abcnews.go.com — By Marc Frank

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cubans voted in one-party general elections on Sunday, with President Fidel Castro saying the election showed defiance against U.S. efforts to destroy the country's communist revolution.

Dissidents dismissed the poll as a fraud and urged people to boycott it, but authorities said that 7.4 million people, or 89.6 percent of registered voters, had cast their ballots by early afternoon.

The election is held every five years to choose 609 deputies to the National Assembly and 1,119 representatives to provincial assemblies.

Voters have no choice of candidates which are equal to the number of open seats. They can check a box for all the candidates, or vote for one or more of them, or none.

The father of Elian Gonzalez, a young boy who survived a shipwreck that killed his mother while trying to reach the United States and whose later return to Cuba ignited fury among many Cuban Americans, was among those on the slate. Others included a mix of well-known leaders and personalities, such as singer Silvio Rodriguez as well local officials.

Castro, dressed in his traditional military uniform, cast his ballot as voters chanted "Fidel, Fidel" in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba, where he stood for re-election to the National Assembly.

"This is a response to the empire in its efforts to destroy the revolution," Castro said, referring to the United States.

Dissident Vladimiro Roca, who was released from prison last year after serving a five-year sentence for opposition activity, had a different view. "This is not an election because in an election you can choose between different options. Here the only option is to continue as we are ... this is one of Fidel Castro's many frauds," he told Reuters.

Like other members of Cuba's small and hounded dissident movement which Havana charges works for the United States, Roca called on voters to boycott the polls or spoil their ballots.

DISSIDENTS OBSERVE POLLS

Some dissidents went to polling stations to observe the vote count when they closed. Roca told Reuters he was allowed to observe, but another dissident, Martha Beatriz Roque, was turned away. Roque said some 200 dissidents participated in the action countrywide and a full report would be issued on Wednesday.

It is the first election since dissidents in May delivered 11,000 signatures to the government requesting a referendum on electoral reforms, the right to operate private businesses, more civil rights and amnesty for political prisoners.

Cuba's constitution requires petitions signed by more than 10,000 voters be considered for a referendum vote.

Asked in Santiago de Cuba why the government has not directly responded to the initiative, named the Varela Project after an 18th century priest and independence hero, Castro said it was not worth even discussing.

"Do you think in a country as serious, hard working and heroic as this we are going to pay attention to such foolishness," Castro said, charging that the project was invented by the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.

The United States and Cuba do not have diplomatic relations but maintain interests sections in each other's capitals. Washington has maintained an economic embargo against Cuba for more than 40 years and worked to isolate the government.

Castro, 76, was expected to be sent back to parliament, which will elect the Council of State. That body designates the President of the Republic and Castro, in power for 44 years, is expected to be chosen for another five-year term.

Castro defended Cuba's electoral system to reporters, insisting that the country's only legal political organization, the Communist Party, had stayed out of the process.

Havana points to a traditional turnout of about 98 percent as proof of huge support for the government, while dissidents say it reflects voters' fears they will be ostracized if they do not participate.

Angela Ramirez, a housewife from Havana's La Lisa district, said she voted because it was her duty. "I support the system as the best possible. I would like more choice, but at least we are not in the situation Argentina or Venezuela is in," she said.

Other Cubans said they felt compelled to vote. "It may seem like you can vote or not, but if you don't you are marked, so it is in your interest to turn out," said Francisco, a taxi driver who cast his ballot in the Central Havana district.

www.granma.cu BY MIREYA CASTAÑEDA -Granma International staff writer-

PRESIDENT Fidel Castro spoke on the Cuban electoral system, increased popular interest in the general elections, the Revolution’s social programs and certain international issues after casting his vote at Electoral College No. 4, District 7, Santiago de Cuba.

The leader of the Revolution arrived at the constituency located at the Alejandro Urgellés sports complex on Avenida de las Américas in this eastern city of the island, at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, January 19, the date convened for general elections for deputies to the National Assembly (609) and delegates to the Provincial Assemblies (1,100).

Fidel presented his documents at the electoral table and was given a green ballot (deputies) and a white one (delegates). He moved to the voting booth to exercise his constitutional right to a secret vote and deposited the ballots in the two boxes guarded by students.

A group of journalists from the national and international media were waiting at the college to ask the president questions, the first on his opinion of what is to be the new National Assembly.

Fidel replied that the new Parliament should be of higher quality than former ones, primarily because of the constant raising of the population’s educational level, and because the election system itself has been improved.

