www.plastic.com found on the Guardian written by chatsubo, edited by George (Plastic) [ read unedited ] posted Thu 20 Feb 8:05am

"The mostly bloodless political conflict that has gripped Venezuela for many months took a decidedly uglier turn with the news that three anti-Chavez dissident military officers and an accompanying woman were found murdered after being apparently kidnapped and tortured," chatsubo writes. "A fifth person, a 14-year-old girl, was found alive, though in serious condition. "The populist, and some say authoritarian, Chavez has polarised the country, especially since the recent abortive coup attempt, which apparently had U.S. support.

"One of the victim's brothers claims that the officers had been under constant intimidation from Venezuelan security forces and police, and had received death threats from the Bolivarian Circles, self-styled pro-Chavez militias, as well as the far-left Tupamaro group.

"Rafael Narvaez, the head of Venezuela's human rights association, said, 'There are no credible institutions left any more, and there is currently no rule of law or due process in Venezuela, We will push as hard as we can for the authorities to investigate the murders, but if we hit a brick wall, we will ask the international community to apply pressure.'

"The discovery of the bodies was followed by the news that Carlos Fernandez, head of the country's largest business council, and one of the leaders of the general strike, was snatched from a restaurant by armed men claiming to be secret police agents. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Roy Chaderton said he had no knowledge of Mr. Fernandez's whereabouts.

"As professional coup watchers will tell you, the use of agent provocateurs was common practice during the Chile and Iran coups.

"As a democratic socialist myself, I would find it profoundly depressing if Chavez has resorted to such brutal, Stalin-era tactics of control and oppression. Surely you don't have to choose between democratic rights and social justice for the poor? Can't you have both?"

www.forbes.com Reuters, 02.20.03, 11:24 AM ET

Food  Latin America   By Teresa Cespedes LIMA, Peru, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Brazilian beer giant AmBev <AMBV4.SA>(nyse: ABV - news - people) faces an uphill battle as it squares off against Peru's Backus y Johnston <BKJi.LM><BKJa.LM>, which controls almost the entire beer market in this poor nation, analysts said. AmBev announced this week it would spend $38 million in Peru in the coming year to set up a brewer and distribution network, which would be online by the first half of 2004. "AmBev has a tough road ahead because it is entering a (country) where one brewer controls 99 percent of the market and has well developed distribution channels," Centura SAB brokerage beer analyst Gabriela Galvez told Reuters. Colombia's top brewer, Bavaria <BAV.CN>, owns 51.55 percent of Backus' common voting shares. Venezuela's Cisneros Group owns 22.3 percent, while Peruvian group Bentin has 15 percent of Backus. The rest is held by small Peruvian shareholders. Banco de Credito analyst Victor Hugo Soto said the arrival of AmBev, the world's fifth-largest brewer, in Peru could be part of a strategy designed to crack Bavaria's domination of the Andean region. "I think their idea is to approach, from Peru, Bavaria's hold in Panama, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru to be able to, at a later date, negotiate with the Colombians," Soto said. AmBev sells popular brands Brahma and Antarctica in Brazil, and also has market share in Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Uruguay and Venezuela. Backus, worth an estimated $1.5 billion, reported an 83-percent jump in 2002 earnings to $62.3 million compared with the previous year. Interest in the top brewer in Peru's $400 million beer market triggered a row last year involving Backus stakeholders Bavaria, Cisneros, and fellow Venezuelan group Empresas Polar. That battle was settled in December 2002 when Polar sold its 24.6-percent stake to Bavaria, which is a partner of Cisneros in a Colombian television station, for some $568 million. According to AmBev, people in Peru -- a poor country where more than half the 27 million population lives on $1.25 or less a day -- drink an annual average of 22 liters per person, much lower than Brazil's per capita 50 liters. Backus makes top Peruvian beers Pilsen, Cristal and Cusquena, among others. "Backus' brands are well positioned and there is also the whole issue of acquired tastes," said Banco Wiese Sudameris analyst Guillermo Kaelin. "Consumers are loyal to brands and flavors ... In Peru, Corona and Heineken don't get the same reception (as Peruvian beers)," Galvez said. Analysts also said that AmBev's entry could set off a price war in a market seen as ripe for growth. AmBev head Magim Rodriguez told local newspaper Gestion this week that beer prices in Peru "were a little high for people's buying power."

www.sun-sentinel.com By JAMES ANDERSON Associated Press Posted February 20 2003, 11:28 AM EST

CARACAS, Venezuela - A leader of Venezuela's general strike was snatched out of a restaurant by secret police and faces charges of treason and instigating violence for his role in mass, anti-government protests that crippled the nation's economy.

