Last year Mr Rosales was elected mayor of Venezuela's second biggest city, Maracaibo.

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In April 2009, he stepped down as Mayor of Maracaibo when he was charged with corruption in Venezuela and fled to Peru.

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Since August 29 the ship Ocean Atlas has been at port in Maracaibo, Venezuela, where it docked to unload a cargo of equipment.

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Guamanchi and Assari tours to Lake Maracaibo are best arranged during rainy season between May and December, when electrical activity is at its peak.

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After a late-afternoon swim in Lake Maracaibo to cool off from the sweltering heat, we got our first glimpse of towering clouds amid the glow of the setting sun.

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Karen Berendique, 19, died Saturday from gunshot wounds after Venezuelan police shot at the vehicle she was riding in with her brother in the coastal city of Maracaibo, officials said.

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In western Venezuela farmers, in many cases backed by their labourers, have blocked roads to prevent the army from executing a presidential order to expropriate their land around Lake Maracaibo.

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The other thing is that I also remain a candidate for Mayor of Maracaibo, which is, in electoral terms, extremely important, and we have a 42 to 45 point advantage there, too.

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Meteorologists have yet to definitively explain why Catatumbo produces the most persistent electrical storms on the planet, but the most widely accepted theory is that trade winds from the Caribbean blow warm air over brackish Lake Maracaibo before hitting cool air from the Andes.

BBC: In Venezuela, nature��s most electrifying lightning show