santafenewmexican.com CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER | Associated Press 02/07/2003

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez claimed his moves to freeze the country's exchange rate had thwarted another plot against him - this time, a conspiracy to bleed Venezuela of its foreign reserves. Venezuela's currency, the bolivar, was pegged to the dollar, two weeks after its value plunged to record lows and dollar sales were suspended. The fixed exchange rate took effect Thursday and carefully controlled dollar trading resumed. Chavez Thursday blamed the crisis on business owners and other opponents, who he says crippled the Venezuelan economy and scared away foreign investors with a two-month-long general strike. "They wanted to take it all and bring it abroad. They wanted to leave us dry," Chavez said. "They wanted to leave us without dollars, so we took away the key." The opposition did not immediately respond to the claim, but several business leaders warned the new policy will fuel corruption and inflation, strangle investment and push the nation's fragile economy closer to collapse. They also claimed Chavez will use the controls to punish those who staged an unsuccessful strike to oust him. It ended earlier this week. A commission appointed by Chavez and the Central Bank will decide who can buy dollars. "This lends itself to any type of witch hunt," said Antonio Herrera, vice president of the Venezuelan American Chamber of Commerce. The new controls fix the bolivar's value at 1,596 to the dollar for sales and 1,600 for purchases. The bolivar closed at 1,853 to the dollar on Jan. 21, the last day of trading, but sold for 2,500 on the black market. The strike and months of political upheaval prompted a run on the dollar, and the bolivar has lost 25 percent of its value this year. Inflation topped 30 percent and foreign reserves dropped by US$2 billion to about US$11 billion. Dollar requests could take as long as 45 days to process under the new rules. That could force many businesses to buy black market dollars at higher prices, leading to higher inflation and corruption, analysts said. Luis Herrera, the owner of a fast food franchise, said he will now have to pay more for products and increase prices. Venezuela imports 60 percent of its raw materials and most of its food. "This will force me to cut costs by laying off workers," Herrera said. "I expect sales to drop by at least 30 percent." Newspapers and TV channels that supported the strike said Chavez could punish them by denying them dollars. "This is a severe threat because if he doesn't authorize dollars for the purchase of newsprint the newspapers simply won't circulate," said Miguel Otero, director of the local El Nacional daily. "Given that (Chavez) labels all the newspapers coup plotters, we can conclude there will be no dollars for us." Past governments used currency controls to restrict newspapers' ability to buy newsprint, which isn't produced in Venezuela. Also Thursday, Chavez attended a rally with a Chinese delegation in Venezuela and handed out Chinese tractors and land titles to farmers.

www.journalpioneer.com Feb. 7, 2003

by JIM BROWN, Journal Pioneer CHARLOTTETOWN — They left friends and family behind to start a new life in Canada, in the middle of a bitterly cold winter.

They are four Cuban sailors — three men and one woman, who escaped from their vessel, the Southern Ice, when it was docked in Summerside harbour for nearly three weeks in January.

Joe Byrne, youth co-ordinator for the Diocese of Charlottetown and member of the Association for Newcomers, says the four defectors, who travelled to Charlottetown in bitterly cold weather, are hunkering down for a potentially long wait before getting official refugee status.

Four Sri Lankans, who came into Canada last October and made their way to Charlottetown, have yet to earn their status.

Byrne isn't sure whether they are still in Charlottetown.

In the meantime the four Cubans are busy searching for lawyers to represent them and help them with their applications to the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB).

"They need four lawyers", one for each person, said Byrne.

They are currently receiving emergency social assistance while they await word on their claims.

"I wouldn't be surprised if this (application and hearing) took five to six, or perhaps eight months," for a decision to be reached, said Byrne.

At least two of the defectors have left spouses and children behind, and are desperately seeking ways to bring them to Canada.

They are reluctant to talk about their experiences for fear of reprisals against family and friends in Cuba, said Bryne.

But at least they have the support of many Charlottetown residents, who generously donated food and winter clothing, he said.

Earlier published accounts reported conditions aboard the Southern Ice had steadily deteriorated and that there complaints about long hours of work and problems with pay.

Nancy Cairns, agent for the Southern Ice, says her third contract definitely wasn't the charm. Cairns, who lives in Stanley Bridge, took over the business from her husband, Harold, who passed away recently.

