abcnews.go.com Feb. 18 — By Phil Stewart

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Three military dissidents and a female protester opposed to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have been killed execution-style after being kidnapped, bound and gagged, police said on Tuesday.

Police refused to comment on the investigation, or to discuss possible motives or suspects.

All four victims frequented Plaza Altamira, the site of more than 120 days of protests against Chavez' government. The dead military men had also joined a call for popular resistance led by anti-Chavez Gen. Enrique Medina.

A 14-year-old girl who apparently witnessed at least one of the killings was hospitalized after being shot, but is talking, police said.

Raul Yepez, deputy director of the Caracas police homicide division, said the four victims had been fired upon with shotguns. It appeared that all of them went missing last week.

"We are conducting the investigation to try to answer these questions," he said.

Despite occasional violence in Venezuela's political standoff, there have been no confirmed selective killings of Chavez's allies or enemies. Still, street clashes have claimed at least seven lives and left scores injured since December.

The Venezuelan leader says his self-styled "revolution" for the poor is a peaceful one. His opponents, however, blame his aggressive class-warfare rhetoric for inspiring his supporters to take up arms.

Police said the victims were army soldier Darwin Arguello, marine infantry corporal Angel Salas and air force soldier Felix Pinto.

FORENSICS REPORT

A forensics report seen by Reuters indicated that a least of two of soldiers had been dead for about 72 hours. Their bodies were abandoned on the side of a multi-lane highway heading out of Caracas.

Yepez said at least one other victim was found on a farm on the outskirts of the capital.

The civilian victim, Zaida Perozo, had been wounded during a Dec. 6 shooting at Plaza Altamira, where she was protesting, said Carlos Bastidas, a lawyer for the dissident military officers.

At least one gunmen left three people dead and more than 20 injured in that attack which opposition leaders blamed on the government. Pinto was a material witness to the incident and had been considering testifying against the alleged shooter, Joao de Gouveia, said Bastides.

"It's very easy to put forward ideas or personal judgments ... but there is an element between this case and the case of Joao de Gouveia: that is one of the victims and a witness to Dec. 6 have died," Bastidas said.

Chavez is struggling to consolidate his power after surviving a coup last year. He has rebuffed calls by his opponents for early elections to cut short his term in office, which is set to end in 2007.

www.guardian.co.uk Angelique Chrisafis Wednesday February 19, 2003 The Guardian

The prawn sandwich, gourmet staple of Manchester United fans and office lunchers, has joined the list of environmentally taboo foods such as endangered cod and battery chicken.

A London-based campaign group is urging British consumers to boycott prawns because farming methods are endangering marine life and impoverishing African and Asian communities.

The Environmental Justice Foundation has released a report cataloguing the devastation caused by prawn trawling, in which fine nets are dragged along the seabed, catching 3m tonnes of prawns a year.

The nets, which catch 70% of global prawn stocks, ensnare other marine life and dent the business of local fishermen in countries such as Mozambique, Greenland and Venezuela.

For every 1kg (2lb) of prawns caught, nets entangle 10kg-20kg of sealife. Up to 25% of seabed life can be removed in one trawl and 150,000 sea turtles are killed by the nets each year. Trawling is the biggest single threat to seahorses.

Prawns account for 20% of the international seafood trade. Britain is one of the world's largest importers, trading mainly with Iceland, India, Thailand, Bangladesh, Norway and Indonesia. In 2000 Britain imported 77,900 tonnes and landed 2,100 tonnes from its own trawlers.

Steve Trent, director of the Environmental Justice Foundation, said: "The waste to feed a luxury market is totally unacceptable. Prawn fisheries are responsible for one third of world's discarded catch despite producing less than 2% of world's seafood."

He said prawn farming, which accounts for 30% of the industry, was not the solution. "We want British supermarkets to make clear where their prawns come from and whether they are committed to using only environmentally and socially sustainable sources."

reuters.com Tue February 18, 2003 08:32 PM ET By Phil Stewart

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Three military dissidents and a female protester opposed to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have been killed execution-style after being kidnapped, bound and gagged, police said on Tuesday.

Police refused to comment on the investigation, or to discuss possible motives or suspects.

All four victims frequented Plaza Altamira, the site of more than 120 days of protests against Chavez' government. The dead military men had also joined a call for popular resistance led by anti-Chavez Gen. Enrique Medina.

A 14-year-old girl who apparently witnessed at least one of the killings was hospitalized after being shot, but is talking, police said.

Raul Yepez, deputy director of the Caracas police homicide division, said the four victims had been fired upon with shotguns. It appeared that all of them went missing last week.

"We are conducting the investigation to try to answer these questions," he said.

