Venezuela is to start selling in May a mobile phone it is billing as one of the worlds cheapest: a 14-dollar handset that includes an MP3 player, radio and camera. President Hugo Chavez unveiled the phone - named "El Vergatario" - on Thursday, saying it would be produced by a joint Venezuelan-Chinese firm and marketed across Latin America and the Caribbean.
The firm, Vetelca, is 85-percent controlled by Chavezs government, with the remainder owned by ZTE of China. Vetelca plans to make four million of the units per year in association with another Chinese company, Huawei.