<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, May 13, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

The National Guard (GN) has seized 3,000 ID documents in Apure State ... the discovery was made during a routine car search at a checkpoint in the El Remolino sector of Paez municipality. 

GN Regional No. 1 (CORE-1) commander, General Rafael Doubront has confirmed that a Venezuelan citizen has been arrested but declined to reveal his name.  "During the car search, officers at checkpoint 17 found 1,652 laminated ID cards and 1,456 transitory permit cards hidden in the furnishings." 

• The suspect has been placed at the disposition of 3rd Apure State prosecutor's office for investigation. 

General Doubront says the documents had been taken out of the Guasdualito Passport & Identification Office. 

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, May 13, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue
  The Attorney General's Office has formally charged Rosinaldo Gualberto Coelho for illegally carrying a military firearm and intimidating the general public  on January 3, 2003 in Los Proceres (Caracas).  

Two government supporters were shot and killed during a rally in support of the government. 

Brazilian citizen, Coelho has been under preventive arrest since March this year and its is only now that formal charges have been lodged at 38th Control Court under Judge Mariela Armas. Prosecutors says they have videos showing the suspect's involvement. 

Police Detective Branch (CICPC) agents allegedly caught Coelho red-handed shooting against people participating in the government's "Mega-march."

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, May 13, 2003 By: Gustavo Coronel

VHeadline.com commentarist Gustavo Coronel writes: An investigative report by journalist Mery Mogollon (El Nacional, page B1, 05-11-2003) poses serious questions on the financial and operational viability of the Venezuelan State-owned petroleum company. Some might be highly tempted to dismiss it entirely on the perceived grounds that anything published by El Nacional is bound to be false. I would advise against that passionate approach if we really care about the situation of the petroleum industry in our country. What seem to be Mogollon's main findings?:

1. PDVSA is no longer accountable...

By law PDVSA must hold a Shareholder Assembly twice a year ... the first to present budgets and operational programs, the second to approve or disapprove financial and operational results. This is not being done. No meetings have been held, or announced. At this point in time no one knows what is being done by PDVSA and/or how ... or how much is being spent and on what. No one knows if accounts receivable have been received or the accounts payable paid. This, in spite of the fact that graffiti all over the city read: "Now PDVSA really belongs to the people..." Mogollon adds something more disturbing ... that the auditing firms in charge of analyzing the financial statements are not making much progress due to the existing disarray in the books.

2. External controls of PDVSA are no longer in place...

Year after year, PDVSA had been analyzed, observed, examined by numerous other organizations: The Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Planning, the Central Bank, the National Budget Office, the National Tax Collecting Agency, the National Assembly, the General Comptroller ... you name it. But not anymore. These checks and balances ... occasionally excessive and repetitious ... have disappeared completely. All of those organizations are in the hands of the revolution ... so, why bother to investigate a company which they now control as well?  Even President Chavez is being left in the dark. This is very dangerous for his plans since he is counting on PDVSA's money for the financing of the revolution.

3. Operational efficiency is in severe decline...

The lack of sufficiently experienced technical staff only allows the "new" PDVSA to conduct the less complex operations. This means that exploration and secondary recovery production programs (water driven and steam injection) are essentially paralyzed. Some of the natural flowing reservoirs are probably been overproduced which will diminish optimum total recovery. The epidemics of oil spills suggest that supervision of oil transport systems is not being properly done. Refinery fires and explosions, with loss of lives, is something that had not happened for many years in the industry. Sales of hydrocarbons in the international markets is being done at discount, at great loss to the nation, due to poor quality control and to inexperienced traders. Poor maintenance and insufficient investments are rapidly leading to a significant decline of production capacity and, therefore, to loss of competitiveness in the world markets. Training and research have disappeared from the industry.

4. The international petroleum community is starting to shy away from this PDVSA...

Ali Rodriguez and his assistant Bernardo Alvarez ... now Ambassador to Washington ... have tried to interest multinational companies in operating oilfields as contractors. So far, the reception has been cold, and the reason is simple. These offerings can not be made by these men without proper legal requirements being met, and without the necessary transparency. Shoddy deals would be subject to disqualification by any future government and the companies know it.

Mogollon goes on to list some examples of the organizational collapse suffered by PDVSA, among others: the need to keep importing gasoline to supply the local market, at considerable loss to the nation; the dismantling of the tanker fleet, training center, research center, of the local market division and the coal producing company; Acquisitions of equipment and materials for millions of dollars without any bidding process; an increasingly obsolete Registry of Contractors; the illegal sale of PDVSA's equipment and the considerable increase in the Corporation's debt.

Frankly, if only 10% of these charges are true, PDVSA is in real trouble.

