Reuters, 03.25.03, 2:51 PM ET By Timothy Gardner NEW YORK (Reuters) - Iraq's official oil exports slid 75 percent to 443,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the week ended March 21, after the United Nations effectively shut the country's main oil port by removing personnel ahead of the U.S.-led attack on Iraq, U.N. officials said Tuesday. That was down from the previous week in which official exports were 1.8 million bpd. The loss comes as U.S. stocks are hovering just above minimum operating levels and as a military-tribal clash has slashed exports from Nigeria, a leading U.S. supplier of high quality crude. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on March 17 ordered the evacuation of all U.N. personnel in Iraq, including "oil for food" program personnel. That has effectively shut shipments from Mina al-Bakr, which normally handles about two-thirds of Iraq's official oil exports. A reduced amount of oil is still flowing via pipeline from northern Iraq to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan where tankers can still legally pick up crude. On Tuesday oil flow on the line was 179,000 barrels, down from an average of about 700,000 barrels in February. But few oil companies have been willing to risk buying Iraq's crude in wartime. There were two loadings from Mina al-Bakr and two from Ceyhan in the week. The tanker Caithness completed loading last week at Ceyhan, U.N. officials said. There are no other vessels currently expected at Ceyhan. Storage tanks at the terminal are near capacity. The slide in shipments pushed the four-week rolling average of oil exports down to 1.38 million bpd, compared to 1.7 million bpd last week, which was the average rate for 2002. The average price for Iraqi crude fell to $22.00 per barrel, down $5.60 from the previous week. These figures do not include oil smuggled out of Iraq to Syria, Turkey, Iran or other points.

SAUDI STRENGTHENED Though a crimp in Iraqi exports was expected, it comes when the United States, the world's largest consumer of oil, begins to boost gasoline making to gear up for summer holiday driving season. And clashes ahead of elections in Nigeria between the Ijaw ethnic group and the military has removed 817,000 barrels per day (bpd) there. Combined, the two slowdowns total 2.1 million bpd loss from the 76 million bpd global oil market. U.S. spare crude supplies were 272 million barrels the federal government reported last week, just above the 270 million barrel level industry says is the minimum operating level for U.S. refineries to run smoothly. "As always we have to be concerned about a compound risk," said Tim Evans, senior market analyst at IFR-Pegasus in New York. Top Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries producer Saudi Arabia has booked 14 tankers to move 29.5 million barrels of crude to the U.S. Gulf for delivery in May to make up for losses from Iraq and Venezuela, where oil production is recovering from a two-month strike. Saudi is one of the few world exporters with spare oil producing capacity. If the Nigerian situation drags on it would remove worries of an oil surplus in the second quarter and strengthen Saudi Arabia's command of the global oil market, said Evans.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, March 25, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Consorcio Justicia general director, Carlos Ponce  has called on World Bank projects manager for Latin America, Waleed H. Malik not to "give a bolivar more to the Venezuelan Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ)." He claims that funds to reform the Judiciary are being wasted away. 

"Only 10.3% of Venezuela's judges are titular ... the rest 87.7% are supply judges ... it shows that TSJ  magistrates can't keep their promise to reduce the provisional character of Venezuelan justice to 20%." 

The National Assembly (AN) decreed a judiciary emergency  in 1999 and set up a Restructure Committee whose first task was to review the situation of the country's judges and ended up suspending a good number. 

Ponce says he has been studying the system starting from 1907 thru to the current period, and has reached the conclusion that in Venezuela there is no such thing as independent or autonomous courts when judges are relieved of their posts for simply passing sentences that a determined economic or political group does not agree with. 

"Three years have passed and the Judiciary still lacks a basic structure, a strategic vision and more important, stability of judges ... as long as we have provisional judges, there cannot be any stability." 

In a letter to TSJ president Ivan Rincon, Ponce has criticized the fact that the TSJ has administered 2.4% of the national budget over a three-year period and have little to show for it. 

"The crisis continues, few changes can be observed and there is still limited access for ordinary citizens." 

Commenting on the TSJ's  call yesterday for a national consultation process, Ponce wryly contends that any consultation will lack transparency ... "the bottom line is the TSJ's need to present the World Bank with a program asking for more debt."

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, March 25, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Former Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) subsidiary, Pequiven president, Edgar Paredes has lodged a formal complaint at the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) accusing Chavez Frias government supporters and agents of initiating a campaign of attrition against him for his part in the oil stoppage. 

"My wife and I were intercepted by a white taxi carrying four heavily armed men, who attempted to block our passage by car ... fortunately, we were able to evade them but I'd hate to think what could have happened." 

