It is with great sadness that we announce the sudden death of Roy Carson whose pioneer work in setting up the first e-publication in Venezuela has been given deserved recognition both in Venezuela and abroad.

VHeadline.com started off in 1996 as an e-mail publication offering news in English about Venezuela and soon blossomed into a 24/7 Internet news source building up an archive section of news covering an important and revolutionary period in Venezuela's history. Perhaps the exclusive that brought VHeadline and Roy Carson to the fore was the coverage of the infamous coup attempt against President Chavez on April 11 2002 and his astonishing return to power three days later.

Roy Carson was born in Northern Ireland in 1945 where he began his career as a photo-journalist. Moving to London (UK) in the swinging sixties, young Carson got to know the rock scene where one of his photos was recently unearthed by the BBC. It featured Tom Jones shovelling cement for the cover of a new album.

Moving to Sweden as freelancer for British dailies and a London radio station, Roy covered the intricacies surrounding the controversial murder of Prime Minister Olaf Palme.

Roy stayed in Venezuela for around eight years and fell in love with the country and its people. While working for the Caracas-based English newspaper, "The Daily Journal," Carson found time to help found the Irish-Venezuelan association and with passion and perseverance threw himself into learning all about Internet production and its complicated language bringing VHeadline.com to excellence.

Unfortunately, during the fifteen years producing news and chronicling views, the website had to close several times because of financial problems and revert to a temporary blog solution.

Roy's health also started to suffer and with regret he left his beloved Venezuela with his wife Vicky to return to the UK and its National Health Service. Last year, Roy was told that his kidneys were in a bad way and he would have to undergo dialysis. The three-times a week visit to a local hospital to receive dialysis proved a severe blow to his morale and left him tired and without energy to continue at the helm. However, he never lost hope that one day the energy and verve would return.

On Saturday, February 11 Roy returned from a session of dialysis not feeling well ... his wife Vicky said he died shortly after and suddenly of a heart attack.

Roy will be missed.

Que en paz descanse. (RIP).