www.vheadline.com Posted: Monday, March 03, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) deputy Pedro Castillo has named several army officers as implicated in selling weapons decommissioned from the Metropolitan Police (PM) during the government intervention in November.

Simon Bolivar Infantry 311th battalion, Private Lucio Duran allegedly handed his friends a list of 12 officers and NCOs to safeguard before he was murdered in Vargas ... Castillo told his friends he had received threats after he started selling the weapons to criminal elements in Vargas off his own bat.

• His family convinced him to recover the guns and hand them over … it was while he was trying to get 19 short arms and 2 HK sub machine guns back that he was killed.

Assemblyman Castillo names the officers as: Lt. Colonel Vladimir Padrino Lopez, Major Tomas Ernesto Mendez Goatache, Captains Hector Jose Salgado, Johnny Correa, Silvano Jose Torres and Juan Gabriel Puertas Tovar, Lieutenants Alfredo Jose Garcia Jaramillo, Omar Cecilio Marrero Aponte and Jose Gregorio Meneses Alayon, Staff Sergeant Pedro Javier Teran and Sergeants, Julio Cesar Marcano and Saury Jose Solis Benitez.

Castillo says Private Duran had allegedly underlined the names on official army letterhead. “According friends in the Police Detective Branch, I can say that Duran was murdered by Carlos Augusto Ibarra Ortiz and Alfredo Zambrano … they escaped with 19 9mm pistols, 380 short arms and 3 HK sub machineguns.”

www.vheadline.com Posted: Monday, March 03, 2003 By: Gustavo Coronel

VHeadline.com commentarist Gustavo Coronel writes: Venezuela has no death penalty. Maximum penalty is 30 years, rarely applied. However in the National Venezuelan prisons more than one hundred inmates die violently every year. Many more spend more time in prison than the sentence they are finally given, due to the slow judicial processes.

The prisons are run by the Ministry of the Interior and Justice, which has had 6 incumbents in four years. One of the most infamous of these prisons is Tocuyito, some 8 miles from where I live. The prison normally would hold 600 inmates but it has about 1,800 today. For the last two months these prisoners are not being fed by the government. They make do with whatever foodstuffs are brought by families and friends, and according to judge Norma Ramirez, by eating rats, cats and dogs. 80 inmates are seriously undernourished and dehydrated according witness reports of February 28.

Finding out about this situation, the young Governor of Carabobo, the State where the prison is located, instructed his staff to prepare and deliver to the prison 23 tons of food. The five trucks containing rice, pasta, milk, canned food, sugar, cheese, flour and other basic products were brought to the prison by the president of FUNDASOL, a social organization of the State of Carabobo.

She was accompanied by three judges and a Prison Evaluation Officer who conducted a previous inspection of the prison and certified the lack of food in the storage areas. An Act was drawn up to this effect and the five trucks were ordered by the judges to drive into the prison. At this point in time, however, the military in charge refused to let them pass claiming that the Ministry of the Interior refused to accept food from the State of Carabobo. Judge Ramirez Padilla, however, insisted, claiming that the human rights of the inmates could not be violated.

Based on her decision, the doors to the prison were forced open under the passive eyes of the military. Once inside, the trucks were searched in a very slow motion fashion for about two hours before they were led to the storage area. The inmates protested the attitude of the military.

This incident illustrates the current tragedy of our country. The food was denied entrance by the National Government because the sender of the food was a political adversary.  To accept this delivery would constitute a "political defeat."

And what about the inmates? What about their right to be decently fed, according to the Laws of this country?. Are they animals or simple pawns in a political game? While the immense majority of the inmates and their families accepted the food with gratitude, the representative of the National Government and one inmate speaking on behalf of pro-government inmates insisted that the food should not be accepted, coming from the hands of "enemies."

In Venezuela we have a saying: "No lavan ni prestan la batea" (They do not wash but they do not let you use the wash tub).  The Ministry of the Interior, because of incompetence or corruption (or both), is not feeding the inmates but they refuse to let any other Venezuelan organization to help the inmates if they represent political adversaries. This is a crime and reflects unfavorably upon the moral qualities of the men in power.

I am sending a letter along these lines to the Organization of American States, denouncing this violation of human rights in Venezuela. Inmates also have human rights, especially since so many of them are in prison without being properly sentenced.

Last Sunday, March 2, I saw and heard the President violating human rights with total sadism.  He said that the coupsters and saboteurs of the petroleum industry were now planting bombs since they could not overthrow him in any other way. Coming from any citizen and especially from the President of our country this is an unacceptable violation of our Constitution which stipulates that anyone is innocent until proven guilty. The President was already passing sentence!

