www.alertnet.org 21 Feb 2003 23:18

By Patrick Markey

CARACAS, Venezuela, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez on Friday railed against international criticism over the arrest of one of his opponents who was detained for leading a strike against the leftist leader.

A squadron of plainclothes police on Friday hustled a grim-faced Carlos Fernandez into the attorney general's office, where he faces civil rebellion and treason charges for spearheading the two-month strike that battered the economy of the world's No. 5 oil exporter.

His arrest late Wednesday at gunpoint drew fire from international organizations and the United States, which said it feared the move would undermine negotiations to end the bitter political feud over the president's rule.

"We are nobody's colony," Chavez roared at a crowd of supporters in western Trujillo state. "We have our own institutions, our own constitution ... and we will not accept meddling in Venezuela's domestic affairs."

DISIP state security police on Friday were still holding Fernandez, a silver-haired trucking executive who leads the Fedecamaras business chamber. He was not formally charged.

Armed officers snatched Fernandez from outside a Caracas restaurant around midnight Wednesday after a judge ordered him and another strike leader, union boss Carlos Ortega, arrested. Ortega, a fierce Chavez critic, has gone into hiding.

Opponents of the populist president, who they accuse of trampling over democracy, have slammed the arrest as illegal and urged the international community to prevent what they fear will descend into a political witch hunt.

They say the judge's decision was politically motivated although the attorney general, a staunch Chavez ally, rejected their claims. The president has repeatedly demanded judges jail his critics.

"Carlos Fernandez is a political prisoner," said Fedecamaras vice president Albis Munoz.

OPPOSITION FEARS OF CRACKDOWN

His arrest, coming shortly after the murky deaths of three dissident soldiers and an anti-Chavez protester, stoked opposition fears of a government crackdown. Police say the four deaths are likely linked to a grudge though relatives blame political persecution.

Amnesty International on Friday joined a chorus of concern in expressing worry for Venezuela's human rights situation and calling for an independent investigation into the killings.

"The judiciary has a key role in preventing these events from triggering an escalation of the human rights crisis," the group said in a statement.

Chavez, who dismisses his critics as "terrorists" and "fascists," has hardened his position against his foes after their strike failed to topple his self-styled revolutionary government. He calls 2003 the "year of the offensive."

The Venezuelan leader, who was elected in 1998 and survived a coup in April, has vowed to defeat opponents he says tried to sabotage the oil industry. The strike briefly choked off oil exports that account for half of the state's revenues.

But opposition leaders say they seek only to press Chavez into elections. Three months of negotiations chaired by the Organization of American States have made little headway. Chavez has so far resisted opposition demands that he accept an early vote to defuse the nation's crisis.

(Additional reporting by Silene Ramirez)

