www.sltrib.com With a strike crippling the economy and, some say, fueling a surge of violence in Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez has a lot to pray about. (Victor R. Caivano/The Associated Press)

BY TOD ROBBERSON DALLAS MORNING NEWS

    CARACAS, Venezuela -- Until recently, Jose Gabriel tended to dismiss all the talk of rising crime in Venezuela as the gossip of political alarmists and rumor mongers.     "People talked about it, but nothing ever happened to me," the 28-year-old office clerk said. But as he and his girlfriend waited in line at a gas station on Feb. 12, rumor suddenly became reality.     Three men jumped out of a car, aiming automatic weapons. One fired a shot at Gabriel's feet while the others jumped inside his car, shoving him into the back seat.     Before motorists in other cars had time to react, another of Venezuela's infamous "express kidnappings" was under way. When it was all over less than an hour later, Gabriel and his girlfriend found themselves standing dazed on a roadside with no money, no jewelry, no cellular phones and no car.     When he went to the nearest police station, he said, he had to wait behind four other victims of the same type of crime.     After two months of business and labor strikes and what many regard as a wholesale breakdown of government authority, police statistics indicate an explosion in street crime across Venezuela, with Caracas experiencing the brunt of the problem.     National income has plummeted, spurred by a petroleum workers' strike that had paralyzed exports in what was the third- or fourth-largest supplier of oil to the United States.     Car thefts at gunpoint, armed robberies, assaults and homicides have skyrocketed to unprecedented levels, making Venezuela the second-most-dangerous country in the hemisphere behind war-racked Colombia, according to the Pan-American Health Organi- zation.     The crime epidemic is so pronounced that business groups are warning U.S. executives not to travel to the capital without armed guards and at least one radio-equipped escort car to provide assistance in case gunmen seize the main car. The Caracas international airport has become a major venue for kidnappings.     "Express kidnappings, in which victims are seized in an attempt to get quick cash in exchange for their release, are increasing in Venezuela's capital," the U.S. State Department said in a travel warning updated this month. "Kidnapping of U.S. citizens and other foreign nationals, from homes, hotels, unauthorized taxis and the airport terminal is occurring on a regular basis."     Even piracy along the Venezuelan coastline has become a major problem, the State Department warned.     Gunmen kidnapped a senior American executive and his wife recently and held the two at gunpoint after they had settled into their chauffeur-driven car at the Caracas airport, according to a source close to the executive.    Crime analysts differ on whether a 2-month-old national strike by opponents of President Hugo Chavez has contributed to the rise in crime or had no effect on it.     Official statistics on crime during the strike -- which led to a nearly total shutdown of shops, businesses, restaurants and gasoline stations before it ended last month -- have been hard to come by because of a political dispute between Chavez and the Caracas metropolitan police.     Chavez has ordered the metropolitan police to disarm and has placed troops in many areas because he accuses the local police of siding with the strikers.     What is certain, however, is that the homicide rate for Venezuela is exploding. During the weekend period from 6 p.m. on Feb. 7 to 6 p.m. Feb. 9, for example, 129 people were killed -- including 61 in Caracas, according to police statistics.     In the like 48-hour period March 7 to March 9, 108 were killed, including 34 in Caracas, a city of 3 million.     According to the Pan-American Health Organization, Caracas ranks per capita as the second-deadliest city in the hemisphere, behind Cali, Colombia.     "The difference is, there are guerrillas and war in Colombia, and our people are dying only because of unchecked, violent crime," said Ivan Simonovis, a corporate security specialist and former chief of special operations for the Technical Judicial Police, Venezuela's equivalent of the FBI.

www.amarillonet.com Web posted Friday, March 14, 2003 5:10 a.m. CT By GREG ROHLOFF grohloff@amarillonet.com

With the price of diesel fuel rising for the eighth week in a row and setting its fourth straight record high, the trucking industry is feeling a pinch that is costing jobs.

The squeeze is not yet showing up in the Consumer Price Index, which measures inflation, but Bob Costello, chief economist of the American Trucking Association, said rising prices for goods hauled by truck is just a matter of time.

The Energy Information Administration said in its weekly update Tuesday that the nationwide average stands at $1.771 a gallon for diesel fuel, or 1.8 cents higher than a week ago.

The highest prices are on the coasts, with the East Coast particularly hard hit because of lingering winter weather driving up demand for home heating oil.

