<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, April 01, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Venezuelan Confederation of Trade Unions (CTV) general secretary, Manuel Cova has announced that members of the national executive will visit Costa Rica to consult with CTV president Carlos Ortega.  Political affairs observers suggest that Ortega wants to continue dominating play inside the union leadership and dictating the tune he wants the leadership to dance to. 

It remains to be seen whether Alfredo Ramos and Froilan Barrios, who have been very quiet since Ortega's exile at the Costa Rican Embassy, will attempt to challenge the takeover. 

An attempt to shuffle leadership positions and replace Ortega met with stiff opposition from Cova and the Accion Democratica (AD) apparatus, who seemingly think that Ortega merits honorary membership and has the right to dictate union policy from exile, even though he no longer resides in Venezuela.  

• Meanwhile, Cova has launched a campaign for a 30% hike in Venezuela's  minimum wage in anticipation of an annual government decree on May 1st increasing the minimum basic wage 10%. 

In an attempt to relate to members of his own trade union, Cova says a 30% increase in the minimum wage, would help the construction industry put money into the economy and create jobs.

01 April 2003 By Scott Miller <a href=usinfo.state.gov>Washington File Staff Writer

(Most governments respected citizens' rights, though problems persist) (1040)

Washington -- The majority of governments in the Western Hemisphere respected the human rights of their citizens in 2002, though problems persist in many of these countries as well as in other nations that received poor evaluations in the Department of State's 2002 human rights report.

........

Among the hemispheric nations that the State Department's "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2002", released on March 31, ranked as having a poor human rights record were Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, and Colombia.

As in Haiti, member's of Venezuela's security forces committed "numerous and serious abuses" in 2002. Despite improvements in some areas, the Venezuelan government's human rights records remained poor.

The report found that Venezuela's police and military committed extrajudicial killings of criminal suspects, with police allegedly linked to vigilante death squads responsible for dozens of killings.

Investigations into forced disappearances by security forces remained extremely slow, the report noted, and the government failed to punish police and security officers guilty of abuses.

Arbitrary arrests and detentions in Venezuela increased in 2002, and impunity was "one of the country's most serious human rights problems."

Police rarely arrested suspects, the report said, and when they did, often the suspects were soon set free. Crimes involving human rights abuses did not proceed to trial due to delays, the report added.

Government intimidation was another serious problem in Venezuela in 2002 as the president, officials in his administration, and member of his political party frequently spoke out against the media, the political opposition, labors unions, the courts, the Catholic Church and human rights groups.

Many persons interpreted these remarks as tacit approval for violence, and threatened, intimidated or physically harmed individuals opposing the government, the report found.

Immediately proceeding a temporary alteration of constitutional authority in April, the government of briefly deposed president Hugo Chavez abused its power by requiring television and radio stations to broadcast speeches favorable to the government and by cutting the transmission of television stations that refused to do so, the report said.

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The full text of Western Hemisphere section of the 2002 Human Rights Report is available at: www.state.gov

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: usinfo.state.gov)

This site is produced and maintained by the U.S. Department of State's Office of International Information Programs (usinfo.state.gov). Links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views contained therein.

Times On Line April 02, 2003 From David Adams in Arauca, Colombia

VENEZUELA sent its air force to bomb Colombian paramilitary fighters who had invaded its territory and attacked an army border patrol, President Chávez claimed during his weekly television broadcast.

The paramilitaries retreated after a 90-minute gun battle, according to Señor Chávez. “I said to bomb the area, not on direct targets but over the adjacent area to warn them,” he said. “We did it, it was effective and they withdrew toward Colombian territory.”

The attack has not been confirmed by Colombia, whose President Uribe is due to meet Señor Chávez shortly to discuss border controls.

The incident highlights increasing tensions along the lawless, 1,400-mile (2,200km) sparsely populated border of jungle, mountain and savanna, which is a haven for rival paramilitary forces and two guerrilla armies fighting for control of the drug trade.

Colombian officials accuse Señor Chávez, a leftist revolutionary, of not doing enough to prevent guerrillas carrying out hit-and-run attacks from bases inside Venezuela. Colombian police and army posts in the border province of Arauca report coming under rebel mortar fire from across the muddy, 110-yard-wide river that marks the border, using customised 100lb gas cylinders packed with explosives, glass, nails and human excrement.

Some officials accuse Señor Chávez of providing the guerrillas with secret logistical support but the Venezuelans say Colombia does not do enough to prevent its long-running civil conflict from spilling over the border. According to Colombian intelligence reports, guerrillas operate at least two camps in Venezuela, where rebels are given weapons and explosives training. Colombian military sources claim that guerrillas obtain guns from corrupt Venezuelan military officers in exchange for cocaine. They say about 20 per cent of captured guerrilla weapons are stamped with Venezuelan Military Industry markings.