This shows he is unworthy of the position he holds. Furthermore, he said he "had proof and photographs of the criminals" and implied that the criminals were the opposition ... but he did not show the evidence. This constitutes a crime in our country. Chavez is at this moment an accomplice of the bombers because he is withholding information which could lead to their identification, while accusing others who might not be guilty.

This is revolutionary "justice." We seem to be more and more under a government which borders on the openly criminal. According to Article 350 of the Venezuelan Constitution this would be valid grounds for open civic rebellion.

I sincerely hope we can get to vote before we get to rebel.

Gustavo Coronel is the founder and president of Agrupacion Pro Calidad de Vida (The Pro-Quality of Life Alliance), a Caracas-based organization devoted to fighting corruption and the promotion of civic education in Latin America, primarily Venezuela. A member of the first board of directors (1975-1979) of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), following nationalization of Venezuela's oil industry, Coronel has worked in the oil industry for 28 years in the United States, Holland, Indonesia, Algiers and in Venezuela. He is a Distinguished alumnus of the University of Tulsa (USA) where he was a Trustee from 1987 to 1999. Coronel led the Hydrocarbons Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in Washington DC for 5 years. The author of three books and many articles on Venezuela ("Curbing Corruption in Venezuela." Journal of Democracy, Vol. 7, No. 3, July, 1996, pp. 157-163), he is a fellow of Harvard University and a member of the Harvard faculty from 1981 to 1983.  In 1998, he was presidential election campaign manager for Henrique Salas Romer and now lives in retirement on the Caribbean island of Margarita where he runs a leading Hotel-Resort.  You may contact Gustavo Coronel at email ppcvicep@telcel.net.ve

www.vheadline.com Posted: Monday, March 03, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

State prosecutor Luisa Ortega Diaz says Federation of Chambers of Industry & Commerce (Fedecamaras) president, Carlos Fernandez is trying to throw a spanner into Venezuela’s legal system and his upcoming trial.

“Mr. Fernandez denies that he was a member of the Coordinadora Democratica … everyone has seen him on TV during the national stoppage speaking day in and day out on behalf of CD.”

In a written questionnaire, Fernandez allegedly answered the question: Is Fedecamaras part of the CD replying that Fedecamaras is independent.

Ortega Diaz alleges the stoppage leaders’ tactic is to delay the investigation and avoid a trial.

The state prosecutor insists that Fernandez and Confederation of Trade Unions (CTV) leader, Carlos Ortega convened the national stoppage "in a hostile and public manner on December 2, 2002 representing Fedecamaras, CTV and CD."

sg.biz.yahoo.com Tuesday March 4, 1:32 AM

CARACAS (Dow Jones)--Venezuela's state-owned oil monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela (E.PVZ), or PdVSA, over the weekend failed to restart one of its catalytic cracking units at the massive Paraguana refinery complex, a PdVSA spokesman said Monday.

Due to acts of sabotage and troubles to establish a stable natural gas feed, one of the catalytic cracking units at the Amuay plant that should help achieve a production of around 140,000 barrels per day of gasoline couldn't be started up, the PdVSA spokesman said.

He added that by the end of next week all units should produce 140,000 b/d of gasoline. A total of around 200,000 b/d, including the Cardon plant that together with Amuay makes up the Paraguana refinery complex, is produced at the Paraguana complex.

At Cardon, some 60,000 b/d of gasoline is produced. If the Paraguana refinery complex were to fully produce gasoline, domestic supply would be almost fully restored.

PdVSA is slowly recovering from a two-month strike aimed at the ouster of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. While oil production and exports are gradually recovering, refineries haven't been able to ramp up their processing capacity. The problems have caused a serious domestic gasoline shortage which only could be overcome with gasoline imports.

Separately, the PdVSA spokesman further said he expects the company to have 500,000 barrels per day of crude production that was shut in Friday back online later this week. The production was shut in as storage tanks have filled and exports from the Jose port in eastern Venezuela had to be slowed down.

By Fred Pals, Dow Jones Newswires;58414-2887461; fred.pals@dowjones.com;

www.vheadline.com Posted: Monday, March 03, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Petroleos de Venezuela-West (PDVSA-Occidente) general manager, Felix Rodriguez reports that there was a sabotage attempt on the Ule-Amuay pipeline last Friday night.

Calling the incident an act of terrorism, Rodriguez says 6 valves in four pipe-flow sub-stations were shut off and obstructed to prevent them from being opened … “it could have caused a serious explosion and would have cut off supplies to the Paraguana Refinery.”

According to the general manager, the plot was discovered after the company’s air vigilance service spotted and reported that substation gates have been forced open. "A similar action took place at La Salina yard’s 22nd tank where valves were closed to cause a spill."