The National Guard (GN) , Paredes alleges, has sent soldiers to his farm without an arrest warrant and he has been receiving anonymous and threatening phone calls.  "It is political persecution and nothing else." 

Paredes and six other PDVSA rebels are currently in the middle of a legal battle after a judge revoked an arrest warrant against them on the grounds that the Attorney General's Office had not laid charges to merit the issuing of an arrest warrant.

Paredes appeared daily on TV during the lead up to and during the events of April 11, boasting about revoking the oil supply agreement with Cuba and leading Venezuela out of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).  

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, March 25, 2003 By: Manuel Rueda

International affairs commentarist Manuel Rueda writes: On the 10th of March, Acting Assistant US Secretary of State J. Curtis Struble met with diplomats from Brazil Mexico, Chile, Portugal and Spain, in Brasilia to discuss the prospects for an electoral solution to Venezuela's simmering political crisis ... delegates from Venezuela’s government and opposition presented starkly different accounts of the crisis, as they vied for support for their electoral proposals.

Over the past few weeks, both sides have certainly raised eyebrows in Washington.

Venezuela’s political polarization and economic decay have increasingly tempted the Bush administration to play a bigger role in the negotiations, to better defend vital US interests in the region.

Venezuelan Ambassador to the OAS, Jorge Valero, who spoke on behalf of the Chavez administration, presented a report on the normalization of political and economic life in the country, including the stabilization of oil production. The government obviously was trying to present an image that Venezuela was now back to its old politically stable and oil-reliable self, in order to negate support for the opposition’s proposal to achieve elections through a constitutional amendment, which if passed would shorten the President’s and Congress’ terms from six to four years.

Furthermore, the amendment would immediately terminate Presidential and Congressional terms forcing elections for both levels of governance to take place within 30 days. This bold, if self-serving initiative would challenge the government’s grip on all elective offices. It is unlikely to find many supporters on the government side, which has repeatedly insisted that Constitutional amendments lie outside the scope of the current round of negotiations.

Timoteo Zambrano, a congressman and delegate for the opposition at the negotiations table, urged delegates to pressure the government to accept the opposition’s seemingly brash terms for elections, as he painted a stark picture of Venezuelan political realities.

Prior to the meeting, he informed the press that the government is staging a “political persecution” against the leaders of the Coordinadora Democratica (CD), which heads up the opposition group. His report strongly suggested that the government is blocking efforts to reach an electoral agreement by heightening political tensions surrounding the negotiations. Zambrano cited the law on media content, drafted by Chavez supporters in the National Assembly, and the arrest of several opposition leaders for their participation in the general strike, as acts that have sabotaged prospects for an electoral solution.

The opposition also demanded that the Group of Friends send permanent representatives to the negotiations, who would be in a position to pressure the government to accelerate the negotiations, and could possibly press for a Constitutional amendment. Furthermore, they asked that Secretary General of the OAS, Cesar Gaviria, convert his role as a facilitator into that of being a mediator, in which he could influence which items must be resolved on the agenda.

The government camp would most likely consider such action as an intrusion into Venezuela’s sovereign rights, mindful of the fact that President Chavez already has lashed out at such countries as Spain for criticizing the Fernandez arrest.

But the Chavez administration’s concerns with foreign intrusion were put aside when its delegates pushed once again for the Group of Friends to include countries such as Cuba, France and China, that maintain close political and economic ties with Caracas and may dilute the group of friends’ desire to take a pro-active stance in the negotiation rounds.

Rather than ask for aid in strengthening Venezuela’s democratic foundations ... such as reformation of its biased media or its flawed judicial system ... government and opposition delegates traveled to Brasilia to push for concessions that would facilitate their political agenda which, in the government’s case involves that status quo, while the opposition vies for radical changes in electoral rules.

It may appears to some that Washington officials are siding with the opposition’s call for reform. On Thursday March 6, for example, seven members of the US House of Representatives sent a letter to Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, in which they reminded him that they would not remain indifferent towards any actions in Venezuela’s democratic process that do not fully respect the opposition’s rights.

But do such acts come solely out of empathy for Venezuela’s embattled opposition?

After an ill-advised and embarrassing demand for immediate elections in the early days of the strike, the White House has avoided any high profile role in Venezuela’s conflict by throwing its support behind the OAS’ lengthy mediation efforts.

However, it is probable that the Bush administration might increase its involvement in Venezuela’s political strife as White House officials grow concerned that the decay and politicization of PDVSA ... Venezuela’s national oil company ... may threaten US energy interests in the region.

• Washington’s professed unrest isn’t necessarily a cover to blast Chavez for his leftist and nationalistic ideologies, or defend the interests of the local elite.

