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17A. "Euro zone initially put in place by the French, Italian or Spanish state (9)". Answer is "Venezuela".
Parsing seems to be EZ (euro zone initially) in VENUE (place) LA (the French), but if so "Italian or Spanish" seems redundant. Can somebody please explain.

La is "the" in French and Italian.
Venezuela was colonised by Spain.
Therefore a Spanish state.
That is how I see it.

la is also the Spanish for the, so I saw the definition as state, which was Venezuela, not a Spanish state.

Even better!

Am i missing something? Venezuela is a country not a state, in which case where in the clue is the definition unless Spanish state is the definition.

I think Venezuela is considered a State.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuela

Or maybe not, sorry - only read part of the article which is contradictory

Hello Mamya it has been a while,trust all is well with you.

Venezuela is a republic and a country,but not a state,this is the times and clues are definitive,there must be a definition>

Chambers on line defines state as "a territory governed by a single political body; a nation", so it would appear that Venezuela is a state. The President or monarch of a country is the Head of State.
The Spanish would appear to be accounted for as it's La in Spanish as well as Italian and French.

The UN appears to agree with Chambers.
http://www.un.org/en/members/index.shtml