<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Thursday, April 03, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

PDVSA president Ali Rodriguez Araque has issued an order dismissing 828 Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) employees, bringing the alleged total number of dismissals since December to 17,871 workers. 

According to former PDVSA human resources managers, the number represents 47% of employees that worked for the company up till December 31, 2002. 

The decision to lay off the employees and published in the Gaceta Oficial is based on Labor Law Article 102, stipulating unjustified abandonment of work place and dishonesty. 

The shadow PDVSA human resources team highlights the fact that those dismissed average 15 years in the company and complains that PDVSA is advertising for foreigners to fill the posts.

Recruitment International Ltd is seeking engineers with experience in flexi-coke and distillary processes (refinery) with a minimum of 10 years experience. 

The Venezuelan Geophysics Society of Engineers has announced that it will not accept foreigners taking up employment in Venezuela, alleging that foreign personnel know less than Venezuelans about the  country's hydrocarbon basins.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Thursday, April 03, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

VHeadline.com News Editor Patrick J. Donoghue writes: What is sad about the Llaguno Bridge Shooters court sentence is that it reveals how bad the legal system is in Venezuela. 

For all  opposition ravings about "bent" or corrupt judges, the government can point to several other high-profile cases to cry opposition control over what the media in 1996-1998 dubbed "complacent" judges. Just to mention a few:

• Lifting of arrest warrants against six top Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) executives & managers responsible for nearly scuttling the oil industry
• Carlos Fernandez released from house arrest
• Carlos Ortega, Pedro Carmona and Rear Admiral Molina Tamayo allowed to flee the country
• Rebel and insubordinate military officers reinstated and/or not put on trial
• Managers at the San Tome PDVSA plant reinstated after abandoning their posts

Why should there be any surprise about the 4 Llaguno Bridge Shooters?

Their lawyer used the same legal loopholes an opposition lawyer would use, in this case that there is no strong evidence to indicate that the bullets seen leaving the shooters' pistols actually killed somebody.

Why can't state prosecutors prepare their case properly and collect the evidence?

People were shocked to see civilians shooting from the bridge on April 11 ... it was a brilliant piece of filming that changed the course of Venezuela's history.  It was only days later that doubts began to appear about the role of the Metropolitan Police (PM) during the March on Miraflores and the following days. 

It has not been cleared up yet.

Can we conclude that Venezuela's legal system is as corrupt as ever and its judges are as vulnerable as ever to political control.

No wonder desperate opposition deputy, Liliana Hernandez takes a dig at people for not protesting on the streets ... who can blame people for showing skepticism after being led up the garden path so many times in the last two years by trade union leaders and business bosses playing politicians and politicians running around like headless chickens?

In the shooters' case the state prosecutor has to draw up a case against the suspects before April 20 for illegal use of firearms and public intimidation which carries an 8-year jail sentence.

State prosecutors must work harder and use their skills to draw up tighter cases against the PDVSA Six and Carlos Fernandez ... and the Shooters.

Will they? Probably not.

As one foreign legal expert comments: the majority of the judges are provisional anyway.  But justice must be seen to work whether the case is government or opposition.

What has happened to the Police Detective Branch (CICPC) special April 11 investigation?

What has happened to special Attorney General's Office watchdog, Father Vivas Suria?

That is why an independent truth commission is still the answer.

• There is nothing clear cut about April 11-14.

No side should get away with kidnapping April 11 for partisan use.

<a href=www.vheadline.com<Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Thursday, April 03, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Oil imports to the USA have reached the same levels as last year, US Ambassador Charles Shapiro has told reporters.  Speaking at a forum on Venezuela's Electoral Power and democracy, US Ambassador Charles Shapiro has confirmed that his government does not see eye to eye with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias on the Anglo-American war on Iraq.

Shapiro says Movimiento Quinta Republica (MVR) deputies have the right to criticize the war because in Venezuela people are free to express any opinion. 

As for a statement by the Iraqi Ambassador that all Venezuelans reject the war, Shapiro begs to differ ... " it doesn't reflect every Venezuelan's opinion." 