santafenewmexican.com By JAMES ANDERSON | Associated Press 02/21/2003 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez address a speech during a meeting with ambassadors at the Foreign ministry building in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2003. - FRANCISCO BATISTA | AP / Milaflores ARACAS, Venezuela - Police searched for the leader of Venezuela's largest labor group Friday after President Hugo Chavez authorized his arrest for helping to organize a two-month general strike that devastated the economy and the nation's oil industry. Carlos Ortega, president of the Venezuelan Workers Confederation, remained in hiding after strike co-leader Carlos Fernandez, the leader of the nation's largest business group, was arrested. Both are charged with treason and other crimes for the strike, which cost more than US$4 billion. Fernandez was arrested by secret police Wednesday and hauled into court Friday. "These oligarchs believed that they were untouchable. There are no untouchables in Venezuela. A criminal is a criminal," Chavez thundered during a ceremony handing land titles to peasants in Trujillo state. He demanded a 20-year term for Fernandez, president of Fedecamaras, and for Ortega, of the Venezuelan Workers Confederation, for allegedly sabotaging the oil industry, inciting civil disobedience "and trampling the human rights of the Venezuelan people." The treason charge carries a 20- to 26-year prison term. Oil is Venezuela's strategic industry, and its exports were the fifth-largest in the world before the strike began Dec. 2. The strike ended Feb. 4, but Chavez's government is battling a continuing walkout in the oil industry to increase exports. Citing nationwide hardship caused by gasoline shortages, Chavez condemned Fernandez and Ortega as "terrorists" who failed to topple his government - both during a brief April coup and this winter. The tempestuous president also had a message for foreign critics of Fernandez's arrest. The United States, Organization of American States and other entities voiced concern that Venezuela's crisis is escalating. "I want to remind all the governments of the world that Venezuela is a sovereign country! We are nobody's colony!" Chavez shouted. Fernandez's arrest fueled speculation Chavez has begun a crackdown on his opponents, including the news media and the private sector, both of which championed the two-month drive to oust him. Chavez won't allow strikers access to U.S. dollars under a new foreign exchange system, and he has threatened to shut down broadcast media for inciting rebellion. He also has warned he will seize private businesses and property to deliver gasoline, food and other basics. Ruling party leader Willian Lara told the state Venpres news agency that the hundreds of strike organizers should be prosecuted "for crimes against the republic." An opposition protest set for Caracas on Friday was canceled because organizers didn't have police permits. The labor confederation, meanwhile, said it wasn't planning another strike to protest Fernandez's arrest. The OAS, the United Nations and the Carter Center, run by former President Jimmy Carter, have sponsored three months of talks to seek an electoral solution to Venezuela's crisis. The future of those talks was in doubt after Fernandez's arrest. Venezuela's opposition wants early elections and collected more than 4 million signatures to back up its demand. The government dismisses the petition drive; Venezuela's elections authority is in shambles. Chavez is a former paratrooper who was elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000 to a six-year term. He vows his revolution will distribute Venezuela's oil riches to the poor. Critics accuse him of imposing an authoritarian state and driving the economy into the ground.

www.lenconnect.com

It is now possible to conclude that some people born in a Spanish-speaking country who came here as immigrants speaking little English are in fact not Hispanic.

More specifically, you are not Hispanic if you were born in Honduras, came here as an immigrant who spoke little English, graduated from Harvard Law, and became a conservative candidate to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals whose nomination is blocked by Senate Democrats.

That's the problem with Miguel Estrada, who was born in Honduras, came here as an immigrant who spoke little English, graduated from Harvard Law, and became a conservative candidate to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals whose nomination is being blocked by Senate Democrats.

He's just not Hispanic enough. At least, according to Democrats.

Angelo Falcon, head of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, spoke of a "Latino Horatio Alger story that's been concocted" and said, "It's not good enough to simply say that because of someone's genetics or surname that they should be considered Hispanic."

New Jersey Rep. Robert Menendez is another Democrat who supports this ethnic litmus test. "Being Hispanic for us means much more than having a surname," he said the other day. "It means having some relationship with the reality of what it is to live in this country as a Hispanic-American."

Bob, my old buddy from high school -- you should know better.

There sure are legitimate grounds for liberals to oppose the nomination of a conservative judge, just as there are legitimate grounds for conservatives to oppose liberal judges. In fact, it would be hypocritical for liberal Hispanics to support the conservative Estrada solely because he is a fellow Hispanic.

But this is an effort to define "Hispanic" in political terms.

It is a particularly American absurdity. People in the Spanish-speaking world -- in other words, "Hispanics" -- span the ideological spectrum, from Pinochet and Franco on the right to Castro and nutty Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on the left. But when Hispanics come to the United States, we find we are required to be liberal, on pain of losing our ethnic identity.

No better example of this absurdity than Estrada himself. One could argue that, say, a white farmer from Nebraska who happens to have the surname "Perez" because of a Mexican great-great-grandfather is not Hispanic. Fine. But that's not the case with Estrada. The man grew up speaking Spanish in Honduras and came to the United States as a teenager. And that's enough. Whatever political ideology he developed as an American is utterly irrelevant to his ethnicity.

Falcon's implication was that Estrada did not come from a poverty-stricken family and therefore did not qualify as a true Latino struggling to overcome barriers of race and social class. But Bob Menendez did not come from a desperately poor family either, and neither did I. Doesn't make me or Bob any less Hispanic.

There is something else at play here: the Hispanic vote in 2004.

Republicans want it, and the Estrada nomination puts them in position to tell Hispanic voters, "Hey, don't pay attention to our policies, even if some of us are anti-immigrant racists -- look, we nominated one of your people for a top judgeship!"

