www.kesq.com

Hope you enjoyed it while it lasted, gas prices are back on the rise. AAA reports it jumped about 13 cents a gallon this past week, the highest jump in decades. We found out why and how long this increase will be going on for.

Experts say there're two reasons, the strike in Venezuela is costing the US about a 15% decrease in our oil production, and speculation of the war looming.

What a difference a week can make when it comes to gas prices. Around the valley, drivers are feeling the pinch. Tina Huffman typically fills her tank up twice a week for work. the rise in gas prices is costing her about 15 bucks more, in just one week.

"It takes most of my pay check to get back and forth to worth,” she says.

On average, AAA reports gas prices in Riverside County have shot up about 16 cents a gallon in the last week, making a difference of about six to seven dollars per tank. Of course, that varies per car.

Bill Thoene says he has to cut his travel down a bit to make up for the dent in his wallet.

"To me, I drive less, I don't, I feel sorry for those who work. It has a huge impact on them."

Ken Williamson has owned gas stations for more than 37 years and says this increase is the highest he's seen.

Higher prices are expected to continue to go up at least for the next six weeks. For some, that means it's time to start driving less.

Officials at OPEC said it will make up for the oil production that's lost from the Venezuela strike, but that will be another six weeks until we start to see the prices come down.

abcnews.go.com — By Arshad Mohammed and Pascal Fletcher

WASHINGTON/CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - The newly formed six-nation "Group of Friends" agreed on Friday to send a high-level team to Caracas next week to try to find a solution to the political crisis that has crippled Venezuela's economy.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, speaking for the group that includes the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Spain and Portugal, urged Venezuela's opposition and government to curb violence in the world's fifth-largest oil exporter.

Opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have staged a 54-day strike, slashing Venezuela's oil exports, in an effort to pressure the populist president to resign and hold early elections. Chavez has refused to step down.

"The mission is going to discuss concrete measures like, for example, how to diminish the risk of violence ... and the process of moderating the rhetoric," Amorim told reporters after the group's first meeting, held at the Organization of American States headquarters in Washington.

He said the team, likely to arrive on Thursday, will also explore options proposed by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter: one for an amendment to Venezuela's constitution to trigger early elections and the other for an Aug. 19 referendum.

The "Group of Friends" was formed last week to support OAS Secretary-General Cesar Gaviria's more than two-month effort to broker a deal between the two sides, which appear far apart.

The polarized positions and increasing outbreaks of violence have added urgency to international peace efforts.

'WORSE BY THE DAY' "Tragically ... the situation in Venezuela grows worse by the day," Secretary of State Colin Powell told the group according to a text of his prepared remarks.

Venezuelan opposition negotiators told reporters in Washington that any accord on elections must also include an agreement to restore to their jobs striking executives and employees of the state oil company PDVSA. Otherwise, they said, the grueling strike could not be lifted.

Chavez announced Thursday his government had sacked 3,000 PDVSA employees involved in the shutdown and said he was not prepared to negotiate with "terrorists."

"There can be no way out of this crisis based solely on elections. It has to include a solution to the oil issue," Timoteo Zambrano, a leader of the Coordinadora Democratica opposition coalition, told a news conference in Washington.

The opposition negotiators had earlier met with foreign ministers of the "friends" group.

The opposition shutdown has throttled oil output by South America's largest oil producer, pushing up world prices. It has also triggered a fiscal crisis for the Venezuelan government, forcing it to suspend foreign exchange trading and cut back budget spending by 10 percent.

But, in a sign that Chavez is making some headway in his efforts to break the strike, oil production and exports have been rising again.

Still, oil exports, the country's economic lifeblood, were only a quarter of normal levels and striking state oil executives voted Friday to maintain the stoppage.

Venezuelan oil supplies to the United States, normally more than 13 percent of total U.S. oil imports, have been disrupted by the strike, just when the United States is preparing for a possible war on Iraq.

Opposition negotiators said they hoped the "Group of Friends" could pressure Chavez to accept a negotiated electoral solution to end the crisis, which has raised fears of a violent, uncontrollable internal conflict in Venezuela.

Chavez, a former paratrooper who survived a brief coup last year, is resisting calls for early elections and has vowed to beat the strike. He accuses his opponents of trying to topple him from power by wrecking the economy.

His opponents say the president, who Thursday threatened to close hostile private television channels and take over banks which joined the strike, is ruling like a dictator. They accuse him of trying to install Cuba-style communism in Venezuela.

Chavez has already said he is willing to abide by the result of a binding referendum on his rule which the constitution foresees after Aug. 19, half way through his current term due to end in early 2007.

www.newsday.com

By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER Associated Press Writer January 25, 2003, 11:41 AM EST

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Opponents of President Hugo Chavez launched a 24-hour street demonstration Saturday to protest a court ruling that postponed a referendum on Chavez's rule.

