www.washingtonpost.com By Al Kamen Monday, February 24, 2003; Page A19

The war in Iraq, likely in the next few weeks, is not expected to last long, given the overwhelming U.S. firepower to be arrayed against the Iraqis. But the trickier job may be in the aftermath, when Washington plans to install an administrator, or viceroy, who would direct postwar reconstruction of the place.

Given the fractious nature of the country and its warring groups, the job will require extraordinary skill, smarts, toughness and finesse. The supreme civil authority, administration officials say, is to be an American "of stature," perhaps a former state governor or ambassador.

But whom should it be?

Yes, this calls for the In the Loop Pick the Potentate Contest. Loop Fans can help find the perfect regent to preside over the planned "consultative council," to restore democracy for the first time ever in beleaguered Iraq. A former governor? A former ambassador? Maybe a business leader or someone who excels in law, science, education, the arts or even sports?

Send in your nomination -- only one -- along with a very brief rationale to: In the Loop, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071, or via e-mail to loop@washpost.com. Please include your name, occupation and work and home telephone numbers. Hill and administration folks may of course enter on background. The deadline for entries is March 5. Winners will receive one of our lovely blue In the Loop mugs -- a new supply just came in for the last contest.

War Is Hell, for The Donald

The looming war has already altered some things. We lament that the biannual Department of Defense procurement conference, where everyone who's anyone in the defense procurement community gathers, and which had been scheduled for the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City in May, has been put off.

A recent e-mail from the Pentagon planners said they "regret to announce that we are taking the drastic step of postponing the conference until late spring 2004. We are doing this because of the imminence of the commitment of US troops to armed conflict and the heightened state of terrorism alert we are currently experiencing."

Even at the blackjack tables? Operation Urgent Flurry

Speaking of invasions . . . the nasty winter weather of late probably has people kicking themselves for not having signed up for Saturday's Caribbean cruise to commemorate the 20th anniversary of "Operation Urgent Fury." That, as everyone knows, was the name for the invasion of Grenada to restore order, kick out the commie Cubans and protect several hundred American medical students.

Former Reagan National Security Council aide Oliver L. North, now a talk show host, leads the fun-filled weeklong "unique commemorative event," sponsored by North's nonprofit Freedom Alliance. It leaves from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and includes stops in Aruba, Venezuela, Dominica and St. Thomas.

It looks to be nonstop partying with such celebrity passengers as former attorney general Edwin Meese III, National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.). Top cabins, running $5,759 for a single, not including airfare to San Juan, were reportedly gobbled up.

North, a former Marine who modestly claims but a "small role" in the invasion, is leading a private tour of Grenada.

Meanwhile, just to show that the Grenadans appreciated our help, they reestablished relations with Cuba in the 1990s: Fidel Castro visited in 1998 and the countries exchanged ambassadors last year for the first time in 20 years.

During the invasion, Cubans were helping to build the airport. A few years back, Cuban engineers were back in Grenada helping to design a national stadium.

She Must Get a Good Deal on Multiple Prints

Folks at the National Transportation Safety Board should be eagerly awaiting the arrival of Ellen G. Engleman, now administrator of the Department of Transportation's Research and Special Program Administration, who's been nominated to chair the NTSB.

One of the fine innovations at RSPA this last year was a newsletter called "RSPA Results" It's naturally a wonderfully upbeat 12-page quarterly bulletin that the NTSB would do well to emulate.

The first issue had five pictures of Engleman doing important things. The second had five photos of her -- including a twofer of her giving a speech before an image of herself on a large screen. The third issue only had three, but the most recent Winter 2002-2003 edition, probably her last, had a whopping 12 photos of the administrator.

Well, they won't forget what she looked like. The FBI Won't Be Looking for Him

Might be best to keep the calendar clear for March 31. A Texas man has filed a civil rights lawsuit against a prominent Washingtonian, according to the legal notices section last week in The Washington Post.

"You are hereby commanded to appear" or file a response by 10 a.m. on the 31st "before the Honorable Robert J. Vargas, at the courthouse in Corpus Christi," the notice says.

And the defendant? A certain John Edgar Hoover. If he shows, let's hope Vargas takes a picture. If he doesn't show, "a default judgment may be taken against you," the notice warns.

Hmmm . . . The least of his problems.

www.dailytrojan.com William Goodwin Kim Culotta | Daily Trojan

I find absolute rulers terrifying. Of late, one in particular has been weighing on my mind. At the helm of an oil-producing nation, he's guilty of numerous abuses of human rights and restricting freedom, accused of assassinating potential threats to his power, and is alleged to have ties to terrorists. He's a clear threat to regional stability and global security.

