<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic NewsPosted: Wednesday, April 23, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Executive Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel confirms the Venezuelan government's commitment to the recall referendum as a "constitutional mandate," stipulated in the Bolivarian Constitution Art. 72, which Rangel says the government will abide by, once all  the requisites have been met meriting a call for a referendum and once the National Electoral College (CNE) has been appointed. 

Rangel accuses the opposition of attempting to rush the electoral process and insists that there can be no doubt about the government's will to abide by the Constitution. 

Comparing the government's approach to that of the opposition, Rangel says the opposition seems bent on instant gratification, whereas the government is taking a normal approach. "In times of negotiations,  pressure and compulsive summonsing must give way to democratic practice." 

Rangel reveals that in the early stages of negotiations, the government wanted to see the referendum extended to all elected officials but the opposition rejected the constitutional alternative and attempted to smuggle in a consultative referendum for December 2, 2002 as an ultimatum. "We are in step with the timetable stipulated in legal ordinances and the Constitution."

Reuters-Alertnet 23 Apr 2003 17:39:28 GMT By Jason Webb

BOGOTA, Colombia, April 23 (Reuters) - Colombia will extradite a Marxist guerrilla to the United States to face charges for the murder of three American native Indian rights activists in 1999, the Supreme Court confirmed on Wednesday.

Nelson Vargas Rueda, alias "the Pig", will be the first member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia to be extradited from Colombia to the United States, where he was one of several rebels indicted last year for killing the activists.

"The Supreme Court has responded favorably to the request by the United States for the extradition of the Colombian citizen Nelson Vargas Rueda .... for the crimes of extortive kidnapping and homicide," Supreme Court Judge Yesid Ramirez told a news conference.

Vargas Rueda, a low-ranking guerrilla in the Marxist band known by the Spanish initials FARC who was captured late last year, also faces the lesser charge in Colombia of being a rebel, but could be extradited before he serves time here.

The three Americans were helping U'Wa Indians keep oil prospectors off their land in the wild eastern province of Arauca when they were captured by the rebels in February 1999.

The guerrillas accused Terence Freitas, Ingrid Washinawatok and Lahee'Enae Gay of being CIA agents. After holding them for eight days, the rebels tied them up with nylon rope and blindfolded them, then shot them and dumped their bodies across the river separating Colombia from Venezuela.

The incident caused the United States to withdraw its help for peace talks between the Colombian government and the FARC, which eventually collapsed early last year.

The rebels admitted they had made a mistake, but only sentenced those guerrillas involved to the token punishment of learning to read and write.

If sent to prison, Vargas Rueda will join one other alleged FARC member behind U.S. bars. Carlos Bolas was extradited from Suriname last year on drug trafficking charges.

Extradition to the United States has up until now mainly been used against Colombian drug traffickers. While new top security prisons have been built in Colombia in recent years, many jails are still places of violent anarchy where powerful inmates can buy favors or even escape.

But other guerrillas wanted by the United States, including top commanders and German Briceno, who allegedly ordered the activists' killing, are still on the run. They are among an estimated 20,000 FARC rebels waging a four-decade-old war for socialist reform that claims thousands of lives a year.

The FARC took three U.S. civilian Defense Department contractors prisoner in February, secreting them away despite a massive search-and-rescue operation after their light plane crashed on a mission to spy out drug crops.

Washington brands the FARC "terrorists" and recently lifted restrictions which had limited the Colombian military to using hundreds of millions of dollars of annual aid against drug smugglers so that they could directly target rebels and far-right paramilitaries.

