www.austin360.com By STEPHEN IXER Associated Press Writer

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP)--Soldiers loyal to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez seized heavy weapons and anti-riot equipment Tuesday from Caracas' police force, which the government accused of siding with Chavez's opponents.

Critics called the move another attempt by Chavez to weaken Greater Caracas Mayor Alfredo Pena, one of Chavez's most vocal critics. Chavez insists the 9,000-strong Caracas police force, which reports to Pena, routinely suppresses pro-government demonstrations.

Troops searched several police stations at dawn Tuesday, confiscating submachine guns as well as .12-caliber rifles used to fire rubber bullets and tear gas, said Cmdr. Freddy Torres, the department's legal consultant. Officers were allowed to keep their standard issue .38-caliber pistols.

Police said they were still determining the total number of weapons seized. A Defense Ministry spokesman declined to comment on the confiscations.

The seizure could raise tensions in a 44-day-old general strike aimed at ousting Chavez, which has been marked by almost daily street protests, including clashes between Chavez supporters and opponents.

We don't understand this action,'' police chief Henry Vivas told Union Radio. This leaves us at a tremendous disadvantage against criminals. Instead of disarming criminals, they disarm the police. It's outrageous.'' Also seized was anti-riot equipment like tear gas canisters and rubber bullets.

The weapons raids came hours after Chavez's government restored Pena's authority over the police on Monday, Torres said.

Chavez ordered the military to take control of the police department in November, arguing police brutally repressed his supporters during protests. Pena says Chavez sympathizers attack police and that crime has risen since the military took control.

Vivas said the confiscation violated a Supreme Court ruling ordering the government to return the force to the mayor's control.

The police cannot act like protectors of a political side,'' Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel told foreign reporters Tuesday. It's not right that each time (police) go out on the streets, it's to create victims.''

Rangel would not provide details on the raids.

Carlos Guerra, commander of a police station in a poor western Caracas precinct, said about 40 armed National Guard soldiers seized 62 submachine guns and 132 ammunition magazines from his station.

We're left defenseless against the criminals,'' Guerra said. Officers can't offer the same protection when we've only got revolvers and criminals have automatic weapons. If there is a bank robbery there's not much we can do.''

In 2002, there were more than 9,000 homicides in Venezuela, up from almost 8,000 in 2001, according to federal police figures. Figures for Caracas were not immediately available.

The raid comes as Chavez has vowed to defeat the strike aimed at forcing him from power, which has almost paralyzed Venezuela's crucial oil industry. He threatened last week to order troops to seize control of food plants participating in the stoppage.

On Monday, Energy and Mines Minister Rafael Ramirez called the walkout an act of ``terrorism'' that has cost the country $4 billion.

``All these acts of terrorism have brought tremendous consequences for the nation,'' Ramirez said in a televised address.

Once the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, Venezuela has had to pay $105 million to import more than 2 million barrels of gasoline since the general strike began Dec. 2, Ramirez said.

Oil provides half of government revenue and 80 percent of export earnings. The walkout is strongest in state oil monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., where 30,000 of 40,000 workers are off the job.

Chavez has fought back by firing at least 1,000 white-collar workers at PDVSA.

Ramirez said daily oil production now surpasses 800,000 barrels. Striking oil executives fired by Chavez say output is just over 400,000 barrels a day. Before the strike, production was up to 3 million barrels a day.

Some strike leaders were considering asking small businesses _ who say they cannot sustain losses much longer--to resume work, together with medical workers and teachers, hoping to avoid a popular backlash.

Most private schools and some public schools have been closed since the strike started. Hospital workers supporting the strike are only attending emergencies. Many supermarkets have run out of milk and are running low on staples such as flour and drinking water. Many medicines no longer are available at pharmacies.

William Davila, another Democratic Coordinator leader, said the food industry also should be given the freedom to ensure basic supplies.

But Davila said any easing of the strike should depend on a forthcoming Supreme Court ruling on the legality of a nonbinding referendum on Chavez's rule sought by the strikers.

Chavez says the nonbinding vote would be unconstitutional. His presidency runs until January 2007, and Venezuela's constitution says a binding referendum may be held halfway into his six-year term, or August.

www.forbes.com Reuters, 01.14.03, 9:35 AM ET

NEW YORK, Jan 14 (Reuters) - NYMEX crude oil futures were expected to push higher at the open Tuesday after the chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said his teams had found evidence of Iraqi smuggling in violation of U.N. resolutions.

"The comments by Blix came in after there was some softening because of Mexico and OPEC's production increases," said a London-based oil trader.

NYMEX February crude was called 50 cents to 60 cents higher after ending overnight ACCESS trading 56 cents to the upside at $32.82 a barrel, trading $31.88 to $32.85.

In London at 9:30 a.m. EST (1430 GMT), the February Brent crude contract was 66 cents higher at $30.86 per barrel.

