<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Thursday, April 17, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has been turning his attention south of the border and says Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias has an excellent chance of showing that he is indeed a democrat if he commits himself to a recall referendum. 

Powell admits that he has had doubts about the Venezuelan President's democratic record, and wants to make it quite clear that when he talks about democracy, he means US democracy. 

If Chavez Frias is ready to submit to a recall referendum and accept the active role of the Organization of American states (OAS) and the Carter center, Powell hammers home, the Venezuelan President would be "demonstrating a commitment to the kind of democracy that we consider correct in our hemisphere." 

Ignoring the 1999 Constitution's emphasis on participative democracy, Powell adds that it's up to the Venezuelan people to decide the type of democracy that it wishes to develop in Venezuela.

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Referendum 2003 discuss the pros and cons of a revocatory referendum

President Hugo Chavez Frias express your opinions on the Presidency of Hugo Chavez Frias and his Bolivarian Revolution

Bolivarian Circles Are Bolivarian Circles a Venezuelan form of Neighborhood Watch Committees or violent hordes of pro-Chavez thugs?

Venezuela's Opposition What is it? Is a force to be reckoned with or in complete disarray?

Our editorial statement reads: VHeadline.com Venezuela is a wholly independent e-publication promoting democracy in its fullest expression and the inalienable  right of all Venezuelans to self-determination and the pursuit of sovereign independence without interference. We seek to shed light on nefarious practices and the corruption which for decades has strangled this South American nation's development and progress. Our declared editorial bias is pro-democracy and pro-Venezuela ... which some may wrongly interpret as anti-American. --  Roy S. Carson, Editor/Publisher  Editor@VHeadline.com

<a href=reuters.com>Reuters, Thu April 17, 2003 11:55 AM ET GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations top human rights body kept up the pressure on Cuba over its record on Thursday by urging the Communist state to accept a visit by a U.N. envoy to probe alleged abuses.

The resolution, presented by four Latin American countries, was approved by the Geneva-based Commission on Human Rights by 24 votes to 20, with nine abstentions.

But the decision came only after an amendment brought by Costa Rica to condemn the recent sentencing of dozens of dissidents to heavy jail terms and another draft presented by Cuba attacking a U.S. economic embargo were defeated.

The Caribbean Marxist state, which sees the vote as interference in its domestic affairs, lashed out at the four Latin American states -- Peru, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Uruguay -- calling them "disgusting lackeys" who had bowed to "shameful" pressure from the United States.

Seven of the 11 Latin American countries on the commission voted in the favor of the call, including Mexico and Paraguay. Argentina and Brazil abstained, while Venezuela and Cuba voted against.

Cuba, which has been ruled by Marxist President Fidel Castro since 1959, remains a politically-sensitive issue throughout much of Latin America and none of its representatives on the commission backed the toughly-worded Costa Rican motion.

The resolution approved by the 53-state body urged Cuba to respect a 2002 commission decision to send a special envoy to monitor its progress in respecting human rights.

Cuba has so far refused to allow the envoy, French magistrate Christine Chanet, to make a visit, saying that the U.N. should focus instead on the U.S. Guantanamo naval base which is used to hold suspected terrorists.

Forbes.com-Reuters, 04.17.03, 11:06 AM ET By Jonathan Leff LONDON, April 17 (Reuters) - Algeria's prolific Hassi Berkine oil basin may further boost production growth this year as leading foreign investor Anadarko expands infrastructure beyond initial plans, a top manager said. While the Ourhoud mega-find in the Saharan Desert will stay at a plateau 230,000 barrels per day (bpd), on target for next month, the Hassi Berkine South (HBNS) facility capacity may be pushed over 300,000 bpd, Anadarko's Algerian manager Rex Alman told Reuters in an interview. "We think we can handle more there with some de-bottlenecking. We could bring on stream the new discoveries within the year," he said. Anadarko, Algeria's leading foreign investor, has made two new finds this year near the HBNS centre, which was commissioned last year and has already reached capacity. Alman declined to say how much additional capacity could be added at the facility. Anadarko is also planning another or four exploration wells in Block 404, in which the foreign investor group it leads holds 49 percent. Its partners are Italy's ENI and Danish Maersk, each with a quarter of the Anadarko Algeria Comp. Sonatrach holds 51 percent of the block's equity. "This is our backyard now, it's a core area," Alman said. HBNS and Ourhoud are tied into Algeria's trunkline with a 30-inch (76-cm) pipeline, indicating capacity of 600,000 bpd up to 750,000 bpd, more than sufficient for the estimated 530,000 bpd plateau output from the two facilities. Other export bottlenecks are being unclogged by Sonatrach, which is commissioning a new pumping station to help boost flows from the Berkine basin, Alman said. They are also in the process of constructing a new export pipeline from Haoud el Hamra to the port of Arzew. Alman said there had been some production constraints earlier this year due to infrastructure improvement and a more than week-long bout of bad weather on the Mediterranean coast.

