Asunto: Adios, amigo - por Robert Alonso G3 De: "Robert Alonso 1994" Fecha: Mar, 25 de Febrero de 2003, 3:17 pm Para:

ADIÓS, AMIGO

Carta abierta al Dr. Juan Cancio Garantón Nicolai Nuevo Asesor Jurídico de PDVSA

Mi amigo Juan Cancio,

Hace muchos días que estoy por escribirte, solo que estaba terminando de llorar antes de hacerlo, pues es difícil escribirle a un amigo como tú con lágrimas en los ojos y una fuerte opresión en el corazón. Son las 12:08 del mediodía de hoy martes 25 de febrero de 2003 y te acabo de ver declarar en Globovisión -- desde el Palacio de Justicia -- en contra de los venezolanos más dignos y heroicos de estos últimos años: los empleados de PDVSA. Tus declaraciones - cargadas, tal vez, de una profunda vergüenza - me secaron las lágrimas de un solo porrazo. pero quedó la opresión, un profundo dolor en el alma y una impresionante impotencia.

Las revoluciones, Juan Cancio, alborotan las más bajas pasiones y los más puros sentimientos en los seres humanos y sirven para definir las fibras de cada quien: delatando traidores, descubriendo héroes y produciendo mártires. Tú eres mi amigo de décadas. Me defendiste en un momento crítico de mi vida, cuando quienes forjaban esta patria grande y hermosa, se empeñaban en destruirla contaminando al Poder Judicial de la corrupción más infame; gratuitos socios del monstruo que hoy de buenas a primeras apareces tú apoyando ante las cámaras de televisión en detrimento de hombres y mujeres dignos que lo han dado todo por recuperar la patria para tus hijos y los míos. ¡Qué cosas tiene la vida!, ¡Cómo hay que vivir por ver!

¡Qué puede estar sintiendo Elsa, tu hermana.mi amiga! ¿Cómo podrá justificarte Patricia, tu primogénita hija? ¿Y Carolina, tu actual esposa? ¿Qué estarán diciendo tus amigos de siempre, tu hermano mayor. tu cuñado, tu otra hermana. tus sobrinos y primos? ¿Habrán llorado como he llorado yo? ¿Qué estará pensando "El Perrote" desde los cielos. y PPK? ¡. y tus padres, y tus tías que afortunadamente hoy ya no están presentes físicamente para avergonzarse del hijo y del sobrino que tanto adoraban! ¿Qué estarás tú pensando de ti mismo?

Lo peor del caso es que no pegas con "esa gente" -- y ellos lo saben --, pues fuiste criado en una familia unida, cristiana, culta, prestigiosa, de buenos sentimientos. sin odios hacia el prójimo. ¿Cuánto tiempo has calculado que durarás en la "cúspide del poder"? ¿A cuantas familias como la tuya y la mía piensas destruir en tu infausta pasantía por este régimen opresor, comunista y ateo? ¿A cuántos hijos de nuestros petroleros piensas dejar sin padre? ¿Cómo harás para conciliar el sueño por las noches, hoy. mañana, por el resto de tus días? ¿Qué será de ti cuando te pidan la renuncia con un pito en la boca? ¿Cuándo te tocará volarte los sesos tras recobrar la cordura y la dignidad que aprendiste de tus viejitos? No hay peor pecado que la traición, Juan Cancio, sobre todo cuando lo que se traiciona es la memoria de nuestros queridos padres y los más sagrados valores patrios. El más infame enemigo -- ¿sabes? -- ¡también desprecia a los traidores!

Si hubieras estado pasando por una difícil situación económica, debiste haber acudido a tus amigos que siempre te quisimos, pues para eso estamos. Pero que yo sepa no llamaste a ninguno de nosotros.

Si hubieras muerto, hubieras hecho todo más fácil para mí, pues cuando un amigo se va, quedan los gratos recuerdos y deja una tumba sobre la cual poder colocarle flores. Pero con tu ignominia solo has matado los recuerdos quedando vivo para avergonzarme de haber sido tu amigo de toda una vida.

Ahora que tienes poder - y mucho - se me ocurre pedirte un ultimo favor: ¿Cómo podrías hacer para que me encierren junto a los hombres que hoy persigues? En verdad prefiero el honor a ser encarcelado junto a ellos en un calabozo frío, húmedo y tenebroso a compartir la calle en la indigna y humillante libertad contigo.

Adiós, amigo.

