Chavez to rule Venezuela from Bedouin tent

Moscow, Dec 11 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is to govern temporarily from a Bedouin tent to allow people made homeless by recent floods to take temporary shelter in his office.

More than 100,000 people have been made homeless and 30 killed in incidents triggered by the worst rains in the country in over a decade.

Landslides have swept away houses in slums built on hillsides in the capital, Caracas.

The Bedouin tent to be erected in the garden of the presidential palace was given to Chavez by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi during a visit to Venezuela last year.

“Put up Gaddafi’s gift,” Chavez said during a visit to a refuge camp for the flood victims in Caracas.

“You can install it in the garden. I’m going to move into the tent. We can put some beds in my office.” Twenty-five families are already staying at the palace.

–IANS/RIA Novosti