Commenting on a document issued by the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference (CTV) on the national situation, President Chavez accuses the bishops of acting like a political party. 

• Chavez made the statement during a graduation ceremony at the military academy for students of the Institute of National Defense Higher Studies. 

According to the President, the Venezuelan clergy is going through a crisis and resorting to lies ... "they know they are lying and sinning ... I find it hard to understand a bishop, a Cardinal with so much study, I believe it's one of the longest careers, studying theology and sciences, praying a lot, confessing people." 

Speaking as a Catholic, Chavez comments that there are less Catholics each day in the world and in Venezuela and one of the reasons for the exit is the conduct of the hierarchy. 

Meanwhile, Archbishop of Merida, Monsignor Baltazar Porras has returned from a meeting of the Latin American Bishops Conference (CEV) in Cuba. 

The opposition jumped on a news report that Porras has had been expelled from Cuba but Cuban bishops took the wind out of the scoop, stating the early departure of the prelate was a problem of airline timetables. 

On his return to Venezuela, Porras has called for more plurality in Venezuelan society as a counterweight to the government. 

"I think we are once more returning to denying Venezuelan society in general the right to say anything about public affairs, making it the private and exclusive right of those who hold power." 

The Archbishop also rejects the President's charge that the CEV acts like a political party stating that the CEV document talks about real situations and real problems, such as increase in corruption, abuse of power and problems that cause anxiety to people on a daily basis, such as violence, unemployment and exclusion.