OPEC ISSUE LOOMS But the main obstacle for Algeria is not infastructure but politics -- the north African nation is pumping nearly 50 percent over its official 782,000 bpd OPEC limit. Most of that capacity is less than a year old, as Algeria's own production of some 700,000-800,000 bpd had plateaued until the HBNS and Ourhoud fields came onstream. So far the extra oil has not been a major issue -- between Venezuela's strike last year and the stoppage of Iraqi oil last month, OPEC has been pumping practically at will. But an attempt to rein in production is expected at next week's cartel meeting. Alman would not be drawn to comment on whether Sonatrach or the foreign partners would be required to take the brunt of cutbacks that most analysts now believe are necessary. Algeria's low cost of development for the massive, on-shore Saharan fields should help ease the pain of any constraints on production, he said.

OURHOUD IMMINENT, BLOCK 208 YEARS OFF Alman said the Ourhoud field, where the last of three trains came onstream in February, should reach capacity over the next month or so. Ourhoud has an estimated 2.3 billion barrels of oil in place, with more than half recoverable. The field, covering three blocks, has been monatised between the three joint-venture groups: Anadarko 37.5 percent, Cepsa 56.8 percent, Burlington 5.7 percent. Anadarko's next major developoment is set for Block 208, to the south of the current facilities, which is expected to produce around 100,000 bpd no sooner than 2007, Alman said. And exploration activities are set to continue in two other recently acquired blocks -- 406B and 403 -- at the end of this year and later next year, respectively.

<a href=new.stockwatch.com>StockWatccccch.com 2003-04-17 10:08 ET - News Release

LOS ANGELES, April 17, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Sonoran Energy, Inc. (OTCBB:SNRN) is pleased to announce today that its corporate profile is now featured on Yahoo! Finance available at biz.yahoo.com.

Sonoran Energy recently announced that it has completed its 50 percent acquisition of the National Development Company -- Merzonian Lease with operating partner Longbow LLC acquiring the remaining 50%. The acquisition of the lease (Section 22, T22S R27E MDB&M), located in the Deer Creek Oil Field 42 miles north of Bakersfield, California, is a straight production acquisition. The lease consists of six producing wells and one injection well producing approximately 25 barrels of oil per day. This new lease is an offset property to the 93-acre Deer Creek Field Keystone leases acquired in December 2002.

"The new Deer Creek property is a sample of our proactive acquisition program," said John Punzo, Sonoran Energy President and CEO. "This, along with Sonoran's purchase of the Mt. Poso Field property, Emjayco's Glide No. 33 property, the Keystone Lease, our San Antonio project and the Malton-Black Butte, Denverton Creek and Maine Prairie Gas Fields, has enabled the Company to focus on generating a solid revenue stream from the Sonoran family of projects."

The Deer Creek Field is located in an area predominantly explored and operated by small independent oil and gas companies, and lies in the western dipping homocline along the western flank of the Sierra Nevada. Production on the Merzonian Lease is long lived and on a relatively flat incline curve. Sonoran Energy, Inc. also has successfully reactivated eight of the 12 wells on its Emjayco Glide No. 33 Property and has started production. The Company anticipates reactivating four additional wells over the next 60 to 90 days. Sonoran also has acquired working interests in three natural gas producing properties in California's Sacramento Basin from Archer Exploration, Inc. Sonoran Energy has acquired varying percentages in the three properties that are producing 3,700 Mcf/day. These acquisitions increase the Company's natural gas production and reserves, and move Sonoran Energy closer to its goal of producing 2,500 to 5,000 Mcf/day. Through its partnership with Longbow LLC the Company intends to continue to make acquisitions over the next 12 to 24 months to reach this goal and enable the Company to become a producer of 1,000 to 1,500 BOE per day.

Domestic U.S. oil producers like Sonoran Energy, Inc. are positioned to significantly benefit from rising demand for U.S. domestic oil production in light of the brewing International oil production crisis due to war, strikes, and terrorist threats.

