<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, May 11, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Venezuelan Executive Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel has received a visit from the US non government organization called The Foreign Relations Council (FRC).  

Rangel spoke for more than three hours with International Crisis Group deputy president and FRC official, Mark Scheider, Robert Orr, Julia E. Sweig, George Folsom, Williams L. Nash, Daniel Chistman and John G. Heimann. 

After the meeting a spokesman for the visitors said it will continue exchanges with government officials and "relevant institutions" to draw up a report entitled, "Beyond Drugs: A USA strategy for Regional Challenges of Colombia and the Andes." 

The report will revolve around economic development and enforcement of law and security in Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. 

Rangel says he thinks the visitors took away a good impression of Venezuelan border policy and bilateral relations with the USA.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, May 11, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Venezuelan Executive Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel has received a visit from the US non government organization called The Foreign Relations Council (FRC).  

Rangel spoke for more than three hours with International Crisis Group deputy president and FRC official, Mark Scheider, Robert Orr, Julia E. Sweig, George Folsom, Williams L. Nash, Daniel Chistman and John G. Heimann. 

After the meeting a spokesman for the visitors said it will continue exchanges with government officials and "relevant institutions" to draw up a report entitled, "Beyond Drugs: A USA strategy for Regional Challenges of Colombia and the Andes." 

The report will revolve around economic development and enforcement of law and security in Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. 

Rangel says he thinks the visitors took away a good impression of Venezuelan border policy and bilateral relations with the USA.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, May 11, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Political Command of the Revolution (CPR) Supremo, Guillermo Garcia Ponce says that President Hugo Chavez Frias has been promoting different initiatives in favor of the unity of revolutionary forces since 1998. 

Citing the Patriotic Pole, Bolivarian Circles and Political Command of the Revolution as examples, the veteran politician says there have been successive stages in the development of a policy of consolidation and advance of the popular movement. 

"The People (El Pueblo) builds its unity without too many difficulties ... its interests are common and its identification with the Constitution and leadership of President Hugo Chavez Frias is transparent but the same isn't true among some political instances where it's not easy to overcome old models of fragmentation and where one can still find traces of the old party culture and tendencies of personalism and sectarianism." 

Garcia Ponce insists on establishing a single central collective leadership capable of giving greater cohesion and force to the popular and revolutionary movement ... he warns that if the matter isn't resolved, the government will lose elections. 

Summing up, Garcia Ponce says experience has shown him several truths:

• The permanent presence of President Chavez Frias in unitary political leadership is indispensable
• The National Front must have power of decision to be able to effectively to pursue its role of unitary leadership ... no more advisory or coordinating functions.

"The President's initiative to unite Bolivarian social and political forces into a National Front opens the way to a new stage in the consolidation process, provided that we learn from past experiences through criticism and self-criticism."

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, May 11, 2003 By: Robert Hammer

Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 03:32:44 +0000 From: Robert Hammer robham20@hotmail.com To: Editor@VHeadline.com Subject: The USAPS Way Of Life

Dear Oscar Heck: You may have lived for several years and worked in the USA but, if you really believe what you wrote in your article, you learned little about the people of the United States.

I have lived all my life in the United States, and the way of life you described is totally foreign to me!

Do we have druggies in the US?  Yes, we do ... but the overwhelming majority of the people are not druggies.

Do you have druggies in Venezuela?  If you tell me no, then I know you are truly misinformed.

Do we have people who own guns in the USA?  Yes, we do ... but the majority of the people do not own guns.

Do you have gun owners in Venezuela? If you tell me no, then I ask who is it that is shooting other people there and what are they shooting them with ... pea shooters?

Do we have violent crime in the USA?  Yes, we do. But if you looked at the crime statistics here, you would know that over the past ten years, the crime rate has been dropping steadily. You would know that the crime rate in the USA is lower than the crime rate in Venezuela.

