, we did previously assist the Venezuelan Consulate in Miami to address some minor security concerns in December, but since then we’ve not received any reports of any new threats against the consulate or its employees, nor any additional requests for security support.

QUESTION: Can you describe what those threats --

MR. TONER: I can’t. I can’t get into the details.

QUESTION: But you described them as minor. I mean, what is minor?

QUESTION: (Off-mike.)

MR. TONER: Not significant.

QUESTION: Thank you.

Hmmm.

Venezuela celebrated its bicentennial today, and thousands of people poured onto the streets to watch a very impressive military display. 

One person not at the show was President Hugo Chavez, who watched the event from the presidential palace, where he is convalescing from cancer. 

It's still unclear how bad the disease is, or whether or not he's headed back to Cuba to complete his treatment.

According to a few papers, Chavez will only stay in town long enough to shuffle his cabinet. By those accounts - and a few people we talked to - one person on their way out is VP 
Elias Jaua.

Apparently he's deemed to radical by the military - which is actually far more business-friendly and pragmatic. 

With few officials talking about the process, only time will tell. Check out that story here. 

On election day, former army officer Ollanta Humala invited the media to watch him eat breakfast. Local TV tried to browbeat him into downing some of the cuy, or guinea-pig, that sits in the bottom-right corner of the picture. He refused. 

Just hours after he narrowly won Sunday's race, analysts and investors were again trying to browbeat him - this time into naming his economic cabinet.

The pressure only increased on Monday, when the local market was open just one minute and twenty-five seconds before plummeting stocks triggered an automatic halt to trading. By the end of the day, the market had plunged almost 13 percent - the largest single-day drop in Peru's history. 

Like many news organizations, I got caught up in the dip because it seemed to capture the mood of investors - particularly those in the mining sector. But a question from a former colleague had me wondering if Peru's market is a good indicator of anything. 

Peru's stock market has a capitalization of $122 million - or about 7 percent of the nation's GDP. By comparison, the capitalization of the New York Stock Exchange is at about 114 percent of U.S. GDP. In Mexico, the stock market is 38 percent of GDP.

In short, Peru's stock market is tiny. Still, it's a barometer for how investors feel and the first signal of what might happen to foreign direct investment in this commodity-rich country.

On Tuesday, Peru's main index was up 7 percent.

Does it matter? I'm still not sure. 

But, so far, Humala's keeping his mouth shut.

 
BOGOTA -- Homer Simpson would feel at home in Latin America. His favorite beer, Duff, is available in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia and Chile.

The lager has the same logo as the brew that Homer guzzles at Moe’s, his local bar in the Fox cartoon series. In South America, the beer’s motto is “Yes it does exist!” But nobody seems to be willing to discuss Springfield’s finest.

The makers of Duff in South America say they aren’t allowed to talk to the U.S. media. Duff Mexico — which started the Latin American trend — would not respond to interview requests. And 20th Century Fox, which owns the rights to - Simpsons, said it would not comment on the story and would not say if it has a licensing agreement with any of the Duff producers.

Read the full story here

Preliminary results are in from Ecuador's controversial referendum on Saturday and - as expected - President Rafael Correa won on all 10 points. You can read about the refrendum here. 

The opposition was strongest on the question of a judicial independence, where 43 percent voted against giving the government the power to establish a new technical commission that could name judges over the next 18 months. But Correa prevailed and many worry he'll use the new body to stack the courts.

Another issue that was hotly debated was the question that makes it illegal to kill animals for sport. That effectively brings Ecuador's 300-year old bullfighting tradition to an end.

You can listen to a radio piece about it here. 

In this picture, Efrain "Elvito" Moreno, on the right, prepares to put the traje de luces on bullfighter Diego Rivas. It takes Moreno and six helpers six weeks to make a single suit. They cost about $900 each. When I talked to him a few months ago, he said he didn't know how he'd make a living if bullfights were banned.

El Comerico has a breakdown of the vote here.

Ecuador's Vice President Lenin Moreno has been paraplegic for 13 years, ever since he was shot point-blank by car thieves. After the incident, he said he was bedridden with pain and only began to recover after a friend told him a joke. The experience made him realize the power of laughter. He's written five books about laugh therapy.

