<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, May 20, 2003 By: David Cabrera

Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 13:24:07 +0100 From: David Cabrera davidckr@yahoo.com To: Editor@VHeadline.com Subject: nothing more than back-to-back trash talk

Dear Editor: I have a little problem that I saw fit at this moment for you to help me figure out. It seems obvious to me that what Mr. Coronel and Mr. Heck are getting into is nothing more than back-to-back trash talk, some kind of personal grievances that both are determined to war about until nobody knows when.

But I have to be realistic this time ... <a href=www.vheadline.com>although there may be things that I agree with Mr. Heck, at least I have to recognize that he's been honest enough as to declare himself a supporter of Chavez and his policies. I suppose it is because he identifies himself ideologically with the Venezuelan political process or because he simply likes the way Chavez tells his speeches, who knows.

The truth of the matter is that Mr. Heck, as also Mr. Coronel, speaks and writes what's on his mind.

Now, while reading <a href=www.vheadline.com>Mr. Coronel's articles, I also find a lot of discrepancies and contradictions that are hard to disguise. Take for example what hr wrote in his reply to Mr. Heck, where he insinuates that Chavez has his own paid personnel ready to combat letter-oriented criticism, and this he says is based on the fact that people for one reason or another realize that what he writes in his articles is solely HIS point of view ... not that of others who find his writings dubious and untrue in many cases, or they maybe would disagree with him because they are Chavistas.

Thus, in my opinion, it is simplistic and unprofessional that he does away with criticism by simply saying that those people are government-hired men determined to make him look bad. Well, if that is the case, one can judge by looking at his credentials as Salas Romer's campaign advisor and deduce that he just doesn't limit himself to answer for Mr. Salas although it is not necessary to name him to make his point ... but that he is also engaged in an anti-Chavez campaign on behalf of Mr. Salas through journalistism. I am positive he wouldn't want to be called somebody else's puppet ... but if one uses his methods of containing criticism, it would be fair then to say that Mr. Gustavo Coronel will be welcome to shut up, after the referendum, because it is obvious that Chavez won't lose it and Mr. Coronel's boss is doomed to failure if elections are to be held.

On the other hand Mr. Coronel, I could see that you love to talk about the "dictatorial tendencies" embedded in Chavez' government. I would like to ask you then, how many times has your house been raided by the government's secret police because of your political positions, as you know it was common to happen in past governments when the President at-the-time would get rid of bothersome journalists? Or how much time have you served in prison due to the same reasons?

In case you feel like making analogies between the present and the past, I recommend you to talk to Dr. Marcel Granier so he could broaden your mind with regard to compliant media and government, bribes, jailed journalists, and all about restrictions on freedom of speech in past years. Undoubtedly, one of Dr. Granier's favorite subjects he would want to share with you would be the scandal behind the El Diario de Caracas back in the eighties.

About the PDVSA affair, there are certain things that I have to agree with you, one of them being that it is wrong to call all of the fired personnel saboteurs and terrorists. You have a point with that, but you fail to address properly the complexity behind the issue. For example, you claimed that the values which guided the real PDVSA were "Meritocracy," "apoliticism" and "professional management."

• Would you mind telling me what real PDVSA was that one ... the Calderon Berti's PDVSA? Or the Luis Giustis PDVSA?

What type of meritocracy was that one that allowed Calderon Berti and Luis Giusti to handpick their friends from COPEI and Maraven to hold key positions in the company, pretty much a la Cisneros and his Pedro Tinoco in the Banco Central during the CAP years?

Would you mind describing the "professional management" that so characterized PDVSA when the magazine America Economia ranked it first in turnover income but at the same time among the least efficient Latin American corporations?

What kind of professional management is that which has almost inverted the state royalties and operational costs relation of 80-20% in 1976 to 20-80% twenty-four years later?

As far as I'm concerned, you don't have to be a prominent economist to figure out that the logic behind all corporations is to maximize profits and reduce costs as possible, then why shouldn't the same principle apply to a state-owned company?

Isn't an excess of costs to keep almost a substantial part of the personnel doing office jobs in Caracas, where there is not a single oil-field? And most important of all, why a handful of managers claim to themselves the right to decide the fate of a state-owned company whose shareholders are the 23 million-plus Venezuelans who are entitled to benefit from it?

