Hotel From Hell

No doubt they'll be selling Che t-shirts in the lobby gift shop.

A miserable time is guaranteed for all.

Caracas Hilton gets name change; government plans 'socialist' hotel

The landmark Caracas Hilton hotel was renamed the Alba on Saturday by President Hugo Chavez's government, which owns the building and says it will now be a "socialist" establishment, the state news agency reported.

After 38 years under the management of Hilton, the hotel is now called the Alba Caracas, the Bolivarian News Agency said. The new name means "dawn" in Spanish and is also the acronym of Chavez's Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas trade initiative, which he started to counter U.S.-backed free trade deals.

"The goal is to convert the hotel into a socialist tourism business for the enjoyment of citizens," said Eustacio Aguilera, president of the Simon Bolivar Center, a government cultural institution that owns the hotel.

The name change came after Hilton's concession to manage the 900-room hotel expired on Friday, hotel officials said.

Hilton Hotels Corp., based in Beverly Hills, California, did not immediately return calls or e-mails seeking comment.

Meanwhile, Al-Ajzeera is slobbering over the jug-eared freak.

Chavez frees Colombian 'plotters'

Venezuela has freed 27 Colombians convicted over an alleged plot to overthrow Hugo Chavez, the president, in 2004.

Chavez pardoned 41 men in total as a "gesture of goodwill" as he attempts to arrange the exchange of rebels held by the Colombian government for hostages held by the guerrillas.

While the freed Colombians boarded a bus to return home on Saturday, Chavez said in a speech in Caracas that he expected to meet with a high-ranking representative of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, soon "to begin the search for solutions".

The men released on Saturday were among more than 100 people arrested over the alleged plot against Chavez.

Authorities said the young men wearing military uniforms were arrested on a ranch near Caracas in May 2004 and were suspected of belonging to a Colombian paramilitary group.

Chavez said they planned to attack the presidential palace. The men had been convicted of military rebellion.

Pedro Carreno, Colombia's justice minister, said at a ceremony for the freed Colombians in the southwestern town of San Antonio that with Chavez's pardon "a beautiful message is being sent to the world".

Can the Nobel Peace Prize be far behind?