He recalled that the direct electoral system began in 1992 with the special period and observed how there is more experience today, such as greater contact between candidates and voters and the increased interest of the people in those who are to represent them.

In terms of representation, Fidel Castro reiterated that half of the deputies are nominated from the base (the other 50% by the social, student, trade union and campesino organizations) and all of them have to gain over half the valid votes cast to be elected.

In that context he explained some of the reasons for the united (block) vote, including a tendency to vote for known persons: distinguished scientists, intellectuals, professors or ministers as opposed to candidates from the base who are needed in the National Assembly.

He also referred to what he described as heartening data on the future composition of the National Assembly in terms of ethnic composition (32.96% black and mixed race), women (35.96%) and educational level (almost 98% university or senior high school graduates).

He commented on the positive aspect of more frequent visits by candidates in order to familiarize themselves with the people and their problems, and how there is a growing interest in the provincial municipalities to be well represented in a National Assembly that is gaining in prestige. “In any case,” he affirmed, “deputies represent the nation and all the people.

He noted that the data show a renovation in the nominations’ slate (where a lot of work has been done and also because new people have come forward); a certain reduction in the total of young people under 30 (16 years to be entitled to vote, but 18 to be nominated); and an increase in the 30-40 age group, which naturally has earned more merit.

The president responded to other questions on national issues, including the case of the five Cubans imprisoned in the United States and the recent article in The New York Times (to which Ricardo Alarcón, president of the Cuban Parliament, made an ample response a few days ago), published at this point to counteract active campaigning on their behalf.

He stressed that the trial of the Five, who are political prisoners, was shameful and rigged, and resulted in two life sentences. However the Five are providing an example of dignity, and the international press has not made any mention of that, he noted.

“On the other hand, that same press takes it upon itself to circulate anything on the so-called dissidents in Cuba, whom everybody knows are incubated in the U.S. Interest Section.”

Fidel observed that that institution has no weight, no influence on anything, because there is a political culture in Cuba and serious and hardworking people are not going to bother themselves with trivialities. “All those things are part of the empire’s useless attempts to destroy and divide us.”

In relation to events in Latin America (Brazil, Ecuador), the president was asked if he felt “less alone,” to which he replied that he had never felt alone, not even in a prison cell. “If you have confidence in your ideas, in what you are doing, you will never be alone, and I have seen the growth in the number of people who support us, both within and without,” he commented.

He reflected that changes in history are associated with objective factors and thus what is occurring in Latin America today is the fruit of crisis, of the unsustainable economic order.

Venezuela was another issue he was asked to comment on, particularly the fact that President Hugo Chávez has asked for Cuba’s inclusion in the Group of Friendship.

Fidel stated that it is a delicate issue, affirming that in principle he is against any outside interference, because persons arrive as friends and end up as proconsuls, because when outsiders get involved they turn into interveners.

He noted that the ideas of the Group of Friends of Venezuela arose to support the legitimate government, but has been transformed and is acting belligerently by recognizing and encouraging the fascists; one only has to analyze the composition of the group to draw those conclusions.

“The gentlemen from the North are going to use their instruments,” he added, “given that the Organization of American States has a dubious history, with its expulsion of Cuba, its failure to act when the Dominican Republic and Panama were invaded, or in Guatemala where 200,000 people disappeared.

“I imagine that many Venezuelans are concerned about this group,” he continued, “with people like Reich and Noriega heading Latin American Affairs in the Bush administration. And Spain, an unconditional U.S. ally. They prevented me from going to Mexico and various governments backed the coup against Chávez. Are those people going to mediate between a legitimate government and the fascists who organized the coup? Venezuela’s enemies are dominant within this group under the baton of the head of a unipolar world. It’s a plan, a maneuver, a project to destroy the Venezuelan process,” he emphasized.

Fidel affirmed: “Chávez is a friend, a very noble man with a great love for his people, a man educated in the thinking of Bolívar and Martí, respectful of the law, decisive and intelligent, “and if he asks us for something, he knows that he can count on our sympathy and support. However we would have to assess it carefully, because gestures can turn into intervention, and do away with the country’s sovereignty.”

BEFORE THE PEOPLE OF SANTIAGO

The people had gathered outside the Electoral College, acclaiming Fidel, and the president stopped. He began by paraphrasing the famous phrase ‘I came, I saw and I conquered.’ Fidel said: “I came, I saw and I voted,” and confirmed that the people could say exactly the same thing.