I don't have monsters under my bed. I have Hugo Chavez.

While that other deceptive and destabilizing dictator plagues more distant, though no less important regions, the Americas can be happy knowing they have their own autocratic ruler. President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, by imprisoning opposition leaders and, some say, orchestrating the assassinations of dissidents, has crossed the line from bully to tyrant.

In four years, Chavez has managed to undermine Venezuela's democracy, drive a growing economy into the dirt, foment unrest in an unstable region and, allegedly, support a number of terrorist groups.

Long held up as a paradigm of democracy for Latin and South America, major cracks began appearing in Venezuela's political structure at the end of the 1980s. Oil revenues had managed to prevent a fierce class dichotomy for more than 30 years; however, the last decade saw the birth of a populist movement.

Accusations of political corruption and squandered oil profits set poor against rich. Chavez was on the vanguard of this movement. In 1992, Colonel Chavez led an attempted coup with other military leaders. His subsequent imprisonment spanned more than two years and another failed military coup.

Popular support garnered him a pardon before the end of his term and ultimately carried him to election as president, after he assumed the mantle of democracy. Considering his past, one might conclude that Chavez takes, shall we say, a more "forceful" approach to governing. Over the course of his time in office, the president-turned-dictator has been quite obliging and done absolutely nothing to dissuade anyone of that opinion.

The latest child in the lineage of democratic leaders-turned-tyrants (think Robert Mugabe or Alberto Fujimori), Chavez immediately altered the constitution to permit him a second term. Media criticism accelerated the restriction of free speech. An assembly of appointed stooges replaced the popularly elected congress. With increasing regularity, basic republican values were being trampled.

The rise of authoritarian rule coincided with a vicious decline in the economy. The Washington Post commented last year, "(Chavez's) senseless mix of populist and socialist decrees seriously damaged the economy and galvanized opposition from businesses, media and the middle class."

Chavez tried to deflect criticism of his feckless economic initiatives by heaping invective on the upper classes.

Oil officials were described as "living in luxury chalets where they have orgies, drinking whiskey." The hierarchy of the Catholic Church (Venezuela is 96 percent Roman Catholic) has also endured constant attacks, according to Chavez's BBC profile. His recurring theme on his weekly call-in television address and in his addresses to the national assembly is the rift between the haves and have-nots.

Increasing poverty and economic hardship, however, have disillusioned many of the poor, on whose shoulders Chavez rose to power. Things have reached a boiling point this year. Already, Chavez has narrowly avoided an attempted coup by the military (prompted by Chavez's orders to open fire on civilian protesters outside the presidential palace). Rallies that once were massive displays of support now ring with cries for new elections.

Most recently, worsening conditions prompted a general strike that crippled oil production. The bitter fight for new elections and/or Chavez's immediate ouster let petroleum exports fall to 250,000 barrels a day, down from 3,000,000. With Venezuela typically responsible for roughly 10 percent of the United State's imports, the near-anarchy has had an immediate negative impact on our economy, albeit mildly negative.

As if alienating his own people was not enough, Chavez decided to take it to the next level and try on the international community. Besides being a good personal friend of the bearded pajama revolutionary himself, in the summer of 2000, he wined and dined with everyone's three favorite regimes; Iran, Iraq and North Korea.

U.N. sanctions notwithstanding, the-man-who-would-be-Bolivar was enchanted by the desert nations, specifically Baghdad. "His courting of Fidel Castro, Colombia's Marxist guerrillas and Saddam Hussein made him a pariah both in Latin America and in Washington," the Post reported.

Even more troubling are allegations of support for international terrorist organizations. Several high-ranking military defectors, including the former head of the border service, claim Chavez has helped conceal the identities of terrorists, many Middle Eastern, passing through the country. More fantastically, and more likely fabricated, is the charge that he funneled money to al-Qaida in October 2001, in the guise of humanitarian aid.

The testimony of former higher-ups should be taken with more than a grain of salt; however, the claims are entirely possible. Chavez has done nothing to crack down on the drug smuggling taking place in the border regions that directly benefts Colombian rebels. And he has sent members of his fanatical civilian support groups, his Bolivarian Circles (often referred to as "Circles of Terror"), to Cuba for "unspecified training."

His contentious and troublesome history aside, Chavez deserves special attention now as he carries out his pledge to make those behind the recently defeated strike pay for challenging his authority. "Twelve-armed men kidnapped the four victims on Saturday night as they were leaving a protest. They were bound and gagged, and some were tortured before the gunmen executed them, the police said," the New York Times reported Wednesday.

