President Hugo Chavez Frias has rejected foreign intrusion into Venezuela's domestic-political affairs and says "we are not anybody's colony any more ... Venezuela is a free and independent nation meriting the respect of other nations as we deal with our internal problems."

The President's angry statement comes after a plethora of misdirected foreign declarations, including a surprising statement by Organization of American States (OAS) secretary general Cesar Gaviria, demanding that the Venezuelan government should give "due consideration to the society status" of  rebel Fedecamaras president Carlos Fernandez who faces five criminal charges, including sedition and treason following his early-morning Thursday arrest.  Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez has already rejected Gaviria's statement saying that Fernandez and still-fugitive CTV leader Carlos Ortega will be subject to the process of law & order just the same as any other common criminal.

Speaking during a pro-government rally in Trujillo State, Chavez Frias reminded diplomats and institutional representatives from around the world that "Venezuela is a sovereign nation ... we are nobody's colony ... we are a free country with our own institutions and we will not accept any external interference in our own domestic affairs."

Chavez Frias insists that the capture of Carlos Fernandez was accomplished as a wholly legal detention with the full support of court orders ... "let's face it, a bandit like him should not be president of the Venezuelan Federation of Chambers of Commerce & Industry in the first place!"

The President was referring to Fernandez' very public support for Dictator-for-a-day Pedro Carmona Estanga, the former president of Fedecamaras he replaced after the latter fled to neighboring Colombia after he was allowed the privilege of house arrest in the wake of the April coup d'etat which saw Chavez Frias taken hostage for two days before he was returned to power by popular demand.

The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry (MRE) has also reacted angrily over a statement from anti-Venezuelan US Department of State spokesman Richard Boucher who qualified Fernandez' legal detention as "worrying" ... adding that it could "suffocate" the government-opposition process of dialogue towards a lasting solution to the Venezuelan crisis.