"I'm definitely learning the hard way. It's been very interesting."

The Southern Ice, which was berthed in Summerside for 19 days in January loading 5,450 tonnes of tablestock potatoes destined for Venezuela, was stuck in harbour for much longer than planned because of foul winter weather, including high winds.

Cairns was responsible for nearly everything the crew needed while the boat was docked, including arranging, if necessary, medical and dental visits, food supplies and legal services.

"It was my third ship, thank goodness it wasn't my first," she joked. Her husband had warned her that defecting crew members weren't that uncommon in the business, but it still came as a shock when it happened to her.

"There's absolutely nothing you can do" when it happens, she said.

Fortunately, other members of the crew could fill in for the missing sailors and the ship was able to continue to its destination when the weather improved. The ship was expected to pick up more crew members in Venezuela.

"I don't think it had anything to do with the conditions on the ship," said Cairns, who visited the ship nearly every day when it was berthed.

"The ship was always clean," she said.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Friday, February 07, 2003 - 4:09:19 PM By: Roy S. Carson

Venezuelan businessman Harry Mannil Laul (82) has been kicked out of Costa Rica after allegations that he is a Nazi war criminal. 

A native Estonian, Mannil Laul had been identified in the Central American country by the US Department of Justice and the Simon Wiesenthal Center as having been a member of the Estonian Political Police during the Nazi occupation 1941-1943.  With business holdings in Costa Rica and a home in Venezuela, authorities say Mannil took part in persecuting the Jewish community in Estonia where Jews were arbitrarily detained and assassinated.

Costa Rica's director general of Immigration, Marco Badilla personally told Mannil Laul never to return to Costa Rica and that, if he tries, he'll be sent back as "a threat to Costa Rica's national security, public order and the quality of life."

United States officials apparently collaborated with Costa Rican authorities and say that Mannil Laul was a high-ranking member of the violent Estonian police unit ... he has denied the allegations, claiming he was simply involved in administrative tasks.

Venezuela-naturalized  Mannil Laul (82) had visited Costa Rica on at least 14 occasions last year on tourist visas and was originally suspected of visa violations after admitting he had traveled there on business.

The US Simon Wiesenthal Center has praised Costa Rica's initiative saying that Mannil Laul had tried to gain residency status in Costa Rica but had been denied the status because he has permanent residence in Venezuela.  The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s chief Nazi hunter, Dr. Efraim Zuroff says he would like to see Mannil Laul brought to justice in Estonia but claims the Estonian government is not doing enough to prosecute Nazi atrocities.

See www.amcostarica.com

www.cnn.com Friday, February 7, 2003 Posted: 8:21 AM EST (1321 GMT)

President Hugo Chavez addresses radio and television viewers during a Wednesday address at Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- The band of government supporters surrounded the Televen TV news crew on a highway, punched the driver, stole equipment and shattered the car's rear window.

The same day, emissaries of President Hugo Chavez, accompanied by 1,000 supporters, informed the Venevision TV network it may be fined for its coverage of a two-month strike aimed at forcing Chavez to step down.

The incidents on Wednesday came as Chavez intensifies a longtime offensive against Venezuela's news media, many of which promoted the strike. The protest petered out this week.

His government is investigating all four national private TV networks, whom he likes to call the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Independent lawmaker Alberto Jordan counted more than 60 assaults and threats against reporters in January, up from 60 in all of 2002.

Regional television outlets and a growing number of radio stations are also under investigation, and on Thursday, the Chavez-dominated Congress began debating legislation that would regulate TV and radio programming more closely.

The project would divide the broadcast day into "children's," "supervised" and "adult" hours, and require journalists to divulge documentary sources. It would even monitor the music and language used in commercials.

"They'd tell us what is good sex and what is bad sex, what is good violence and what is bad violence, what health information can be broadcast and what health programs can't," Asdrubal Aguiar, professor of international law at Andres Bello Catholic University, told Venevision.

In a recent prime-time speech, Chavez said the new media law, which needs a simple majority to pass, will protect "our adolescents from the abuses of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ... who trample the truth, who sow terror and fear and create ghosts for our children."

President touts record on media

Most Venezuelan media gave shrill and supportive coverage to the strike and its leaders. Newspapers sometimes refused to publish in solidarity with strikers, and thousands of opposition television commercials were aired.

