www.canoe.ca Tuesday, January 21, 2003 By AP

CARACAS -- Violence continued in Venezuela yesterday as former U.S. president Jimmy Carter tried to jump-start negotiations between the government and opposition.

Supporters of President Hugo Chavez clashed with opposition marchers and one person was killed when shots were fired into the crowd.

The confrontation began when Chavez supporters tossed bottles and rocks at the marchers in the town of Charallave. Rioters set fire to vehicles and a stage for opposition speakers.

Six people have died in protests since the 50-day-old strike, intended to oust Chavez, started.

Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in October, was to meet Chavez and attend negotiations sponsored the Organization of American States.

Carter's Atlanta-based Carter Center is also sponsoring talks. He arrived in Venezuela on Wednesday.

Oil production is down to 800,000 barrels a day. Venezuela is the world's fifth-largest petroleum exporter, producing three-million barrels a day before the strike.

The president of Venezuela's oil monopoly urged workers to return to work.

"I urge you as citizens, appealing to whatever reserves of rationality there may be, to stop these activities," Ali Rodriguez, president of Petroleos de Venezuela S.A, said on state TV.

Chavez has fired more than 1,000 white-collar PDVSA workers and has the support of Venezuela's military

Chavez's opponents say his leftist policies are driving the country toward economic ruin. They also say his autocratic style erodes democracy.

www.charlotte.com Posted on Tue, Jan. 21, 2003 JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY Knight Ridder

ARAUCA, Colombia - American Army Special Forces teams moved last week into what a senior U.S. intelligence official calls "the most dangerous place in Colombia." They will begin training Colombian soldiers to protect an often-bombed 500-mile oil pipeline that runs along a porous border with neighboring Venezuela.

At a time when American soldiers are policing Afghanistan and the Balkans, fighting a global battle against Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, keeping watch on North Korea and preparing for possible military action in Iraq, the escalating U.S. military involvement in Colombia's drug war has gone largely unnoticed.

The arrival of the Green Berets signaled a more aggressive U.S. effort to help Colombian forces fight the guerrillas of the leftist National Liberation Army, or ELN, and newcomers to this region from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Until now, American efforts have been aimed almost exclusively at curtailing cocaine and heroin production.

The vulnerable oil pipeline is crucial to the Colombian government, which has seen millions of gallons of oil spill into the region's soil, rivers and streams and lost tens of millions in oil revenues.

The special forces team doing the training, A Company 3rd Battalion 7th Special Forces Group, is from Fort Bragg and is commanded by Maj. Bill White.

White will base 40 Special Forces troops on a small military base in the nearby town of Saravena and 30 others at a larger military post in Arauca.

Two more will be stationed at the sprawling facilities at Cano Limon, where Occidental Petroleum and Colombia's Ecopetrol produce $5 billion a year worth of oil.

The Americans will rotate out every three months.

As a sign of how dangerous a place this is, the Army also is sending in a medical evacuation team that includes several Black Hawk helicopters and their crews, a surgeon and nurse and several trained medics.

They will be based with the Special Forces team in Arauca to provide emergency medical care and evacuation for any Americans wounded in the area.

Smaller Special Forces teams have been in Arauca and Saravena for two months, setting up communications and intelligence-gathering facilities, building heavily fortified living and working quarters in compounds in the middle of the Colombian Army facilities, and planning the training mission.

Rings of concertina wire and heavily fortified bunkers surround the Special Forces compounds.

In Arauca, the compound has a tall guard tower with security cameras and motion-activated perimeter lights. A sergeant said they had filled more than 70,000 sandbags to construct a head-high wall around the compound.

The Americans based in Arauca will advise and assist the Colombian Army's 18th Brigade, which guards the long border with Venezuela, runs operations against terrorists and attempts to secure the Cano Limon pipeline in this region.

Those based in Saravena will run five-week training courses for units assigned to protect the pipeline, in hope they will begin more aggressive operations against the rebels.

In other action, rebels ambushed a pickup truck carrying policemen in northern Columbia on Monday, killing six officers and their civilian driver in a hail of gunfire and grenades, a state governor said.

The attack was near the village of Zambrano, 340 miles north of Bogota.

About 60 miles farther north, army and police forces searched Monday for at least 10 civilians who were among dozens kidnapped on a rural road by FARC rebels the day before.

Government security forces rescued 49 of the hostages on Sunday, hours after the rebels put up a roadblock near the village of Jagua del Pilar and forced travelers from their vehicles.

"The operations are being carried out with extreme caution so we don't put at risk the lives of those who have been kidnapped," police Col. Heriberto Naranjo told RCN radio.

Naranjo said government forces had clashed with the fleeing rebels, but he had no information on casualties.

Juan Pablo Toro of the Associated Press contributed to this article.

www.washingtonpost.com

CARACAS, Venezuela, Jan. 20 -- Violence surged again today between supporters and opponents of President Hugo Chavez as former U.S. president Jimmy Carter renewed efforts to mediate Venezuela's political crisis. Gunfire during a protest march killed one person and wounded 15, officials said.