On Thursday, the morning after the midnight arrest of Carlos Fernandez, opposition leaders threatened to call a new strike in response.

Strike co-leader Carlos Ortega, of the Venezuelan Workers Confederation, was ordered to surrender, also on treason and instigating violence charges, said magistrate Maikel Jose Moreno.

Ortega and Fernandez, president of Venezuela's largest business federation, Fedecamaras, led the two-month strike that started Dec. 2, seeking to oust leftist President Hugo Chavez. The strike ended this month except in Venezuela's oil sector. Chavez accuses the two strike leaders of trying to topple his government.

Eight armed men seized Fernandez at about midnight Wednesday as he was leaving a restaurant in Caracas' trendy Las Mercedes district, his bodyguard, Juan Carlos Fernandez, told Globovision TV.

He said the men, who identified themselves as police agents, fired into the air when patrons tried to stop them from taking Fernandez away.

Ortega condemned the arrest as ``a terrorist act'' against Venezuela's opposition, already shaken by the slayings and possible torture of three dissident Venezuelan soldiers and an opposition activist.

International human rights groups have demanded an investigation into the slayings of the four, whose bodies were found in the suburbs of Caracas with hands tied and faces wrapped with tape.

Darwin Arguello, Angel Salas and Felix Pinto and opposition activist Zaida Peraza, 25, had multiple bullet wounds and showed signs of torture, Raul Yepez, deputy director of Venezuela's forensics police, said Wednesday.

He said the four were abducted Saturday night.

According to the New York-based Human Rights Watch, a witness saw the victims being forced into two vehicles by men wearing ski masks, not far from a plaza that has become the opposition's central rallying point.

``The circumstances strongly suggest that these were political killings,'' said Jose Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch.

Yepez said police had ``practically ruled out'' political motives. There have been no arrests.

Dissident soldiers supported the nationwide strike, which demanded Chavez's resignation or call for early elections. The strike was lifted Feb. 4 in all areas except the oil industry to protect businesses from bankruptcy.

The vice president of the Fedecamaras business association, Albis Munoz, warned of another nationwide strike. She said Fernandez was seized without a court order and was being held at secret police headquarters.

Definitely there will be actions, and very strong actions,'' Munoz said, adding that Fernandez was practically kidnapped.'' ``There has been no way of communicating with him,'' she said.

Opposition leaders called for street protests and appealed to the Organization of American States, the United Nations and the Carter Center, run by former President Jimmy Carter, which have brokered talks here.

One opposition delegate to those talks, Rafael Alfonzo, said Fernandez's abduction made a mockery of a ``peace pact'' renouncing violence that government and opposition negotiators signed on Wednesday.

``This government doesn't want to negotiate. It only wants conflict. We won't back down,'' Alfonzo said.

OAS Secretary General Cesar Gaviria issued a statement urging Venezuela's judiciary to treat Fernandez's case in ``strict compliance with the laws and rights guaranteed by the (Venezuelan) constitution.''

Chavez was elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000, vowing to wipe out the corruption of previous governments and redistribute Venezuela's vast oil wealth to the poor majority.

His critics charge he has mismanaged the economy, tried to grab authoritarian powers and split the country along class lines.

Having abandoned their strike, opponents are now petitioning for a constitutional amendment to cut Chavez's term in power from six to four years.

They said Wednesday that more than 4.4 million Venezuelans had signed, well over the 15 percent of registered voters, or about 1.8 million, needed to force a referendum on early elections.

www.news24.com 20/02/2003 18:05  - (SA)  

Caracas - Police have arrested business leader Carlos Fernandez, a top organiser of a 63-day strike to force President Hugo Chavez out of office, Venezuelan television reported early on Thursday.

Fernandez, from the Fedecamaras free trade body, was arrested as he was leaving a restaurant in the trendy commercial district of Las Mercedes, restaurant employees told Globovision television.

Police officers fired several shots, but the employees said no-one was injured during the arrest.

