www.ctv.ca Associated Press

CARACAS — Soldiers lobbed tear gas at tens of thousands of President Hugo Chavez's opponents who marched Sunday on a park outside a military base to demand the support of the armed forces for a 42-day-old strike.

Protesters regrouped as the gas clouds lifted, shouting "cowards" at hundreds of soldiers who faced them with armoured personnel carriers.

Troops also kept back dozens of Chavez supporters protesting nearby.

The first marchers to arrive at Los Proceres Park, which is outside the Fort Tiuna military base, had stomped down barbed wire blocking the entrance, but didn't try to break past security lines. The park is one of eight security zones in Caracas as decreed by Chavez. Protests are banned in those areas unless authorized by the Defence Ministry.

"All of this show of force is absurd," said Henrique Capriles, the opposition mayor of an eastern Caracas district. "People are tired of being assaulted and repressed."

The military -- purged of dissidents after a brief April coup -- has supported Chavez during the strike, which has paralysed the world's fifth-largest oil exporter but hasn't rattled the president's resolve to stay in power. Troops have seized oil tankers, commandeered gasoline trucks and locked striking workers out of oil installations. Top commanders have professed their loyalty to the government.

Speaking in his weekly radio and television address Sunday, Chavez dismissed his opponents as "fascists" manipulated by the media.

Venezuela's main television stations aren't broadcasting any commercials except opposition advertisements promoting the strike. Media owners say they have been pushed into this stance because Chavez incites followers to attack reporters.

Chavez threatened to revoke the broadcasting licences of TV and radio stations if they "continue with their irrational insistence on destabilizing the country by supporting this fascist subversion."

The president also said he has ordered the military to transfer salary deposits out of banks that are participating in the strike by opening only three hours a day.

Venezuela's largest labour confederation, business chamber and opposition parties called for the strike on Dec. 2 to demand that Chavez resign and call early elections if he loses a nonbinding referendum on his rule.

The National Elections Council scheduled the referendum for Feb. 2 after accepting an opposition petition signed by two million people.

Chavez says the vote would be unconstitutional, and his supporters have challenged it in the Supreme Court. He was elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000, and his term ends in 2007. Venezuela's constitution allows a recall referendum halfway through a president's term -- August, in Chavez's case.

Opponents accuse the president of running roughshod over democratic institutions and wrecking the economy with leftist policies. The opposition has staged dozens of street marches, called for a tax boycott and held a two-day bank strike last week.

Chavez has threatened to order troops to seize food production plants that are participating in the strike and to fire or jail striking teachers and have soldiers take over their duties.

He already has fired 1,000 oil workers after some 30,000 of 40,000 workers joined the strike, which has caused fuel shortages and slowed oil exports to a trickle.

www.alertnet.org 12 Jan 2003 20:06

(Recasts with troops firing tear gas, Chavez comment)

By Pascal Fletcher

CARACAS, Venezuela, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Venezuelan troops fired tear gas on Sunday to force back tens of thousands of anti-government protesters in Caracas as leftist President Hugo Chavez threatened tough measures to counter a crippling 6-week-old opposition strike.

Clouds of gas enveloped the demonstrators, who had marched toward Fuerte Tiuna military headquarters but found their path blocked by barbed wire barricades and several hundred National Guard troops and military police.

"This looks like a war zone," opposition leader Antonio Ledezma said after the protesters scattered. Several people were carried away, apparently overcome by the gas.

The clash, one of several in recent weeks, broke out on the 42nd day of a grueling opposition strike that has slashed oil output and production in the world's No. 5 petroleum exporter.

The strikers are demanding the resignation of the populist leader, who was elected in 1998, six years after he staged a botched coup bid. They want him to hold early elections.

Chavez sternly warned the opposition strikers he would not let them disrupt the nation's social and economic life by shutting down schools and banks or interfering with food supplies.

"They are attacking the country and the population ... denying them gasoline and food ... sabotaging education and health," he said during his weekly television and radio broadcast.

Chavez, who has already sacked 2,000 striking oil executives and employees, repeated threats to send troops to take over private factories and stores if anti-government businessmen withheld food supplies.

On Saturday, he warned the government would intervene in banks and schools shut by the strike.