The president expressed his belief that in more than 30 years of the institutional process never before had elections been preceded by so much enthusiasm.

He explained how our revolutionary and socialist democracy has been steadily improved and that now the Cuban people know why they vote, not like before 1959, he recalled, when those with money were elected or won by fraudulent means. Then being a political agent was a profession. What kind of democracy was that?

He then asked how many of the people gathered there were political agents, or were given money to vote, or what kind of money the candidate had, how he was nominated and who elected the constituency delegates. “You have elected, all the citizens who wanted to stand for the Assembly were nominated and elected by you.”

“This little country 90 miles from the most powerful empire ever to have existed has never been defeated throughout 44 years,” Fidel noted, “because a Revolution is also a battle of ideas, and we used arms well when our land was invaded at the Bay of Pigs, or when they killed teachers, and nobody can make up stories about that,” he stressed, “because during the October Crisis I never saw any comrade vacillate, and nobody came to inspect us.

“We have been able to resist more than 30 years of blockade, more than 10 years of special period, when we were left without fuel, spare parts, and certain people believed that the Revolution wouldn’t last a week, or 24 hours. And 10 years have gone by and here is the Revolution, stronger than ever,” the president confirmed.

“Today the people are more aware and more united than ever, and are participating in the most just elections that could be found anywhere in the world,” he continued, “a people with absolute equality of rights.”

The leader of the revolution referred to the 100-plus social programs being developed on the island, to studies on malnutrition, mental backwardness, and physical malformation, to the profound educational revolution and the tremendous labors in the field of public health.

He outlined the number of medical faculties, family doctors, research into cancer, hospitals and affirmed: “These labors are for everyone, nobody is going to ask any U.S. Interest Section employee in pain anything, they will treat him or her and save his or her life; that is socialism, humanism.

Finally, President Fidel Castro expressed his optimism, his joy at what the country is today: a standard of justice, liberty, and a decorous level of education and living standards. “There is nothing we propose that we cannot obtain, that is what I am saying on this glorious, dignified and joyful day of our general elections.”

www.sfgate.com

STEPHEN IXER, Associated Press Writer Sunday, January 19, 2003

(01-19) 16:35 PST CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) --

President Hugo Chavez on Sunday threatened to order more raids on striking private food producers and warned the government may abandon negotiations with opponents trying to force him from office.

Meanwhile, thousands of Venezuelans with roots in Italy, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Portugal and other countries marched for peace, waving the flags of their homelands and Venezuela. Some carried signs that read "liberty" and "union" in six languages.

"I've never seen the country so divided," said Jose Lopes, 60, a bookstore owner who immigrated to Venezuela from Portugal as a teenager. "We don't want to leave but if Chavez doesn't leave it's a possibility."

Opponents accuse the 48-year-old president of running roughshod over democratic institutions and wrecking the economy with leftist policies.

A combination of opposition parties, business leaders and labor unions called for a general strike on Dec. 2 to demand Chavez accept the results of a nonbinding referendum on his rule.

Venezuela's National Elections Council scheduled the vote for Feb. 2 after accepting an opposition petition, but Chavez's supporters have challenged the referendum in court. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the issue soon.

Chavez, whose six-year term ends in 2007, insists his foes must wait until August -- or halfway through his six-year term -- when a recall referendum is permitted by the constitution.

The strike has brought Venezuela's economy to a standstill, causing shortages of gasoline, food and drink, including bottled water, milk, soft drinks and flour.

Local producers insist they are still making basic foodstuffs but that fuel shortages and lack of security for their transport workers have hampered deliveries.

"Some businessmen have reflected and have started to open their factories," Chavez said during his weekly television and radio show. "Those who refuse, who resist, well, be sure that today, tomorrow, or after we will raid your warehouses and stockpiles."

On Friday, National Guard soldiers seized water and soft drinks from two bottling plants. One was an affiliate of Coca-Cola, the other belonged to Venezuela's largest food and drinks producer, Empresas Polar.

Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel on Sunday rejected U.S. Ambassador Charles Shapiro's criticism of the raids, which he said affected U.S. interests in Venezuela. Shapiro also questioned their legality.

"Ambassador, with all due respect, you are not an authority in this country," Rangel said Sunday while speaking to supporters in Venezuela's Margarita Island.

Bilateral "relations have to be on an equal plain of mutual respect. This is not a protectorate, it is not a colony," Rangel said.