Don't you think that by recycling petrodollars through outsourcing and joint ventures it responds only to the interests of those doing business inside it (Giusti, the former managers, UNOCAL, SAIC, including countless of other subsidiaries) and that by allowing PDVSA go the path it was taking it was going to lead eventually to its privatization?

Don't you realize either that the strategies of transnational oil capital are not compatible at all with the national interests of our country, that one of the biggest aims for people like Cheney and Bush is to undermine the efforts of oil-producing countries on protecting their exports, pretty much like the US protects its own?

When you carefully study these issues you would surely make clear conclusions as to whom the dismissed professional management was really working for.

You also like to talk about fascism. You accuse Mr. Heck of being a fascist, because you surely expected people such as myself to jump happily, party around or to sit idly while seeing how our oil corporation was literally being destroyed, including pirate-hijacking of oil tankers, damaging pipelines, valves, electric systems, computers, and countless other marvels that cost us all more than $5 billion.

So we are supposed ... including a Chavista like Mr. Heck ... to celebrate such noble achievement in the name of democracy? On top of that, Chavez-haters were supposed to sacrifice to get the tyrant out (to borrow Carlos Ortega's words) all while Carlos Fernandez sacrificed himself in Aruba by drinking whisky under a hot and pleasant Caribbean sun, and the meritocratic Juan Fernandez traveled on private jets all around Venezuela to lead the resistance against the "barbaric dictatorship" of Hugo Chavez.

But, incidentally, it was not them but the "mas pendejos" who had to carry the burden of the so-called strike by making hours and sometimes one-day-long lines at the gas stations, watching 24/7 sickening propaganda on TV throughout the month and part of the next one, and suffering a corporate lock-out nationwide.

At the end Chavez remained in power, broken promises were easily forgotten, and the entrepreneurs who stopped during the strike started a firing exodus that surpassed that of PDVSA ... but you stopped short of calling these people fascists maybe because you were optimistic that by the methods they employed, Chavez would eventually be overthrown.

Unfortunately for you and the meritocratic warriors, the end was another one. However, it just shows that the term fascism, terrorism or other epithets are only to be used when the enemy ... in your case Chavez, his hordes and Oscar Heck ... dare to denounce actions that led to irreversible damage for the nations economy and to us all. In fact, when a real fascist attitude such as that witnessed in the following days after last-year's coup, it logically did not elicit outrage or condemnation at all from you, because of course, it was not Chavez who killed the 70 people during those two precious days of democracy, it was instead Carmona and his associates who gave the orders.

But you know, this was not fascism, people with a mindset to blame Chavez for the evils of the society since 1998 would have you believe that these murders during the post-coup days were a product of measures to keep the public order from focuses of resistance pretty much like the euphemisms the media and the government employed in the 1989s genocide better known as El Caracazo.

Or at a lesser extent, take the assault on the Cuban embassy last year for instance. That was not an act of fascism they say, and it weren't hordes the people who behaved themselves that day like what they usually accuse Chavistas of being. Instead, the opposition hordes are commonly presented as peaceful demonstrators, such as those who smashed the windows of diplomatic vehicles, deprived them of electricity and water and threatened to lynch them if they didn't hand over suspected Chavistas hiding in the embassy.

• Mr. Coronel ... did you,  in the name of all of your countrymen, condemn, this act of fascism?

Judging from the high morals that you withhold, don't you agree and ... to use your own words ... that these events could be subject to penal action?

Don't you also think that by the media denying or justifying these actions would make it unacceptable for honest people like yourself to bear?

What about the humble people who are not thugs and criminals, and happen to be hardworking laborers or housekeepers that support Chavez, when all they read is hatred toward them in the newspapers, and toward anything that smells like Chavez and to what they identify with?

Who is alienating who then?

Or when the media comes with fancy stories such as Aristobulo Isturiz buying luxurious yachts, why didn't you Mr. Coronel ask for a shred of evidence to support the libelous accusation?

It seems to me that you simply don't care, that's about it.

After all it is Chavez' supporters who are being attacked, so why should you bother to raise concern about their constitutional rights? As long as it is Chavez and his supporters who denounce what they consider wrong, then that's when you think that a shred of evidence is needed to support libelous accusations.

Therefore Mr. Coronel, I think you should respond appropriately to criticism without falling yourself into the same standards of Ybelise Pacheco's journalism.