Despite occasional violence in Venezuela's political standoff, there have been no confirmed selective killings of Chavez's allies or enemies. Still, street clashes have claimed at least seven lives and left scores injured since December.

The Venezuelan leader says his self-styled "revolution" for the poor is a peaceful one. His opponents, however, blame his aggressive class-warfare rhetoric for inspiring his supporters to take up arms.

Police said the victims were army soldier Darwin Arguello, marine infantry corporal Angel Salas and air force soldier Felix Pinto.

FORENSICS REPORT

A forensics report seen by Reuters indicated that a least of two of soldiers had been dead for about 72 hours. Their bodies were abandoned on the side of a multi-lane highway heading out of Caracas.

Yepez said at least one other victim was found on a farm on the outskirts of the capital.

The civilian victim, Zaida Perozo, had been wounded during a Dec. 6 shooting at Plaza Altamira, where she was protesting, said Carlos Bastidas, a lawyer for the dissident military officers.

At least one gunmen left three people dead and more than 20 injured in that attack which opposition leaders blamed on the government. Pinto was a material witness to the incident and had been considering testifying against the alleged shooter, Joao de Gouveia, said Bastides.

"It's very easy to put forward ideas or personal judgments ... but there is an element between this case and the case of Joao de Gouveia: that is one of the victims and a witness to Dec. 6 have died," Bastidas said.

Chavez is struggling to consolidate his power after surviving a coup last year. He has rebuffed calls by his opponents for early elections to cut short his term in office, which is set to end in 2007.

reuters.com Tue February 18, 2003 08:27 PM ET (Recasts first paragraph, adds details, background)

By Michael Kahn

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Feb 18 (Reuters) - Calpers, the nation's largest pension fund, on Tuesday ruled out investing in some of the world's largest countries, including China, India, Indonesia and Russia and dealt a blow to stock markets in Malaysia and Thailand.

In a move that set the stage for an overhaul of its emerging markets investment policies, the board of the California Public Employees' Retirement System, or Calpers, voted against stock investment in 12 developing countries.

The decision, which came in response to a proposal by California state treasurer Phil Angelides, was based on an assessment of the stability and transparency of those countries, including such criteria as accounting standards and labor law.

Also banned for investment were Morocco, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Pakistan, Colombia and Venezuela.

Calpers, which has some $133 billion in assets, had been expected to put Thailand and Malaysia back on its list of approved markets, but voted for tighter standards than an outside consultant had recommended.

Under the revised standards, investment was cleared for 14 emerging markets, including South Korea, Poland and Israel. The others are the Czech Republic, Hungary, Taiwan, South Africa, Chile, Mexico, Jordan, Peru, Argentina, Turkey and Brazil.

The fund, which has about $1.8 billion in emerging markets and can set the tone for other institutional investors, also said it would keep the Philippines on its target investment list after officials from that nation appealed a recommendation that it be dropped.

Calpers officials also said the fund would consider a proposal that would allow for more flexibility in implementing its emerging markets guidelines.

'WATCHLIST' PLAN

Specifically, the fund said it would consider adding countries to a "watchlist" before it sold off from those markets, allowing governments to respond to perceived problems and saving transaction costs.

Calpers last year began to consider civil liberties, press freedom and political risk in making investment decisions after board members argued that investing in more stable countries with liberal practices would yield better long-term returns.

There is no sign yet that policy is working.

An investment in the markets that made the grade according to a composite score prepared by Santa Monica, California-based Wilshire Consulting lagged a broader measure of emerging markets since the policy took effect in April last year.

Market data showed the 14 markets Calpers cleared for investment have lost an average of 8 percent in dollar terms since end-2001 compared with an average gain of more than 13 percent from the countries shunned by the fund.

The excluded list also featured markets that have seen out-sized gains, such as Pakistan, where the stock index more than doubled, and Russia, which posted a 42 percent return. The Thai market was up also up nearly 29 percent.

Of the countries cleared for investment, the Czech Republic has been the best performing since end-2001 with a gain of 46 percent, while Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Turkey and Israel have all posted double-digit losses.

ARGUMENT REJECTED

In its report to the fund this year, Wilshire argued that Calpers' policy had limited the benefits of diversification and concentrated the fund's "exposure to the more risky economic sectors" of the markets in which it did have a stake.

While Wilshire had argued for allowing investment in a total of 20 emerging markets, the Calpers board opted to continue its tougher standard under which just 14 qualified.

"I don't see any compelling reason right now to change the policy," Angelides said, arguing that the guidelines should be maintained over a longer term before their success can be judged.

The Calpers board listened with interest to a presentation from Philippines Finance Secretary Jose Camacho in which he argued that the country deserved better marks in areas such as investor protection, political stability and judicial reform.