So when I visited him recently in Quito it only seemed natural that I ask him about his favorite joke.

But rather than getting a one-liner or a thigh slapper, I got a scholarly discourse on the difference between jokes and humor. He likes Jerry Seinfeld. He's not a fan of dirty jokes, so I couldn't share anything from my repertoire.

When he's not dissecting humor he's doing some pretty interesting things for Ecuador's almost 300,000 disabled population. Check out his story here.

Libya's Moammar Gadhafi and the Latin American left have always been tight. So as most of the world has moved to isolate Gadhafi, here he has seen some outstretched hands. 

Today, Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega came out in support of the embattled Libyan strongman - who has been in power for more than four decades - and Cuba´s Fidel Castro said the troubles there might be used by an oil-starved West as an excuse to intervene.

That came after Monday's rumor that Gadhafi had taken refuge in Venezuela. The Hugo Chavez administration tried to shoot down the story, but it persisted until Gadhafi made his defiant, fist-thumping speech on Tuesday where he described opposition "rats" as "bribed, drugged and serving the devil."

So far, Chavez - who has hosted Gadhafi in the past - has remained silent. By driving up oil prices, the unrest in the Middle East might actually strengthen Chavez's hand as he heads into a heated 2012 presidential race. For a great analysis on that issue, check out this story by The Miami Herald's Andres Oppenheimer. 

It's not all good wishes and open doors. Several Latin American nations have been quick to blast Gadhafi. Peru has taken perhaps the strongest stance, severing diplomatic ties. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos reproached Gadhafi on his Twitter account.

In a related story, The New York Times has this piece about the how Arab unrest is strengthening Iran's hand. On cue, a legislative delegation from Ecuador - including National Assembly President Fernando Cordero - is on its way to Tehran to discuss strengthening commercial ties.

The interest on this side of the world is no surprise. Latin America and the Middle East have had long-time ties. And Latin America's thriving Arab communities have produced pop-stars, tycoons and presidents. For more on that, check out this story.

Happy New Year.

I recently returned from a reporting trip to Haiti, where the nation is gearing up for the one-year anniversary of the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake. Unfortunately, that meant that I couldn't be in Venezuela for the opening of the new National Assembly, which features a revitalized opposition.

But the trip reminded me of the deep ties between the two countries.

Venezuela's first flag was stitched together on the shores of Haiti in 1806 before being carried across the Caribbean by revolutionary hero Francisco de Miranda. Ten years later, Latin America's founding father, Simón Bolívar, would set sail from Haiti loaded with guns and Haitian soldiers on his way to liberate much of South America.

It's a historical debt that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez says his country will never be able to repay.

But he has certainly made a dent in that debt since the earthquake.

Along with the Dominicans, Venezuela was the first nation to respond to the earthquake, landing a military plane loaded with provisions and Haitian medical students on the morning of Jan. 13, while the country was still being rattled by aftershocks.

Since then, Venezuela has pledged more to Haiti's recovery than any other country or entity -- including the European Union, World Bank and the IDB. It's not all new cash. The government is counting pre-earthquake investments in power generators and fuel subsidies as part of its total, but it's still impressive. (The picture above shows Venezuelan water tanks at the market in Port-au-Prince.)

Not surprisingly, Venezuela's largess has come under attack back home, as the country has faced food and power shortages of its own. Opposition members of the new congress have said they want the presidency to give a full accounting of its off-the-books foreign aid programs.

Chávez is steeled for a fight. The outgoing congress - loaded with the PSUV faithful - gave him the power to pass legislation by decree for the next 18 months. On Monday, Chávez gave a hint of things to come when he presented the new ruling-party president of the National Assembly, Fernando Soto, the nation's most prized historical relic: Bolivar's sword. (The local press has made much about the fact that bare-handed Chávez insisted Soto wear gloves.)

Handling the sword - and its replica - is an honor usually reserved for heads of state such as:  Cuba's Raul Castro, Ecuador's Rafael Correa, Bolivia's Evo Morales and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega.

With the opposition hoping to score points before Venezuela's 2012 presidential elections, the aid to Haiti - and other nations allied to Venezuela - is almost certainly going to be a part of the political debate.

Haiti needs all the help it can get.

Hopefully, Venezuela's warring political parties will use Bolivar's blade wisely.