I think that you are entitled to have your opinions and to express them as well, but if credibility and respect mean anything to you, I guess you should be more objective and fair before getting into blame game and citing vague examples to back your statements and insulting others who don't share your views.

The same goes to Mr. Heck of course.

David Cabrera davidckr@yahoo.com Caracas, Venezuela

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, May 20, 2003 By: David Coleman

Regional strategies for development in southeastern Guayana include the strengthening and consolidation of existing productive units, the promotion of new investment, selective replacement imports, infrastructure development, support services and viable financial instruments for small- to medium-sized businesses (Pymes).

Announcing the plan, Venezuelan Guayana Corporation (CVG) president, Major General (ret.) Francisco Rangel Gomez says the greatest contribution will be given by the CVG to strength small- to medium businesses since it has been to recover financial balance in its subsidiary companies with the largest-ever volume of production ever previously registered.

Opening the "Reactivation in Guayana, an obligation” conference organized to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Caroni Chamber of Industry & Commerce, Rangel Gomez said the nation's heavy industry conglomerate is especially focused on development of the Eastern and Orinoco-Apure Axis within a development policy already outlined by the National Executive.

"The CVG has typified interaction between public and private sectors during the last 2½ years, maintaining direct contact with very important elements in mining, agroindustry, metals and general industry.  By strengthening and consolidating existing productive units, the CVG has succeeded in recuperating affiliated enterprises FMO, Venalum, Bauxilum, Carbonorca, Alcasa and Minerven with record production. At the same time, a reinforcement plan for financial structure, environmental management and quality standards is being put in place ( Rule ISO 9001:2000) ... these strategies imply a plan of reactivation and rescue for Cabelum, Hoturvensa, Pivensa, Alpesca and Inlubrica to cite but a few instances.”

Existing private sector infrastructure is favored through a productive sectors strengthening program in the hands of the Science & Tecnology Ministry, Health & Social Development, local authorities, municipalities, Fundacite, Ince and the Guayana Regional Fund. The CVG is bringing forward intermediary efforts in cooperation with the Planning (Cordiplan) Ministry, Environment (MARN), Production & Commerce (MPC), IRS/Seniat and the foreign exchange control organization CADIVI to attend private sector requirements.

Rangel Gomez says that the CVG encourages large projects that will positively affect the Guayana region with employment creation and economic activity ... Tocoma Hydroelectric Central, CVG-FMO and to increase production capacity at CVG Bauxilum, the construction of a CVG Alcasa Line 5, telecommunications, agroindustry and local industry as focal points of  development.  The CVG president lauds advantages that the Guayana Regional Fund offers as a financial alternative for PYMES ... "up to now, we've promoted 245 projects, creating more than 9,000 places of employment with a total investment of Bs. 68 billion, financing Bs.35 billion to mining, services, manufacturing, tourism and agriculture, some at a prime rate of just 12%."

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, May 20, 2003 By: David Coleman

Venezuelan Guayana Corporation (CVG) officials have announced a cooperation agreement with China's Shandong Gold Group to raise gold production at the Sosa Mendez mine in El Callao 50% to reaching an annual 4.6 metric tonnes at a projected average price of US$325 per troy ounce.

The reactivation of the Sosa Mendez mine after 44 years of inactivity was settled in concert between CVG gold mining subsidiary Minerven and Shandong Gold subsidiary Jinyan de Venezuela to initiate new well construction, mine drainage, drift repairs and basic services at an investment of $ 13 million to be increased as exploration cuncovers new reserves.

The official opening of the mine was attended by the Peoples' Republic of China Ambassador to Venezuela, Wang Zeng who confirmed China's interest in deepening a cooperation agreement signed between China and Venezuela 2 years ago ... "this is a business that guarantees profits for both countries and it will help to reinforce other development alliances in Guayana regional agriculture."  Ambassador Zeng says the importance of these strategic alliances relies on fund-raising and technical cooperation with other countries in a scenario where China has now invested some US$1.3 billion in Latin America ... half of it in Venezuela ... "we have a great confidence in Venezuela!"

CVG president, Major General (ret.) Francisco Rangel Gomez says the mine start-up gives a greater contribution to the creation of employment and the economic reactivation of the Guayana region ... “330 jobs will be created for the construction stage and the operation stage will take on another 240 direct jobs within 20 months ... a local workforce will be employed rather than being hired in from abroad."