Captured guerrillas and deserters have confirmed the reports. One defector, an 18-year-old commander with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), said she had travelled in and out of Venezuela at will, visiting Farc bases and training new recruits in Venezuela. “The guerrilla (commanders) are counting on Venezuela for their victory,” she said.

Recently Venezuela has shown signs of co-operation. Last month its soldiers, acting on Colombian intelligence, intercepted a 3,000lb lorry bomb that Farc rebels had planned to use to blow up a bridge across the border. Venezuela also arrested three suspected National Liberation Army rebels accused of planting a bomb that killed seven people in the Colombian border city of Cucuta.

Atlanta Business Chronicle

Atlanta-based Colonial Pipeline Co. will pay a $34 million penalty and spend at least $30 million to improve safety to settle pollution charges for spilling 1.45 million gallons of oil and petroleum products in five states, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said.

The EPA said the $34 million payment is the largest civil penalty a company has ever paid to the agency.

The government found Colonial violated the Clean Water Act when the company's pipeline corrosion, mechanical damage, and operator error resulted in the release of approximately 1.45 million gallons of oil and other petroleum products. In one spill, more than 950,000 gallons of diesel fuel spilled into the Reedy River in South Carolina.

The U.S. Justice Department said Colonial, operator of the world's largest pipeline for refined petroleum fuels, will upgrade environmental protection along its 5,500-mile pipeline stretching from Texas to New Jersey. Colonial pleaded guilty in 1999 to a criminal charge and paid a $7 million fine stemming from the spill in the Reedy River case.

Colonial's owners include Koch Industries Inc., ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil Co., Shell Oil Co. and the Citgo Petroleum unit of Petroleos de Venezuela.

Colonial will be required to inspect the pipeline for corrosion and make repairs under the supervision of a monitor.

The EPA said it has recently taken action against several other pipeline companies for oil spill violations, including Olympic Pipe Line Co. and Shell Pipeline Co.

Vanguard (Lagos) Posted to the web April 1, 2003 Hector Igbikiowubo, With Agency Report Lagos

CONTINUED stiff resistance faced by coalition forces in Iraq and fresh reports of bloody unrest in Nigeria pushed oil prices higher yesterday as traders betrayed concern. The price of reference Brent North Sea crude oil for May delivery rose 77 cents per barrel from the previous closing to 27.12 dollars in late trading. New York's benchmark light sweet crude contract for May delivery crept up 24 cents to 30.40 dollars a barrel in early deals. The rises came despite assurances from the White House that there was no need yet for the United States to tap its strategic petroleum reserve. "We have seen no evidence to date of a severe supply disruption, nevertheless the experts continue to monitor it," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters. Traders were trying to sift through the reams of war news to work out how the campaign in Iraq was really progressing, said GNI trader Robert Laughlin.

"The interest is very much... in terms of the propaganda machine over the weekend, as the Americans still said the war effort is being successful despite the fact there appears to be a mini-ceasefire," he said. Advances by US and British troops towards Baghdad appeared to slow over the weekend, with some experts warning that supply lines were becoming stretched. Yesterday, British commandos saw fierce fighting as they launched a major assault on the key southern city of Basra.

Meanwhile, continued ethnic unrest in Nigeria, which has reduced the country's oil exports by more than a third, was also fueling concern, analysts said. Police in the troubled Niger Delta said that scores of people were feared killed over the weekend in clashes over land rights near Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital. "The market is up because people are still worried about the situation in Nigeria, where there was more violence over the weekend," said Deutsche Bank analyst Adam Sieminski. "It means that the 800,000 barrels a day of production that was lost last week is still out, in contrast to statements Thursday and Friday suggesting that a compromise between ethnic groups and the government had been reached," he added.

For the moment, there were few real concerns about supplies, but more bad news could send prices soaring, Sieminski said. "There is still enough oil coming from Saudi Arabia and even Venezuela to keep the market supplied, but with Iraq out and the conflict in Nigeria still continuing, the market is tightly balanced, and if anything else should go on, we would see higher prices," he said. However, Prudential Bache broker Tony Machacek said he considered it unlikely that prices would go much higher on the back on new supply problems in Iraq. "So far, a lot of the oil fields appear to have been militarily secured, so it is unlikely that (Iraqi leader) Saddam (Hussein) or his army will be able to disrupt supplies from Iraq very easily," he said.