Just this month, the Nigerian subsidiaries of Royal Dutch/Shell Group (NYSE:RD) (NYSE:SC), ChevronTexaco Corp. (NYSE:CVX) and TotalFinaElf (NYSE:TOT) halted production totaling 817,500 barrels a day, or about 40% of Nigeria's output of some 2 million b/d amid violence between rival ethnic groups, the Ijaws and Itsekiri, leading up to April 19 parliamentary and presidential elections. Militant Ijaws reportedly threatened to blow up multinational oil installations they said they had captured in retaliation for government military raids. Additionally, oil-well firefighters from Houston-based Boots & Coots International Well Control (AMEX:WEL) are traveling to southern Iraq to assess damage in the country's key Rumaila oil fields. The firefighting teams are looking at a timetable of 30 to 45 days to extinguish the fires and cap the wells. But one source said the timing will depend on "what's all there." The Pentagon has contacted a number of major oil industry service companies -- among them Halliburton Co. (NYSE:HAL), once run by Vice President Dick Cheney -- to repair any of Iraq's wells that are damaged and assess everything from wells to pipelines and pumping stations.

Venezuela's oil industry collapsed in December, when employees at state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela walked off the job, angry about changes in the company under the administration of President Hugo Chavez. By the height of the strike, 16,000 employees had walked out, and production shrank to 200,000 barrels a day, costing Venezuela $6 billion. The country had to import fuel to keep vehicles moving, and drivers waited days at gas stations. The strike, which failed to oust Chavez or call early elections, was strongest in the oil sector, though businesses around the country shut down.

About Sonoran Energy

Sonoran Energy's primary objective is to identify, acquire and develop working interest percentages in smaller, underdeveloped oil and gas projects that do not meet the minimum requirements of major oil and gas corporations. Sonoran Energy's goal is to be recognized as a promising junior oil and gas producer.

Certain statements in this news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Rule 175 under the Securities Act of 1933 and Rule 3b-6 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are subject to the safe harbor created by those rules. All statements, other than statements of fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding potential future plans and objectives of the company, are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.

CONTACT: Sonoran Energy John Punzo (866) 599-7676 info@sonoranenergy.com www.sonoranenergy.com

ViewPoint Archives

Editor's Note: We all know there are those who question WHY the US has gone to war with Iraq. There seemed to be a reason for each constituency. For those that love freedom rhetoric, Americans would "liberate Iraq." For those that love security, America needed to "root out a terrorist infrastructure." For those that grounded themselves in international legitimacy, America needed to enforce "UN resolutions to find weapons of mass destruction."

For those against the war, there seemed to be other forms of rhetoric, with "no blood for oil" becoming a mainstay.

But there are always reasons BEYOND rhetoric that point the way for grand strategy. Today, we bring a viewpoint that is woefully under represented in US media circles...in fact, it is almost nonexistent...which is why many of you read Viewpoint. This piece was written immediately before the war began.

Not Oil, But Dollars vs. Euros- By Geoffrey Heard

Why is George Bush so hell bent on war with Iraq? Why does his administration reject every positive Iraqi move? It all makes sense when you consider the economic implications for the USA of not going to war with Iraq. The war in Iraq is actually the US and Europe going head to head on economic leadership of the world.

America's Bush administration has been caught in outright lies, gross exaggerations and incredible inaccuracies as it trotted out its litany of paper thin excuses for making war on Iraq. Along with its two supporters, Britain and Australia, it has shifted its ground and reversed its position with a barefaced contempt for its audience. It has manipulated information, deceived by commission and omission and frantically "bought" UN votes with billion dollar bribes.

Faced with the failure of gaining UN Security Council support for invading Iraq, the USA has threatened to invade without authorization. It would act in breach of the UN's very constitution to allegedly enforced UN resolutions.

It is plain bizarre. Where does this desperation for war come from?

There are many things driving President Bush and his administration to invade Iraq, unseat Saddam Hussein and take over the country. But the biggest one is hidden and very, very simple. It is about the currency used to trade oil and consequently, who will dominate the world economically, in the foreseeable future -- the USA or the European Union.

Iraq is a European Union beachhead in that confrontation. America had a monopoly on the oil trade, with the US dollar being the fiat currency, but Iraq broke ranks in 1999, started to trade oil in the EU's euros, and profited. If America invades Iraq and takes over, it will hurl the EU and its euro back into the sea and make America's position as the dominant economic power in the world all but impregnable.