The killings of the three dissident soldiers and an opposition organizer, while perhaps not directly authorized by Chavez, were undoubtedly politically motivated. The Bolivarian Circles have been known to physically threaten protesters with violence. To counter this, some protesters have formed their own armed bands, raising the terrible, if still distant, specter of all-out urban warfare between opposing camps.

Such an apocryphal warning may be necessary, however, as Venezuela continues to destabilize. Labor-government negotiations are on the cusp of dissolving, and the possibility has led many to take to the streets in protests dwarfing antiwar crowds in the United States.

The downward spiral of Venezuela, both country and leader, demands close observation from the United States. Without constant attention to the democratic devolution and the ascension of Chavez the dictator, the prospect of having to a face another Saddamite is not so easy to ignore. Only this time, it's in our backyard.

Editorial columnist William Goodwin is an undeclared freshman. To comment on this article, call (213) 740-5665 or e-mail dtrojan@usc.edu.

www.nytimes.com By DAVID GONZALEZ

CARACAS, Venezuela, Feb. 23 — Defying international criticism, President Hugo Chávez said today that the leaders of a crippling two-month nationwide strike deserved to be arrested and tried as terrorists and saboteurs who wreaked economic and human damage in their failed attempt to provoke his resignation. Advertisement

Although Mr. Chávez's government and the opposition had agreed last week to tone down their accusations and avoid violence, he soon alarmed diplomats and analysts when a judge issued arrest warrants for two opposition leaders on charges that included treason, incitement and rebellion. Carlos Fernández, the head of a business association, was arrested outside a restaurant on Thursday amid warning shots fired by police officers. Carlos Ortega, the leader of a labor federation, subsequently went into hiding.

Early today, a judge dropped the treason charge against Mr. Fernández and placed him under house arrest.

"Assume your responsibilities," Mr. Chávez said in his weekly broadcast, which mixes political discourse, history lessons and populist phone banter. "Don't be cowards. Somebody has to be held responsible for this, for the economic damage. But above all for the human damage, lives that were lost, family tragedies."

He also lashed out at critics in the international community, singling out César Gaviria, the secretary general of the Organization of American States, who has led a delegation that has spent months trying to broker a peaceful resolution to the nation's crisis. Mr. Gaviria had earlier expressed concern over the arrests and urged the government to ensure the judiciary's independence.

"César Gaviria said some things that were out of place," Mr. Chávez said. "Dr. Gaviria, this is a sovereign country. You were president of a country, put yourself in my place. Here there are no privileges of any type."

He added that those countries that criticized the arrest orders issued by a judge said little last April 11 when Mr. Chávez was briefly ousted in a failed coup. He said the jails "would be filled with civilians and soldiers from the coup" if, as his critics insist, he controlled the courts.

Analysts saw the arrests as a troubling indicator of a harder line that Mr. Chávez has taken since he outlasted the strike and left the opposition divided.

"The opposition went too far in the strike, and Chávez got the upper hand and became emboldened," said Michael Shifter, vice president for policy at the Inter-American Dialogue, a research group in Washington. "The problem is that he felt overconfident and went too far. Up to now, he was able to say he did not have political prisoners. This is going to drive a deeper wedge between both sides."

There have been troubling instances of violence. Last week, three soldiers who had declared themselves in opposition to the government were found dead, with signs of torture. Although the police are saying the killings could have been personally motivated, few accept that possibility in the absence of any arrests. On Saturday night, one police officer was killed and several were wounded when gunmen fired on them near offices of the state oil company, which has been at the center of the most contentious power plays.

"We are going to see more confrontations because at this point things look unequal," said Alberto Garrido, a political analyst who has written several books about Mr. Chávez. "He is one step away from crossing over the line away from democracy and installing a government of revolutionary force."

Mr. Chávez has already decreed currency controls and has fixed lower prices on basic consumer goods, alarming those who see him as an acolyte of Fidel Castro. The prospect or further conflict has only increased worries among people who were hoping to see the economy recover a bit after the strike.

Business continues to lag at the sprawling Sambil mall, where many stores are wooing customers with half-off sales. The currency controls have left many of them unable to gain access to the dollars they need to import merchandise. The cashier at a currency exchange kiosk was idle, waiting for the government to pass new regulations. At other stores, workers have been laid off.

"Everything is fine," joked María Victoria Cardenas, pointing to her empty store, where her sales staff sat chatting. "Viva Chávez in Cuba."

Despite the hardship, she said opposition leaders like Mr. Fernández were heroes.

"Chávez is without dignity," she said. "I agree with what Fernández did, so put us all in jail."