washingtontimes.com By Patrick Moser AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

     CARACAS, Venezuela — Divided by a crippling strike, this country is engaged in an uncivil war of words between supporters of President Hugo Chavez and those who want to force him from office, creating a protest-specific vocabulary. Top Stories • Bush hints at new aid for North Korea • Malvo linked to four sniper attacks • Democrats hang on to gavels • Democrats lack unity on tax-cut alternative • Mugabe denies plan to retire early, leave Zimbabwe • SUV risks drive up cost of insurance for owners • Snyder squeeze

     The following are some of the expressions that have been heard regularly since the strike began Dec. 2:      •Chavistas: Supporters of Mr. Chavez      •Squalid: Term used to describe opponents of Mr. Chavez, who once called his foes "a squalid minority." Opposition T-shirts proudly state: "Squalid for Venezuela."      •Talibans: Used by either side to describe hard-liners in the opposite camp.      •Dictator, murderer, terrorist: This is how strike leader Carlos Ortega describes the president.      •Putschists, fascists, oligarchs: Mr. Chavez's description of Mr. Ortega and other strike leaders.      •Bolivarian: A term Mr. Chavez uses frequently and adds to the formal name of the country. It refers to the intellectual legacy of Simon Bolivar, the 19th-century South American liberator from Spain, whom Mr. Chavez claims as his inspiration.      •Circles of terror: The opposition's term for Chavista groups called "Bolivarian Circles."      •National democratic cacerolazo: The opposition's description of daily pot- (or "cacerol"-)banging protests.      •National active strike: The work stoppage as described by the opposition.      •Discovery Chavez: Opposition nickname for state television.      •Coupvision: Chavista nickname for private, anti-Chavez TV.      •Democratic kit: Whistle, national flag, sneakers, jeans, shirt in the national colors and a bottle of water — essential gear for anti-Chavez demonstrations.      •"He's going, he's going.": Opposition slogan.      •"He's going he's going to stay.": Chavista slogan.      •"Chavez is driving them mad.": Chavista song and slogan.      •"The madman has little time left.": Opposition slogan.      •Scab: Opposition term for Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva after he sent a boatload of fuel to Venezuela.      •Liars: Term used by media on both sides to describe each other. Also shouted at foreign reporters during opposition marches.      •"Free the bear": Refers to the bear that adorns bottles of Polar, the local beer that is unavailable as a result of the strike.

abcnews.go.com

— SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices fell one percent on Tuesday after Mexico said it would increase crude exports, while traders speculated that outside mediation might bring an end to the 44-day strike in Venezuela and free up more supplies.

U.S. light crude dropped 33 cents to $31.93 a barrel, retracing half of Monday's 58-cent gain in New York. Crude is still within $2 of the two-year peak at $33.65 struck at the end of December.

"Today's move is on a combination of factors including the Mexican increase, a lot of talk of an end to the Venezuelan strike in a few days and some profit-taking," said a London-based broker.

Mexico said on Monday that it would increase its crude exports by 120,000 barrels per day to 1.88 million bpd following OPEC's weekend decision to raise production by seven percent to make up for the shortfall in Venezuelan oil supplies.

Venezuela's oil output dropped two-thirds in December to just over one million bpd, Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said on Monday.

The loss in exports has been most sorely felt in the United States, which takes 13 percent of its oil imports from Venezuela.

U.S. fuel stocks fell by a big nine million barrels two weeks ago as the strike choked off an essential supply line into the world's biggest oil consumer. There was little impact last week on inventories, which are hovering close to 26-year lows.

Traders will be keenly awaiting Wednesday's industry data to see if supplies in the United States have declined further.

Oil's reaction to OPEC's agreement on Sunday has been tepid, with traders questioning whether the output hike was too little, too late given the four-to-six-week sailing time from the Middle East to the United States. Venezuelan supplies take five days to hit U.S. shores.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will increase production by 1.5 million bpd on February 1 to 24 million bpd.

The cartel said at the weekend that it would meet again if Venezuelan oil exports were fully restored.

The London-based broker said traders were speculating that mediation by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the United States may help break the deadlock between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and opposition leaders, who have kept the nationwide strike going since December 2.

www.timesdaily.com By HAROLD OLMOS Associated Press Writer January 14. 2003 2:23AM

After only two weeks in office, Brazil's new president is indicating he is ready to shepherd through big changes - both at home, where he's raising hope for the poor, and abroad, where he wants his nation to take a greater role in international affairs.

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is scheduled to meet Wednesday with other Latin American leaders in Ecuador to form a "Group of Friends of Venezuela" aimed at resolving the crisis that has divided that country and crippled oil production in the world's fifth largest petroleum exporter.

Before leaving for Quito, Silva plans to meet with Argentina President Eduardo Duhalde in Brasilia to discuss regional trade and the terms of a proposed hemispheric free trade zone.

Such an intense international schedule for a president inaugurated on Jan. 1 is unprecedented in Brazil, where diplomatic efforts traditionally proceed at a snail's pace.

"He is creating a sense of movement," said Stephen Haber of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. "He has promised lots of change, and if he sits around and doesn't do much in the first 100 days, those expectations are dashed."

Analysts say Silva's rapid pace is even more striking coming so soon after last week's two-day trip to desperately poor areas in the country's northeast as part of his goal of reducing the hunger that affects between 20 and 44 million people in the nation of 175 million citizens.

"This activism in Brazil's diplomacy is new," said William Goncalvez, a political analyst at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

But it seems in line with Silva's pledge to bring about changes for how Brazil is viewed domestically and internationally, and in keeping with signs in recent years that the country wants to play in the major leagues of foreign policy while developing new programs to help the country's poor.

