www.stockhouse.ca 2/19/03

Gold Reserve Inc. (TSX: GLR.A - OTC: GLDR.OB). Gold Reserve reports that the Venezuelan Ministry of Energy and Mines has approved the operating plan for the Brisas gold/copper project. This approval is the result of considerable effort by the Company and has occurred at a time period when the economics of the project have been enhanced by the recent increase in the price of gold and copper. The Company has completed a majority of the required technical work and has already commenced activities with engineering and technical firms to complete the bankable study for project financing. In addition, activities have commenced to obtain the necessary environmental permits and approvals from the Venezuelan Ministry of Environment.

Rockne J. Timm, President and CEO, stated, 'The Company is proceeding with the Brisas 'stand-alone'project primarily due to the recent increase in the price of gold and copper. The last several years have been a time period of depressed commodity prices and we have advanced the project to this stage with minimal shareholder dilution and a strong financial position, allowing the Company to advance the project to the next level. We are extremely excited to move the Brisas project forward at this time. In addition, we do not believe the recent events in Venezuela will have any significant impact to our immediate or mid-term efforts.'

Gold Reserve's Brisas project in southeastern Venezuela contains a current resource of 9.9 million ounces of gold containing proven and probable reserves of 6.67 million ounces of gold and 871 million pounds of copper. The Company has approximately US$12.5 million in cash and no debt and no gold hedging. With 24.3 million shares outstanding, this amounts to 0.27 ounces of gold reserves per share, which is one of the highest in the industry, giving the Company tremendous leverage to a rising gold price. The market currently capitalizes these ore reserves at approximately US$3.70 per ounce in the ground net of cash.

The forward-looking information in this press release addresses future events involving known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to vary materially from projected results. These risks and uncertainties include those described in the Company's Annual Information Statement filed on SEDAR and the 20-F filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on EDGAR.

Internet - goldreserveinc.com

CONTACT: A. Douglas Belanger, Executive Vice President, 926 W. Sprague, Suite 200, Spokane, WA 99201, Tel. (509) 623-1500, Fax (509) 623-1634

www.canada.com CanWest News Services Wednesday, February 19, 2003

ExxonMobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, will resume loading oil from Venezuela's Jose port, the first U.S. company to do so since a strike began Dec. 2.

The Therassia will load 525,000 barrels of synthetic crude from ExxonMobil's heavy-oil Cerro Negro joint venture, said Ruben Rodriguez, the port's loading manager for state-oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA. The U.S. company made the decision after an evaluation of the port, Rodriguez said.

"The port is safe, and we're hoping other companies start loading as well," said Rodriguez. "We're in talks with Shell."

The shipment represents a blow to oil strikers who are in 79th day of a strike aimed at toppling President Hugo Chavez. The strikers have been able to reduce the country's oil exports by staying off the job and claiming that the ports are unsafe, which has led many companies to refuse to send tankers to Venezuela.

ExxonMobil spokesman Richard Bailey declined comment.

U.S.-based Valero Energy Corp. will also send the tanker Tatriz to Jose on Feb. 21 to pick up synthetic crude from the Sincor heavy oil joint venture, Rodriguez said.

Since the strike began Dec. 2, only tankers owned by, or chartered to, state-oil company Petroleos de Venezuela or the Cuban oil company, have used Jose.

Jose was shipping about 700,000 barrels a day before the strike started.

www.cnn.com Wednesday, February 19, 2003 Posted: 8:54 AM EST (1354 GMT)

We are conducting the investigation to try to answer these questions. -- Raul Yepez, Caracas police homicide division

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.

The victims frequented Plaza Altamira, the site of more than four months of protests against Chavez' government. The military men had 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 have been missing since 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 supporters to take up arms.

Government and opposition negotiators on Tuesday signed an anti-violence agreement meant to tone down hateful language and discourage street clashes. The declaration, which has no enforcement mechanism, is the only signed agreement after three months of painful negotiations over early elections.

Forensics report

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

A forensics report seen by Reuters indicated that at least of two of soldiers had been dead for about 72 hours. Their bodies were abandoned on the side of a multilane 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 already been wounded once -- during a December 6 shooting at Plaza Altamira, where she was protesting, said Carlos Bastidas, a lawyer for the dissident military officers.

At least one gunman left three people dead and more than 20 injured in that attack, which opposition leaders blamed on the government. Pinto was a witness 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 December 6 have died," Bastidas said.

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

Some top brass gathering at the Plaza Altamira were the ringleaders of last year's coup attempt. The military officers have been sidelined from the talks by civilian negotiators, but still sign autographs for loyal fans.

www.rnw.nl Radio Nertherlands by our Internet desk, 19 February 2003   Hello president: Mr Chavez is well known for his tempestuous speechesAn anti-violence pact signed by both sides in Venezuela's bitter civil struggle has been dismissed by commentators as symbolic and of little value in returning the nation to normality. Even as President Hugo Chavez and the opposition agreed on the seven-point statement, news of the execution-style killings of four anti-Chavez demonstrators emerged in the capital Caracas.