"This was a declaration of war. Chavez is not interested in dialogue or reconciliation," glass artist Luz Marina Urrecheaga said on Sunday as she and other protesters harangued helmeted troops.

The strike has rocked Venezuela's oil-reliant economy and sent its bolivar currency tumbling. It has also jolted oil markets and the oil exporters' cartel OPEC agreed on Sunday to raise production by 1.5 million barrels per day to stave off a spike in prices threatened by the Venezuelan strike.

PROTESTERS MOCK TROOPS

The marchers had headed toward Fuerte Tiuna in a repeat of a Jan. 3 protest that left two Chavez supporters dead and dozens more injured.

A small crowd of angry Chavez supporters who turned out to confront the anti-government protesters were kept back by a separate cordon of troops.

On his weekly "Hello President" show, Chavez threatened to revoke the broadcasting licenses of private TV stations that criticize his rule.

As a result of the strike, Venezuelans have been experiencing unprecedented shortages of gasoline, cooking gas and some food items.

With many businesses closed, bank workers staged a 48-hour stoppage last week, but will reopen on Monday under restricted service hours.

Chavez, who survived a brief coup in April, says he is a champion of the poor and that wealthy and corrupt minority elites are trying to topple him.

Chavez's foes accuse him of dragging Venezuela toward Cuban-style communism. They say his support has reached an all-time low, even among the poor.

The government and opposition remain deadlocked over the timing of elections and the United States wants a negotiated settlement in talks brokered by the Organization of American States.

Opposition leaders were traveling to the United States to present their case to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the U.S. State Department.

The opposition plans to hold a nonbinding referendum on Chavez's rule on Feb 2. Chavez says such a referendum can't be legally held until August. His term ends in early 2007.

abcnews.go.com — By Carol Giacomo and Hassan Hafidh

WASHINGTON/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The United States ordered 62,000 more troops to the Gulf at the weekend, despite signs of European reluctance to rush to war with Iraq.

As the military build-up went ahead, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said Sunday that only Iraq's neighbors could prevent the United States from declaring war on Baghdad.

Sources said British Prime Minister Tony Blair would meet President Bush soon after U.N. arms inspectors present a key report on Jan. 27 on Iraq's compliance with their searches for weapons of mass destruction.

The inspectors visited at least eight sites in Iraq on Sunday, hunting for banned nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, an Iraqi official said, as Baghdad again accused them of spying.

"Inspection teams are here and our cooperation with them is continuing, but if America wants to look for a pretext for the aggression, only the countries of the region can prevent it," Saddam was quoted by Iraqi state television as saying during a meeting with Turkish Trade Minister Kursad Tuzmen.

Tuzmen was carrying a letter from Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul urging Iraq to comply with U.N. resolutions in an effort to ward off military action.

"With clarity, seriousness and brotherly dialogue we can reach the best solutions in the field of bilateral cooperation which would lead to many achievements and a high degree of stability in the region," Saddam said.

BLAIR TRIP TO WASHINGTON

Blair, Bush's staunchest ally on Iraq, is expected to use his trip to Washington to press his position that U.N. inspectors be given time to do their work.

His spokesman said Blair had told his cabinet: "January 27, whilst an important staging post, should not be regarded in any sense as a deadline."

The Washington Post, however, quoted a senior U.S. official as saying while the United States believed the January 27 report would probably not provide a definitive trigger for war, "it is a very important day (marking) the beginning of a final phase."

Besides ordering the deployment of 62,000 additional military forces since Friday, the Pentagon launched an e-mail campaign urging Iraqi civilian and military leaders to reject Saddam.

Defense officials said the United States could be ready for war by mid- to late-February with a force exceeding 150,000 soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen.

But European officials have spoken out against a rush to war on the basis of inconclusive weapons inspections, which resumed in late November after a four-year hiatus.

France, a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, has insisted on an international mandate for any military action, while Germany opposes an attack on Iraq.

Three out of four French people were opposed to France taking part in any Iraq war, a survey in the weekly Le Journal du Dimanche showed. In Britain, many in Blair's own Labor Party opposed war, surveys have shown.

NO SMOKING GUN

Washington accuses Baghdad of developing weapons of mass destruction and has threatened war unless Iraq complies with a tough new U.N disarmament resolution. Iraq denies it possesses such weapons.

