Mahmoud Abbas lays wreath at tomb of Simón Bolívar

Politics
President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas laid a wreath at the tomb of Liberator Simón Bolívar at the National Pantheon in Caracas, where he arrived on Thursday night on an official visit.

Abbas, who is ending his Latin American tour in Caracas, is meeting in the afternoon with President Hugo Chávez. He also was the guest of honor at the National Assembly, where he delivered a speech.

Chávez, who is a strong advocate of the Palestinian cause, broke diplomatic relations with Israel in January this year due to its military offensive on the Gaza Strip.

The Venezuelan president, who has called Israel "a genocidal State," opened a Palestinian diplomatic mission in Caracas in April.

Before visiting Caracas, Abbas travelled to Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Paraguay, whose leaders supported the future establishment of a Palestinian State.

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IISS: The FARC financed Chávez before 1999

10:07 AM. DIPLOMACY. Admired by the Colombian guerrilla after his coup attempt in 1992, the then lieutenant colonel Hugo Chávez Frías received financial support by the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) for his projects after his capture that year. This mostly explains the relationship and "debt" between the parties, as revealed by a paper of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) of the United Kingdom.