South America - Info for Caracas and Venezuela?

I am likely to be working on a project in Caracas for the next 6 months. The news reports paint a pretty bleak picture about safety and travel. I suspect that many of these are the usual overblown "anything for a story" stuff.

I am hoping that some of the readers of this topic can provide some real information about the city and the country.
Things to watch out for?

Do you have any suggestions about airlines to and from, particularly from western Canada?

TXs in advance.

Caracas is a beautiful, modern city. Cheap too. Avoid the marginal areas within the city and you'll be fine. If you're down there avoid traveling to Colombia or Ecuador, especially in the Sierra Region where some american and european, or any gringo working for multinationals are likely to get kidnapped. But Venezuela is different, as this is not tolerated there.
I suggest taking AA, from NYC they offer really good rates to Caracas. I wouldn't know about Canada.