U.N. inspectors have said they have not found concrete evidence of active weapons programs, "no smoking gun," but that Iraq's weapons declaration fails to answer many questions.

Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, in the government newspaper al-Jumhouriya, repeated accusations by Saddam last week that the inspectors were carrying out "intelligence" work, but said Baghdad would continue to cooperate with them.

"We know they are playing an intelligence role. The way they are conducting their inspections and the sites they are visiting have nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction," he said.

Saddam's adviser Amer al-Saadi said: "They (inspectors) are asking questions which are irrelevant to weapons of mass destruction and to their mandate. For example, they visited an air base and asked about the routes leading to and out of it."

Saadi also said two Iraqi scientists interviewed by U.N. inspectors last month had refused to leave the country for further interviews on Iraq's weapons programs. The United States has pressed inspectors to take scientists abroad in the hope they would feel more able to disclose crucial intelligence.

Saadi said he expected the interviews to be "a topic for further discussion" with chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix and International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohamed ElBaradei when they visit Iraq on Jan. 19.

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa warned any attack on Iraq would open a "Pandora's Box" of problems in the Middle East, "a region already frustrated by Israeli policies against Palestinians," United Arab Emirates newspapers reported.

Against the backdrop of possible war in Iraq, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed in Vienna Sunday to raise production to stave off a rise in oil prices threatened by a strike in Venezuela.

www.afxpress.com

VIENNA (AFX) - The OPEC oil cartel agreed Sunday to increase oil production by 1.5 mln barrels per day (bpd) in a bid to curb a surge in prices triggered by a strike in Venezuela and the threat of war in Iraq.

Here are excerpts from OPEC's statement after their 11 nations met at their headquarters in Vienna:

-- "The Conference (OPEC) reiterated its hope that a swift and peaceful resolution of the present situation in Venezuela could be found."

-- "Having reviewed the oil market situation, especially the demand/supply picture for the first quarter 2003, and in light of the impact of the supply shortfall on price volatility, the Conference decided to raise the OPEC-10 ceiling from 23 mln barrels per day (bpd) to 24.5 mpd, with effect from February 1, 2003, in order to ensure adequate supplies of crude oil to consumers and restore balanced market conditions.

In this regard, the Conference extends its support to Venezuela in its efforts to restore its market share. The adjusted ceiling will be reviewed at the next Ordinary Meeting of the Conference, which Ministers re-confirmed would take place on March 11, 2003."

-- The Conference remains determined to take whatever measures, as and when deemed necessary, to maintain oil price and market stability, and states that the market will be continuously and carefully monitored."

washingtontimes.com

     VIENNA, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- OPEC said Sunday its members had agreed to boost oil production targets by 6.5 percent to 24.5 million barrels a day.

     The oil cartel's decision was prompted by a shortfall in oil exports from Venezuela, which has been hit by protests against President Hugo Chavez.

     OPEC President Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah said the decision would take effect Feb. 1.

     The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will now increase its production by 1.5 million barrels a day, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said.

     Oil prices have hit about $30 a barrel following a cut in supply from Venezuela, which has been hit by a nationwide general strike against Chavez, and a possible U.S. war on Iraq.

     Last week, crude prices in New York hit above $33 a barrel.      Al-Naimi said OPEC members were pumping more oil to replace the shortfall caused by Venezuela.

     "There is no shortage," he said. "We never allowed the shortage to take place.

     "There is a significant shortage from Venezuela, but there is no shortage in the international market."

     A six-week strike in Venezuela has hit oil production and other sectors of the economy.

     The 11-nation OPEC controls 80 percent of the world's oil reserves, but pumps one-third of global supply.

     OPEC increased its quota by 1.3 million barrels to 23 million barrels per day beginning Jan. 1, and another boost could leave the cartel vulnerable to being caught on the proverbial limb in the form of a saturated market if the political situation in Venezuela is sorted out and the state oil company, PDVSA, resumes full production.

     The increase is not an arbitrary decision. OPEC has a mechanism in place that is based on an average price of $22-$28 per barrel for a "basket" of various crude varieties produced by member nations.

     If the price slips below the $22-$28 price band for 20 consecutive days, production is reduced accordingly. If the price goes above the band, production is increased. OPEC said its basket price topped $30 per barrel last week and was $30.71 last Monday.