A 2 1/2-mile stretch of central Caracas highway was set aside for the event, which organizers warned may last longer than one day.

"Prepare yourself for the longest protest in history!" screamed TV commercials and newspaper ads in the opposition-run media. They advised protesters to bring drinking water, sun hats, folding chairs and portable TVs to while away the hours under the tropical sun.

The demonstration followed a Supreme Court decision Wednesday to indefinitely postpone a nonbinding plebiscite, dashing opposition's hopes for a means of removing Chavez from office. Opposition leaders were convinced Chavez would be so embarrassed by the outcome, he would quit.

Negotiations mediated by Cesar Gaviria, secretary general of the Organization of American States, continued, aimed at ending the 55-day-old strike and bitter political stalemate.

But the opposition says it isn't going to wait for talks to produce results.

"We can't wait for the rainstorm to hit without having an umbrella," said Haydee Deutsch, of the Democratic Coordinator opposition movement.

Opponents are now considering a proposal by former President Carter, which would amend Venezuela's constitution to shorten presidential and legislative terms and mandate early elections.

"It's an option we think is viable," said labor leader Alfredo Ramos. The proposal calls for the opposition to end the strike and for the government, which has a congressional majority, to move quickly on changing the constitution. Amending the constitution requires congressional approval and a popular referendum.

A second proposal by Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, calls for Venezuelans to prepare for a binding recall referendum on the president's rule in August.

The so-called "Group of Friends of Venezuela," six countries that have pledged to help Gaviria broker an end to the crisis, met for the first time in Washington on Friday.

Secretary of State Colin Powell, who attended the meeting, urged Venezuelans to adopt Carter's ideas.

"The Carter proposals represent the best path available to the Venezuelans. They provide the badly needed basis on which both sides can bridge their differences on the immediate issues," Powell said, in a text released by the State Department.

While the "Friends" initiative began to take shape, oil production in Venezuela, the world's fifth largest exporter, was creeping up. Increased output could be a sign Chavez is defeating the work stoppage intended to force his ouster. But the former paratroop commander still struggles with the strike's effect on a recession-hit economy.

Oil production stood at about 3.2 million barrels per day before the strike was called Dec. 2. -- and slipped as low as 150,000 barrels per day later that month.

On Friday, dissident executives at state-run monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., or PDVSA, said output had crept to 855,000 barrels per day, up from 812,000 barrels on Thursday.

But production gains could be capped if exports, averaging around 450,000 barrels a day, don't pick up quickly. If oil isn't shipped, inventories pile up and no space remains for fresh production. Many tanker pilots returned to their jobs this week, but foreign shippers remained reluctant to use Venezuelan ports because regular docking and support personnel have not abandoned the strike.

Oil exports account for roughly half of government income. Chavez's government has acknowledged losing over $4 billion since the strike started.

Chavez could be "winning the petroleum war," as he claimed on Thursday, but the economic outlook for 2003 is dismal.

The Santander Central Hispano investment bank warned that Venezuela's economy could contract as much as 40 percent in the first quarter of 2003 if the crisis isn't resolved soon. The economy shrank by an estimated 8 percent in 2002.

----- Original Message ----- From: Rogelio Carrillo Penso To: mas@earthling.net ; rsteinback@herald.com ; lpitts@herald.com ; fgrimm@herald.com ; jdefede@herald.com ; pwallsten@herald.com ; breinhard@herald.com ; aoppenheimer@herald.com ; jfleischman@herald.com ; wshapiro@usatoday.com Sent: Miércoles, Diciembre 25, 2002 08:11 PM Subject: Wake Up America

American Friends:

In proper proportions, what the Citizens of Venezuela are doing arise questions that I want to put forth to you:

What would America do if your President Owned (yes owned, not influenced) Congress, the Supreme Court, the Attorney General, and all high officials?

What would America do if President George Bush forced Secretary Colin Powell into early retirement, and with him, most 4, 3 and 2 Star Generals, and replaced them with One Star Generals and Colonels that he feels are true to him?

What would America do if 22 million Americans demanded to have Free Elections to do away with a corrupt Government it found it had decided to openly embrace communism , but you didn't vote to have your Democracy assassinated?

What would America do if President George Bush decided that he didn't trust the Army to be unconditional to him, and thus decided to have Milosevic send him some of his Elite troops to protects him from the American Citizens and assure he stays in power?

What would America do if President Bush decided to fire Vice President Dick Cheney, and put a Lieutenant friend from the Army in his place? and then fire the three Vice Presidents!

What would America do if President Bush decided to fire all management and and take over EXXON MOBIL., AMOCO, CONOCO PHILLIPS, SHELL America, CHEVRONTEXACO, OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM, SUNOCO, and all smaller oil companies, and when the American citizens working in them went on Strike, President Bush decided to call the National Guard to attack these unarmed protesters, men and women, with Tear Gas and hit them with Machetes?