Blix, in a BBC interview broadcast late Monday, said his teams in Iraq have uncovered weapons-related smuggling but it was unclear if the goods were linked to weapons of mass destruction. "There has been a considerable amount of import in the weapons sector which clearly is smuggling, and in violation, and they are in fact large quantities," Blix said.

Adding fuel to the bullish sentiment were remarks from Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Tuesday stating that war on Iraq might not need a new U.N. resolution.

Meanwhile Baghdad said it had already come clean about arms programs and that its president would fight to the bitter end.

NYMEX oil prices had dipped in electronic trading when Sunday's OPEC decision to raise crude output by 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) to compensate for losses from the Venezuelan strike was followed by a Mexico promise to increase crude exports by 120,000 bpd to 1.88 million bpd.

With the Venezuela general strike in its 44th day, oil traders will decide the likelihood that mediation by the United Nations and the United States might help to break the deadlock between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and opposition leaders. Chavez will hold talks with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan on Thursday.

Frigid temperatures in the U.S. northeast, with the six- to 10-day forecast calling for below normal readings, should continue to support heating oil futures.

The next round of U.S. oil inventory data, due out Wednesday morning, will provide a fresh snapshot of the Venezuela strike's effect on U.S. oil supplies, already hovering at historic lows.

NYMEX February heating oil is expected to open 1.25 cents to 1.50 cents higher after ending ACCESS trade up 1.61 cents at 89.99 cents a gallon, the overnight high.

NYMEX February gasoline is expected to open 1.00 cent to 1.25 cents higher after ending ACCESS trade up 1.20 cents at 91.10 cents a gallon, also the overnight high.

From a correspondent in Caracas January 15, 2003

VENEZUELA'S crippling strike has entered its seventh week amid renewed violence and warnings by President Hugo Chavez he would strengthen military efforts to end the action that has throttled the vital oil industry. In what has become an almost daily routine, police and National Guard troops fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters in Caracas and the country's second largest city, Maracaibo.

Yesterday it was Chavez supporters who were targeted by security forces - in Caracas after they hurled rocks at government opponents, injuring at least two people, and in Maracaibo as they tried to stage a protest outside the governor's offices.

On Monday troops dispersed thousands of anti-government protesters who gathered outside a military base in Caracas to back the strike, which is aimed at forcing Mr Chavez from office.

While protesters taunted soldiers blocking access to the army installations, the opposition has been trying to court the armed forces.

www.theage.com.au January 15 2003

World oil prices rose yesterday, defying OPEC's decision to pump an extra 1.5 billion barrels a day, with traders concerned about the threat of an Iraqi war and a strike in Venezuela.

OPEC agreed at the weekend to increase production in an attempt to curb a surge in prices.

But underlying concerns about the situations in Iraq and Venezuela loomed large, as a large build-up of US forces pressed ahead and as oil-exporting Venezuela entered the seventh week of a crippling general strike.

New York's February-dated futures contract for light, sweet crude rose 58 US cents to $US32.26 a barrel.

In London, the February benchmark Brent North Sea crude oil futures contract advanced 53 US cents to $US30.20 a barrel. .

State-owned Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) president Ali Rodriguez said on Monday that Venezuela aimed to increase production to two million barrels per day as it fixed and regained control of refineries and other oil facilities.

Analysts said OPEC's decision to lift production quotas had been widely expected.

Saudi Arabia's announcement that it could raise its own output if needed to 10.5 million bpd within two weeks, from a new quota of just under eight million, had only briefly lowered prices.

"The events of the weekend confirm a few suspicions and indicate that output is going to be above December levels, which I think is quite critical," said GNI analyst Lawrence Eagles in London.

"We've seen Saudi Arabia intimating that it had raised output prior to the meeting to offset the shortage to the United States," Mr Eagles said.

Saudi Arabia appeared to have chartered more tankers to the United States, indicating US deliveries were also set to rise next month, he said.

"What is clear is that Saudi Arabia, which is the pivotal player because of its spare capacity, is saying that it doesn't want to see prices rising further because it realises that would be detrimental to world economic growth," Mr Eagles added.

-AFP

www.newsok.com 2003-01-14 By Alexandra Olson Associated Press Writer

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Ruling party legislators said Monday they will urge citizens to boycott a February referendum on President Hugo Chavez's rule if the Supreme Court allows it to take place.

Venezuela's opposition is demanding that Chavez resign and call new elections if he loses the nonbinding referendum tentatively set for Feb. 2. They have buttressed their demands with a strike that entered its seventh week Monday and has dried up oil revenue.

Chavez refuses to step down, arguing that Venezuela's constitution only allows a binding referendum midway through a president's term -- August, in his case.

Members of his Fifth Republic Movement party, which has a slim majority in Congress, have challenged the constitutionality of the vote in the Supreme Court.

"If the referendum does take place, our position would be total abstention," Fifth Republic lawmaker Omar Mezza said. "Our complete abstention would take away its legitimacy."

Chavez's opponents cite articles in the constitution that let citizens petition for a referendum on "matters of national importance" at any time or to disown governments that threaten democracy.

The Supreme Court has not said when it will rule on the referendum.