This worries Democrats. Their decades-long lock on the Hispanic vote endures in part because most Hispanics see themselves as the heirs of generations of Democratic voters. Now, Estrada's appearance on the national political scene endangers that perception by suggesting, "You, too, can be Hispanic and at the same time a conservative."

Not surprising that some Democrats are replying, "No, you can't."

Syndicated columnist Roger Hernandez can be reached via e-mail at rogereh@optonline.net.

news.independent.co.uk By Rupert Cornwell in Washington 23 February 2003

An increasingly cornered Iraq complained yesterday it might be signing its own death warrant if it obeyed a United Nations order to destroy dozens of missiles at the moment the US is poised to lead an invasion.

"They want us to destroy them at a time when we are threatened daily," said Owayed Ahmed Ali, the director of the Ibn al-Haithem plant, which produces the al-Samoud missiles, after another visit by UN weapons inspectors.

The protest is the most specific reaction yet to the demand by Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector, that Baghdad start destroying the missiles by Saturday, after they were found to exceed the 93-mile range permitted by existing arms restrictions on Iraq.

With the order coming barely a week after Mr Blix's relatively benign report on 14 February, US diplomats were delighted. Not only does it impose a de facto deadline for Iraqi compliance, it also fits in with the likely timetable for the Bush administration to go to war.

Yesterday, President George Bush met Spain's Prime Minister, Jose-Maria Aznar, one of his strongest European supporters, at his ranch in Texas to discuss the new Security Council resolution Britain and the US will introduce tomorrow.

The draft is understood to contain no specific deadline. It will state that Iraq has failed to comply with UN resolution 1441 ordering it to disarm. Baghdad thus faces "serious consequences", the diplomatic formulation that authorises the use of force.

On Friday, Mr Blix will deliver a new report, this time behind closed doors. The next day is the deadline for Baghdad to start getting rid of its al-Samouds. Shortly after that, and certainly by 14 March, Washington and London are expected to force a showdown vote in the UN.

Whatever the outcome, Mr Bush repeated last week that the US would if necessary lead a "coalition of the willing" against Iraq. An invasion could begin any time, perhaps around 23 March, when moonless conditions will provide maximum advantage for US forces. Some analysts speculate the invasion might be launched sooner, if the administration calculates that further delay will erode international support.

As of last night – barring an act of reckless defiance by Saddam Hussein – the odds were stacked against London and Washington securing the required nine Security Council votes to pass the second resolution.

Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, who is on a visit to East Asia mainly devoted to the stand-off with North Korea, will take time out in Beijing to press for support from China, a veto-holding member of the council. Washington will also use economic and financial sticks and carrots to try and bring waverers on board, as it is doing with Turkey.

www.canada.com MICHAEL TUTTON Canadian Press Saturday, February 22, 2003

(CP) - Dave Davis cringes in disgust as he pumps 90-cent-a-litre diesel into his truck, but he says without a regulator setting the price, he'd be even angrier.

"Being regulated at high prices is better than no regulation at all," says the small businessman, who runs a snow-clearing operation based in the Grand Falls-Windsor area of central Newfoundland. "Even a couple of cents on the litre adds up to a few hundred dollars," when you're running a fleet of snowplows that consume 6,000 litres a month, he adds.

Chalk up one convert for the pro-regulatory camp in the battle over who should control the price at the pump: government or the oil industry.

With fuel prices soaring across Canada in recent weeks, Davis said he's glad he lives in one of the two provinces that has defied the oil industry by setting up a commission to regulate prices. Prince Edward Island was the first to do so in the early 1990s.

The little-known regulatory bodies are at the centre of a fierce ideological debate that is spreading to other provinces.

The oil companies argue the system in Newfoundland so distorts the market it's creating fuel shortages and could lead to fewer gas stations.

On the other side of the debate is George Saunders, chairman of the 18-month-old Petroleum Products Pricing Commission in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Saunders says his commission has cut into the oil companies' excessive profit margins and has brought the province's fuel prices in line with the rest of Atlantic Canada.

"Last Tuesday, the price of gasoline in St. John's was 87.2 cents a litre, while in Moncton, New Brunswick it was 89.9 cents. That was unheard of in the old days," he said, clearly pleased.

Saunders, a former municipal politician and teacher, says he's hoped for co-operation from the industry, but finds his mere presence is infuriating the big companies.