Venezuela has been in a state of turmoil for more than a year, deeply divided over President Chavez's socialist policies and his confrontational style of leadership. In April last year the President withstood a military-led coup attempt, an event which polarised the nation to an even greater extent. Analysts estimate that about 70 people have been killed in street and political violence as pro- and anti-Chavez factions clash, and the Venezuelan economy has been crippled by strikes and loss of market confidence.

No solution The pact signed Tuesday represents a poor antidote to the strife, according to Venezuelan journalist Fred Pals. What the country really needs is an agreement on when elections will be held.

"They have agreed to respect democracy, peace, to make all efforts to end violence which has been rampant in Venezuela the past couple of months, they said they respect freedom of expression, condemning verbal abuse, but after a hundred days of negotiations it's rather meagre, and still a far cry from reaching an electoral deal."

GRISLY FIND: Caracas police announced the discovery of the bodies of four anti-Chavez protestors on Tuesday. Three soldiers and one civilian woman had been killed at close range with shotguns, after being bound and gagged. The bodies were found dumped at separate locations outside Caracas.

The four, who have all been identified, were well known as demonstrators  who frequented Plaza Altamira, a focal point for the Venezuelan opposition. A lawyer for one of the victims said his client had been a witness to a shooting at Plaza Altamira on December 6, in which three people were killed.Clauses which reject "verbal intemperance, mutual recrimination, verbal attacks and any rhetoric aimed at confrontation" are particularly hard to reconcile with Mr Chavez's behaviour. He is well known for multiple-hour-long harangues on television, in which he condemns his enemies as ‘terrorists' and incites his impoverished followers to class war.

Questionable respect The opposition has been pushing for an amendment to the constitution that would allow an immediate referendum on the presidency; at the moment such a referendum is due in August, half-way through Mr Chavez's six-year term. But it is not clear whether Mr Chavez and his supporters will respect the poll, in any case.

Pals says that for this reason, the opposition will keep pushing for a more substantial agreement.

 Fred Pals speaking to Newsline´s Claire Cavanagh 2´21"They will definitely go further, especially the opposition, because they need a formal agreement signed by the government that somehow elections will be respected, and will be funded by the government. So they will keep pushing."

 www.islam-online.net

"We hope to bring about a climate of understanding between all Venezuelans with this declaration," said Gaviria 

CARACAS, February 19 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – In what is seen as the first concrete step in three months of talks, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and opposition forces signed late Tuesday, February 18, a non-violence pact, curtailing a 63-day general strike called on December 2 to oust Chavez.

The seven-point pact rejected "verbal intemperance, mutual recrimination, verbal attacks and any rhetoric aimed at confrontation," Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted Cesar Gaviria, head of the Organization of American States (OAS), as saying.

"We hope to bring about a climate of understanding between all Venezuelans with this declaration," said Gaviria, who has been heading negotiations backed by a six-nation group led by the U.S.

One of the aims of the pact, in effect, is to tone down the rhetoric between Chaves and his opponents.

Before inking the pact, Chavez and his opponents had been trading insults and swear words.

Chaves frequently described his opponents as "squalid ones" or "fascist coup-plotters", while his opponents called him a "tyrant".

The pact urged all political and social factions to "create a climate of peace and calm in the country".

It also called on the legislature to form a "Peace Commission" to investigate the 70 deaths during the April bloody coup.

"The document is a confidence-building measure that does not carry any sanctions, " BBC News Online quoted some political analysts as saying.

For his part, oopposition leader Timoteo Zambrana told BBC that he hoped the pact would help reduce tensions in Venezuela.

Political tensions have run extremely high since April, when the leftist-populist elected president was briefly ousted for 47 hours.

There have been almost 70 political killings in Caracas, in addition to massive rallies against and in defence of Chavez's government.

Aimed at ending the political and economic standoffs that have gripped the country for more than a year, the mediation talks were centred on proposals by co-mediator former U.S. president Jimmy Carter.

Carter had proposed a constitutional amendment allowing early elections or a referendum on continuation of Chavez's term of office, to be scheduled for August 19, the mid-point of the president's term.

Accusing him of being too authoritarian and blaming him for the country's economic woes, the opposition wants President Chavez to stand down and call a referendum on his rule.

But the president, who was re-elected in 2000, has refused to consider a vote before August.

During the strike, Chavez said he would order military takeovers of food plants allegedly holding back products on the government list of staple items.

Trying to rule with an iron-fist, Chavez had warned Sunday, February 16, that if businessmen close food plants to protest his government's recently-introduced currency exchange and price controls, he would order the military to take them over.

"Oligarchic businessmen ... will not take away the people's arepa," Chavez said, referring to a cornmeal patty that is a staple of the working class dinner table.

He also stressed on the weekend that his government would step up its "war" on large landowners in Venezuela.

"War against large landholdings -- the land is for those who work it, not for the country's Little Lord Landholders," Chavez promised.

He also said Venezuela's daily oil production was back up to 2.1 million barrels per day as he pushed for the crucial industry to get back on its feet after the crippling two-month strike.

Before the strike, Venezuela, the world's eighth oil producer, and fifth exporter to the U.S., was exporting 2.8 million barrels a day.