A referendum to recall President Hugo Chávez was held in Venezuela in August of 2004. In the referendum, voters were to vote YES if they wished to recall the President and NO if they wanted him to continue in office. The official results were 59% NO and 41% YES. Even though the election was monitored by various international groups including the Organization of American States and the Carter Ce...

The Agave genus embraces many species with outstanding ecological and economic importance in the arid regions of the Americas. Even though this genus covers a broad geographic distribution, our knowledge on the population genetics of species is concentrated in taxa located in North America. Recently, it has been demonstrated that plant domestication decreases levels of genetic diversity in mana...

Vari, Richard P., and Hernan Ortega. The Catfishes of the Neotropical Family Helogenidae (Ostariophysi: Siluroidei). Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, number 442, 20 pages, 9 figures, 3 tables, 1986.—The Neotropical catfish family Helogenidae is revised. Contrary to recent practice, a single genus Helogenes Giinther is recognized, with Leyvaichthys Dahl treated as a synonym. Four species ar...

During the past three decades there has been a notable increase in dengue disease severity in Venezuela. Nevertheless, the population structure of the viruses being transmitted in this country is not well understood. Here, we present a molecular epidemiological study on dengue viruses (DENV) circulating in Aragua State, Venezuela during 2006–2007. Twenty-one DENV full-length genomes representin...

Since 1984, DNA tests based on the highly repeated subtelomeric sequences of Plasmodium falciparum (rep 20) have been frequently used in malaria diagnosis. Rep 20 is very specific for this parasite, and is made of 21 bp units, organized in repeated blocks with direct and inverted orientation. Based in this particular organization, we selected a unique consensus oligonucleotide (pf-21) to drive ...

The authors assessed HIV-1 variability in two distinct areas of Venezuela (the capital Caracas and Margarita Island) through the analysis of blood specimens and clinical and epidemiologic data of 72 persons. Proviral DNA was evaluated through heteroduplex mobility assay (HMA) based on the envelope region. Additionally, FOK I restriction enzyme digestion assay was performed in all subtype B ED31...

New species Alienates thomasi sp. nov. Baňař & Štys is described from Venezuela based on a single female. It is the first species recorded from South America, and is illustrated and compared with other Caribbean and Central American Alienates species.

Echinoderms are a major group of marine invertebrates that often play integral roles within the ecosystem. Studies about their occurrence, abundance, and distribution in Venezuela focused central-eastern coasts; hence aim this study is to describe echinoderm community north-western coast Gulf Venezuela. Samples were collected from three sites Venezuelan Guajira Peninsula (Castilletes, Porshoure...

Conservation of large predator species has historically been a challenge because they often overlap in resource utilization with humans; furthermore, there is a general lack of in-depth knowledge of their ecology and natural history. We assessed the conservation status of the Orinoco crocodile (Crocodylus intermedius), defining regional habitat priorities/crocodile conservation units (RHP/CCU) ...

BACKGROUND A current worldwide common goal is to optimize the health and well-being of children with cerebral palsy (CP). In order to reach that goal, for this heterogeneous group, a common language and classification systems are required to predict development and offer evidence based interventions. In most countries in Africa, South America, Asia and Eastern Europe the classification systems ...