El Hatillo, 25 de febrero de 2003

Robert Alonso robertalonso2003@cantv.net

P.D. Si rectificas, Juan Cancio, tendré el honor de seguirte queriendo y te recibiré en mi casa como siempre lo he hecho, echándole las culpas a los perversos duendes que a veces nos perturban. Por favor, no te prestes para destruir más a las familias de hombres y mujeres tan valerosos y valientes como los que te han contratado para perseguir. Que se busquen a sus ratas para hacer los trabajos sucios. No dejes que te destruyan. Gracias a tus nobles ancestros, el apellido Garantón enorgullece al estado Monagas, no lo conviertas con tus erradas acciones en algo despreciable.

Vale

www.screendaily.com Mark Schilling in Tokyo 25 February 2003

In its first three days on release in Japan, The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers grossed $9.66m (Y1.13bn) from 800,000 admissions. This represents a 25% improvement over the opening of The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring.

The success brings the second installment of Peter Jackson’s fantasy trilogy to the cusp of a $500m international total. As of Sunday (Feb 23) The Two Towers had taken $498m internationally. In the US, the film has grossed more than $328m.

The film will easily pass the magic box office watermark – an achievement only made by six other titles ever – this week.

Fellowship took almost another month to reach the same amount, passing $500m over the March 22-24 weekend in 2002. In total the first film claimed $548.5m from international markets.

The Two Towers’s all-night previews in Japan, on 600 screens on February 15,earned $2.65m (Y310m) from 200,366 admissions, for gains of 42% and 50%, respectively, over the previous film.

Distributors Nippon Herald and Shochiku expect The Two Towers to finish over the $128m (Y15bn) mark. By comparison, The Fellowship Of The Ring ended its run with $77.5m (Y9.07bn), ranking behind the two Harry Potter films on the 2002 box office chart.

The Two Towers has already surpassed Fellowship’s total earnings in 33 countries, including Norway and Denmark where it now ranks as the highest grossing film of all time. The sequel has still to open in a handful of territories with Romania next up on Feb 28, followed by India (March 14) and Venezuela (April 9).

The third entry in the trilogy, The Return Of The King, begins its international roll-out in December this year and will hit theatres in Japan in the spring of 2004.

Additional reporting by Robert Mitchell in London

www.abs-cbnnews.com Tuesday, February 25, 2003 10:42:13 p.m

NEW YORK - Crude oil futures rallied again Monday, boosted by record intraday prices for heating oil and continued fears about war in Iraq. Natural gas futures also surged

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, the front-month March heating oil contract climbed to a record of $1.1535 a gallon, surpassing the previous all-time high of $1.15, set in November 1979. The contract closed at $1.1467 a gallon.

The rally gave the rest of the petroleum complex a lift. Nearby April crude rose 90 cents to close at $36.48 a barrel. March gasoline settled at $1.0475 a gallon, up 3.47 cents on the day.

Across the Atlantic on London’s International Petroleum Exchange, the gains were just as strong.

Nearby April North Sea Brent futures closed up 88 cents at $33.15 a barrel.

“The crude oil market continues to trend higher, pulled along by a strong heating oil market and the continued drumbeat for war with Iraq,” said Tim Evans, senior energy analyst at research firm IFR Pegasus in New York.

The heating oil surge mirrored a rally in natural gas futures, which climbed to 25-month highs on forecasts of cold weather and expectations of a sharp drawdown in storage. The March contract shot up $2.531, or 38 percent, to settle at $9.137 per 1,000 cubic feet.

“What’s concerning the market today is that the weather is not giving us any signs of spring,” said Phil Flynn, a trader and analyst at Alaron Trading Corp.

Although heating oil’s climb to record territory was part of the reason for Monday’s rally, the market’s main focus remained Iraq, analysts said.

War jitters heightened after the US, the UK and Spain introduced a UN Security Council resolution today that finds Iraq in breach of its disarmament obligations and warns the rogue nation of “serious consequences.”

The resolution says that Iraq has failed to “take the final opportunity” afforded it to disarm.

“People view that as another step toward war,” said Tom Bentz, an analyst at BNP Paribas Futures.

Traders worry that an attack will result in a disruption of Iraqi oil exports and cause a supply disruption in the Middle East, the world’s principal source of oil.

Western officials say they expect a vote on the resolution within the next two weeks.

But approval is far from guaranteed. Earlier Monday, key UN Security Council members France, Germany and Russia submitted an alternative proposal for step-by-step disarmament of Iraq.

Despite the opposition, however, the US has said it is prepared to lead an attack on Iraq without a new resolution.

With the market’s focus on Iraq, traders shrugged off news of continued increases in Venezuelan oil output.

