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Venezuela National Guard troops took control of the Coca-Cola plant in Valencia

CARACAS, January 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Venezuelan troops seized beer and soft drink plants belonging to supporters of the 47-day strike as President Hugo Chavez threatened a crackdown on opposition media.

National Guard troops took control of the country's largest brewery and a U.S.-owned Coca-Cola bottling plant, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Saturday, January 18.

U.S. Ambassador Charles Shapiro told Venevision he was "concerned and disappointed" at the move at the Coca-Cola plant in Valencia.

Troops also seized a warehouse full of soft drinks, accusing distributors of hoarding in order to worsen shortages brought on by the strike.

National Guardsmen said they would "liberate" the foodstuffs "for the people," in the populist style of 1960s guerrilla groups.

In a related development, Chavez said the government was preparing legal action against two television channels he accused of taking part in plotting "a coup." The authorities did not name the channels.

Prosecutors also vowed legal action against opposition ads run by some channels, charging them with fanning hatred and depicting violent strike activity to child viewers.

Chavez Warn Mediators Against Meddling Chavez warned international mediators seeking to broker a peaceful end to the bitter strike that they must first accept his leadership.

"They must begin by recognizing a legitimate government, that there is a democratic government that I head, elected by a free people," Chavez said during his annual address before the legislature.

The offer by the "Group of Friends of Venezuela" to mediate between Chavez and opposition leaders had buoyed hopes of ending the strike that has severely curtailed the flow of crude from the world's fifth-largest oil exporter.

The group which, includes the United States, was formed at the invitation of Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whom Chavez said he would meet in Brasilia Saturday.

"If any country or group of countries, in giving their take on the situation, tries to legitimize that bunch of subversives, fascists and terrorists ... that kind of help we do not need," Chavez said.

Organization of American States General Secretary Cesar Gaviria said that he would suspend his efforts at brokering talks because of the heightened tensions in the wake of Friday's seizures.

Gaviria has been attempting to bring the two sides together since Chavez was briefly ousted in an April coup.

Since the strike began on December 2, Chavez has said he would leave office only as the constitution allows.

The president may be recalled by referendum once he reaches the half-way point of his six-year term, which for Chavez comes in August.

However, opposition leaders want to remove him with a referendum February 2.

Initially, both sides welcomed the intervention of the six-country group, which groups beside the U.S., Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Chile and Brazil.

"Excellent. It proves that Venezuela has a lot of friends and few enemies," said Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel.

"The formation of the Group of Friends ... is a great success," opposition leader Jesus Torrealba said.

The opposition coalition of political parties, labor unions and business leaders claims Chavez is leading Venezuela toward a dictatorship.

Chavez has said he is determined to break the power of what he calls a "corrupt oligarchy" that has kept 80 percent of Venezuela's 24 million people in poverty.

english.peopledaily.com.cn Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, January 18, 2003

Welcoming a new international mediator to help Venezuela solve its seven-week national strike crisis, President Hugo Chavez said Friday mediators must recognizehis government as legitimate and democratic.

PRINT DISCUSSION CHINESE SEND TO FRIEND Welcoming a new international mediator to help Venezuela solve its seven-week national strike crisis, President Hugo Chavez said Friday mediators must recognize his government as legitimate and democratic.

In his annual address to the parliament, Chavez said the Venezuelan government welcomed the mediation of the newly-formed "Group of Friends of Venezuela".

But international mediation "must begin by recognizing a legitimate government, that there is a democratic government that I head, elected by a free people," Chavez said.

He declared that Venezuela had many friends all over the world, but warned that "Venezuela will not be a country under the guardianship of anybody."

"It is and will always be a free and sovereign country that issues its own laws and seeks solutions to its own problems, because the people have their own mechanisms to do it."

At the invitation of Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Latin American leaders on Wednesday agreed to form a six-nation "Group of Friends of Venezuela" comprising Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Spain, Portugal and the United States.

Chavez's opponents have also welcomed the new mediation. "The formation of the Group of Friends ...is a great success," opposition leader Jesus Torrealba said.

The opposition seeks the Chavez's immediate resignation, or an early referendum on Feb. 2 to decide whether Chavez will remain in his position. Chavez insists he will stick to the constitution which allows for a referendum in August at the earliest.

The general strike which began on Dec. 2 has caused great losses to the fifth largest oil producer in the world.

www.qctimes.com Last Updated: 8:51 pm, Friday, January 17th, 2003 By Associated Press . CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez welcomed foreign help to end a crippling seven-week strike but said Friday his government won’t be forced into negotiating with what he called a “coup-plotting, fascist” opposition. . Several countries, including the United States, Mexico, Brazil and Spain, agreed to create a “Group of Friends of Venezuela” this week to seek solutions to the work stoppage that has brought the country’s economy to a standstill.

Advertise Here | Advertising DirectoryChavez cautioned, however, that his government “won’t accept any restrictions from the Friends” group and warned other nations not to legitimize the opposition. . “Each country must make a great effort to understand what is happening in Venezuela,” Chavez said in his annual state of the nation address to Congress. “This is a democratic government, a democratic republic, confronting fascists, confronting terrorists, confronting coup plotters.” . Chavez announced he was traveling to Brazil late Friday to meet with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to discuss the “Friends” initiative. . Opposition leaders accuse Chavez of amassing too much power and ruining the economy. They called the strike Dec. 2 to urge Chavez to back a nonbinding referendum on his presidency Feb. 2. . Chavez says Venezuela’s constitution allows only a binding referendum halfway into a six-year presidential term. In Chavez’s case, that will be in August. . Chavez said if a majority of Venezuelans vote to shorten his presidential term in August, he will respect the outcome. . The strike has punished Venezuela’s oil industry, cost the nation at least $4 billion and led to food and gasoline shortages. Chavez called the strike leaders “cruel” for inflicting pain on Venezuelans. . He insisted his government was reviving petroleum production in what was the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter and the No. 4 crude exporter to the United States. . Venezuela produced 3 million barrels a day of crude before the strike. The country’s crude oil output was 512,000 barrels Friday, up from 484,000 barrels Thursday, according to striking employees of the state-owned oil monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela SA.

www.qctimes.com Last Updated: 8:51 pm, Friday, January 17th, 2003 By Associated Press . CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez welcomed foreign help to end a crippling seven-week strike but said Friday his government won’t be forced into negotiating with what he called a “coup-plotting, fascist” opposition. . Several countries, including the United States, Mexico, Brazil and Spain, agreed to create a “Group of Friends of Venezuela” this week to seek solutions to the work stoppage that has brought the country’s economy to a standstill.