Calpers had initially ruled out investment in the Philippines last year, only to reverse course after admitting that decision had been made on the basis of mistaken information about market settlement practices there.

Calpers' investment committee will reconsider how to treat lagging countries on its list and the status of the Philippines when it meets again in 60 days.

The debate over how to deal with the Philippines dominated much of the discussion, with some Calpers board members accusing Wilshire of making a prejudiced ruling against the Southeast Asian nation.

Wilshire representative Roz Hewsenian said she "strongly disagreed" with the allegation any bias was involved. The Philippines was ahead of only Russia, Venezuela and Indonesia in the Wilshire rankings.

ipsnews.net Humberto Márquez

CARACAS, Feb 18 (IPS) - The government and the opposition in Venezuela signed a joint declaration Tuesday against political violence, the first tangible achievement since César Gaviria, secretary-general of the Organisation of American States, began as mediator more than three months ago in negotiations for a way out of the country's political crisis. In the eight-point ”Declaration against violence and in favour of peace and democracy”, the two sides announce their commitment to dismantle the tensions that have pervaded the political sphere in Venezuela over the last few years, and reiterate their commitment to the Constitution and democratic law. In the statement, representatives of the Hugo Chávez administration and of the opposition reject verbal ”intemperance”, mutual recriminations, hurtful language and ”rhetoric that in any way encourages confrontation.” The two sides propose instead ”a language of mutual respect, tolerance, consideration of others' ideas, and the supreme appreciation of human life and dignity.” The tripartite group, comprising the OAS, the U.S.-based Carter Centre, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which is facilitating the dialogue, had repeatedly urged the two sides to ”lower their tone” and ”moderate the language” of their political discourse. Similar efforts were made by the so-called ”Group of Friends”, countries backing the OAS effort in Venezuela. The group was established in January by the foreign ministries of Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and the United States. The second point of Tuesday's joint declaration states that violence in any form, regardless of who perpetrates it, is ”absolutely unjustifiable”. The two sides ”summon all authorities and competent administrative and juridical bodies to act to investigate and penalise the loss of human lives.” In the last year, the death toll resulting from political violence in Venezuela has reached more than 80, with hundreds of people injured. During the social chaos associated with the failed coup d'état in April 2002, 61 people died, according to the non-governmental Venezuelan Human Rights Education-Action Programme. Street demonstrations or political rallies in Caracas, whether supporting the Chávez government or the opposition, another 10 people have died. In rural Venezuela, several peasant leaders have been assassinated. Tuesday's declaration rejects all expressions of violence, intolerance or vengeance. Six government delegates and six delegates from the opposition Democratic Coordinator, the document's signatories, exhorted the Venezuelan people to cease any ”direct or indirect attitude of aggression, threat, harassment or violence,” and urged churches, trade unions and all social organisations to help in the effort. During the past year, opposition protesters and pro-Chávez demonstrators have clashed in the streets of Caracas, and military officials are staying away from certain public places, such as restaurants in middle-class neighbourhoods, because they are subjected to insults or surrounded by crowds of residents banging pots and pans. The point in the declaration that required most effort to achieve consensus is about the communications media. The text calls on journalistic enterprises to ”promote peace, tolerance and peaceful coexistence” in their programming and to comply with and exercise their constitutional and legal rights and duties. The privately owned media championed the cause of the opposition during the two-month anti-Chávez strike that ended earlier this month. Television stations, for example, replaced normal advertising for political propaganda against the government. And the government followed suit, using state-run television and radio stations to disseminate its messages. The declaration's signatories are now obligated ”to maintain and improve the work” of the negotiations panel, which ”with this declaration approaches the possibility of an electoral way out” of the crisis, opposition leader Humberto Calderón told IPS. The delegates also agree to take up related issues, such as setting up a Truth Commission to clear up the events surrounding the April 2002 coup and deaths, and disarming the civilian population -- demanded by the opposition, which claims that many government supporters are carrying weapons illegally. ”The dialogue had started at the end, and with the Tuesday declaration we have returned to the beginning, and the road has been cleared so we can discuss anything,” commented Vice-President José Vicente Rangel. He was referring to the opposition's insistence on an ”electoral” way out of the political crisis -- such as a referendum on Chávez's mandate --, while the word order in the declaration is ”peaceful, democratic, constitutional and electoral”. Andrés Cova, representing the anti-Chávez trade unions in the negotiations, says he is confident that ”with this accord we can find an electoral solution in the middle term.” The opposition is seeking a constitutional amendment to declare an end to Chávez's presidential term, which lasts until 2006, and to convene new elections this year. After the six delegates from each side signed the joint declaration, representatives from the OAS, the Carter Centre and UNDP added their signatures. (END/2003)