On Sunday, state oil company president Ali Rodriguez said Venezuelan crude oil output, crippled by a strike in December and January, has risen to more than 2 million barrels a day.

Before the strike, Venezuela exported about 3.1 million barrels a day of crude oil. AP

Please send your comments or feedback to newsfeedback@abs-cbn.com

www.forbes.com Reuters, 02.25.03, 9:41 AM ET NEW YORK, Feb 25 (Reuters) - NYMEX crude oil futures should open higher on Tuesday fueled by soaring heating oil and natural gas amid more Arctic weather in the United States and as the possibility of war with Iraq hovers in the background. NYMEX April crude was called to open 40 cents to 50 cents higher after ending overnight ACCESS trading up 48 cents at $36.96 a barrel, trading $36.49 to $37.02. In London at 9:30 a.m. (1430 GMT), April Brent crude traded 52 cents higher at $33.67 a barrel. "Crude will open higher but the story is also natural gas," said a NYMEX floor trader, noting the heating oil and natural gas futures should push crude futures, pending more provocative headlines on Iraq or other simmering hot spots. In overnight ACCESS trading, NYMEX Henry Hub natural gas futures hit $11.899, a new all-time high. The March contract, due to expire on Wednesday, finished ACCESS trading at $10.90 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), easily eclipsing the $10.10 previous high for front month U.S. gas hit in late December 2000. OPEC-member Venezuela's struggle to bring crude output back amid a lingering strike that started Dec. 2 has helped boost crude prices, but also crimped refining both in Venezuela and the United States, pushing U.S. products inventories down. With March refined products contracts nearing a Friday expiration, NYMEX March heating oil was called 3.00 cents to 3.40 cents higher after ending ACCESS trade up 3.33 cents at $1.18 a gallon, an overnight and all-time high. The new all-time high for a front-month contract extended Monday's surge. Nearby technical resistance is expected at $1.20. Support is due at $1.15, the all-time high trade eclipsed on Monday. NYMEX March gasoline was called to open 1.00 cent to 1.25 cents higher after ending overnight trade up 1.25 cents at $1.06 cents a gallon, the ACCESS high. Resistance is expected at $1.0720. Support is expected at $1.03.30. As the possibility of a war in Iraq keeps supporting energy prices, on Monday, the United States, Britain and Spain submitted a draft resolution to a polarized U.N. Security Council that said Baghdad had missed a "final opportunity" to disarm peacefully and avoid war. President Saddam Hussein's top scientific advisor, General Amer al-Saadi, said on Tuesday Iraq was still considering a U.N. order to begin destroying its illicit al-Samoud missiles by March 1. A flurry of diplomatic activity on Tuesday will see Joschka Fischer, foreign minister of Germany, Europe's strongest opponent to war, meeting British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Prime Minister Tony Blair in London. U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton was scheduled to hold a news conference in Moscow at 1530 GMT after meeting Russian officials for talks on Russia's nuclear energy program with Iran. Traders will be anticipating government weekly oil inventory data to be released on Wednesday morning, expected to show U.S. distillate stocks, including heating oil, shrank again as a monster snowstorm buried the U.S. Northeast last week. In a Reuters survey, six analysts forecast an average distillate draw of 2.6 million barrels, in the week to Feb. 21. The average forecast for crude stocks was for a modest build of 1.0 million barrels, helped by increased imports.