Costello said refiners have been squeezed two ways - the rising cost of crude oil because of political turmoil in Venezuela and the looming war in Iraq, and the increased demand for fuel oil on the East Coast.

Fuel oil, like diesel, is a distillate refining product. When production of home heating oil rises, diesel production declines.

The average price nationwide for diesel a year ago was $1.10 a gallon, with $1.20 a gallon on the coasts, said Rusty Dillon of Groendyke Transport, chairman of the Texas Motor Transport Association's Amarillo chapter.

The Energy Information Administration said diesel costs $2.001 a gallon on average in New England, while the West Coast price rose to $1.886 a gallon.

The Gulf Coast region, which includes all of Texas, was the only region to see a decline this week, the agency said, dropping about a third of a cent to $1.697.

That provides little comfort to truckers Robert and Jerry Branum, operators of Branum Trucking north of Canyon. The company, in operation since 1973, hauls boxed beef and pork and groceries for Affiliated Foods.

Fuel costs for a typical 500-mile haul have risen $60 since diesel fuel prices started rising eight weeks ago, Robert Branum said.

Branum Trucking has collected a surcharge of 8 cents per mile on its loads, but the fuel price increases work out to about 16 cents a mile.

Robert Branum figures that he can operate his trucks about three more months with the current losses. After that, he says, he will park them until the price of diesel fuel falls.

"Everything is about the fuel," he said.

Such a move, though, would be made not from financial weakness, but from strength, he said.

The last time diesel prices rose rapidly, in spring 2001, Branum Trucking operated 25 trucks. Now, Robert Branum said, the company operates six trucks and contracts with seven drivers.

Weaker independents have folded since the May 2001 peak prices, he said.

Since then, earnings have been strong enough to allow the company to wait out the fuel cost increases.

While he pays for the difference in the fuel surcharge and the actual cost increase for his six trucks, the contract drivers are owner-operators who pay for the costs themselves.

Dillon said the larger companies such as Groendyke, which runs 23 tractors from its Amarillo terminal and 850 nationwide, are able to negotiate better terms for a fuel surcharge than independents.

The effects of rising fuel prices have not been calculated, but Costello said the organization estimates that for every 10-cent increase in fuel price, 1,000 failures occur among companies with fleets of five or more trucks.

The toll could be heavier among independent owner-operators, he said.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Friday, March 14, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

The Venezuelan government has ordered the Armed Forces (FAN) to boost its military presence along the 1,400 mile border with Colombia following accusations from some Colombian government representatives that Colombian guerilla groups are using Venezuelan territory for training purposes and to escape the Colombian army.

According to General Warrick Blanco, there are currently around 5,000 soldiers guarding the border, but many more will soon arrive, along with extra equipment and helicopters. The air force will also increase its surveillance activities along the border. 

Blanco also denied recent reports in the Colombian media that claimed there are around 400 guerilla training camps in Venezuela at the moment, branding the reports "irresponsible."

The government has also strongly denied these claims, however, Fernando Villasmil an opposition politician in Zulia State claims to have a copy of a report by the Environment Ministry that confirms the existence of at least one camp. The validity of the allegation has still to be confirmed.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Friday, March 14, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

Confederation of Trade Unions (CTV) secretary general Manuel Cova has appeared before the Attorney General's Office following a summons issued earlier in the week by public prosecutor Luisa Ortega Diaz.

At first Cova was unsure as to whether he would attend following the arrest warrants issued for other leading strike leaders, such as CTV president Carlos Ortega who is currently on the run from the police, but following some clarification of why he had been summoned he decided to present himself.

The senior CTV member said he had been questioned in regard to the two month long national work stoppage which he argued "was a decision made by every Venezuelan citizen that believed it was necessary to join the protest which was aimed at securing elections."

Cova told the public prosecutor that Coordinadora Democratica's and the CTV's role had merely been to urge people to participate and those that did so acted of their own accord.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Friday, March 14, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

According to former executives at the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV), the government has taken control of the BCV and it is now "a monetary branch of the government."

In a document signed by 11 former senior BCV executives they claim that the BCV is breaking the Constitution by endorsing government policies. "Monetary policy is now subordinate to fiscal needs and this has led to non-compliance with the Constitution."

Proof of this, the group claim, can be seen on three specific occasions: August 2000 "when the Finance Minister decided to confiscate part of the bank's capital," secondly in October 2001 when the bank's ability to establish reserves were removed from the Central Bank Law and thirdly in November last year when the law was changed because the Treasury needed extra funds.