Jesus Perez said the Foreign Ministry had received innumerable congratulation messages since the official results of the referendum were announced, and most of them highlighted the civic attitude of the Venezuelans and recognized the support of the majorities for the government.

"The international community, including governments, personalities, organizations, parliamentarians, businessmen, and syndicates, has unanimous opinion on the fact that the Venezuelans decided to live in democracy," the minister said.

In last Sunday's recall referendum, 58.25 percent of the electorate voted for Chavez to remain in office and 41.74 percent voted for his mandate to be revoked. However, the opposition charges Chavez won the vote by fraud.

The auditing of the ballots of referendum, led by the National Electoral Council (CNE), the Carter Center and the Organization ofAmerican States (OAS), started Thursday without the presence of representatives of the opposition, who refused to participate in, saying the methodology was inadequate and would fail to detect fraud.

Brazil pursues those who illegally send money abroad
For years, many Brazilians looked to money-changers, known as "doleiros", to survive out-of-control inflation. They changed the fast-devaluating currency for stable dollars, were personal bankers and often trusted friends.

But now, police are hunting down doleiros, and their days may be numbered.

On Tuesday, federal police launched a massive crackdown on illegal money-changers, arresting more than 60 people and searching for many more.

Most of those arrested were charged with transferring money abroad without properly declaring it or paying taxes.

While Brazilians can legally change Reals for dollars, they are required to do so at the government's official rate. And because they can't have local bank accounts in dollars, they risk losing the money if they keep it at home.

Doleiros offer solutions to those problems.

They sell dollars at the "parallel" rate, which usually is better than the government's. And they can wire the dollars abroad to an overseas account until the customer wants it back.

"Back in the good old days, they were very active because Brazil didn't have a floating rate, and the black market rate was sometimes twice that of the official rate," explained David Fleischer, a professor of political science at the University of Brasilia. "Now, because there's no black market, they have had to change into quite creative money launderers."

Federal police said most money handled by doleiros is illegal, the result of corruption, embezzled public funds, contraband, fraud and probably drug trafficking and gunrunning.

But many legitimate businessmen also use doleiros.

Central Bank President Henrique Meirelles was recently accused of sending money abroad through doleiros when he was an executive at BankBoston.

Expatriates and foreign executives also rely on doleiros. Many doleiros cash personal checks, changing dollars into reals.

Occasionally, airport customs agents nab doleiros trying to leave the country with millions of dollars worth of checks.

Tuesday's operation was sparked by the collapse of the Beacon Hill Service Corp., whose New York offices were raided by the Manhattan district attorney's office last year.

In February, the company was convicted of operating as an unauthorized money transmitter.

Brazilian police used information from the case to trace operators sending illegal remittances from Brazil.

Bolivian peasants end oil siege
Peasant farmers in Bolivia have ended an occupation of foreign-owned oil fields after the government promised to speed-up land redistribution.

But in the south of the country, local people continued to block the main road linking Bolivia with Argentina.

Both protests have centred on energy resources, which bring South America's poorest country vital revenue.

The armed forces and the police have been dispatched to guard against further occupations.

It took the Bolivian government three days to persuade hundreds of landless peasant farmers to end their oil field occupations in the east of the country.

But attempts to end the standoff in the south, around the energy-rich city of Villamontes, are proving trickier.

Local people there have now been blocking the main road to Argentina and Paraguay for some 10 days.

They have also reportedly succeeded in turning off the valves of a foreign-owned gas duct, which provides energy to the nearby city of Tarija.

They say their protest will continue until the government brings them a signed decree, proving that its promise to build them a new highway is real.

Elsewhere in the country, landless farmers have reportedly re-occupied a property belonging to former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada.

And the Landless Movement is said to be planning a march to Bolivia's main city La Paz, to demand the release of one of its members, accused of taking part in the lynching of a provincial mayor earlier this year.