According to the Latinobarometro survey, Venezuelans rank their democracy as being more fully realized than the citizens of all other surveyed countries do except Uruguay. On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 means a country that is not democratic and 10 is a country that is completely democratic, Venezuelans, on average, gave their own democracy a score of 7.0. The Latin American average was 5.8, with Uruguay having the highest score, of 7.2, and Paraguay the lowest, at 3.9.

Similarly, Venezuelans say more often than the citizens all other countries except Uruguayans that they are satisfied with their democracy. 57% of Venezuelans are happy with Venezuelan democracy, which is the second highest percentage, with 66% of Uruguayans expressing satisfaction. The average for all countries surveyed was 38%, with citizens of Peru, Ecuador, and Paraguay, expressing the least satisfaction, of 23%, 22%, and 12% respectively.

For Venezuela, the percentage of citizens surveyed who indicated satisfaction increased more since 1998, the year Chavez was elected, than any other country. The percentage expressing satisfaction increased from 32% to 57% in those eight years.

In terms of political participation, Venezuelans indicate that they are more politically active than the citizens of any other surveyed country. Venezuelans have the highest percentage of citizens that say they discuss politics regularly (47%, average is 26%), who say that they try to convince others on political matters (32%, average is 16%), who participate in demonstrations (26%, average is 12%), and who say they are active in a political party (25%, average is 9%).

With regard to whether they believe that elections in their country are "clean," Venezuelans answer in the affirmative 56% of the time, which puts them in third place, after Uruguay (83%) and Chile (69%). These were the only three where over half said they believed elections were clean. On average, only 41% of Latin Americans expressed confidence in elections in their country. Paraguayans (20%) and Ecuadorians (21%) expressed the least confidence in their elections.

According to Latinobarometro, Venezuelans and Uruguayans expressed the highest percentage of confidence that elections were the most effective means to promote change in their country (both 71%), compared to 57% for all of Latin America.

Latinobarometro has been conducting an annual poll in Latin American countries for the past 13 years. The polls are financed by a variety of multilateral agencies, such as the European Union, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the World Bank. The 2006 poll was conducted in 18 countries in the month of October 2006 and involved interviews with over 20,000 people. Its margin of error is about 3% (varies from country to country).

The Latinobarometro report contradicted the common perception that Latin America was heading towards more authoritarian regimes with the recent political shift towards the left. "It is clear that there is no authoritarian regression [in Latin America], which is demonstrated by the fact that 14 presidents were substituted, for various reasons and due to popular pressure prior to the end of their mandate and within the valid legal framework in each of the countries," said the report.

According to Latinobarometro, "An important part of the errors of perception about the evolution and development of the region are produced by the false expectations that international elites have about what the region should be doing."

Countries included in the survey were Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

He did not mention the health of his 80-year-old brother, who has not been seen in public since emergency intestinal surgery forced him to relinquish power at the end of July for the first time since Cuba's 1959 revolution.
There has been widespread speculation that the dictator is gravely ill, perhaps with cancer. However, a group of US politicians visiting Cuba said yesterday they had been told he would return.

"All the officials have told us that his illness is not cancer, nor is it terminal, and he will be back," Arizona congressman, Jeff Flake, the head of the US delegation, said.

Nonetheless, Raúl Castro hinted at a series of changes in approach should he take over, saying he would be more open to debate.

"Sometimes people fear the word 'disagree', but I say the more debate and the more disagreement you have, the better the decisions will be," he told the students.

And in a move that will delight audiences used to sitting through the elder Castro's sometimes interminable speeches - he holds the record for the longest ever address to the UN, a four hour 29 minute marathon - Raúl Castro hinted he would not follow suit.

"From the first moment it was established that I would not be giving all the speeches," he said.

He also practised what he preached, keeping his address to the 800 students brief and littering it with humorous stories from his childhood, such as how he was thrown from a horse after trying to copy a peasant and ride bareback.

Since the younger Castro took over in July, there have already been some small changes, for example newspapers now occasionally publish stories exposing theft and corruption. He is also said to favour relaxing state controls over the economy.