Forbes.com-Reuters, 04.23.03, 1:59 PM ETBy Susan Schneider NEW YORK, April 23 (Reuters) - Brazilian sovereign bonds crept higher on Wednesday as investors, while still optimistic about the prospects for Latin America's largest economy under its four-month-old government, kept their eyes peeled for progress on promised pension and tax reforms. Brazil's share of the benchmark J.P. Morgan Emerging Market Bond Index Plus, or EMBI-Plus, added 0.45 percent at midday, with spreads -- the premium investors demand to compensate for perceived risk -- at 8.53 percent over comparable U.S. Treasuries. Brazil's C bond <BRAZILC=RR> was flat at 86.0 bid. Wall Street greeted the Brazilian Central Bank's widely expected decision to maintain the benchmark interest rate at 26.5 percent with a cursory nod, as worries about inflation persisted. Investors focused instead on the tax and social security reforms that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is expected to submit to Congress this month. The overhauls are viewed as critical for Brazil to nourish its financial health. "One of the things that could give an additional boost to the market is when the government finally presents the final proposal for the tax and social security reforms to the Congress," said Ricardo Amorim, head of Latin American research at Wall Street research firm IDEAGlobal. "But, basically, the optimism toward Brazil remains the same," he added. "We can see that also in the (foreign exchange) rate -- the real has been very strong over the last weeks." Brazil's bonds and the currency, the real , have soared as investors warmed to the idea of a Lula presidency. The former union boss spooked markets in 2002 because of his talk in previous campaigns of debt renegotiations, but his constant pledges for fiscal austerity and reforms have lured Wall Street to his corner. Brazil's bonds have gained more than 30 percent since the turn of the year, according to the EMBI-Plus. Argentina's bonds, meanwhile, trekked higher on investor hopes that a market-friendly candidate will eventually pull out a victory in the upcoming presidential race. Argentines go to the polls on Sunday to pick from a field of five candidates, a race that is widely expected to move to a second round. The country's share of the EMBI-Plus added 3.07 percent on the day, extending a 17.2 percent rally this year. "We're still seeing a lot of buying interest across the board," said an emerging debt trader. "Most of the interest has been in Argentina. With the election coming up, the expectation is that one of two or both market candidates are going to move on (to the next round)." Among the candidates, investors would cheer the re-election of Carlos Menem, a favorite of the business community because of his free-market reforms during two presidential terms in the 1990s. While Menem has gained support -- a poll last week showed him leading the race with 18.3 percent of voting intentions -- he remains a controversial figure. Many Argentines blame him for laying the groundwork for the nation's December 2001 fiscal meltdown. Increased support for candidate Ricardo Lopez Murphy has also left investors feeling sanguine. The center-right Lopez Murphy gained five points in the poll to 16.3 percent, or third place after Menem and Gov. Nestor Kirchner. If no candidate wins 45 percent of the vote on Sunday, a second round will be held on May 18 between the top two contenders. VENEZUELA FALTERS Venezuela was a dark spot in an otherwise rosy day in emerging markets as its share of the EMBI-Plus fell 0.74 percent. The country's benchmark DCB bond <VENDCB=RR> slid 0.375 points to 75.5 bid. The decline came one day after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez brought back a leftist academic as his Planning Minister. Chavez named Jorge Giordani, who served in the same post during the first three years of his rule, to the position after he fired the previous minister for disagreements over economic policies. For investors, the move underscored Chavez's firm hold on power despite his foes' bid to oust him this year with a two-month general strike. Chavez has few friends on Wall Street because of his antagonism toward free markets. "The fact that Chavez appears to be stronger is negative. That's the bottom line," said Amorim of IDEAGlobal.

<a href=news.bbc.co.uk<BBC News

All smiles at the summit but the two men have sharply contrasting politics

Colombia and Venezuela have agreed to increase security along their long and porous border to prevent frequent crossings by armed Colombian groups.

The agreement follows several weeks of growing tension as Colombia accused Venezuela of providing a haven for left-wing rebels.

Meeting in eastern Venezuelan, President Hugo Chavez and his Colombian counterpart, Alvaro Uribe, agreed that the civil war in Colombia increasingly threatened the entire Andean region.

"Colombia has long suffered terrorism sponsored by drug-trafficking. It has become a threat to all of our neighbours," Mr Uribe said, after their summit in the town of Puerto Ordaz.

Everything would be done to prevent guerrillas and paramilitaries from penetrating the 2,200 kilometres (1,500 mile) border, he said.

"Call them archangels or terrorists. The important thing is to capture them," he said, a reference to Mr Chavez's refusal to call the left-wing rebels terrorists.

President Chavez said he and Mr Uribe had decided to deal with the sensitive border issue in private in the future and avoid what he called "microphone diplomacy".

Both men also played down tensions fuelled by reports that Venezuelan aircraft bombed right-wing paramilitaries inside Colombia in March.

Poncho gift

Mr Chavez has repeatedly denied providing a refuge for Colombian guerrillas, blaming such allegations on groups determined to undermine bilateral relations.