Do they have violent crime in Venezuela? Please don't say no ... for if you do, then we all will know that you are completely off in outer space somewhere. From what I have been able to read, and from my friends in Venezuela, Crime in Venezuela has reached epidemic proportions, and is growing ... not subsiding. And what about the overcrowded jails I have been reading about ... is this all lies fed to us northern gringos by honest reporters like yourself?

You already have McDonald's and Wendy's and Pizza Huts in Venezuela ... have had them for several years now. Has "salsa, merengue, cumbia, and llanero music on the buses" disappeared?

You know the answer ... the Venezuelan way of life will not disappear because someone in Venezuela likes the USA or opens a fast food place ... despite your insinuations and misleading words.

But the most false information you try to disseminate, is when you wrote:

"Venezuelans would no longer celebrate occasions within whole families (aunts, uncles, cousins, etc) and/or with friend and neighbors. Celebrations would occur within one’s own home, and perhaps ... by invitation ... other family members would join in."

Don't you see what you are doing, Mr. Heck? 

I think you do ... and I think you are doing it on purpose.

Whatever, your reason, it is disgraceful that you are telling people that USAPS don't have celebrations with whole families. Have you never heard of "family reunions?" If you know the US as you claim, you do ... then you ignore them completely to make such a statement as quoted above.

And to tell others that we put our elders in old folks homes for them to rot away, is down right absurd! Yes, there are homes for the elderly, where medical attention is given that is needed but cannot be provided at home.

What would you do? Close the homes for the elderly and deny them needed care?

Mr. Heck, I suspect that you know the majority of grandparents do not live in "old folks homes" but take care of themselves or live with their children. Then why are you writing such misleading things?

And then we read this from you: "The fact is, after having worked extensively in the USA, I find no added-value to the USA society. It is money-oriented and self-centered. It is righteous and military-power oriented. It is “me, myself and I” … all traits that are not Venezuelan in nature (and not in the nature of many other countries of our world)."

Mr. Heck, I am glad that Venezuelans are not money-oriented. That way they will not mind living in poverty ... right? I am glad that Venezuelans are not self-centered ... that way they give everything up to help their neighbors.

The charitable organizations in Venezuela must be overflowing with wealth!

Of course, I am being facetious and ridiculous to make my point ... my point being, Mr. Heck, that you sound like you believe in a society where the people surrender their money and their selfish dreams over to the government for the good of the many. You like the phrase "in fact"... so I will use it.

In fact, Mr. Heck, you sound very much like a "socialist" which is another word for "communist."  And please, don't come back to me with the false, misleading statements about "we are not communists" for we believe in democracy ... one can be a communist without being for a dictatorship ... those are two distinct different things, Mr. Heck ... and you know that already.

You, and others have said on many occasions in VHeadline News that you are presenting new ideas that have never been tried ... BULL!

There have been many countries that have tried socialism to improve their lot in life ... and to date, all of them have failed. Maybe it will work in Venezuela. No one wishes Venezuela more success and no one wishes Chavez to succeed in lifting the people of Venezuela out of poverty more than do I.

I don't want the USA to take on Venezuela as a project ... I want the people of Venezuela to find their own way to happiness ... in fact, I believe no country can become great unless they make themselves great.

The people of Venezuela will have to bring about change and an honest government that is not corrupt and dictatorial. They have to find the way to greatness in their own way ... no other country can do it for them, including the USA.

One last thought, Mr. Heck. If I read you and your cohorts correctly ... and if I take Mr. Chavez at his word ... then I think you want to help the people of Venezuela rise out of poverty and become self sufficient. Let me give you a secret, Mr. Heck. The key to doing that is "MONEY" ... no Venezuelan will rise from poverty unless he has money.

So before you go condemning "money hungry" people, think about that!

The USA is not a prosperous nation because a few have and control the wealth ... we are a prosperous nation because we have in our own way found a way to distribute that wealth to a majority of our people ... and we did it with a system called "free enterprise" ... not socialism. Just a thought.

