Venezuelan putschists back at peace talks

Envoys from Venezuela’s putschist opposition were in the Dominican Republic yesterday for “definitive” talks with the government.

Representatives from the Democratic Unity Roundtable (Mud) coalition and President Nicolas Maduro’s United Socialist Party (PSUV) government arrived on Wednesday.

Dominican President Danilo Medina said: "We are in the process of transforming an agenda that will lead to a definitive negotiation to the crisis."

Government delegation leader Jorge Rodriguez, a former vice-president and current Mayor of Caracas’ Libertador municipality, said: "We are close to reaching an agreement with the opposition on decisive points, we are in a prime moment of dialogue.”

Also with the government team was former foreign minister Delcy Rodriguez, now president of the National Constituent Assembly, elections to which which the Mud boycotted on July 30.

“We have come here with a flag of peace,” she said.

The Mud delegation was led by parliamentary speaker Julio Borges, a leader of the hard-line Justice First (PJ) party, part of a Mud faction which opposed standing candidates in next months regional elections.

But the summit cold mark a turning point in the Venezuelan crisis after four months of regime-change riots that ended in August after 124 deaths.

Earlier this week Mr Medina invited the two sides to resume negotiations stalled since February following a Mud boycott.

Former Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Zapatero, one of several international mediators in the original talks launched last year, said: “I have great confidence in the government of President Danilo Medina and the foreign minister who are doing a great job.”

The mystery of the Guanches

The origins and language of the indigenous people of the Canary Islands remain a mystery, writes Dr Sabina Goralski Filonov Translation by James Tweedie The guanches, the aboriginals of the Canary Islands whose origin, lost in the mists of time, still arouses intense and passionate debate and great controversy about their origins and the how the seven Canary Islands were populated – which according to some studies occurred between 10,000 and 8,000 years BC. Literally, the word ‘Guan’ means man or person and ‘Chenech’ or ‘Chinet’ is applied to the island of Tenerife, thus meaning a man or inhabitant of Tenerife – although according to Núñez de la Peña, the Spanish named them the Guanchos during the conquest of the islands. But with the passage of time, experts in the subject are questioning whether the word Guanche was used to designate the primitive inhabitants of all the islands in the pre-Hispanic period. The term ‘Guanche’ has also ceased to be applied to the di...

Venezuela condemns MUD silence over terror attack

Venezuela’s foreign minister condemned the opposition and their foreign backers for their silence over Tuesday’s helicopter attack on the capital. At a press conference on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Samuel Moncada said Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) coalition leader Henry Ramos’ only comment on social media was that the attack was “useless.” “Firstly that does not condemn it,” Mr Moncada said. “Secondly it appears he was condemning it because it didn’t have the desired effect, that is to say, that it would blow up the building.” And he asked why fellow Mud leader Henrique Capriles lacked the “moral courage to... repudiate a terrorist act.” The newly-appointed minster and former ambassador to Britain accused fellow members of the Washington-based Organisation of American States of “feigning ignorance” and so protecting the culprits. And he accused sections of the media of portraying the culprit — Police investigator and one-time action film star Oscar Perez — as a “Rambo ...

Ex-pats hail extinction of ‘mammoth’ development

Socialists and conservatives unite to defeat CC plan for Las Teresitas beach Protesters outside the town hall SAN ANDREAS residents are celebrating victory after Santa Cruz council voted to deny permission for a controversial development on Las Teresitas beach. by James Tweedie The Association of Friends of Anaga, Las Teresitas and its Coast (Asociacion de Amigos de la Playa de las Teresitas, Anaga y su Litoral), which includes a number of ex-patriots, mounted a demonstration outside Santa Cruz town hall on Friday September 18 to urge opposition councillors to “keep their word” and support a Socialist Party of the Canaries (PSC) motion against the mammoth development. Some wore long paper ‘noses’ and chanted “concejal Pinocho” – councillor Pinocchio – to express their distrust of local politicians. A coalition of small businesses in Anaga, the Friends of the Port group and environmentalists Ben Magec – Ecologistas en Accion also supported the campaign against the scheme...

Los Gigantes Beach Landslide Tragedy - Three Days of Mourning for Victims

SHATTERED IDYLL: Los Guios beach in Los Gigantes in happier times. SANTIAGO del Teide council declared three days of official mourning after two women were killed in a landslide on Los Gigantes beach on November 1. by James Tweedie The local authority announced the period of mourning following an emergency council meeting on Monday November 2, called in response to the tragic deaths of 57-year old British holidaymaker Marion O’Hara and 34-year old Canarian hotel worker Maria Vanesa Arias Romera. Flags at Santiago del Teide town hall were flown at half mast for the period of mourning, and all official functions observed a minute’s silence in memory of the victims. The two women were killed when 130-foot wide stretch of the cliffs above the tiny Los Guios beach collapsed from a height of about 200 feet, burying them beneath rubble up to 15 feet deep, according to a spokesman for the Guardia Civil which was conducting the investigation into the accident. The landslide occurred about 3pm ...

IN MAGAZINES FRANCHISE WELCOMES NEW TITLE 'INTENERIFE'

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Monday April 5 2010 BRITISH publishing franchise IN Magazines has announced the launch of a bright and dynamic new title InTenerife. The new on-line and print magazine will combine high quality content with striking design for English-speaking residents and visitors to the island along with charging cheap advertising rates to businesses. InTenerife joins IN Magazines' stable of successful franchises in London , Essex, Cornwall and Cannes in the south of France. InTenerife Magazine is supported by Bartercard, the business-to-business cashless trading exchange. InTenerife Editor James Tweedie previously worked as editor of the Canaries Free Trader newspaper – a sister-title of classified advertising paper La Ocasión de Canarias – and as a reporter and foreign editor for the British national daily newspaper the Morning Star. He said: “I am delighted to be at the head of this exciting new venture for this fascinating island. “I can assure our readers that we wi...

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