Reuters, 05.15.03, 9:37 AM ET CARACAS, Venezuela, May 15 (Reuters) - Venezuela's chief tax collector has resigned after President Hugo Chavez complained about tax evasion and corruption and ordered a shake-up in the state tax agency, officials said on Thursday. "Mr. Trino Alcides Diaz told me yesterday in a telephone conversation that he had presented his resignation," Jose Ricardo Sanguino, a pro-government National Assembly deputy who sits on the parliament's finance committee, told Reuters. Diaz, who led the National Customs and Tax Administration Service (SENIAT) for two and a half years, was replaced by Jose Vielma Mora, a retired military officer and Chavez ally who has been running Caracas' main international airport. Diaz's resignation followed a blistering attack against the tax agency by Chavez, a former paratrooper who earlier this year sacked 18,000 employees of the state oil company PDVSA who had participated in an opposition strike against him. In a television and radio broadcast Sunday, the populist president said levels of tax evasion remained intolerably high in the world's No. 5 oil exporter and he suggested many SENIAT officials were corrupt. "There are a lot of crooks in there," Chavez said. "If we have to shake up SENIAT like we did PDVSA, then we will; this is the country's money we are talking about," he added, saying he would personally supervise the probe. In April, the level of collected taxes slipped to 84 percent of the projected amount for the month, due to a sharp fall in customs revenues caused by existing tight foreign exchange controls. Customs revenues only amounted to around 47 percent of projected levels. Most of the country's private exporters and importers have halted operations because they say slow and inefficient allocation of dollars by the state currency control board is restricting their access to hard currency. Diaz was the fourth official to serve as head of SENIAT since Chavez took office in early 1999. Copyright 2003, Reuters News Service

Caracas, May 15 (<a href=quote.bloomberg.com>Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez would lose a referendum on his presidency by 18 percentage points if a vote were held today, El Nacional reported, citing a poll by Consultores 21.

The April 1-15 poll of 1,500 Venezuelans found that 55 percent would vote for Chavez to leave office, while 37 percent would cast ballots for him to stay. Eight percent were undecided. The margin of error was 2.58 percent.

Sixty-four percent of those polled gave Chavez bad marks, while 36 percent said they thought he was doing a good job.

Venezuela's opposition has said it plans to seek a binding referendum on Chavez's presidency after Aug. 19 when the former paratrooper passes the halfway point of his term in office. Negotiations over holding the vote continue.

(EN 5/15 A5) (To see El Nacional's Web site, click on {NCNL }) Last Updated: May 15, 2003 08:23 EDT

<a href=www.lapress.org>LatinAmericaPress Adolfo Pérez Esquivel  Fernanda Sández Fernanda Sández.  May 15, 2003

Interview with Adolfo Pérez Esquivel

According to Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, 1980 Nobel Peace Prize winner and head of the non-governmental Peace and Justice Service (SERPAJ) in Argentina, the impunity with which the United States has acted in Iraq jeopardizes the security of Latin America and the rest of the world, because it indicates that the United States could intervene anywhere without opposition or sanction. Pérez Esquivel spoke with Latinamerica Press correspondent Fernanda Sández in Buenos Aires about this threat and the regional scenario that has emerged since the war.

How do you view the conflict in Iraq?

The war in Iraq — although more than war, I think we should call it an invasion — represents the hegemonic expansion of the United States in the world (LP, April 9, 2003), which means it is not a new phenomenon. This has been under way for a number of years, but since Sept. 11, 2001, it has picked up speed and the actions have taken a clear direction: to control the Middle East and its oil reserves.

How do you see this new world situation affecting Latin America?

The United States tried something similar in Latin America [in April 2002] when, through the State Department and in alliance with local business interests, it encouraged a coup against the constitutional government of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela (LP, April 22, 2002). Considering that 30 percent of the oil that the United States imports comes from Venezuela, there is obviously a direct relationship between that episode and what is happening today in Iraq. It’s one more effort to gain direct and complete control over oil reserves worldwide. Even so, while oil is a key issue, it is only one aspect of this effort, which has much more serious connotations for Latin America.

What are those connotations, specifically?

The increasing militarization of the continent, which is reflected in the installation of US military bases throughout the region (LP, April 9, 2003). There are three main areas of action, each of which has been developed to a different degree so far. One is the triple border area shared by Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, where there is already a US presence (LP, Nov. 5, 2001). Another is Colombia, with Plan Colombia, which involves the intervention of military personnel and advisers in the region (LP, April 10, 2000 and March 12, 2002). And the third is the so-called Puebla-Panama project, which encompasses Mesoamerica and the Caribbean (LP, July 29, 2002). As you can see, these three main areas are the bases of operation through which the United States plans to intervene on the continent. And with absolute impunity, because — as I never get tired of repeating — the first victims of this conflict were the United Nations and international law.

To what extent do you see them affected by the war?

Although future scenarios are fairly unpredictable, it is clear that the United Nations was blocked and pushed aside, with no ability to respond, and the United States even threatened to keep it from intervening in Iraq. If the United Nations does not act clearly and firmly from now on, it will be extremely difficult for it to survive. Something similar has happened with international law — one stroke of the pen has struck down international agreements, protocols and conventions that took more than 50 years to build.

This puts the entire world in a complete state of insecurity. And Latin America can’t escape, because with this new policy of "preventive" war, the United States can intervene in any country with absolute impunity and with no opposition whatsoever.

This is a real concern when one US State Department document, for example, states that "democracy in Ecuador is under pressure from increasingly radicalized populist and indigenous movements," as if it’s suggesting the need to take action.