What would America do if President Bush asked Fidel Castro to invade the USA on his behalf, have mercenaries come ashore and put them in the officers home's in Annapolis, Tallahassee, the Georgia and South Carolina coast , and have Mrs. Powell and the wives of other officers cook for them so that these mercenaries are not seen or detected by the way they speak?

What would America do if 120 million Americans took to the streets in protest against a legally elected President who decided that he didn't like Democracy any more, and that Americans would now be ruled by Osama Bin Laden and friends?

These incredible things are happening in Venezuela right now. The citizens of Venezuela will not give up. Are you going to continue to support "President" Chavez's Regime and have our blood in your conscience?

Oil will not flow as long as this modern day Dictator is in Power.

America: What are you going to do?

Americans: Will you be at peace with yourself with the decision you have to make? Remember: Dping nothing is a Decision!

You are a Society with principles and values. Show them to us, to you, and to the world.

Rogelio Carrillo Penso Caracas - Venezuela Teléfono y Fax: +58-0212-976-4901

Financial Times Venezuela gets a hand from nimble Castro The US is being outsmarted by Cuba's leader in its own back yard, writes Moisés Naím, former minister of trade and industry in Venezuela and editor of Foreign Policy magazine. By Moisés Naím

Originally published in the Financial Times January 20, 2003

Oil and beauty queens: for decades, those were the only stories from Venezuela to catch the attention of the international media. Now, with its oil industry paralysed, the economy in free fall and President Hugo Chávez stepping up his Bolivarian revolution, Venezuela's disintegration is a story the world can no longer ignore.

The greatest surprise of the crisis is how little Washington has mattered. Fidel Castro's Cuba - small, poor and isolated - has been far more influential in Caracas than George W. Bush's mighty US. Indeed, few episodes better illustrate the limits of US power than the outmanoeuvring of Uncle Sam by Fidel in a country that is one of the largest suppliers of oil to the US.

While the US government was once closely involved in any Latin American political intrigue, it now seems strangely slow to appreciate what is happening in its back yard. In only a few years President Chávez has transformed one of most reliable partners of the US in South America into one of its most adversarial neighbours. Last year, and despite common perceptions to the contrary, the US was taken by surprise when a cabal of military officers and business leaders hijacked a massive civil protest in Caracas and ousted Mr Chávez - albeit briefly.

The clumsy, anti-democratic behaviour of the plotters and the swift, effective reaction of Mr Chavez's supporters returned the president to power, leaving White House spokesmen spluttering awkwardly about their hesitation to condemn the coup unequivocally. More recently, Washington was caught unawares by the strike that is blocking exports of Venezuelan oil, just as the US prepares for war in Iraq.

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001, Latin America all but disappeared from the map of top US policymakers. Without Islamic terrorists and nuclear capabilities, the region could not compete for attention. Moreover, as long as Mr Chávez, a thuggish but democratically elected president, did nothing to trigger an international reaction or threaten US interests, the options for intervention available to even a superpower were very limited. Washington's authority was further curtailed by its hesitant and ambiguous reaction to the attempted coup, a reaction denounced by Democrats in the US Congress.

In contrast, Cuba's attention to Venezuela has been sustained and effective. There is no foreign policy goal more fundamental to Cuba's economic well-being than ensuring that Mr Chávez stays in power. Venezuela's oil, sold at highly advantageous terms to Cuba, is an important reason but not the only one. An alliance with Venezuela has helped Cuba to ease the political and economic stranglehold the US has maintained since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Indeed, Venezuelan air force pilots report that the equivalent of an airlift between Caracas and Havana has been established.

The Cuban regime is extending its influence by sending thousands of government employees - among the health workers and sports trainers are intelligence officers - to Venezuela for extended periods. Meanwhile, large numbers of Mr Chávez's supporters are being sent to the island for training. Commenting on the abortedcoup, one European ambassador in Caracas said: "I don't know which was a bigger factor in returning Chávez to power - the ineptitude of his enemies or the effectiveness of the Cubans - but I do know that both played a role."

Havana has the motives and means to prop up the Venezuelan leader. Its intelligence is highly active and effective. The US authorities believe the Cuban secret service has infiltrated some of the most sensitive intelligence facilities in the US. Historically, Cuban agents either were directly involved or had front-row seats in almost all the revolutions, coups and guerrilla movements in the developing world.

Cuban diplomacy supported by Venezuelan oil money has also made significant inroads in the island nations of the Caribbean, which control an influential voting bloc in the Organisation of American States. Such ties may well complicate the organisation's role as mediator in the talks between Mr Chávez and the opposition.

The Venezuelan crisis can be solved only by Venezuelans. But, as the crisis deepens, the role of other countries will be crucial. The world's last remaining superpower will have to avoid being outsmarted again by the western hemisphere's sole cold war dictator.

The writer is a former minister of trade and industry in Venezuela and is editor of Foreign Policy magazine