Mr. Heck, your statements are anti-USA ... and any thinking person can see that. So why not write facts and eliminate the purpose to turn people against the USAPS. For you know this to be a fact, Mr. Heck.

You can tear down the USA and bring its government and people to complete ruin.

You can eliminate the USA as a world power, you can humiliate us, and bring us to complete poverty.

But you know what, Mr. Heck?

None of these actions would help not one single person in Venezuela rise from poverty.

You do not make yourself better by tearing down anyone else ... you may put us below you ... but you do not rise any doing it.

Sincerely Robert Hammer, USA robham20@hotmail.com

By Alexandra Olson <a href=www.sun-sentinel.com>The Associated Press Posted May 11 2003

CARACAS, Venezuela · Venezuelans have long practiced novel versions of the Afro-Caribbean Santeria faith, whose local pantheon includes 19th century South American liberator Simon Bolivar.

But there had been nothing like the newest icons at Santeria shops: criminals who are legends in Caracas slums. The foot-high statuettes, sporting guns and knives poking from jeans pockets, represent spirits trying to repent for their sins by warning youngsters to avoid crime, helping people get out of jail and curing drug addiction.

There's Kid Ismael, a bank robber who some say killed dozens of people in the 1970s before police gunned him down. His statue wears a baseball cap sideways, smokes a cigar and clutches a .38-caliber pistol.

The likeness of Kid Isabel, a prostitute and thief who died of venereal disease in her 20s, wears sunglasses, a tight pink T-shirt showing her bellybutton, a ski hat over blond hair and a knife in an ankle pocket.

These spirits are part of the 200-year-old sect of Maria Lionza -- the basis for Venezuelan variations of Santeria, a faith that emerged in Cuba when African slaves began blending Yoruba spiritual beliefs with Roman Catholic traditions.

A beautiful Indian woman from the western state of Yaracuay, Maria Lionza presides over various courts of spirits. Original Santeria deities such as Eleggua, the Yoruba god of destiny associated with St. Anthony, belong to the African court. Another court includes Simon Bolivar, who liberated Venezuela and other South American nations from Spanish rule.

Kid Ismael and Kid Isabel are members of the corte malandra, or criminal court.

The Catholic Church frowns on the following of Maria Lionza but long ago abandoned efforts to eliminate it. Her supplicants come from all classes, especially the poor. The size of the sect isn't known, though each year hundreds of thousands of people trek to Maria Lionza's reputed home -- Sorte Mountain, 180 miles west of Caracas.

Shopkeepers say malandro statuettes began hitting the shelves two years ago. Malandros as spirits surfaced in the early 1990s, along with a rise in crime, said anthropologist Patricia Marquez, academic director of the Institute of Higher Administration Studies in the capital.

"For the upper classes, the malandro personifies the growing threat of urban violence. In contrast, in the slums, the figure of the malandro oscillates between hero and villain," Marquez writes in a chapter of the book 20th Century Venezuela, published by Fundacion Polar.

Many shantytown residents seek protection from malandros, dominant figures who controlled turf and commanded respect and fear.

Most malandros were killed by police or rival gangsters in the 1950s, '60s and '70s. They are viewed as folk heroes -- Robin Hoods who stole for the poor and protected neighborhoods. "Ismael robbed, but it was to help the neediest," said Juan, a mechanic shopping at a downtown Santeria shop.

Juan said he bought an icon of Ismael, the most popular malandro, after the spirit persuaded his son to "stay away from bad neighborhoods."

In contrast, Marquez said, the upsurge in crime has few people romanticizing the current crop of criminals as good guys. "Among other things, the corte malandra reflects nostalgia for that supposed malandro of the past, the one that protected the neighborhood," she said.

As with other spirits in the sect, malandros are thought to give counsel through mediums known as santeros.

"Things were different back then. Not as many people had guns. We mostly used knives, and we never killed anybody just for kicks," said Saul Abache, a medium channeling the spirit of 1950s outlaw Armando Cedeno.