Chavez's government, meanwhile, told two private television stations that they were under investigation and faced possible fines for broadcasting political commercials backing a seven-week national strike against Chavez.

The governor of the state of Miranda, Enrique Mendoza, a Chavez opponent, said Chavez supporters attacked an opposition march in Charavalle, about 20 miles south of Caracas.

Raul Gonzalez, 38, who was shot in the leg, said he and other Chavez supporters blocked a road as opposition marchers approached, and both sides began tossing rocks and bottles.

"There were shots from all over," he said. "Everything was in confusion." Gonzalez said he did not know where the gunfire came from.

One opposition marcher, Mayordina Morales, 52, said both sides were throwing objects when police started shooting.

Fifteen people were wounded by gunfire, a state official said. Twelve people suffered other injuries.

Six people have died in protests since Venezuela's opposition called the strike Dec. 2, crippling the world's fifth-largest oil exporter.

Carter was meeting with Chavez, opposition figures and Cesar Gaviria, secretary general of the Organization of American States, who has been trying since November to mediate an electoral solution to the crisis. The Atlanta-based Carter Center is sponsoring the talks with the OAS and the United Nations.

The government notified private television stations Globovision and Radio Caracas Television that they faced administrative proceedings for allegedly supporting efforts to topple Chavez. The complaint alleges that the stations illegally ran opposition advertisements supporting the strike and promoting anti-government marches, Globovision reported.

The stations, which long have accused Chavez of trying to stifle freedom of expression, face fines or the loss of their broadcasting licenses. Their directors condemned the government inquiry as an attack against media freedom.

www.miami.com Posted on Tue, Jan. 21, 2003 BY FRANCES ROBLES frobles@herald.com

CASUALTY OF STRIKE? Oil leaking from a flow control station spreads on the surface of Lake Maracaibo in the western Venezuelan state of Zulia on Jan. 9. GENTE de PETROLEO/AP

CARACAS - Venezuelan workers running the country's oil industry in place of striking employees and managers have caused at least 60 industrial accidents in the past month, including oil spills whose black stains stretch for a mile, local government leaders say.

The increase in spills and accidents is the direct result of blunders by inexperienced people running a dangerous and delicate business, according to striking oil workers, environmentalists and local government officials.

Strike leaders say at least 4,500 barrels of oil have spilled and seven fires have broken out.

Citing damage to its fishing industry and beaches, a city in western Venezuela filed for an injunction last week, asking the court to force the government oil company to cease operations.

Oil company firefighters and loss prevention experts -- who had stayed on the job despite the strike -- joined in afterward, saying work conditions were too hazardous. Although the government denies it, one person allegedly died in a refinery explosion last week.

''They are making terrible mistakes,'' said Clemencia Rodner, president of the Venezuelan Audubon Society. ``Not only are they having many, many problems, but when they have a problem, they don't know how to solve it.''

The accidents are one of the obstacles confronting the Venezuelan government as it faces a debilitating nationwide strike aimed at removing President Hugo Chávez from office. With about 35,000 of its 40,000 oil workers having walked off the job, the government disregards maintenance operations in its zeal to bring production back to normal levels, foreign diplomats monitoring the industry said.

JOINING THE STRIKE

''If we stay with the company, we will be responsible for everything that's happening, and we can't allow it,'' fire department spokesman Omar Moreno said while announcing his department's decision to join the strike at the start of its seventh week. ``There are inexperienced people behind all of this.''

Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., known here as PDVSA, is leading a strike dubbed the ''national civic stoppage,'' called Dec. 2 to force Chávez out of office. The strike has lasted far longer than anyone expected, and has cost the nation at least $4 billion.

While some strikers elsewhere have gone back to work, PDVSA remains devastated. Production, which had been at three million barrels daily, is down to about 600,000, though the government asserts it is nearly double that amount. And each day, more and more of that oil winds up at the bottom of Lake Maracaibo in the western state of Zulia, where tankers load cargo for international shipments.

''Zulia is in a very delicate situation because of the profound improvisation in the petroleum industry,'' Gov. Manuel Rosales said in declaring a state of emergency. ``We have oil slicks on the lake that are 24 to 36 feet long. Some are a mile long.''

Among the mishaps cited by the opposition:

• About 4,000 barrels of oil spilled Jan. 14 from the Carenero distribution plant, destroying nearby mangroves.

• On Dec. 30, the Pilín León tanker spilled 300 barrels of leaded gasoline into the sea.

• On Jan. 7, 300 barrels of oil spilled in Anaco, but the government says it was only 50.

• A Jan. 7 explosion at the Palito refinery seriously injured two workers. The media reported one later died, but the company denied it.

• Two barges have sunk and one crashed at the Tia Juana port.

The Venezuelan government says the accidents have been exaggerated and are within industry norms. But even so, the government also blames sabotage by striking workers and the absence of security and maintenance personnel.

