El mayor de la Fuerza Aérea Venezolana Juan Díaz Castillo, hasta hace dos meses piloto del avión presidencial de su país, acusó hoy en Miami al mandatario de esa nación, Hugo Chávez, de financiar a la red terrorista Al Qaida.

Durante una conferencia de prensa en la Fundación Panamericana Pro Democracia en Miami (EEUU), Díaz Castillo agregó que el programa de intercambio de petróleo por educación entre La Habana y Caracas incluye el "adoctrinamiento" de jóvenes venezolanos en Cuba y el envío de instructores en ideología comunista cubanos a Venezuela.

Asimismo, dijo que el Gobierno de Chávez "ha mantenido una relación muy estrecha con la guerrilla colombiana, dándole soporte financiero y facilidades para su operaciones en territorio de Venezuela".

Según el militar, después de los atentados terroristas del 11 de septiembre de 2001, fue "comisionado para organizar, coordinar y ejecutar una operación encubierta que consistía en entregar recursos financieros, específicamente un millón de dólares, al gobierno talibán para que asistiera a la organización terrorista Al Qaida".

Díaz Castillo, que llegó esta semana a EEUU para pedir asilo político, dijo que Chávez admira a esa organización terrorista y a su líder, Osama bin Laden, y que su trabajo "tenía como fin último ayudar a Al Qaida, pero debía lucir como que se le estaba brindando ayuda humanitaria al pueblo afgano".

Según Díaz Castillo, en la operación estaban involucrados Diosdado Cabello, vicepresidente en aquel momento; José Vicente Rangel, ministro de Defensa; y el ministro de Exterior, coronel Luis Alfonso Dávila, aunque no pudo dar ninguna prueba de ello más que su testimonio.

Cabello, según Díaz Castillo, decidió enviar "el millón de dólares en efectivo a través del embajador de la India, Walter Márquez" quien, según el mayor venezolano, recibió el dinero.

Según Díaz Castillo, las autoridades talibanes de Afganistán reconocieron durante un programa televisivo haber recibido ayuda humanitaria procedente de Venezuela valorada en 100.000 dólares.

"El resto del dinero -dijo- fue directamente a Al Qaida, es decir, 900.000 dólares".

El militar venezolano dijo también que como piloto de transporte de la Fuerza Aérea "he visto como el Gobierno de Hugo Chávez ha organizado, armado y entrenado a grupos civiles a fin de administrar violencia a través de ellos." Esta idea, agregó, "fue transmitida a Hugo Chávez por (el presidente cubano) Fidel Castro".

"Estos grupos han sido enviados en aviones Hércules C-130 a Cuba para su entrenamiento militar y su adoctrinamiento ideológico," dijo Díaz Castillo, y aseguró que el 25 de octubre renunció como piloto del avión presidencial por diferencias con las políticas de Chávez.

Añadió que a él se le asignó la organización y coordinación de todos los vuelos entre Venezuela y Cuba, país al que, dijo, se ha enviado a unos 3.000 venezolanos desde que Chávez está en el poder.

El militar, que pedirá asilo político en EEUU porque, según él, su "vida y su libertad corren peligro" en Venezuela, opinó que Chávez, "quien efectivamente fue elegido de manera democrática, hoy no ejerce su mandato de forma legítima y legal, ya que a diario comete violaciones a la Constitución".

De todas formas, Díaz Castillo, que definió al Gobierno de Chávez como un "régimen de tipo dictatorial castro-comunista", se mostró contrario a un golpe de estado para lograr su destitución.

El militar dijo que aún no ha hablado con las autoridades estadounidenses, pero añadió que "estamos realmente interesados en hacer llevar esto hasta las últimas consecuencias, para que se averigûe y se tenga en cuenta cuál es el peligro real que representa Hugo Chávez" para Venezuela y el resto del mundo.

EFE 04 de Enero, 2003

www.mmorning.com

Venezuela’s opposition pledged last week to pursue its crippling strike, but eased up on a demand that President Hugo Chavez step down now, saying instead he must quit if he loses a February referendum. Although the request was not new and Chavez had rejected it in the past, the Christmas Day statement came as a surprise after weeks of increasingly militant demands by opponents of the government. Last month, opposition leaders collected the signatures needed to call the referendum, but have since hardened their position as the strike launched early in December tightened its chokehold on the vital oil sector.  

  They said the protest action clearly demonstrated a majority of Venezuelans wanted Chavez to resign, and indicated they would end the strike if the leftist-populist president recognized the outcome of a referendum planned for February 2.

“Accept that if you lose it you should call general elections within no more than 30 days. And we, who have confronted you with a general civic strike, will get the country moving”, said strike leader Carlos Ortega.