The Political Police (Disip) did not confirm Fernandez' arrest either publicly or to the Democratic Coordinator grouping political parties and civil rights groups opposed to the Chavez administration.

Fernandez and Venezuelan Workers' Confederation president Carlos Ortega were the two top leaders of a 63-day general strike by business and union groups against Chavez that ended February 2.

The strike reduced Venezuela's crude oil exports to a 150 000-barrel-per-day (bpd) trickle. Production now has increased to two million bpd - still well below its normal, pre-strike output of 2.8 million bpd.

Chavez and opposition forces on Tuesday signed a non-violence pact, under the mediation of Organization of American States Secretary-General Cesar Gaviria.

More of a confidence-building measure than a political deal, the pact calls for "a climate of peace and calm in the country," and for the legislature to form a "Peace Commission" to investigate 70 deaths during a failed April coup against Chavez.

Ortega told Globovision that Fernandez' arrest was part of the government's "terror" tactics against leading opposition members.

"We can't rule anything out," he added. "At the moment, our physical wellbeing and our families are in jeopardy."

Ortega said soon there would be "calls for street action both in the capital and the interior of the country".

Social democratic leader Timoteo Zambrano, who takes part in OAS-mediated talks with the Chavez administration to resolve the political crisis, said Fernadez' arrest "escalates the conflict further", and called on the international community to "intervene ugently".

Juan Fernandez, who leads a group of sacked employees of the state oil giant PDVSA, said the arrest showed the "desperation" of the government and called for popular action to demand Fernandez's release.

With no official word on the arrest, rumours were flying that Fernandez was on a government arrest list of 25 opposition leaders, or that he was kidnapped by either the secret police or pro-Chavez militants.

Weeks ago, Fernandez testified before the attorney-general's office in an investigation into the April 12 attempted coup that removed Chavez from office for 47 hours.

Pedro Carmona, Fernandez's boss in Fedecamaras at the time of the coup, took over the presidency during Chavez's arrest. - Sapa-AFP

www.saljournal.com Posted at 9:35 AM on Thursday, February 20, 2003 By The Associated Press

At Eagle Communications in Hays, rising gasoline prices are boosting the costs of driving the cable television and Internet company's service trucks. But Eagle isn't planning to pass that cost along to its customers.

"We can't cut service," Eagle president and chief executive Gary Shorman said. "Our customers expect a high level of service. The best you can do is be aware of that excess cost."

With a gallon of gas in Kansas now at $1.61 -- about 51 cents more than a year ago -- Eagle and other Kansas businesses are sucking up the extra costs, at least for now. It's not likely to last forever, and people already paying more to fill up their own cars are likely to also face higher prices for goods and services.

Kansas AAA spokeswoman Amanda Millard said the average gas price has climbed 16 cents since President Bush's State of the Union Address on Jan. 28, thanks mostly to rising anxiety concerning a war with Iraq.

Some of the blame also rests with supply disruptions resulting from a strike in Venezuela.

Anticipating a sharp price increase if a war begins, retailers are trying to boost prices slowly over time to avoid a sudden sticker shock to consumers, Millard said.

Shorman said the company can't avoid the cost of fuel; its trucks have to roll. Eagle has a fleet of about 15 vehicles and offers cable, digital cable and high-speed Internet service to a sprawling area in western Kansas, stretching 170 miles from Goodland to Russell.

He said there is no immediate cost to Eagle customers, but a price increase could come if gas prices stay high.

"Eventually, you have to look at all your costs of doing business being paid for by consumers, or else you're going to go out of business," Shorman said.

Mike Fraser, who oversees Salina's municipal vehicles, echoed Shorman, saying the city can't sideline its police cars, fire trucks and trash haulers.

"It does strain the budgets that we have, but there's not a lot that I think we can do," Fraser said.

He also said gas prices often average themselves out during the course of a year and can also be offset by unexpected savings in other budget areas.

But if prices stay high, he said, the city would have to find ways to use less gas.

Connie Blaszak of Hill City, Minn., didn't let the high gas prices stop her from driving to Kansas City, Kan., where she was filling her van's tank at a Shell station.

While she kept the travel plans she already had made, Blaszak said she didn't plan to make any extra trips.

At ABC Taxi in Wichita, owner Jim Elmore said the gas prices don't hurt him or his riders. It's his 40 drivers who are taking the hit because they pay for their own fuel.