Chavez also warned the government would walk away from negotiations sponsored by the Organization of American States if the opposition continued seeking his ouster through what he calls unconstitutional means.

"We are carefully evaluating the possibility that our representatives will leave the (negotiating) table," he said. "We don't talk with terrorists. We are willing to talk with any Venezuelan within the framework of the constitution."

The talks, which began in November, have yielded few results. Six countries -- Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and the United States -- have begun an initiative called "Friends of Venezuela" to support the negotiations.

The strike is strongest in Venezuela's oil industry, previously the world's fifth-largest exporter.

Oil production has dwindled to 800,000 barrels a day, compared with the 3 million barrels a day the country usually produces, according to the government. Strike leaders put the figure at 400,000 barrels a day.

Chavez, who has fired more than 1,000 strikers from the state oil monopoly, said Sunday that production could be restored to 2 million barrels a day by the end of the month.

But Chavez acknowledged that gasoline shortages have increased. He blamed the difficulties on "sabotage" by strikers and delayed gasoline imports. He also promised to reinforce troop presence at oil installations and said 60 gasoline trucks were on their way to Caracas, the capital, on Sunday.

"Keep rationing gasoline," Chavez urged listeners.

Besides the factory raid, troops have seized striking oil tankers and kept strikers out of oil installations. Five people have died in politically related violence since the strike began.

Also Sunday, Chavez appointed retired Gen. Lucas Rincon as his interior minister, replacing Diosdado Cabello, who was named infrastructure minister last week. Rincon's appointment comes despite his role in April's failed coup and his later resignation as defense minister.

Rincon announced to the world that Chavez resigned after 19 people died during an opposition march on the presidential palace. Loyal soldiers restored Chavez to power two days later after an interim government dissolved the constitution.

Chavez also appointed Gen. Jorge Garcia Carneiro as commander of Venezuela's army, replacing Gen. Julio Garcia Montoya.

www.forbes.com Reuters, 01.19.03, 6:45 PM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Foes of Venezuela's embattled President Hugo Chavez on Sunday extended for a 50th day a protest strike aimed at forcing the leftist leader to resign and call immediate elections in the world's fifth largest oil exporter.

The opposition shutdown, which began on Dec. 2, has slashed Venezuela's vital petroleum production, hiked oil prices and inflamed the feud over the populist ex-paratrooper's rule. Before the strike, Venezuela supplied about one sixth of U.S. oil imports. "Let's carry on ... not one step backwards," anti-Chavez business leader Jose Luis Betancourt told a news conference.

The anti-Chavez leaders, including rebel managers at state oil firm PDVSA have vowed to keep up the shutdown until the president resigns. But the tough-talking former paratrooper has dismissed calls for early elections. He rejects charges from foes that his government has been marred by corruption, economic mismanagement and authoritarian rule.

Chavez, who was elected in 1998 and survived a coup in April, has promised to defeat the strike, which he dismisses as an attempt to oust him through oil industry sabotage. Oil sales provide about half of government revenues.

www.forbes.com Reuters, 01.19.03, 6:41 PM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Crude oil exports from strike-bound Venezuela fell by 45,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 480,000 bpd last week, or one sixth of the pre-strike level, shipping sources said Sunday.

Crude exports fell to 480,000 bpd in the week to January 18, versus 525,000 bpd in the previous week, according to calculations made by Reuters based on data from shipping sources and state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). One shipper saw exports rising next week as he expected more pilots to be available in the western Lake Maracaibo. Another agent said dock workers were abundant in main eastern ports, although the strike has disabled many automated systems and loading rates have fallen from 40,000 barrels an hour to just 6,500 in one port.

The OPEC nation exported approximately 2.7 million bpd of crude oil and refined products before the seven-week-old strike, aimed at forcing President Hugo Chavez to resign.

The strike draws support from many of PDVSA's 37,000 workforce in oilfields, refineries, tankers and ports. But PDVSA President Ali Rodriguez has sacked some 1,500 absentee workers, split the company into two operating units, and hired replacement staff to restore operations.

Both government and opposition figures show oil output doubling last week, although government data show current flows at 1.2 million bpd, while strikers peg it at 650,000.

Only ships chartered by PDVSA and its U.S. subsidiary Citgo have been loading cargoes for export because foreign customers are concerned about insurance risks associated with uncertified staff in the terminals.

Foreign oil companies have commissioned an audit of Venezuelan ports to be conducted this week which will determine whether their loadings can resume.