''It's not desirable, but it's within habitual frequency,'' Environment Minister Ana Elisa Osorio told reporters, insisting that there were 29 oil spills the month before the strike. The opposition strikers ``are responsible. It's exactly their sabotage that is responsible for these accidents. These gentlemen didn't think about the implications of abandoning their posts.''

Striking PDVSA managers rebut Osorio by saying the 29 spills in November were minor -- and happened while the company was producing three million barrels a day. The recent spills occurred while the company's output has slowed to a trickle.

A U.S. official monitoring the situation said accidents occurred not so much because of staff incompetence but because PDVSA -- without the staff to do it -- has suspended routine maintenance. For example, another diplomat said, 50 people are working at the San Tomé oil field; it takes 280 to run it.

During a recent presidential address, Chávez displayed photographs of what he said were sabotaged PDVSA systems. His pictures showed yanked wires, but it was not clear who was responsible.

In an interview with El Universal newspaper, Osorio said spills largely occur because pipes sometimes rupture when pumps are turned on after periods of inactivity. But oil industry experts say experienced workers would know that and turn systems back on slowly. Further, the strike-breakers are unfamiliar with emergency contingency plans, experts said, and appear not to know how to shut systems off once a spill begins.

In the Carenero case last week, the spill continued from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m., a PDVSA manager said.

''There will be more spills,'' Osorio said. ``The responsibility goes to whoever decided to suspend operations.''

Rodner said environmental damage will result not so much from the oil itself but from outdated, highly toxic chemicals the government uses to sink the oil to the bottom of the lake.

CHAIN OF POISONINGS

''The oil will decompose, get eaten by bacteria and enter the food chain,'' Rodner said. ``It will poison the fish and poison the people who eat the fish. There will be illnesses and cancers. Every creature at the bottom of the lake will die.''

Meanwhile, three Venezuelan oil tanker captains who were stripped of their command last month for participating in the strike appeared in Miami on Monday to accuse their government of beating and threatening tanker crews and replacing them with unqualified Iraqi, Libyan and Cuban nationals.

''Members of the merchant marine have been tortured, threatened, detained and beaten,'' said Miguel Rodríguez, a dismissed PDVSA tanker captain. ``The government calls us pirates. Perhaps we are pirates, but for a good cause -- rescuing Venezuela.''

The Venezuelan ambassador to Washington said the claims were lies.

''That never happened. It's totally false. There was no violations of human rights and these Iraqis and Libyans are not operating our boats,'' said Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez.

Herald staff writer Richard Brand contributed to this report.

frontpagemag.com By Adrian Karatnycky The Wall Street Journal | January 20, 2003

Our confidence in the judgments and objectivity of the United Nations is set to be shaken yet again. Today, Libya is certain to be elected to the chairmanship of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights by its 53 member states over vociferous U.S. objections.

The election of Libya -- ruled by Col. Moammar Gadhafi, the dictator best known for his country's links to the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland -- will deal a major blow to the credibility of the U.N. system. In recent years, Libya has jailed and tortured hundreds of peaceful political dissenters. Political trials are held in camera. It is a country that has well documented links to international terrorism. It was for this reason that President Bush recently renewed an economic embargo.

What can possibly explain the fact that Libya stands on the verge of chairing the U.N. Commission on Human Rights? Under the U.N. system of regional blocs, members rarely overrule a region's nominee for a top post. States frequently trade favors and rarely apply objective criteria to the selection process.

So this time it is Africa's turn to chair the commission and, because Gadhafi has been helping bankroll the fledgling African Union, that body has made Libya its choice. More surprisingly, while more than three-fifths of the members of the rights commission are democracies, they do not represent a cohesive bloc and appear at the moment unwilling to challenge the status quo.

A recent study of voting patterns at the Human Rights commission found that from 1995 to 2000 most of the world's most repressive states, including Belarus, China, North Korea, Laos, Pakistan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Libya, successfully avoided any censure.

If Libya takes over the leadership of the commission today, the action will embolden dictators like Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, whom Gadhafi has staunchly defended, as well as Hugo Chavez, who has proposed Libya as an arbiter for Venezuela's mounting strike and protest movement. The U.N. deserves better.

Secretary General Kofi Annan has been making efforts on behalf of human rights. And the U.N. Development Program last year issued a report that emphasized the links between democracy, transparency and human development, and a report focused on the democracy deficit in the Arab world. Yet such efforts are being undermined by the business-as-usual attitude of member states, including a large number of established democracies. The member states of the European Union will likely abstain in today's vote.

The U.S. State Department has wisely decided to challenge Libya's election and call for an open vote. This first step, in challenging tyrannies, should be followed up with the establishment of a democracy caucus at the U.N. If such a course is taken, the lamentable recent record of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights will be reversed. And the selection of Libya to serve as its head will have become a wake-up call to democracies that it is time to work together to ensure the U.N. reflects the values of its charter.

Mr. Karatnycky is the president of Freedom House.