<a href=www.voanews.com>VOA News 31 Mar 2003, 10:11 UTC

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says government forces have carried out an air strike against suspected Colombian guerrillas inside Venezuelan territory.

Mr. Chavez said during his weekly television program Sunday that he ordered the strike after the guerrillas attacked a Venezuelan military post near the border. He said the military action was effective and that his government will not tolerate Colombian armed groups entering Venezuela.

Mr. Chavez did not identify the guerrillas as either leftist Colombian rebels or right-wing paramilitaries. Nor did he say if there were any casualties in the attack.

Critics in Venezuela and Colombia have accused the leftist populist leader of supporting Colombian rebels inside Venezuela, a charge Mr. Chavez has repeatedly denied.

Source

CARACAS - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced the creation of a programme which would allow workers at companies closed after the opposition strike earlier this year to take over the reins of their organisations. Speaking on his weekly television show “Hello Mr President", Chavez said the programme aimed to organise workers cooperatives to take control of the paralised companies.

If they had been left without work, “the workers should take over the companies and the government would support them,” he said.

He had asked his industry ministry to prepare a programme model within the constraints of the country's constitution, he said, adding that the idea was not to “invade the factories or direspect the rights of the owners, but to allow workers to control the companies."

Thousands of workers were laid off during the 63-day opposition strike which culminated in an attempt February to oust the president.

Chavez called the redundancies "an outrage and violation of the constitution", saying that his new programme was designed to protect the aggrieved workers. Chavez also used his television show to reiterate his desire for Venezuela to join Mercosur, and to create a more dynamic and politicised economic bloc.

"Now more than ever Venezuela wants to be part of Mercosur, though obviously another kind of Mercosur," Chavez said.

The bloc, which is currently made up of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, needed to become more dynamic and shake off its neo-liberal tendencies, he added.

"This Mercosur must have a political dimension to contribute to global equality, social equality. Venezuela wants to be, and can be part of Mercosur," he said.

Chavez first floated the idea of Venezuela becoming part of Mercosur in 2001 but his ambitions were thwarted. Colombian officials evoked the laws governing the Community of Andean Nations which state that the group - Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela - could only join Mercosur as a block.

By Tim Vickery

Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela all played international friendlies over the last few days, and some of them will be in action again this week.

The phrase 'international friendly' suggests that people from different nations come together to compete and to forge respect and understanding through football.

Pablo Aimar in action for Argentina

International football can claim to provide respite for some from the death and destruction that have stopped the planet in its tracks over recent weeks.

The World Cup brings normal conversation to a standstill in more than 200 countries.

But there are no pictures of fragments of people lying in the road.

Instead, there is the flowering of human potential, both individual and collective - and nothing more serious than refereeing mistakes and the odd off-the-ball incident.

Football is the true universal language, open to those of all sizes and races, a means by which culture can speak unto culture.

The game is, of course, a long way from being perfect. Many of its problems reflect the world in which it exists.

There is, for example, the greed and the arrogance of the developed nations, and corrupt leadership in many of the less developed nations.

But the soul of the game will never belong to the shareholders of the rich European clubs, or the South American director steering transfer fee money into a tax haven bank account.

Football offers those born on the wrong side of the tracks the chance to shine

The soul of football belongs to the kid on the outskirts of Buenos Aires who throws down an old jumper to make a goalpost.

It was by drawing on talent from that kind of background that Argentina won three of the last four World Youth Cups.

Indeed, were it not for the war they would currently be defending their title in the United Arab Emirates.

José Pekerman is the coach who took them to so many titles.

He makes a fascinating distinction between moulding young players in First and Third World backgrounds.

He makes it clear the size does not matter.

"I give priority to finding kids with skill," he said. "So we can quickly get them in contact with nutritionists. That's not a problem they have in Europe, because the state provides these things.

"Over there the kid will always be first an athlete and then a footballer. For us it's the other way round."

The jinking runs of the lightweight Pablo Aimar or the electric bursts of the stocky Javier Saviola are proof in action of Pekerman's philosophy.

They can make giant defenders collide into each other like circus clowns.

Football offers those born on the wrong side of the tracks the chance to shine.

It gives them a rare opportunity to compete on equal terms with their richer cousins.

It seems to be that once this war is over we will need football more than ever.

We will need as many international friendlies as we can get.

RIGHTS: <a href=ipsnews.net>Jim Lobe

The number of journalists thrown in prison around the world rose sharply in 2002, in contrast to a fall in the number of those killed in connection with their work, according to press watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

WASHINGTON, Mar 31 (IPS) - The number of journalists thrown in prison around the world rose sharply in 2002, in contrast to a fall in the number of those killed in connection with their work, according to press watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Nineteen media workers lost their lives last year, just over half the total of 37 in 2001 and the lowest death toll in any year since the New York-based Committee first began tallying work-related deaths of reporters in 1985.

The sharp reduction in deaths, it said, was due primarily to the end or winding down of several lethal wars around the world during 2002, particularly in Afghanistan where eight journalists were killed covering the U.S. military campaign against the Taliban in 2001.