But it looks as if most of the charges are reasonably accurate ... this leaves little doubt that we are witnessing a major crime being committed against the nation by the current rulers of PDVSA.

All I can do, on a personal basis, is to call the attention of the Venezuelan and international public opinion to this disaster ... and to hope that someone listens.

Gustavo Coronel is the founder and president of Agrupacion Pro Calidad de Vida (The Pro-Quality of Life Alliance), a Caracas-based organization devoted to fighting corruption and the promotion of civic education in Latin America, primarily Venezuela. A member of the first board of directors (1975-1979) of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), following nationalization of Venezuela's oil industry, Coronel has worked in the oil industry for 28 years in the United States, Holland, Indonesia, Algiers and in Venezuela. He is a Distinguished alumnus of the University of Tulsa (USA) where he was a Trustee from 1987 to 1999. Coronel led the Hydrocarbons Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in Washington DC for 5 years. The author of three books and many articles on Venezuela ("Curbing Corruption in Venezuela." Journal of Democracy, Vol. 7, No. 3, July, 1996, pp. 157-163), he is a fellow of Harvard University and a member of the Harvard faculty from 1981 to 1983.  In 1998, he was presidential election campaign manager for Henrique Salas Romer and now lives in retirement on the Caribbean island of Margarita where he runs a leading Hotel-Resort.  You may contact Gustavo Coronel at email gustavo@vheadline.com

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Center of Media Studies (Centro de Estudios sobre la Información) Buenos Aires, Santiago de Chile Editorial, May 12, 2003

Leftist Bias in the Media: Serious Worldwide Problem

The persistent influence of leftist and liberal editors, journalists and reporters of most important media centers in the West, which translates into a bias that misinforms, constitutes a serious problem inherited by the XXI Century, and creates an obstacle to international understanding and coexisting.

Through sophisticated writing techniques, with the help of social psychology and propaganda, relevant issues are distorted or silenced, myths are created and almost instantly the public opinion is emotionally stirred, which in most respects is more dangerous than even chemical or biological weapons because intelligence, will and the sensitivity of the people are being manipulated.

In the United States, the liberals in the media act as a true "Trojan horse". In 1985 Los Angeles Times conducted an opinion survey which included 2,700 journalists from 621 newspapers. Those which responded with liberal ideas surpassed conservatives by more than 3 to 1 (55% versus 17%). Surveys done by the American Association of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) in 1988 and 1997 confirmed in general terms those results.

Several recent books have revealed the phenomenon of liberal bias used to misinform. For example, "Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News", by Bernard Goldberg; and "Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right , by Ann Coulter. Few people are aware that the communist dictator in Cuba, Fidel Castro, came to power and remains in power for more than 40 years with the decisive support, direct or indirect, of major North American mass media agencies, as evidenced in the studies "The New York Times and Cuban Revolution", by William E. Ratliff and "Castro and the United States Press", written by John P. Wallach.

In Latin America, especially in Brazil, the leftist influence in the media is one of the factors behind the recent waive of anti-North Americanism, which has among its objectives to impede the establishment of a natural alliance among the healthier sectors of North and South America. Regrettably, there does not appear to be a proportionate interest and determination from the conservative North American journalists to exhibit their points of view in the Latin American press, through articles, conferences and participation in debates. This constitutes a problem which should be addressed being that History demonstrates that battles of ideas are much more decisive than military battles.

In Europe, liberalism in the media is also intensely manifested, with different characteristics of each country, but with the same objective of opening gaps between the more healthier sectors of public opinion in the Old and New continent, which have a common longing for the defense of the principals of Christian civilization.

Leftist editors and journalists insist, in the same manner, to consigning the crimes of communism in Russia and Eastern Europe to oblivion. For example, the reception of the second volume of "The Black Book of Communism", written by a knowledgeable team of French historians and recently released by the Editorial Robert Laffont, has been of almost complete silence by the European press, according to one of its authors, Stéphane Courtois, Director of surveys for the CNRS of France. This is not a new phenomenon. Pope Pío XI referred to a "true conspiracy of silence" regarding the crimes of communism in large part due to the press worldwide, together with a "truly diabolical propaganda" in favor of ideas and lifestyles of anti-Christians.

Information bias is always reprehensible and it has not only been used by liberals and leftists. However, it is they that have mostly taken advantage of it. To protect oneself against the phenomenon of disinformation and chaotic news, the most affective antidote is the exercise of sound reflection based on logic, common sense, objectivity and the moral convictions which have as their foundation the Commandments of the Law of God.

The Center of Media Studies (Centro de Estudios sobre la Información) has as its fundamental objective to contribute to the development of a critical spirit in the Americas as it relates to information bias in the media.

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