The government has insisted the referendum, called by electoral authorities, was not binding, and raised doubts about the availability of funds to finance it.

“I would not quit even if I lost it by 99.9 percent”, Chavez declared last month. But he has pointed out that the Constitution obliges him to quit if requested to do so, at the earliest in August, by more than the 3.8 million voters -- 57 percent of the electorate -- who elected him to a six-year-term in 2000.

The opposition’s initiative broke a Christmas Day lull, which the strike leaders said would help anti-Chavez forces recharge batteries in advance of new street protests.

Private television stations openly siding with the opposition had also offered a respite, airing Christmas-oriented programs rather than the non-stop coverage of the anti-Chavez movement they had provided since the strike started.

The conservative business and labor leaders leading the strike announced a massive rally would be held in Caracas in the coming days, hinting the march could head for the presidential palace in defiance of the government.

The authorities warned that security forces would not allow demonstrators near the palace, where 19 people were gunned down during protests in April that culminated hours later in the brief ouster of Chavez.

Chavez, who triumphantly returned to power 47 hours after he was deposed, has accused the strike leaders of attempting another coup, and has described them as saboteurs for choking the oil industry, the lifeline of the South American country.

He has deployed troops to take over from the strikers installations and vessels of the Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) state oil company, and said this had helped restart the idled sector.

PDVSA President Ali Rodriguez Rodriguez said he expected shipments to be back to normal next month. He added that at the moment output remained down to about 700,000 barrels a day, and that exports this month amounted to only two million barrels. Venezuela usually produces 2.5 million barrels of oil, most of which is exported to the United States. In November it produced more than three million barrels a day.

In an interview published in the New York Times, Rodriguez explained that he had suspended several striking oil executives and that the government was preparing criminal prosecution against some strike leaders he claimed were responsible for 1.3 billion dollars’ in damage done to the economy.

The strike has severely hurt the economy, causing losses estimated at several billion dollars and threatening to trigger an acute recession next year, according to analysts.

“The figure we are are looking at could be around five billion dollars”, said Miguel Perez Abad, president of the federation of small and medium-sized industries (Fedeindustria), who included oil sector losses in his estimate.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, put losses in the oil sector at 40 million dollars a day.

Perez Abad said the government might be forced to devalue the currency by 35 percent to 40 percent to finance public spending, and noted that interest rates also would be adjusted upward, leading to inflation.

“If this continues, we could have a truly critical situation at a national level, a deep crisis that could affect not only the productive sector but also the financial system.

“The increases in bankruptcy rates will be very high and probably speculative attacks on the currency too and we could have acute recession”.

Economist Pedro Palma agreed that Venezuela’s economic panorama would be tough as a result of the strike.

“Definitely this strike will mean a more acute economic slowdown than we had expected”, mused Palma, who estimated the cost of the strike so far at 2.2 billion dollars.

This year’s economic downturn, forecast at six percent, should be of seven percent, and could be as high as nine percent this quarter, he said. “This is truly dramatic.

“2003 will be a difficult year. That was being to be the case even before this situation: we will see a public sector with less income from the oil industry. It will take time for the industry to restart. “It will be a year of reconstruction... full of uncertainy, which will be reflected negatively in the economy”.

If the political situation settled down, he said, the slowdown in 2003 would not be as dramatic as this year, though “it won’t be a year of high growth or significant economic expansion”, Palma suggested.

US STRATEGIC RESERVE Some major American oil refiners have indicated that they had spoken to the Bush Administration about using US strategic petroleum reserves as the Venezuela general strike began to squeeze supply.

Two refiners, which usually rely heavily on Venezuelan oil, said they had contacted the Department of Energy (DoE) about the possibility of tapping the strategic petroleum reserve (SPR). The government has said it is keeping the reserves of oil, much of it stored in salt caverns along the Texas and Louisiana coastlines, locked up for now.

“DoE continues to monitor the situation in Venezuela and its possible impact on US markets. Currently, lending or exchanging oil from the SPR is not an active consideration”, it said in a statement.

The US strategic petroleum reserve is at a 25-year high of 598.7 million barrels. US President George Bush announced in November 2001 plans to build the reserve to full capacity: 700 million barrels.

But major refiners are being caught short by the unexpected duration of the turmoil in Venezuela.

Oil giant ExxonMobil said recently it had not contacted the government about use of the strategic reserves.

“We are certainly seeking alternate sources of crude oil”, said ExxonMobil spokeswoman Betsy Eaton. “We are very confident that we are going to be able to supply our customers”. A spokeswoman for ConocoPhillips declined to comment.