Let’s say that intervening in internal social affairs in various countries is another [US] objective. In Ecuador, President Lucio Gutiérrez is implementing a very ambiguous policy (LP, Feb. 12, 2003). But I have no doubt that if Ecuador should become involved in Plan Colombia, Latin America could become a new Vietnam, with consequences as serious as or more serious than those of the war in Iraq.

Why?

Because it would be a new version of guerrilla warfare. There are already some alarming signs. For example, in Argentina there’s a document dated June 20, 2001, sent to Congress by the president, requesting authorization for Latin American and US troops to enter the country. That document is key, because it requests the entry of troops and one of its justifications is a war scenario in which the enemies are social organizations, non-governmental agencies and other potential enemies (LP, Oct. 3, 2001). This shows to what extent the old doctrine of national security remains in effect. When this occurred, SERPAJ and the Latin American Association of Jurists filed a request for an injunction, which was ignored. So the troops entered the country, and later they left.

This continues to occur in different parts of the continent, which shows that we are facing what I call "globalized totalitarianism" — the establishment of an empire, a global dictatorship that is destroying everything in its path. Despite this, however, I see some encouraging signs.

What are those signs?

Grassroots mobilizations. Even the people of the United States have started to mobilize, because the memory of Vietnam is still very fresh in people’s minds, and there are demonstrations in every state. In our case, there is a different challenge: we have to begin to create new social, political and economic spaces. Now more than ever, we must stimulate our own way of thinking, cultural identities, spirituality and meaning of life among our peoples.

Correction A May 15 article about the U.N. Security Council incorrectly attributed a quotation in the final paragraph. It was Secretary of State Colin L. Powell who said: "There are some outstanding issues, and we will be working on these issues in the spirit of partnership in trying to come to a solution." News From Iraq • Plan to Secure Postwar Iraq Faulted (The Washington Post, May 19, 2003) • Iraqi Clerics Urge Anti-U.S. Protest (The Washington Post, May 19, 2003) • Kurds' Influence in Kirkuk Rises Along With Discord (The Washington Post, May 19, 2003) • More News from Iraq

Subscribe to The Post By Colum Lynch Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, May 15, 2003; Page A24

UNITED NATIONS, May 14 -- The Bush administration pressed the U.N. Security Council today to vote as early as next week on a resolution that would lift sanctions on Iraq and permit the United States and its military allies to export Iraqi oil to finance the country's reconstruction.

John D. Negroponte, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said that the 15-nation council's failure to act quickly to end the 13-year-old embargo could jeopardize the country's capacity to make a swift recovery from years of war and misrule. "The sanctions need to be lifted as soon as possible," he told reporters after a closed council meeting. "The oil tanks are almost full in Iraq; the crude is about to reach the point of just sitting there and waiting to be exported."

In an attempt to broaden support in the council, Negroponte offered to circulate a "modified" draft resolution Thursday that "attempts to take into account many" of the council's concerns over the United Nations' role in Iraq.

U.S. officials said the administration is considering new language that would help assure the council that it intends to give the United Nations a significant role in postwar Iraq and subject use of Iraqi oil revenue to independent international scrutiny. They said they are also prepared to commit to providing the council with periodic briefings on the status of U.S.-led efforts to disarm Iraq.

But the officials suggested that the administration would insist on retaining control of the country's oil revenue and achieving a clear council mandate to rule the country until a democratically elected government is in place.

"We put forward a resolution that is pretty minimalist in terms of what we need to be able to do to help the Iraqi people to establish a democratic path," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said at a news conference at the Foreign Press Center in Washington. "And so, we expect cooperation from all Security Council members."

Although there is wide support in the council for an end to sanctions, Russia, France, Germany and other key members assert that the U.S. resolution lacks a central enough role for the United Nations, and grants excessive powers to the United States and Britain to manage Iraq's economic and political future.

Several representatives raised concerns about a provision in the U.S. resolution, which Britain and Spain co-sponsored, that would grant the United States and its allies control over Iraq's oil and shield Iraq's oil revenue from foreign debtors owed billions of dollars. "So far, immunity has been granted only to the U.N.," Germany's U.N. Ambassador Gunter Pleuger told Bloomberg News. "If you protect a state, what would prevent Kuwait or Venezuela from saying, 'We are oil producers, too, and want immunity.' "

Russia and France, two key commercial partners with the former Iraqi government, have also expressed concern that a U.S. proposal to phase out the U.N.-run oil-for-food program in four months would place ordinary Iraqis who rely on it for their subsistence at risk and jeopardize more than $10 billion in contracts for products that were approved before the fall of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

Under the terms of the oil-for-food deal, which was established in December 1996, Iraq is permitted to export oil, subject to U.N. supervision, to purchase food, medicine and other humanitarian goods.

The U.S. resolution would transfer authority to spend and manage Iraq's oil proceeds from the United Nations and Iraq to the United States and Britain. A transitional Iraqi government, which the United States is hoping to put in place in a matter of weeks, would have a consultative role in determining how their oil profits are spent.

An international advisory board, including representatives from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations, would have the power to chose auditors to monitor the use of Iraq's oil revenue.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told the French newspaper Le Monde this week that there must be "undisputed international control" over Iraq's oil industry and revenue. He also insisted that the United Nations' role in overseeing the establishment of a new Iraqi government must be strengthened.

"Who, if not the United Nations, can confer international legitimacy?" De Villepin said. "At the end of an initial phase of making the country safe, the United States will have progressively to take responsibility for the political transition."

Despite the differences, most council members expressed a desire to move beyond the political battles that sharply divided the council before the war. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, speaking in Moscow with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, said that Russia has "decided not to focus on our past disagreements" over the war. "There are some outstanding issues, and we will be working on these issues in the spirit of partnership in trying to come to a solution," he said.