The Venezuelan Observatory of Violence (OVV), whose data is widely followed in the absence of official statistics, said the South American nation has one of the highest crime rates on the continent, with 54 homicides per 100,000 citizens in 2009.

Crime repeatedly comes first on Venezuelans’ list of worries. It has also begun to drag on Chavez’s traditionally high approval ratings as well as scare tourists who come to Venezuela. Briceno, a criminology professor at the Central University of Venezuela and at the Sorbonne in Paris, blamed a weak judicial system and ineffective and corrupt policing in Venezuela, where he said 91 percent of crimes go unsolved.

Spanish National Court Judge Eloy Velasco alleged Monday that the Venezuelan government had collaborated with Basque separatist group ETA and Colombia’s main guerrilla group in a plot against leaders living in or traveling to Spain that began in late 2003.

The allegations were part of an indictment that ordered 12 alleged members of ETA and of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to stand trial on charges of conspiracy to commit murder and terrorism, according to a copy reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

« There is evidence…showing the cooperation of the Venezuelan government in the illegal collaboration between FARC and ETA, » according to the indictment.

The biggest confrontation occured in Caracas, where police fired tear gas and plastic bullets to scatter thousands of students who tried to march on the headquarters of Venezuela’s state-run telecommunications agency. At least six demonstrators and a journalist were treated for injuries.

In the western city of Merida, a youth was killed during fighting between anti- and pro-Chavez forces and clashes when police tried to separate the rival groups, Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami said late Monday

Demonstrations erupted over the government ordering cable companies to drop Radio Caracas Television Internacional early Sunday. RCTV had defied new rules requiring local cable channels to carry mandatory programming, including some of Chavez’s speeches.

« Until when are we going to allow this to happen? » Mr. Chavez asked during his Sunday television program in reference to the alleged price hike by Almacenes Exito SA, headquartered in Colombia and controlled by French retailer Casino Guichard-Perrachon S.A.

The Venezuelan leader said that new law may need to be approved to carry out the nationalization. « I’m waiting for the new law to begin the expropriation process, » he said. « There’s no going back, » he added.

Almacenes Exito saw some of its stores closed this week by government authorities on accusations that it was increasing prices regardless of Mr. Chavez’s orders that retailers were not to adjust prices after he devalued the currency to 4.3 bolivars per dollar from the previous rate of 2.15 bolivars.

In expanding on his dislike of western toys and games — he already slammed Nintendo for promoting « selfishness, individualism and violence, » Chavez Sunday took on the world’s top selling game console, Sony’s PlayStation.

« Those games they call ‘PlayStation’ are poison. Some games teach you to kill. They once put my face on a game, ‘you’ve got to find Chavez to kill him.’ »

The firebrand leftist president said any game that « bomb cities or just throw bombs, » are sold by capitalist countries to sow violence so they can « later sell weapons. » They « promote the need for cigarettes, drugs and alcohol so they can sell them. That’s capitalism, the road to hell, » he added.

“Right now, there is absolutely no reason for anybody to be raising prices of absolutely anything,” he said on his weekly TV show, two days after announcing a dual exchange system for the fixed rate bolivar. “I want the National Guard on the streets with the people to fight against speculation,” he said to applause. “Publicly denounce the speculator and we will intervene in any business of any size.”

The former paratrooper says the devaluation will help make Venezuelan companies more competitive but he warned the government would take over shops and give them to their workers if price rises were discovered.

« We simply can’t permit that they continue calculating GDP with the old capitalist method, » President Chávez said in a televised speech before members of his Socialist party on Wednesday night. « It’s harmful. »

Mr. Chávez’s comments came shortly after data showed Venezuela’s gross domestic product — a broad measure of annual economic output — fell 4.5% in the third quarter from the year-earlier period. It was the second consecutive quarterly decline, and observers have questioned how Mr. Chávez will be able to generate growth without high oil prices.

Now that oil prices are less high, economists say Mr. Chávez’s stepped-up government spending and nationalizations of various industries are taking their toll, causing a combination of high inflation from the spending and weak growth from a lack of investment by local businesses. Economists forecast continued weak growth for Venezuela next year, worrisome for a leader who has relied on spending to stay in power for more than a decade.