Ruling party lawmaker Juan Barreto said Thursday the government wants to find out who paid for the ads and collect any unpaid taxes on them. He said that private TV broadcast an average of 700 pro-strike or anti-Chavez ads daily during the protest.

Media owners insist they were forced to play a partisan role with the evaporation of Venezuela's traditional, and corrupt, political parties in the late 1990s.

Chavez, first elected in 1998, proudly notes that his government, unlike its predecessors, hasn't sent agents to abduct reporters or seize newspaper editions right off the presses.

The government insists that balanced media coverage must be guaranteed if early elections, as demanded by the opposition, are to be held.

The issue has come up during talks mediated by the Organization of American States. The Group of Friends, six nations backing the negotiations, urged private channels to limit anti-Chavez and pro-strike commercials.

Not that Chavez has much trouble getting air time.

He has his own weekly talk show. Government television trumpets the revolution's successes. And he gives speeches known as "cadenas" -- television stations have been forced to interrupt their programming to air them at least 29 times since January 1.

Past presidents rarely used the cadena law, designed for matters of national importance.

www.forbes.com Reuters, 02.07.03, 4:47 PM ET By Pascal Fletcher

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan store owners and lowly street vendors often compete for customers on the same patch of pavement. But they seem to agree on one thing: the country's new currency and price controls are bad for business. In downtown Caracas, where the spirit of free commerce and competition rules in an atmosphere of bustling chaos, most merchants were uncertain and fearful Friday about the tough economic curbs introduced by President Hugo Chavez this week. Standing inside his men's' clothing store, stocked with neatly displayed merchandise but empty of customers, Horacio Bargiela wondered if things could get any worse. "We have inflation. We have a recession. Now we have currency controls. Where do we go from here?" said the 68-year-old son of Spanish Galician immigrants who has been in the garment trade for 30 years. Seeking to resolve a crippling economic crisis triggered by a two-month opposition strike that failed to oust him, the left-wing president imposed a fixed exchange rate for the bolivar currency Thursday and tight restrictions on the movement and use of dollars. Chavez, who was first elected in 1998, swore in a government committee to control hard-currency transactions in and out of the country. He made clear he would personally supervise the allocation of currency and vowed "not a single dollar" would be granted to opponents he condemned as "coup mongers" and "terrorists" for staging the grueling strike against him. Like the owners of many private businesses, large and small, Bargiela and his wife, Laura, shut their shop for part of December in support of the nine-week opposition strike. The strike, which is still affecting the oil industry, slashed output by the world's No. 5 oil exporter, forcing the cash-strapped government to halt foreign exchange trading to stem capital flight and support the sliding bolivar. The Bargielas said that if Chavez carried out his threat to withhold dollars from businesses that backed the strike, many of them would simply stop importing or producing. In turn, shops and retailers that depended on their supplies would run out of merchandise or would have to look for it elsewhere, probably at higher prices. "If Chavez says he's not going to give dollars to the coup mongers, then we're all coup mongers. We'll just have to shut up the shop," said Laura Bargiela. She said 90 percent of the materials used to make the clothes they sold were imported. Two local importers had already informed them they were closing down their businesses. "We see a pretty uncertain and dangerous future," she added.

POOR SQUEEZED AS WELL Just down the street, Julio Cesar Luz and Doris Tineo are struggling to eke out a living with a sidewalk stall selling cheap plastic party masks imported from China. "We've been here about three months, just getting by. But it's pretty tough," Luz said. In the same week Chavez announced the foreign exchange controls, Luz's local suppliers increased the price of the masks by about 40 percent. "Of course this affects us, everything just keeps going up," Luz complained. Private businesses and economists say the currency and price controls will stifle private enterprise and push the oil-reliant economy even deeper into recession. They predict that already high inflation and unemployment will rise further. Bargiela said he had already cut back his store's small sales team from three to one. "And we're all here twiddling our thumbs with nothing to do," he said. Chavez, who portrays his "revolution" as a crusade to help Venezuela's poor, also announced price controls on a range of goods and services, including basic foods like beans, milk, bread, flour and eggs. Electrical goods store manager Juan de Sousa said: "If you're in electrical goods and even if your business is legal, the government doesn't give you dollars to import, what are you going to do? Sell beans, sell flour?"