Advertise Here | Advertising DirectoryChavez cautioned, however, that his government “won’t accept any restrictions from the Friends” group and warned other nations not to legitimize the opposition. . “Each country must make a great effort to understand what is happening in Venezuela,” Chavez said in his annual state of the nation address to Congress. “This is a democratic government, a democratic republic, confronting fascists, confronting terrorists, confronting coup plotters.” . Chavez announced he was traveling to Brazil late Friday to meet with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to discuss the “Friends” initiative. . Opposition leaders accuse Chavez of amassing too much power and ruining the economy. They called the strike Dec. 2 to urge Chavez to back a nonbinding referendum on his presidency Feb. 2. . Chavez says Venezuela’s constitution allows only a binding referendum halfway into a six-year presidential term. In Chavez’s case, that will be in August. . Chavez said if a majority of Venezuelans vote to shorten his presidential term in August, he will respect the outcome. . The strike has punished Venezuela’s oil industry, cost the nation at least $4 billion and led to food and gasoline shortages. Chavez called the strike leaders “cruel” for inflicting pain on Venezuelans. . He insisted his government was reviving petroleum production in what was the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter and the No. 4 crude exporter to the United States. . Venezuela produced 3 million barrels a day of crude before the strike. The country’s crude oil output was 512,000 barrels Friday, up from 484,000 barrels Thursday, according to striking employees of the state-owned oil monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela SA.

www.nytimes.com Miramax Films

Li'l Ze's gang in "City of God" by the Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles. The movie has been hotly debated in Brazil. It shows the world "that hell is here, just behind Ipanema," another director said. By LARRY ROHTER

RIO DE JANEIRO A CAST composed almost entirely of unknown actors, a setting that is none too attractive, a lot of violence and no sex scenes. If ever a studio wanted a formula for a film to fail, that would be it," said the Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles.

As he was shooting in the slums here two years ago, Mr. Meirelles worried about the commercial viability of the movie he was making. Yet "City of God," which opens in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, has become a watershed cultural and political event in Brazil, and has now been seen by more Brazilians than any film in nearly 30 years. Advertisement

Every aspect, from its unblinking portrayal of criminality to its innovative cinematography, has been endlessly analyzed and discussed, to the point that Brazil's new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is reported to have said that seeing the movie made him change his policy on public security.

"City of God" ("Cidade de Deus") takes its title from the best-selling novel by Paulo Lins, which in turn is named for a gigantic housing project built here in the 1960's and where some 120,000 people live today. Mr. Lins grew up there, knew the real-life characters portrayed in the book and film, and watched as drug gangs gained a stranglehold over the community.

"The book was the fruit of 30 years of observation and 10 years of research," he said in an interview at his apartment in the middle-class neighborhood where he now lives. "From the time I was a little kid, I watched what was going on around me, so everything that appears in the book is real, and that reality is exactly what the filmmakers wanted to capture."

When "Cidade de Deus" was published in 1997, it became an immediate critical and popular success in Brazil, in large part because it showed slum life from the inside — and did so without condemning the people who live there. A friend of Mr. Meirelles gave the director a copy of the book with the suggestion that it might make a good movie.

As it happened, Mr. Meirelles (pronounced mere-ELLIES), who is 47, was then at a crossroads in his career. He had always wanted to make feature films, and had directed several television programs and documentaries, but had drifted into advertising and become probably the most successful director of commercials in Brazil.

"I had won Clio awards and all the other prizes you can win, but I was at that point when you start asking if there isn't something more," he recalled.

Mr. Meirelles's proposal to film "City of God" was one of eight that Mr. Lins received, including some from directors much better known and with experience filming in Rio's favelas, or hillside squatter slums. But when Mr. Meirelles outlined his calculatedly risky plan to cast amateurs from Cidade de Deus and other slum neighborhoods, the balance shifted.

"It was the idea of using actors from the favelas that really moved me and won me over," Mr. Lins said. "The money was almost the same in all of the offers, but Fernando's vision of the project was the most interesting."

Once that hurdle was overcome, the sheer Dickensian sweep of the novel offered Mr. Meirelles his next challenge. At 550 pages, "City of God" has nearly 300 characters and covers three decades in the slum's history: an early 160-page draft of the script won a prize at a Sundance Institute workshop held in Brazil, but even so, a dozen drafts were required before a filmable version was completed.

As a white raised in a middle-class São Paulo neighborhood, Mr. Meirelles faced an additional problem, that of credibility. The American equivalent of the situation he confronted would be a native of the Upper West Side of New York City deciding to go into Los Angeles' South Central to make a movie about black gangs and expecting to be received with open arms.

To ease his way, Mr. Meirelles decided to enlist a co-director, Kátia Lund. Originally from São Paulo, Ms. Lund is of Norwegian descent and a Brown University graduate but had made several Brazilian rap videos in the favelas and had also filmed "News From a Private War," a highly praised documentary about the drug gangs of Rio's slums.