His opponents alleged everyone had passed through the Venezuelan capital, Mr Chavez said, "including Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. I'm not going to respond to that."

The two men also announced a series of co-operation projects, including a deal for Venezuelan importers to pay around $350 million owed to Colombian exporters.

Payment had been blocked by tight currency controls introduced by Venezuela to shore up its own currency - a move which hit bilateral trade hard.

Before the talks, Mr Uribe gave Mr Chavez a poncho, saying it was not something Manuel Marulanda, the leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, would wear.

Mr Chavez insisted he took the remark as a "good joke".

NewsWire.ca

TORONTO, April 23 /CNW/ - Zaruma Resources Inc. (TSX-ZMR) is pleased to report positive results of metallurgical testing on samples from the Company's Alcaravan gold deposit in Venezuela (El Foco Project). Gold recoveries of more than 90% were obtained in column leach tests from saprolite and laterite bulk samples. Reasonable cyanide and cement consumption, as well as the clean, non- reactive nature of the material tested, supports the viability of recovering gold by agglomerated heap leaching.

The agglomeration and column leach tests conducted by Kappes, Cassiday & Associates, Reno, USA, ("KCA") on one laterite and two saprolite bulk samples provided by qualified geologist Dr. Alfredo Bernasconi, showed excellent gold recoveries: (i) 98% in the case of a light coloured saprolite sample with a head grade of 3.43 g/mt, (ii) 96% in the case of a dark coloured saprolite sample with a head grade of 4.65 g/mt, and (iii) 90% in the case of a laterite-type sample with a head grade of 2.67 g/mt. Dark and light coloured saprolite form the bulk of the oxidized cap of the deposit. According to KCA, gold recoveries from production heaps should be around 92%, based upon the conditions maintained in the test program.

The Alcaravan deposit is shaping up as an excellent model deposit. A Measured Mineral Resource of 1 million tonnes of oxide ore at 2.0 g/mt within an Indicated Mineral Resource of 3.7 million tonnes at 1.4 g/mt is estimated to contain 160,000 ounces of gold, according to independent mining consultant D. Limpitlaw Consulting - Bastillion Ltd., South Africa. An ongoing pit optimization study indicates a potential 0.58 million tonnes of ore to be mined at an average grade of 2.94 g/mt, with an average ore to waste stripping ratio of 1:1.16. If material outside the Measured Mineral Resource, currently classified as part of the Indicated Mineral Resource, is included in the preliminary mine plan, then 1 million tonnes of ore with a mined grade of 2.9 g/mt will yield an estimated 90,000 ounces of gold.

In addition to Alcaravan, there is an excellent resource potential for further saprolitic gold deposits in the 1.8 to +2.5 g/mt grade range in the El Foco concession. Good correlation between soil geochemical gold anomalies, radiometrics, geophysics, structural geology and previous auger and diamond drilling has defined at least 8 more mineralized targets. The Company is currently conducting auger and subsequent infill drilling at key targets to add to the measured oxide resources prior to initiating a feasibility study for the start-up of open pit mining and heap leach operations at the Alcaravan deposit.

At El Foco, Zaruma is concentrating on the evaluation and development of saprolitic oxide gold resources formed on top of primary, mainly shear-zone hosted local gold mineralization. This focus on the top 60 meters of weathered rock, in contrast to the deep drilling approach by previous operators in the region, is confirming a development concept of low cost, open pit mining from a number of nearby satellite pits, feeding oxide ore to a centralized heap leach facility.

Zaruma Resources Inc. is a mineral exploration company listed on The Toronto Stock Exchange and on the Frankfurt and Berlin Stock Exchanges (symbol: ZMR). In addition to El Foco, the Company owns the San Antonio Project in Mexico, where metallurgical tests on oxide and sulphide gold resources are currently being carried out.

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For further information: please contact: Zaruma Resources Inc., 20 Toronto Street (12th Floor), Toronto ON, M5C 2B8, Canada Tel.: (416) 777-1781, Fax: (416) 367-3638, info@zaruma.com, www.zaruma.com; Dr. Thomas Utter, President and CEO, Tel.: (416) 777-1781, thomas.utter@zaruma.com; Frank van de Water, CFO and Secretary, Tel.: (416) 869-0772, Frank.vandewater@zaruma.com

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