It is the biggest grab for world power in modern times. America's allies in the invasion, Britain and Australia, are betting America will win and that they will get some trickle-down benefits for jumping on to the US bandwagon. France and Germany are the spearhead of the European force -- Russia would like to go European but possibly can still be bought off. Presumably, China would like to see the Europeans build a share of international trade currency ownership at this point while it continues to grow its international trading presence to the point where it, too, can share the leadership rewards.

DEBATE BUILDING ON THE INTERNET

Oddly, little or nothing is appearing in the general media about this issue, although key people are becoming aware of it -- note the recent slide in the value of the US dollar. Are traders afraid of war? They are more likely to be afraid there will not be war.

But despite the silence in the general media, a major world discussion is developing around this issue, particularly on the internet. Among the many articles: Henry Liu, in the 'Asia Times' last June, it has been a hot topic on the Feasta forum, an Irish-based group exploring sustainable economics, and W. Clark's "The Real Reasons for the Upcoming War with Iraq: A Macroeconomic and Geostrategic Analysis of the Unspoken Truth" has been published by the 'Sierra Times', 'Indymedia.org', and 'ratical.org'.

This debate is not about whether America would suffer from losing the US dollar monopoly on oil trading -- that is a given -- rather it is about exactly how hard the USA would be hit. The smart money seems to be saying the impact would be in the range from severe to catastrophic. The USA could collapse economically.

OIL DOLLARS

The key to it all is the fiat currency for trading oil. Under an OPEC agreement, all oil has been traded in US dollars since 1971 (after the dropping of the gold standard) which makes the US dollar the de facto major international trading currency. If other nations have to hoard dollars to buy oil, then they want to use that hoard for other trading too. This fact gives America a huge trading advantage and helps make it the dominant economy in the world.

As an economic bloc, the European Union is the only challenger to the USA's economic position, and it created the euro to challenge the dollar in international markets. However, the EU is not yet united behind the euro -- there is a lot of jingoistic national politics involved, not least in Britain -- and in any case, so long as nations throughout the world must hoard dollars to buy oil, the euro can make only very limited inroads into the dollar's dominance.

In 1999, Iraq, with the world's second largest oil reserves, switched to trading its oil in euros. American analysts fell about laughing; Iraq had just made a mistake that was going to beggar the nation. But two years on, alarm bells were sounding; the euro was rising against the dollar, Iraq had given itself a huge economic free kick by switching. Iran started thinking about switching too; Venezuela, the 4th largest oil producer, began looking at it and has been cutting out the dollar by bartering oil with several nations including America's bete noir, Cuba. Russia is seeking to ramp up oil production with Europe (trading in euros) an obvious market.

The greenback's grip on oil trading and consequently on world trade in general, was under serious threat. If America did not stamp on this immediately, this economic brushfire could rapidly be fanned into a wildfire capable of consuming the US's economy and its dominance of world trade.

HOW DOES THE US GET ITS DOLLAR ADVANTAGE?

Imagine this: you are deep in debt but every day you write checks for millions of dollars you don't have -- another luxury car, a holiday home at the beach, the world trip of a lifetime.

Your checks should be worthless but they keep buying stuff because those checks you write never reach the bank! You have an agreement with the owners of one thing everyone wants, call it petrol/gas, that they will accept only your checks as payment. This means everyone must hoard your checks so they can buy petrol/gas. Since they have to keep a stock of your checks, they use them to buy other stuff too. You write a check to buy a TV, the TV shop owner swaps your check for petrol/gas, that seller buys some vegetables at the fruit shop, the fruiterer passes it on to buy bread, the baker buys some flour with it, and on it goes, round and round -- but never back to the bank.

You have a debt on your books, but so long as your check never reaches the bank, you don't have to pay. In effect, you have received your TV free.

This is the position the USA has enjoyed for 30 years -- it has been getting a free world trade ride for all that time. It has been receiving a huge subsidy from everyone else in the world. As it debt has been growing, it has printed more money (written more checks) to keep trading. No wonder it is an economic powerhouse!

Then one day, one petrol seller says he is going to accept another person's checks, a couple of others think that might be a good idea. If this spreads, people are going to stop hoarding your checks and they will come flying home to the bank. Since you don't have enough in the bank to cover all the checks, very nasty stuff is going to hit the fan!

But you are big, tough and very aggressive. You don't scare the other guy who can write checks, he's pretty big too, but given a 'legitimate' excuse, you can beat the tripes out of the lone gas seller and scare him and his mates into submission.

And that, in a nutshell, is what the USA is doing right now with Iraq.

Geoffrey Heard is an Australian who writes on economics and politics.