"I think there is an inherent fear that if regulation works in Newfoundland other provinces will start to take a more serious view of it, and so they're going to use more serious strategies to do their best to get rid of us."

Newfoundland's pricing system has been drawing both interest and supporters over the past year.

"We even had a visit from the attorney general of Hawaii last year, and he was favourably impressed," Saunders said from his office in Grand Falls-Windsor.

In Nova Scotia, where prices for regular gas jumped seven cents on Wednesday, the Opposition NDP has demanded a return to the price-setting system the province had prior to deregulation in the early 1990s.

Meanwhile in Prince Edward Island, consumers have grown fond of having the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission set prices, said Wayne MacQuarrie, a provincial employee who helped set up the province's system in 1991.

"The beauty of it is the system forces gradual change in prices," he said. "We don't see the dramatic increases and it smooths out the peaks and valleys."

The two provincial systems use formulas that are based on spot market prices in New York Harbour. Bureaucrats factor in the costs for transport and storage and the result is a set of fuel prices that are held steady for 30 days - the sudden dips and spikes that irk most Canadians are eliminated.

A nice theory, says the industry, but in practice the system doesn't work.

"When you look at value to the consumer, they're better served by a market that is competitive," said Bill Simpkins of the Canadian Petroleum Products Institute.

In early January, as international prices soared amid fears of a war in Iraq and civil unrest in Venezuela, small firms that provide fuel to remote Newfoundland towns were caught between the big oil companies and the provincial commission.

The unregulated price of the fuel from large terminals, which are controlled by the major oil companies, shot up to near record levels while the regulated prices at the pumps remained unchanged.

The result was some delivery companies refused to pick up loads of gasoline, creating shortages in outport towns around Bay D'Espoir, on the island's south shore, and in tiny Tilting, Nfld., a town on Fogo Island, about 300 kilometres north of St. John's.

Bill Roberts, manager of a convenience store and service station in Hermitage, Nfld., an isolated town on the province's south shore, said he was down to 1,000 litres of gasoline for a population of 800.

He isn't sure who to blame for the problem, but he wants it fixed.

"We almost ran out of fuel," he said. "It's a one-hour drive to the next town."

Saunders blames the oil companies, saying they're being unco-operative by raising prices rapidly between the monthly price reviews.

"Average the price out over a period of time, that's all we're asking them to do," he said.

Steve Ecclestone, Atlantic Canada manager of Ultramar Canada Ltd., which has operated in the region for 40 years, says you can't force a company to sell below international prices.

"From a financial standpoint that just doesn't hunt," he said. "You're not going to have any company willing to buy stuff and sell it at a loss."

Ultimately, said Ecclestone, companies will likely pull service stations out of the province if regulation becomes too heavy handed.

Some industry analysts also argue that, despite anecdotes and claims, overall prices aren't really improving in regulated provinces.

Calgary-based M.J. Ervin & Associates, which provides data to the oil industry and other clients, analysed prices in the two regulated markets and compared them with prices in the rest of Canada.

"While prices in Charlottetown and St. John's have been relatively stable, for the most part they have not been lower," said Cathy Hay, an analyst at the firm.

Some observers say a better way for governments to bring down oil prices is to reduce fuel taxes - which is over one-third of the total price.

On average, Canadian taxes have increased by seven cents a litre over the past decade.

In P.E.I. and Newfoundland, tax hikes have been among the highest in the country. In Newfoundland, for instance, the tax take per litre has climbed from 21.5 cents in 1991 to current levels of 32.9 cents a litre.

Fighting such hikes, rather than creating more regulation, would give consumers the best break, said David Bradley, president of the Ontario Trucking Association.

He's examined regulation, and concluded it would do little to help prices for his membership if introduced in Ontario.

"It's interesting that the jurisdictions in Canada that have this sort of system also have among the highest provincial taxes in fuel," he said.

"It seems to me if governments want to moderate the price of fuel, they should be looking at their own tax component of it first."

In central Newfoundland, where taxes are among the highest in the land, snowplow owner Davis says he'd appreciate anything that would lower prices.

But he'd still recommend other provinces consider bringing in an bureaucratic overseer to smooth out the price spikes.

"Even though you might feel the prices are too high, you wonder how high it would be without it," he said.