Oil has been the glue that has held Venezuela and the US together in the past 50 years. For decades, US administrations have tolerated various nationalistic measures taken by Venezuelan governments, even those appearing to be anti-American ... such as nationalizing oil production or imposing tariffs on US imports. Venezuela gained Washington’s trust by maintaining a reliable oil supply in times of both prosperity and crisis.

The Chavez administration was given similar treatment in its early days in office. Washington officials were prepared to discount the new President’s fiery rhetoric and praise for the Fidel Castro regime, as they rushed to assure the American public that his actions didn’t match his words and that there appeared to be no evidence that the Bolivarian revolution would threaten United States’ energy concerns in the region.

But PDVSA’s turmoil could give the US good reason to become more actively involved in negotiations towards resolving Venezuela’s political crisis. During the strike, PDVSA became increasingly politicized as mid-level as well as senior managers carried out an oil stoppage in consort with opposition leaders.

It is no secret that this alliance decimated PDVSA’s production levels and cut exports to the United States. As oil prices rise with a war in Iraq, US policy-makers are asking if Chavez’s embattled government will be able to supervise this fractured company and deliver oil in a reliable fashion.

• Venezuelan officials are eager to convince Washington that PDVSA will soon recover its full production and its reputation as a reliable supplier.

However, the US State Department is not altogether buying this optimistic projection. At a meeting on February 26 with Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez, US State Department officials told Venezuela’s officials that Venezuela cannot be considered a reliable oil supplier to the United States at the present time.

This sentiment is also shared by some members of the Bush cabinet.

Despite assurances from Ramirez that his country was producing 2.4 million barrels of crude daily in the last week of February, US Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham told a Senate hearing it might be two to three months before Venezuelan oil production reaches its normal levels. Prior to the strike Venezuela produced 2.8million barrels of crude daily.

Chavez’s efforts to manage PDVSA efficiently are further complicated by the opposition’s negotiation strategy. Its representatives at the negotiations have demanded that Chavez reinstate thousands of PDVSA bureaucrats, technicians and managers who were fired for joining in the general strike ... or no electoral solution will be permitted to come about.

Such a demand could be an incentive for the United States to influence negotiations, as it would offer Washington an opportunity to play a hand in the restructuring of PDVSA, its main interest in Venezuela’s current strife.

Political instability in Venezuela also appears to be undermining Washington’s war on drugs. One of the main pillars of the Bush administration’s northern South American strategy is to widen Washington’s role in combating Colombia’s drug-trafficking rebel groups. Recent reports suggesting that important leaders of the FARC, including Manuel Marulanda, are hiding out in Venezuela, have damaged the standing of the Chavez administration in Washington. At the very least, they have led some US officials to ponder whether an embattled government hobbled by protests, unpopularity and constant challenges to its legitimacy is a worthy partner, willing and able to tackle the drug traffic issue with resolve.

• On February 27, Drug Czar John Walter’s expressed this concern at a House Committee on International Relations hearing, stating that “Venezuela’s political problems have created a haven for narco-terrorists to operate with impunity."

Washington’s invigorated policy is most likely designed to comply with its own regional agenda and not destined to support the government’s or opposition’s aspirations in the negotiating table.

Oil policy and anti-narcotics interests appear to be the primordial reasons for the United States to claim a bigger stake in the resolution of Venezuela’s political tensions.

Unfortunately, it seems that democratic reforms have not been enough of an incentive for Venezuela’s contending parties to push for a widely accepted electoral solution on their own accord.

<a href=wwwvheadline.com>Venezuela Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, March 25, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Following a report on school deserters, El Nacional social affairs journalist, Mireya Tabuas confirms that 414,339 Venezuelan children and teenagers had to repeat the school year (2001-2002) after failing exams ... approximately 1 in 3 of these drop out of school for the same reason. 

The repeat figure is 8% more than in 2000-2001. 

1st grade is the biggest casualty area with 81,331 students repeating (12.2%), followed by 7th grade with 77,800 repeaters (13.7%). 

• Experts say the government must solve the problem of students repeating the year because many parents prefer to take them out of school. 

 Cultural & Educational Research Center analyst, Mariano Herrera insists that repeat students are a sign that the school is at fault and not the pupils. "It must be become a top priority for the State to solve."

Although it seems to a taboo to critique teachers and trade union practices, little is said about poor teaching methods.  "The teacher must know and start using alternative techniques to attend the more vulnerable sectors ... unfortunately that is not taught in our universities."

Although it seems to have become a taboo to critique teachers and trade union practices, little is said about poor teaching methods.  "The teacher must know and start using alternative techniques to attend the more vulnerable sectors ... unfortunately that is not taught in our universities."