However, he is not thought to harbour ambitions to run the country indefinitely, and is more likely to govern for a few years before handing over to a younger successor.

However, the letter reads, it has been informed this meeting has a new format and only the presidents of the committees will be able to speak.

That decision, "made due to the capricious action characterizing that body," once again proves the need for reform of the Security Council.

"Such decisions do not contribute to promote the clear, representative nature that should characterize the work of the Council," Malmierca stated.

The participation of Cuba and other countries interested in the meeting would have allowed the Council to take into consideration other viewpoints on terrorism which are of the interest of all member countries, the letter stressed.

The Cuban ambassador asked the Security Council to distribute the letter and an attachment of the speech he was to deliver at the meeting as an official document.

That text contains detailed information on terrorist acts against Cuba by several people and organizations, as well as US protection of terror perpetrators.

Spain's interior minister, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, refused to confirm or deny the formal meeting, but said: "The process is in its preliminary phase and I am confident that it will move forward." This was taken by many as tacit confirmation that a meeting had taken place and that worries of an imminent breakdown of the ceasefire could now be discarded.

The reports of talks with Eta came two days before a rare meeting between the prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and the opposition leader, Mariano Rajoy, of the conservative People's party (PP). Mr Zapatero has failed to win the PP's support for future peace talks, which have become the focus of street protests. But this week the prime minister said he was ready to go it alone.

"My objective is not to convince the PP, but to make sure it all works out well," he said. "You will never hear me say this has failed because of the PP. The responsibility is entirely mine."

Mr Rajoy, however, opposes talks with a group that has killed 850 people in the past 30 years and which is considered a terrorist organisation by the EU and US.

Although Eta has not killed since May 2003, the theft of 350 pistols from a private arms depot near Nîmes, France, in October led to speculation that it was preparing to return to terrorism. French police later arrested several suspected Eta members for their role in the robbery, but the pistols were not recovered.

A recent increase in street violence by separatist youths in the Basque country was seen as another sign that the accident-prone peace process was in the doldrums.

Rumours were circulating that Eta would suspend the ceasefire over Christmas and carry out a spectacular attack in a bid to improve its bargaining position.

Two Eta members escaped from a police checkpoint in the early hours of yesterday morning after pulling a pistol on gendarmes near the town of Nogaro in south-west France. The Eta members abandoned their vehicle and one later held up a car at gunpoint, forcing the driver to take him to a nearby town.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin split up the KGB to sap the power of the secret services. But Putin has brought spying back into fashion at the very highest levels in the Kremlin.

Spy chiefs, top politicians and former agents were shown on state television sitting in a packed hall in the Kremlin as Putin sang their praises.

State television showed a lavish party with an orchestra playing classical music and large buffet with champagne and vodka, said to be Russian spies' favourite tipples.

Spy scares are back in vogue in Moscow with Kremlin controlled television showing romantic serials about the exploits of Russia's domestic and foreign security agents.

"Their best workers have always shown patriotism, competency, a high degree of personal and professional decency, and an understanding of the importance of their work for the good of their fatherland," Putin said.

First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov, both tipped as possible Putin successors, attended the Kremlin reception.

Putin, who has tried to restore prestige to the secret services, saluted the "glorious pages" in the history of Russia's secret services, the successors of the Soviet-era KGB.

"There are many glorious pages, bright examples of true heroism and courage in the history of national state security organisations," Putin said in the statement, which was posted on the Kremlin's web page, www.kremlin.ru.

Historians still argue about how many tens of millions of people died at the hands of the Soviet secret service under the rule of Josef Stalin. Millions were executed or sent to perish in labour camps run by Stalin's secret police.

Stalin's death in 1953 ended massive purges, but left intact a system of blanket control over the population exercised by the KGB. Political dissidents were imprisoned on criminal charges or locked up in mental hospitals.

On December 20, Russian agents celebrate Chekist day, the date the Soviet secret police, the Cheka, was founded.

"It is a profession who love our motherland," Putin told agents and senior politicians who attended the Kremlin bash.

Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) chief Sergei Lebedev, Federal Security Service (FSB) head Nikolai Patrushev and Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov attended the Kremlin banquet.