The relative quiet there, as well as cease-fires or peace agreements in Sri Lanka, Angola, and elsewhere also reduced the risks of casualties among reporters covering those conflicts, according to CPJ's latest annual edition of 'Attacks on the Press'.

The report says the re-occupation of the West Bank by Israeli forces and an abrupt rise in violence there claimed the lives of three journalists and wounded several others.

While CPJ noted the fall in fatalities, it also stressed that the number of journalists in prison rose sharply last year and suggested that Washington's ''war on terrorism'' - and the speed and determination with which a number of allied governments have used it to crack down on opposition press - bore a not insignificant amount of responsibility.

CPJ has also raised concerns about the ongoing U.S.-led attack on Iraq. Last week, the group asked U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to explain the bombing of Iraq state television facilities in Baghdad, which it says are protected under the Geneva Conventions governing conduct in wartime.

U.S. officials claim the station is being used for military purposes.

''We are concerned that U.S. forces may have targeted Iraqi media to halt government propaganda, especially coming as it does after Iraqi TV broadcast footage of U.S. POWs and dead American soldiers. The fact that the Iraqi government used state-run television to air these images in possible violation of the Geneva Conventions does not justify an attack,'' said the letter.

By the end of 2002, 136 journalists were in jail, a 15 percent increase over 2001 and ''a shocking 68 percent increase since the end of 2000, when only 81 journalists were imprisoned'', according to an introduction to the 424-page report by CPJ director Ann Cooper.

''Strong pressure from international organisations, the media, and governments worldwide, including the United States, was probably responsible for the decline'' in jailings achieved during the 1990s, according to Cooper. But ''certainly the stigma associated with jailing a journalist has faded''.

China, already the world's leading jailer of journalists since the late 1990s, added five more to its list for a total of 39 in prison by year's end.

With 18 journalists behind bars since September, 2001, Eritrea led the rest of the world in the number of imprisoned journalists, said Cooper, who noted that U.S. officials have been uncharacteristically muted in their criticism of the crackdown by President Isaias Afwerki.

In a December visit, Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld told reporters who asked about press freedom in the strategically located country that Eritrea ''is a sovereign nation, and they arrange themselves and deal with their problems in ways that they feel are appropriate to them''.

Afwerki has invited Washington to establish a military base in Eritrea from which it could presumably pursue operations across the Red Sea into Yemen and other parts of the Arabian Peninsula.

With 16 journalists in jail at year's end, Nepal ranked third, a result of its declaration of emergency and enactment of sweeping anti-terrorism legislation between November 2001, through last summer in connection with military campaigns by Maoist rebels through much of the countryside. Hundreds of journalists were detained initially, although the vast majority have since been released.

Among the 19 journalists killed during the year, the one that drew by far the most media attention was the execution last January or early February of 'Wall Street Journal' reporter Daniel Pearl, who was abducted in Pakistan by Islamist militants while he was investigating a radical Islamist groups in that country.

Men later tried and convicted for the murder said they acted to protest the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and Pakistan's co-operation in the campaign.

But most of the journalists killed in 2002 were murdered in direct reprisal for their reporting on other issues, including death squad activity by Colombia's right-wing paramilitary forces, drug trafficking in Brazil, and corruption by officials in the Philippines and Russia.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was particularly deadly for journalists. Two Palestinian journalists and one Italian photographer were fatally shot by Israeli army forces on the West Bank in separate incidents whose precise circumstances remain the subject of different accounts.

Three journalists were killed in Colombia, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and Russia during 2002; two in Pakistan and the Philippines; and one in Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Nepal, Uganda, and Venezuela, says the report.

But CPJ also recorded the deaths of 13 other journalists, including five in Colombia, where the motives for their killings remain unclear. Besides Colombia, which has proved the world's most dangerous place for media workers over the past decade, two were killed in India, and one each in Armenia, Bangladesh, Belarus, Brazil, Nepal and Russia.

There were some bright spots during the year as well, according to the report.

Russian journalist Grigory Pasko, for example, was paroled for good behaviour last January after serving two-thirds of a four-year prison sentence. He was originally put in prison for reporting on environmental damage caused by the Russian Navy in a case that became a 'cause celebre' for CPJ, Amnesty International, the Sierra Club, and a number of other environmental and human rights groups.

CPJ also noted the conviction of six men for the 2000 murder of Mozambique's top investigative reporter, Carlos Cardoso. The circumstances of that case suggested the involvement of the son of President Joaquin Chissano, and the judge has vowed to continue the investigation.

''But in most other cases'', Cooper wrote in her introduction, ''officials investigations of journalists' murders are half-hearted or nonexistent''. Even in cases where witnesses have positively identified suspects, governments of too many countries do not follow up, either because of corruption, intimidation, or because the government itself may be involved. (END/2003) (END)

<a href=www.ipsnews.net>Mario Osava*

Another weekend of protests in Latin America against the war on Iraq, marked by music and creative slogans, culminated Sunday with a rally in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo, where world-renowned musician and Brazilian Culture Minister Gilberto Gil sang several protest songs.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 30 (IPS) - Another weekend of protests in Latin America against the war on Iraq, marked by music and creative slogans, culminated Sunday with a rally in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo, where world-renowned musician and Brazilian Culture Minister Gilberto Gil sang several protest songs.

