Eideard

Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

In a potentially significant step toward repairing their tattered relationship, the United States and Venezuela have formally agreed to resume full diplomatic relations, the State Department.

Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the two nations exchanged notes that in effect formalized pledges that President Obama and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made at the Summit of the Americas in April to reinstall ambassadors who were expelled in September.

U.S. Ambassador Patrick Duddy and his Venezuelan counterpart, Bernardo Alvarez, soon will resume their former posts in Caracas and Washington, respectively, Kelly said. Each country’s embassy had remained open and formal relations were never fully cut.

Kelly said the move would “help advance U.S. interests” by improving communication with the Venezuelan government and citizens…

Analysts said the resumption of full diplomatic relations with Venezuela reflects the important commercial ties between the nations, the Obama administration’s desire for better Latin American relations and Chavez’s need to improve his image…

During the Bush administration, relations between the two nations were abysmal, with leaders on both sides routinely exchanging insults. But relations seemed to improve at the April summit, where Obama and Chavez exchanged friendly greetings and Chavez presented Obama with a book.

Since taking office, Obama has said he wants “a new beginning” with Latin countries and has pledged to alleviate suspicions and work cooperatively with nations in the region.

A significant chunk of my years of political [and other] activism supporting movements of national liberation took place in Latin America. I’ve long held that commerce is a better way to solve conflicts than trotting out the imperial army. Looks like a few folks in DC think so, too. Now.

Hugo Chavez – and his wee grandson – celebrate
Daylife/AP Photo by Fernando Llano

Venezuelans have voted to lift limits on terms in office for elected officials, allowing President Hugo Chavez to stand for re-election. With 94% of votes counted, 54% backed an end to term limits, a National Electoral Council official said.

“The doors of the future are wide open,” Mr Chavez shouted from the balcony of the Miraflores presidential palace after the results were announced.

“In 2012 there will be presidential elections, and unless God decides otherwise, unless the people decide otherwise, this soldier is already a candidate.”

Crowds of the president’s supporters filled in the streets, letting off fireworks, waving red flags and honking car horns.

More than 11 million voters out of almost 17 million who were eligible took part in Sunday’s referendum, said the head of the electoral body. International observers said the ballot was free and fair, and opposition leaders were quoted as saying they would not contest the vote.

Term limits are one of my pet peeves. As pissed off as I get about reactionary politicians being re-elected, I have no right to demand that voters have no choice to vote for them, again. Right-wingers only bring up the question when there are popular left-wing or liberal candidates in office.

In fact, the archetype for this was the 2-term limit passed in the United States after World War 2 – passed by conservatives afraid there might be another liberal Democrat candidate in the mold of Franklin Roosevelt. They have the same fears over Barack Obama, nowadays.

Venezuela is ordering one million low cost laptops for its school children. The machines will be based on the Intel Classmate laptop that has been designed for school children.

Venezuela is buying the portable computers as part of a $3bn (£1.66bn) bilateral trade deal with Portugal that also covers housing and utilities.

Portugal is manufacturing the laptops under licence from Intel and are broadly based on the chip maker’s design of its Classmate computer.

Dubbed Magellan, the laptops will have on board low-power Intel Atom chips designed for laptops. They will also sport digital cameras and a broadband net connection. As an operating system, the machines will run a version of Linux developed in Venezuela.

The trick here is that the Portuguese government got the license from Intel and set up manufacturing to supply these critters to their own school children. Looks like someone was smart enough to understand they might further defray expenses by building an excess for export.

How long before we see these in Best Buy?