The United States usually imports about 11.3 million barrels per day, of which 1.4 million barrels come from Venezuela, said Robert Ebel, an analyst for the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

In an initial response, the government had stopped its program of adding to the strategic petroleum reserve, which left an extra 100,000 barrels a day for the market, he said, adding, “I do not see an immediate need to actually start withdrawing oil from the strategic oil reserve.

“If the situation continues in Venezuela and if there would happen to be military intervention in Iraq fairly soon, that would take, let’s say, two million barrels per day off the marketplace. Then I think you would see some action”.

By Andy Webb-Vidal in Caracas Published: January 9 2003 4:00 | Last Updated: January 9 2003 4:00

Venezuela will be forced to default on payments due to state oil company bondholders or on its domestic debt with private banks in the next few weeks if the government is unable to restart crippled oil production, bankers and oil industry officials said yesterday.

A five-week-old strike by opposition-aligned workers at Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), who are putting pressure on President Hugo Chávez to resign or call early elections, has cut daily output from 3.1m barrels to about 300,000 barrels.

Employees loyal to the government have so far made minimal progress in restarting oil production, resulting in a collapse in export revenue. PDVSA sells its oil at between 30 and 45 days' credit, and executives at the company say cashflow has now dried up.

PDVSA has external debt of about $4bn (€3.8bn), and its next interest payment, of $150m, is due in February. The company could service the debt using money normally held in a $600m rotating fund held offshore, although it is not known whether the cash is still available.

"If I were the finance minister or treasurer of PDVSA, I would be negotiating right now [on] how to not go into default," said Luis Pacheco, until two months ago corporate planning vice-president of PDVSA. Senior PDVSA officials were due to meet US investment bankers in New York yesterday.

PDVSA has so far lost at least $2bn in unrecoverable earnings as a result of the ongoing strike, in turn severing the source of about half of government revenue.

However, analysts say there is no immediate risk that Venezuela, which holds about $11bn in international reserves, will default on its sovereign foreign debt.

The current fiscal liquidity crunch could nonetheless lead to the government defaulting on its domestic debt with private banks, a central bank official said.

Venezuela's domestic debt has trebled in size over the past three years, and totals about $6bn, accounting for an average of 40 per cent of banks' assets.

Local subsidiaries owned by Spain's BBVA and BSCH, which together account for more than half of the banking sector, and the domestically-owned Banco Mercantil, are the most exposed.

Private banks are already expected to see a sharp deterioration in the quality of their loan portfolios in the weeks ahead, given that many private companies are seeking to renegotiate their credits after remaining shut during the peak sales month of December.

Oscar García, president of Banco Venezolano de Crédito, said the banks' domestic debt levels are close to saturation point, rendering it highly unlikely that the government will be able to borrow to cover its immediate spending requirements.

"The possibility of default is very serious," said Mr García. "The government is practically insolvent, as it doesn't have a source of revenue because of the cessation of income from PDVSA, and the banks cannot buy more debt."

Venezuelan banks, which have become the most profitable in Latin America under the Chávez government, despite an economic slowdown, are expected to shut today as employees begin a two-day strike in sympathy with the oil workers.

Concern over the economy and the banking system prompted a run on deposits and a surge in demand for dollars yesterday, driving the bolívar currency down by 15 per cent to 1,646 to the dollar.

Reuters, 01.08.03, 1:58 PM ET

By Hugh Bronstein NEW YORK, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Brazilian sovereign bonds rose on Wednesday as investors gradually increased their bets that the country's new president, former metal worker Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, will defy early market predictions and properly manage Latin America's biggest economy.

Benchmark Brazil C bonds <BRAZILC=RR> rose 3/4 to bid 71-1/4. The bonds have climbed back from trading in the 40s several months ago, when fear of Lula was at its highest.

Since winning October's election and being sworn in last week, Lula has eased investors nerves by signaling he will not abandon prudent economic policies in his quest to improve the lot of average Brazilians.

"We're seeing a snow ball effect in Brazil in terms of continuing good news out of the authorities," said Rafael de la Fuente, an emerging markets analyst at BNP Paribas.

Lula, a former union boss once notorious on Wall Street for suggesting the government default on foreign bondholders as a way of steering money toward the nation's poor, won points from those same investors on Tuesday when his government vowed to fight a potentially budget-busting court decision in favor of releasing federal government funds to Rio de Janeiro state.

The funds had been blocked due to Rio's failure to pay debts owed to Brasilia.

"The decision yesterday by the administration to stand firm on the application of the fiscal responsibility law is probably one of the best signs we've had from the new government," de la Fuente said.