Between 10,000 and 30,000 people, according to press reports or the organisers, took part in the demonstration convened by the governing Workers' Party (PT). Many of those present sang along with Gil to ''Peace'', one of his most famous songs.

Two other singers, Supla and Chico Cesar, performed in the peace rally, which was called by a committee that groups more than 100 social organisations and political parties, and by the government of Sao Paulo, Brazil's biggest city.

Gil said Brazilians carried the urge to defend peace ''in their genes,'' and expressed his hope that the protests being held around the world would end up eroding the U.S. population's support for the war.

''The participation of artists in the anti-war demonstrations is important, because music symbolises the struggle for peace,'' said the president of the PT, former parliamentary deputy José Genoino.

In Mexico, the ''Loveparade'' peace rally, which ended in an enormous dance, began late Saturday and stretched to seven in the morning on Sunday, drawing around 5,000 young people -- very few compared to the projections of the organisers, who hoped for as many as 200,000.

Protesters chanted and carried placards against the British-U.S. invasion of Iraq, which has been going on for 10 days. In addition, around 100 graffiti artists covered 300 metres of wall space on a Mexico City school with anti-war designs.

Music also formed part of the anti-war events in Buenos Aires, but with a more formal tone: a performance in the historical Colon Theatre in which a children's choir and dancers from a school performed along with popular musicians.

Humour and irreverence also played a role in the events organised this weekend by the region's peace movement.

In a protest held Saturday in Caracas, alongside placards with the usual anti-war slogans ''No War'' and ''No Blood for Oil'' appeared a poster with the image of U.S. President George W. Bush as a vampire sinking his fangs into oil-rich Iraq and Venezuela.

In Rio de Janeiro, the ''Diabush'' (for ''diablo'' or devil), a man sporting a red devil's suit and a mask of the U.S. president's face, carried a sign stating ''I am the one in charge in the world.''

Next to him, a protester wearing a mask of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein carried a fake bomb that read ''No More Bombs.''

The two characters stood out among the roughly 300 people who marched along the famous Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro, and later danced to the music of the afro-Brazilian group Sons of Gandhi.

''The Diabush shows where we are headed if Bush's policies continue: to hell,'' said Deputy Carlos Minc, who headed the protest along with his fellow congressman Fernando Gabeira. Both legislators are members of the PT as well as prominent environmentalists. ''Our War is Against Hunger'' and ''Make Love, Not War'' read banners carried by the demonstrators.

Organisations of homosexuals, transvestites and transsexuals were represented in the event, and have organised their own anti-war demonstrations in several Brazilian cities.

The colourful clothing and costumes worn by members of sexual minorities also brightened up a peace march that took place in downtown Santiago on Saturday, drawing between 1,500 and 2,000 people who urged President Ricardo Lagos to back a call for the United Nations General Assembly to hold a special session to ''adopt moral sanctions against Bush.''

One sign carried by the protesters read ''Thanks, Ambassador Vega'', an allusion to Chile's representative on the UN Commission on Human Rights, which is holding its annual meetings through Apr. 25 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Last week, Vega disobeyed instructions from his government to vote against a motion for the Commission to discuss the humanitarian and human rights situation in Iraq. Instead, the diplomat abstained. Recalled to Chile, he resigned Saturday before the Foreign Ministry could remove him.

The proposal to debate the situation in Iraq failed to pass because a majority of the 53 countries represented on the Commission adhered to the argument that the issue fell within the sphere of the UN Security Council.

There have also been calls in Latin America to join a new global movement to boycott U.S. products, brands and companies.

McDonald's franchises were occupied by nearly 150 student protesters from the movement ''No Pasarán'' in the Argentine capital, and targetted by stone-throwers in Caracas as well as peaceful protests in other cities in the region over the past week.

In the eastern port city of Veracruz, in the Gulf of Mexico, around 3,000 people chanted ''Yanquis Out of Iraq'' on Saturday. They convened another demonstration under the theme ''Tamales Against Hamburgers'', to be held outside a local Burger King next Thursday.

Tamales are a traditional Mexican dish made of ground beef seasoned with chili, rolled in cornmeal dough and wrapped in corn husks.

In Uruguay, U.S. flags were burnt in a protest Friday that drew thousands of anti-war demonstrators in Montevideo and was planned by the country's central trade union and student groups.

U.S. embassies and consulates were also the targets of hostility in Montevideo, Caracas and other cities, including Valencia, 120 kms from the Venezuelan capital.

Venezuela's Arab community, which numbers around one million in that oil exporting country of 23 million, has also joined the mobilisations against Bush.

• Diego Cevallos (Mexico), Gustavo González (Chile), Humberto Márquez (Venezuela) and Marcela Valente (Argentina) contributed to this report. (END)