President Hugo Chávez has been facing a public outcry in recent weeks over power failures that, after six nationwide blackouts in the last two years, are cutting electricity for hours each day in rural areas and in industrial cities. Now, water rationing has been introduced here in the capital.

In response, the president is embarking on his own crusade: pushing Venezuelans to conserve by mocking their consumption habits.

On paper, Venezuela should be swimming in surplus power. The country has huge reserves of oil and natural gas and sizable coal deposits. Its Guri dam complex, built with postwar oil riches in the 1960s, ranks as one of the world’s largest hydroelectric projects.

But energy economists here said a combination of negligence and poor planning pushed Guri to its limit in this decade. They said the president encouraged consumption with a 2002 decree freezing electricity and other utility rates. Meanwhile, nationalization effectively halted renewable-energy projects.

Only days after sending 15,000 troops to the volatile border, Mr Chávez, Washington’s main enemy in the region, ordered the Venezuelan military and people to prepare to “defend the homeland”, claiming that the US planned to use Colombian bases to mount an invasion of his oil-rich nation.

“The empire is more threatening than ever,” Mr Chávez, a former paratrooper, warned. “Don’t make a mistake, Mr Obama, by ordering an attack against Venezuela by way of Colombia.” Such a war would set the continent alight, he said.

Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami says the program should be pulled from the airwaves because it promotes the use of marijuana.

El Aissami was outraged by a recent episode in which the show’s characters started a campaign to legalize marijuana.

He said Thursday that cable networks that broadcast « Family Guy » would be fined by Venezuela’s telecommunications regulator if they refuse to dump the program.

The protests, coordinated through Twitter and Facebook, drew more than 5,000 people in Bogota, and thousands more in the capitals of Venezuela and Honduras. Smaller demonstrations were held in other Latin American capitals, as well as New York and Madrid.

Chavez supporters held smaller counter-demonstrations, including a Caracas rally that drew nearly 200 people. Police in Quito, Ecuador, intervened to keep pro- and anti-Chavez groups from clashing.

Infrastructure Minister Diosdado Cabello closed 34 radio stations in July, saying the government was « democratizing » media ownership. Critics say the move limits freedom of expression and has taken critical voices off the airwaves.

The powerful Chavez ally has threatened to close over 100 stations in total, part of a long-term campaign against private media that the government says are biased against Chavez’s government.

After a brief tirade against the sport by the president on national television last month, pro-Chávez officials have moved in recent weeks to shut down two of the country’s best-known golf courses, in Maracay, a city of military garrisons near here, and in the coastal city of Caraballeda.

“Let’s leave this clear,” Mr. Chávez said during a live broadcast of his Sunday television program. “Golf is a bourgeois sport,” he said, repeating the word “bourgeois” as if he were swallowing castor oil. Then he went on, mocking the use of golf carts as a practice illustrating the sport’s laziness.

Critics of the antigolf campaign point out that Venezuela’s top ally, Cuba, is going in the opposite direction. Canadian and European investors are seeking to build as many as 10 new courses in Cuba as part of the Cuban government’s bid to raise tourist revenues.

At least 13 stations went off the air over the weekend and another 21 were expected to follow soon in an effort by President Hugo Chávez to extend his socialist revolution.

The move followed last week’s introduction of a draft law to jail journalists and broadcasters who « harm the interests of the state », « cause panic » or « disturb social peace ». Critics denounced the moves as a recipe for censorship. « What we are witnessing is the most comprehensive assault on free speech in Venezuela since Chávez came to power, » said Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch.

The government’s telecommunications agency said it would revoke the licences of up to 240 radio stations, almost 40% of the total, citing irregular paperwork. It said the closures were lawful and that most radio stations remained in private hands.

Troops were mobilised over the weekend to assist Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, in seizing the assets of some 60 oil service companies, after a law was approved last week that paves the way for the state to take increasing control over its all-important oil industry.

“To God what is God’s, and to Caesar what is Caesar’s,” said Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez, as he presided over the expropriation of more than 30 oil terminals and some 300 boats.

This move forms part of a broader assault against the private sector, which Mr Chávez has increasingly blamed as Venezuela slides into recession. Simultaneously he is engaging in what opposition leaders say is a campaign of persecution of his political foes.