moneycentral.msn.com CNBC Market Dispatches 2/25/2003 4:02:51 PM

Consumer confidence plunges, and so do stocks -- but only for a few hours. Bulls regain control late in the day. Is the see-saw action a prelude to a big drop? After hours, H-P beats Street. AdvertisementA dismal consumer confidence number whacked stocks this morning, but by session’s end, the market had snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Both the Dow Jones industrials and the Nasdaq Composite Index closed comfortably in the green. Fast filing = fast refund! Do your taxes online. Why the turnabout? With little volume on Wall Street, it can be hard to pinpoint. Among the explanations: short-covering, asset reallocation, and a rumor that Russia might be breaking ground on a disarmament deal with Iraq. Another factor: Technicians have seen buying support come into the market at the Dow 7,850 level before, and some traders began buying again today in hopes of catching a quick market bounce. Among the sectors gaining for the day: transports, tobacco and consumer stocks. For a detailed sector look, click here. After the bell, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, news, msgs) posted pro forma earnings that beat analyst projections by a slight margin. Revenue for the giant maker of computers and printers fell a bit short of estimates. The see-saw scenario What to make of the see-saw market? Market strategist Philip Erlanger, author of the Erlanger Squeeze Play Web site, says we may just have to get used to it -- at least in the next few weeks. In his posting today, Erlanger writes that “The one-day-up and one-day-down scenario is what the market does to grind both bulls and bears out of the market. We saw this action for most of the first half of last year before the eventual collapse. We wouldn't be surprised if the same thing happened this year, especially since the best the bulls can offer is the hope that a post-Iraq conflict will give the market a lift a la 1991. “For us, that's ‘slim pickins’ in terms of bullish factors for investors." The confidence vote The Conference Board said its index of consumer confidence fell sharply to 64 in February from a revised 78.8 in January. That's the lowest reading since 1993. Economists were expecting the index to edge down to 77. The consumer confidence numbers landed in a market already on the run. Traders fretted early today about the latest geopolitical development, reports of a missile test in North Korea. Meanwhile, the United States and Britain worked to line up U.N. Security Council votes in support of resolution authorizing an attack on Iraq So just how bad were the numbers on consumer confidence? About as bad as they could be, Conference Board economist Delos Smith told CNBC, with all the numbers you want to go down rising. "It's a grim report any time you're down 15 points, any time you're in the range of the 60s," he said. "It is Iraq, it is terrorism. Then you add things like oil prices. People are shocked at $2 (per gallon) gas prices," Smith said. Other numbers in the report, based on a survey of 5,000 U.S. households, looked nearly as bad as the headline index. The gauge of consumer expectations six months down the road fell from 81.1 to 65.6. Ominously, the number of consumers making plans to buy homes fell, too. And more consumers reported that jobs were getting harder to find. Strong consumer spending and home sales have been strong positives in the slumping U.S. economy. By coincidence, just today, the National Association of Realtors said existing home sales rose to 6.09 million in January from 5.9 million in December, ahead of forecasts. But that makes the forward-looking confidence numbers still more worrisome. "You just have a very, very nervous consumer. It is not just New York and Washington, it is all over," Smith said. "We need to know solutions on Iraq. We need to know the resolution." Qwest for justice The SEC filed suit against seven former and one current executive at Qwest Communications (Q, news, msgs) for allegations involving the telephone company's accounting practices. They're accused of "a fraudulent scheme orchestrated to meet at all costs Qwest's predictions of double-digit revenue growth," Reuters reported. And the Justice Department charged for former Qwest execs with booking millions in phony revenues. (For a complete report, click here.) What's moving One of today's biggest positive moves today came from the downtrodden pipeline giant El Paso (EP, news, msgs), which jumped about 10% after announcing a huge new financing deal and plans to sell more assets. Mind you, El Paso is down 30% year to date and 90% over the last 12 months. Other noteworthy names: European retailer Ahold (AHO, news, msgs) continued the plunge that began yesterday, driven by news that two key execs had resigned over accounting irregularities. The stock was down again by about 16% today. Dow component Home Depot (HD, news, msgs) reported fourth-quarter earnings of 30 cents per share, 3 cents better than expectations. The company affirmed 2003 sales growth targets of 9% to 12%, but said it would only provide annual guidance from now on. Despite the solid quarterly performance, Blaylock & Partners analyst Mark Mandel told CNBC’s Squawk Box that he prefers Home Depot’s arch-rival Lowe’s (LOW, news, msgs). Mandel said while Lowe’s is expanding into metropolitan markets and attracting upscale customers, Home Depot “has a lot of work to do” turning around its 1,500 existing stores. He also said Home Depot may still be trying to grow too fast. How high can oil go? Soaring oil prices continue to worry consumers and weigh on the equity market. Yesterday crude jumped to a 27-month high, approaching $37 per barrel. Concerns about a cut in supply during a war with Iraq have been compounded by especially cold weather in the United States, which has driven the price up. “Bring on global warning, we could use it right now,” said Phil Flynn, crude oil analyst at Alaron Trading. Flynn said prices could rise above $40 per barrel since people have underestimated the effect of the Venezuelan strike and the United States has a very limited supply at the moment. “We’re a cigarette butt away from shortages,” Flynn said. But he said that could be alleviated if the United States taps its 600 million barrel strategic petroleum reserve. Flynn expects the government to do just that if a war breaks out. Could oil prices rise above $50 per barrel? Flynn said for that to occur, Saddam Hussein would have to not just set fire to his oil fields, but somehow completely destroy his oil fields. He said that scenario, combined with a revolution in Venezuela could send prices through the roof, but also said the chance is very unlikely.

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