Referring to home events, the Ambassador is of the opinion that a new National Electoral College (CNE) board would help solve the problem of governance in Venezuela

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Thursday, April 03, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Former Pequiven manager and Gente de Petroleo leader, Edgardo Paredes has sent a strong message to the government-opposition negotiating team to recognize his organization's responsibility in the political situation and its role in "helping to restore democracy." 

Speaking at a press conference in front of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA)  HQ in Chuao and dismissed colleagues, Paredes complains that reinstatement of dismissed oil sector workers must remain an integral part of negotiations ... "a point of honor in the negotiations." 

Paredes, famous for his April 11 announcement to sever ties with the Organization of Petroleum Producing Countries (OPEC), is said to have called the press conference on learning that PDVSA  reinstatements is one of the issues that has been relegated from the negotiations agenda. 

Executive Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel  has ruled out any government amnesty for dismissed PDVSA executives and managers, who, he claims, abandoned their posts to join the opposition-led national stoppage. "The matter of reinstatement is the competence of PDVSA itself and the Justice system and not the negotiating team."

Anglican Journal JANE DAVIDSON STAFF WRITER

The Anglican church in Cuba has voted against rejoining the Episcopal Church of the United States (ECUSA), despite an initial synod vote last year strongly in favour of the move. The decision was reached at the regular annual synod of Cuba in Matanzas in February.       In the final vote, which was taken by orders, 11 clergy voted against the move, and eight voted in favour. Among the laity, 31 voted in favour of rejoining ECUSA and 17 voted against the move. In order to pass, the vote needed a majority in both houses. Bishop Julio Cesar Holguin Khoury (left), pictured with Canadian primate Archbishop Michael Peers, presided over the Cuban synod. [photo by PHILIP WADHAM]

      Once a missionary diocese of ECUSA, the Cuban church has been "extra-provincial" since 1967 because of political tensions between Cuba and the U.S. The Cuban church mostly ran its own affairs with special oversight from a Metropolitan Council, a group of senior bishops which is chaired by the Canadian primate, Archbishop Michael Peers.       Following a bitter extraordinary synod last December in Havana, where eight clergy staged a walk out to demonstrate their opposition to rejoining ECUSA, the outcome of the February vote was not entirely a surprise, said Canon Philip Wadham, co-ordinator of Latin America/       Caribbean and mission education.       In January, the bishop of Cuba, Jorge Perera Hurtado, announced his retirement; observers said stress from the December walkout was a factor in his departure.       Until a new bishop can be elected, the acting bishop will be Bishop Julio Cesar Holguin Khoury, bishop of the Dominican Republic. Bishop Holguin, who is a member of the Metropolitan Council, presided over February's synod and put a strict time cap on debate. He was applauded by observers for leading the sessions with strength and wit.       When the Cubans first announced they were considering rejoining ECUSA a year ago, there was a favourable response from the U.S. church.       Last April, Rev. Patrick Mauney, director of Anglican and global relations for ECUSA, said he was delighted at the prospect of having the Cuban church return. The ECUSA standing commission on world mission then chose to hold one of its regular meetings in Havana from Oct. 4-11 to discuss the incorporation of the Episcopal Church of Puerto Rico, the Episcopal Church of Cuba and the Anglican Church of Venezuela into ECUSA.       In an interview last month, Mr. Mauney said he was not surprised about the vote "after what went on in December. I hate to see a divided church."       A year previously, when the idea of rejoining ECUSA was introduced at the February synod, there was only one dissenting vote, Mr. Mauney noted.       "Suddenly in December there was the walkout," he said. "I would like to have seen a really strong majority in favour of moving ahead."       A year ago, he added, "I was frankly flabbergasted to hear that they wanted back in and then was worried about it being driven solely by the pensions issue," he said.       Cuban clergy presently have no retirement fund and were said to be hoping for access to the ECUSA pension fund, which has $6 billion US in assets.       Mr. Wadham, who attended the Matanzas synod along with Archbishop Peers, said the vote "gives them more time to talk." What is important, he said, is there was a great spirit of reconciliation and of unity.       Archbishop Peers preached at the closing eucharist.