Brazil's 27 states and 5,000 plus municipalities owe the federal government nearly 300 billion reais ($91 billion), or more than one third of the total public sector debt. If other states win release of funds it could compromise the federal government's debt servicing ability.

Emerging market bond spreads tightened by eight basis points to 705 over U.S. Treasuries, according to JP Morgan's Emerging Markets Bond Index Plus. Brazil's portion of the index tightened 45 basis points to 1223.

Tighter spreads reflect the perception of decreased risk as measured against safe-haven U.S. Treasury bonds.

"The market likes the news coming out of Brazil in spite of the hiccup yesterday with the legal ruling in favor of the State of Rio," said Fernando Losada, senior Latin American economist at ABN-AMRO.

"Lula continues to say the right things and the market also likes most of his economic team," Losada said.

VENEZUELA TRADES SIDEWAYS, UNCERTAINTY REIGNS Venezuelan bonds traded sideways on Wednesday, after having lost more than 5.3 percent in total returns so far this month as the South American oil exporting nation suffers through a general strike launched Dec. 2.

Venezuelan spreads tightened 12 basis points to 1243 on Wednesday. The country's bank workers' unions announced a 48-hour stoppage in support of the strike aimed at pressing leftist President Hugo Chavez to resign and hold early elections.

Union leaders said the action by employees at private and state banks across the country would halt services to the public Thursday and Friday.

Chavez was elected in 1998 vowing to wrest control from the country's corrupt elite and enact reforms to help the poor. But opposition has grown amid charges the president wants to establish a Cuban-style authoritarian state.

"I think Venezuela should sell off more than it has," de la Fuente said.

He warned of deep fiscal problems to come as the government is starved of oil and tax revenue.

"Irrespective of what happens politically, you still have an economy in deep recession and an oil company that is at a standstill," de la Fuente said. "It will take some time to get (state oil company) PDVSA running again. You can't just switch the tap on and off."

By Andy Webb-Vidal in Caracas Published: January 9 2003 4:00 | Last Updated: January 9 2003 4:00

Venezuela will be forced to default on payments due to state oil company bondholders or on its domestic debt with private banks in the next few weeks if the government is unable to restart crippled oil production, bankers and oil industry officials said yesterday.

A five-week-old strike by opposition-aligned workers at Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), who are putting pressure on President Hugo Chávez to resign or call early elections, has cut daily output from 3.1m barrels to about 300,000 barrels.

Employees loyal to the government have so far made minimal progress in restarting oil production, resulting in a collapse in export revenue. PDVSA sells its oil at between 30 and 45 days' credit, and executives at the company say cashflow has now dried up.

PDVSA has external debt of about $4bn (€3.8bn), and its next interest payment, of $150m, is due in February. The company could service the debt using money normally held in a $600m rotating fund held offshore, although it is not known whether the cash is still available.

"If I were the finance minister or treasurer of PDVSA, I would be negotiating right now [on] how to not go into default," said Luis Pacheco, until two months ago corporate planning vice-president of PDVSA. Senior PDVSA officials were due to meet US investment bankers in New York yesterday.

PDVSA has so far lost at least $2bn in unrecoverable earnings as a result of the ongoing strike, in turn severing the source of about half of government revenue.

However, analysts say there is no immediate risk that Venezuela, which holds about $11bn in international reserves, will default on its sovereign foreign debt.

The current fiscal liquidity crunch could nonetheless lead to the government defaulting on its domestic debt with private banks, a central bank official said.

Venezuela's domestic debt has trebled in size over the past three years, and totals about $6bn, accounting for an average of 40 per cent of banks' assets.

Local subsidiaries owned by Spain's BBVA and BSCH, which together account for more than half of the banking sector, and the domestically-owned Banco Mercantil, are the most exposed.

Private banks are already expected to see a sharp deterioration in the quality of their loan portfolios in the weeks ahead, given that many private companies are seeking to renegotiate their credits after remaining shut during the peak sales month of December.

Oscar García, president of Banco Venezolano de Crédito, said the banks' domestic debt levels are close to saturation point, rendering it highly unlikely that the government will be able to borrow to cover its immediate spending requirements.

"The possibility of default is very serious," said Mr García. "The government is practically insolvent, as it doesn't have a source of revenue because of the cessation of income from PDVSA, and the banks cannot buy more debt."

Venezuelan banks, which have become the most profitable in Latin America under the Chávez government, despite an economic slowdown, are expected to shut today as employees begin a two-day strike in sympathy with the oil workers.

Concern over the economy and the banking system prompted a run on deposits and a surge in demand for dollars yesterday, driving the bolívar currency down by 15 per cent to 1,646 to the dollar.