Caracas News Briefs -- June 25, 2008

Chavez invited to Moscow -- Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of Russia spoke of President Hugo Chavez making a "possible visit" to Moscow during a telephone conversation between the two leaders on Tuesday, Russian state news organizations reported. Formally, the invitation would come from Russian President Dimitri Medvedev, who did a straight job swap with Putin when his presidential term expired on May 7 this year. Putin is still widely regarded as the real power in the land in Russia. A statement issued by the government said that Putin and Chavez had discussed "commercial and economic relations" between the two countries. Venezuela has turned to Russia as an alternative source for war materiel in a deliberate switch away from the United States, this country's traditional arms supplier. Unofficial estimates suggest that Chavez has committed something like $3 billion to arms purchases in recent years, a substantial part of it with Russian suppliers. Russian sales to Venezuela include 100,000 assault rifles and military helicopters.

Inmates hold 210 hostages -- Authorities in Merida state were reported to be negotiating on Monday the release of 207 people taken hostage by inmates in a regional prison to protest judicial delays in their cases and alleged mistreatment. Reports from national media on Tuesday afternoon only referred to the appointment of five prosecutors to "supervise" the situation, but no details of the development of the events were known. The mass kidnapping of prisoners' friends and relatives, which began Sunday afternoon, was said to have been sparked by court delays in bringing inmates' cases to trial, alleged mistreatment by guards and prisoners' fears that they will be transferred to other prisons, Merida's public safety secretary, Francisco Solorzano said. "It's one more pressure tactic that the convicted and the not-yet-tried are doing to call attention to their situation," Solorzano told reporters. In preliminary negotiations, authorities got the prisoners to release some of their relatives, but by Tuesday afternoon 210 people, including 22 children, were reported to be still held by inmates.