In late December, Silva sent one of his closest aides to Venezuela on a fact-finding mission that developed into the idea of creating a group of Latin American and European countries to assist mediation already under way by the Organization of the American States.

Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said Monday that Silva is concerned about Venezuela and wants neighboring countries to help find a peaceful solution to the strike aimed at ousting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Some analysts believe Silva is also shaping a message to Washington - suggesting that the United States cannot impose its policies in the region.

"His goal is to signal that Brazil intends to be a leader, which given its economy and population makes perfect sense," Haber said. "To the United States he is signaling that we are going to have an activist foreign policy not dictated by you to us."

But Silva is well aware that he must maintain an image showing he is dealing with pressing domestic issues. Just days after being inaugurated, he delayed for at least a year a $760 million plan to order 12 jet fighters needed by Brazil's air force.

In doing so, Silva made it clear that his main funding priority for Brazil is the hunger eradication program.

He even suggested that young Brazilian diplomats should regularly visit the Brazilian slums known as favelas - so they will learn about poverty firsthand and can better defend Brazil's interests abroad.

www.timesdaily.com By FABIOLA SANCHEZ Associated Press Writer January 14. 2003 11:46PM

Soldiers loyal to President Hugo Chavez seized submachine guns and shotguns from Caracas' police department Tuesday in what the opposition mayor called a bid to undermine him.

Federal interference in the capital's police department is one reason Venezuela's opposition has staged a strike - now in its 44th day - demanding early elections. Tuesday's raids stoked already heated tensions in this polarized nation.

Greater Caracas Mayor Alfredo Pena said the weapons seizure stripped police of their ability to control street protests that have erupted almost daily since the strike began Dec. 2. Five people have died in strike-related demonstrations.

A smaller district police force used tear gas Tuesday to separate pro- and anti-Chavez protesters. Officials said two protesters were injured.

Strike leader Manuel Cova said opponents would "strengthen the struggle to topple" Chavez in response to the raids.

"This demonstrates the antidemocratic and authoritarian way in which this government acts," said Cova, leader of the Venezuelan Workers Confederation, the country's largest labor union.

Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel vowed there would be no early elections until a possible referendum in August, halfway into Chavez's six-year term. Opponents insist Venezuela is too unstable to wait that long.

"Chavez opponents must get it out of their heads that the way out is ... for Chavez to go," Rangel told foreign reporters. "That proposal is profoundly undemocratic."

Rangel said the weapons seizure was part of an effort to make police answer for alleged abuses against Chavez demonstrators. The government accuses police of killing two Chavez supporters during a melee two weeks ago that involved Chavez followers, opponents and security forces.

"The metropolitan police cannot be above the law, above the executive, above citizens," Rangel told foreign reporters. "We are trying to make them answer to the law. That's why we seized their equipment and weapons."

Troops searched several police stations at dawn, confiscating submachine guns and 12-gauge shotguns 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. It was not clear how long the seizure would last.

Chavez ordered troops to take control of the force in November, but the Supreme Court ordered it restored to Pena last month. Chavez is trying to break a strike that has paralyzed Venezuela's crucial oil industry and cost the government an estimated $4 billion. He has warned he might send troops to seize food production plants that are participating in the strike.

Called to press Chavez into accepting a nonbinding referendum on his rule, the strike has depleted many Caracas supermarkets of basics like milk, flour and bottled water. People spend hours in lines at service stations and at banks open only three hours a day. Many medicines are no longer are available in pharmacies.

Rangel said the strike was weak outside of Caracas - one reason the government has been able to survive. "Is there a country on Earth that can withstand a strike for 44 days? I don't think so," the vice president said.

With hopes of helping resolve the dispute, former President Jimmy Carter plans to visit Caracas on Jan. 20 to observe the crisis, the Atlanta-based Carter Center announced.

Carter, who just won the Nobel Peace Prize, will consult with Cesar Gaviria, secretary general of the Organization of American States, who has been mediating talks between the two sides, the center said.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he plans to meet Chavez Thursday when he comes to the United Nations to hand over the chairmanship of the Group of 77, an organization of mainly developing nations. Annan said he will discuss with Chavez "how one can intensify the mediation efforts ... to calm the situation and return it to normalcy."

"He knows that I believe that one should use constitutional democratic means to resolve this issue and that is my message not only to him but to the opposition," the secretary-general said. Venezuela's oil industry provides half of government revenue and 80 percent of export revenue. With the strike, about 30,000 of 40,000 workers in the state oil monopoly, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., are off the job.

Venezuela was the world's fifth-largest oil exporter and a key supplier to the United States, and the U.S. Energy Department has said the crisis could cause American motorists to pay up to $1.54 per gallon of gasoline by spring.

Rangel said oil production will reach 1.5 million barrels a day next week - about half pre-strike output. Currently, production is 800,000 barrels a day according the government, 400,000 according to striking executives fired by Chavez.

The president has vowed to restructure the oil monopoly and reduce bureaucracy at its Caracas headquarters, a hotbed of dissent.

Mayor Pena said Tuesday's police raids would force officers to stop patrolling many dangerous neighborhoods. Venezuela's crime rate rose 44 percent last year, the government says, partly because of a sharp rise in robberies.

"There is an escalation here leading to a dictatorship," Pena said. "The lives of the 5 million citizens who inhabit this city are in danger."

Also Tuesday, seven people died and four were burned when improperly stored gasoline exploded in western Venezuela on Tuesday. Officials said they didn't know what caused three containers of gas to explode.

Fuel shortages caused by the strike have prompted many Venezuelans to stockpile gasoline using containers unfit for such purposes. Warnings by state authorities against inappropriate storage and transportation of gasoline have been largely ignored by the population.