Charlie Devereux's Notebook:

Chavez: "US troops invading Haiti"

It's another year and another verbal skirmish in the will-they-won't-they relationship between Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and the U.S. 

President Chavez claimed today that the decision to send U.S. troops to Haiti amounted to a covert invasion. Around 5,000 troops have been sent to Haiti to control increasing violence after the earthquake that destroyed Port-Au-Prince.

"I read that 3,000 soldiers are arriving, Marines armed as if they were going to war. There is not a shortage of guns there, my God. Doctors, medicine, fuel, field hospitals, that's what the United States should send," he said today. "They are occupying Haiti undercover."

In a typically contradictory speech during his weekly TV show he also said that he wanted to improve relations with the U.S. which have been experiencing another rocky period after Venezuela took umbrage to a deal between Colombia and the U.S. that would allow American troops to use Colombian military bases.

Over the Christmas period, Chavez also accused the Netherlands of wanting to invade Venezuela and of aiding the U.S. in aggressions against Venezuela by allowing fighter jets to use the Dutch-owned island of Curacao as a base.

Venezuela is looking for uranium ... but with help from whom?

And the winner is...

It was high drama at the Miss Venezuela beauty pageant here last night.

Miss Miranda, Marelisa Gibson, the 21-year-old brunette featured in our video, walked away with the top prize.

The four-hour extravaganza featured musical interludes from reggaeton stars such as Daddy Yankee but all the attention was on the girls and their dresses.

From 20 contestants, it was whittled down to 10 who all had to negotiate the tricky questions round.

Poor Miss Distrito Capital froze under the pressure when asked whether it was harder to ask for permission or forgiveness from someone. She had to pass back the microphone to the presenter without giving an answer. I don't think I would have liked that question.

Dayana Mendoza, Miss Universe 2008, and Stefania Fernandez, Miss Universe 2009, both made appearances and whipped up some flag waving and nationalistic fervour.

Gibson will be hoping to extend the record they achieved when she represents Venezuela at the Miss Universe contest next year, where she will be going for a third successive crown in a row for Venezuela.

Stewie Griffin promotes drug use for the US government, says Venezuela

It's a cause for controversy at home and has picked up a gamut of awards in the process, but now the popular cartoon show "Family Guy" has found itself caught in the middle of a spat between Venezuela and the United States about drug trafficking.

Venezuelan state TV today broadcast an excerpt from "Family Guy" as an example of how the U.S. promotes drug use. The clip features Stewie, the matricide-obsessed infant son of Peter and Lewis Lois Griffin, singing a song extolling the virtues of smoking weed.

"We can observe how [the U.S. government] promotes and incites the population to consume that drug there," said Tarek El Aissaimi, Venezuela's Interior Minister. "There's no subliminal message. It's an animated cartoon where you can observe perfectly how they promote consumption and moreover they foster the legalization of marijuana."

El Assaimi blames U.S. drug consumption for fueling drug trafficking in Latin America.

Venezuela took offense to a U.S. Congress report that concluded that Venezuela is undermining U.S. efforts to combat the drug trade in neighboring Colombia. Since then, El Aissaimi has been on a media blitz to prove how much effort the country is making to stamp out drug trafficking.

Watch the offending song here:

Ousted Honduran president slips into Tegucigalpa, Chavez says

 Manuel Zelaya, the Honduran president who was ousted in a coup in June this year, is in Tegucigalpa, according to the Venezuelan government.

Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, announced the news on live state TV while visiting an educational program launched by his government.

Zelaya, an ally of Chavez's left-wing movement, has received strong support from Venezuela during his exile.

"We demand that the Honduran coupsters respect the life and dignity of the Honduran president," he said, while speaking to Zelaya by phone.

Zelaya reached Tegucigalpa by crossing Honduras' mountains clandestinely, Chavez said.

Zelaya who was ousted by his own party after concerns that he wanted to alter the Honduran Constitution so that he could run for presidency again, attempted to return to Honduras in July by crossing the border at Esteli in Nicaragua but turned back when his passage was barred by the army.

He is holed up in the U.N. building in Tegucigalpa where he hopes to meet with members of the interim government to negotiate his return, according to Venezuela's state TV channel, VTV.

There is a warrant for his arrest in Honduras. Chavez did not say whether Zelaya planned to step outside the protection of the U.N. offices.

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