Rangel Gomez is confident that Venezuela's mining sector is strengthened Venezuela's economic potential ... "we had a clear vision of this two years ago, but now we are relying strongly on foreign operators such as Crystallex International, Hecla, Shandong Gold and others to carry out projects with medium and long-term investments ranging from US$413 million to US$500 million qualifying investor confidence in the country ... it's like betting on a sure fire winner.”

Caracas, May 20 (<a href=quote.bloomberg.com>Bloomberg) -- Venezuela's economy probably fell by about 35 percent in the first quarter, El Universal reported, citing preliminary figures compiled by the country's central bank.

The country's oil industry, which accounts for about 40 percent of gross domestic product, may have fallen by as much as 48 percent, while the country's non-oil GDP may have contracted by 25 percent.

The bank's board of directors will review the preliminary figures before they are released later this quarter.

Venezuela's first quarter GDP was affected by a national strike that started Dec. 2 and ended Feb. 1. The strike, whose goal was to force President Hugo Chavez from office, idled much of the country's oil industry and large parts of the non-oil economy.

(EU, 5/20 1-12)

To see El Universal's Web site, click on {EUDC } Last Updated: May 20, 2003 08:37 EDT

By Gregory Tejeda <a href=www.upi.com>United Press International From the National Desk Published 5/20/2003 8:15 AM View printer-friendly version

It is amusing to see U.S. brands and products become popular in Mexico and other Latin American countries.

Take Chili's, the suburban-American restaurant chain that strikes many Mexicans as being a fun-filled place to eat "foreign" food, in the same way people in the United States go to Chi-Chi's for a change of pace in their dining.

I even find it humorous that the biggest-selling soda pop brand south of the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo is that most "American" of drinks -- Coca Cola.

In fact, it's more "American" in Mexico than it is in the United States, since Mexicans still drink it out of glass bottles and Coke officials haven't tampered with the formula in Mexico the way they have in the United States. Coca Cola in Mexico still has that same unique taste, unlike the United States, which has turned it into a third-rate clone of Pepsi.

But good taste ought to limit the use of foreign brands, and I believe that line was crossed last week when negotiations were completed on a joint venture that will ultimately bring Krispy Kreme doughnuts to Mexico.

Krispy Kreme?

What did Mexicans ever do so bad that they deserve to have those icky-sweet and overly sticky buns and rolls shoved down their throats?

If officials with the Winston-Salem, N.C., company get their way, there will be up to 20 Krispy Kreme stores across Mexico by 2009. Some time after that, there will be mounds of "Yanqui" doughnuts being peddled in places like Venezuela and Argentina, as the company is looking into expanding to South American countries as well.

It is nauseating to think of my ethnic brothers and sisters being confronted with Krispy Kreme and those tacky neon signs that urge people to rush into their stores like lemmings just because a new batch of doughnuts is freshly baked.

As one might figure, I don't care much for Krispy Kreme or its signature brand "Hot Original Glazed" doughnut, which is a southern U.S. concoction that only in recent years has managed to creep its way up to my sweet home, Chicago.

On those rare occasions when I have a roll, I want something of substance. Krispy Kreme pastries are so yeasty they almost feel like they're puffed up with air. One bite and there's nothing left.

The way they're also coated with honey or sugar or other sticky-sweet flavorings also leaves my hands so gummed up that three days later I'm still leaving sticky prints on everything I touch.

I don't understand their appeal, even though I know people who swear by them and insist the best junk-food delight on this planet is a Krispy Kreme doughnut when it comes straight out of the oven and is still piping hot.

The company has stores in 37 states and across Canada, and is developing them in Australia and Great Britain. Now, they're moving in on the rest of the Americas.

Krispy Kreme Inc. created a partnership with Grupo AXO, which will do the grunt work of picking markets and developing the Mexican stores. The U.S. company has a 30 percent equity interest in the joint venture.

Grupo AXO has experience in bringing U.S. brands to Mexico. Since 1994, the company has brought Tommy Hilfiger clothing and Warner Bros. Studio Stores to the land of Benito Juarez.

Alberto Fasja Cohen, a Grupo AXO president, believes there is a place in Mexican culture for the glazed doughnut, saying, "There is no doubt that Mexico will be an important and successful part of Krispy Kreme's continued expansion throughout the world."

I'm skeptical of that, especially since Mexico is the home of that ever-edible pastry known as the churro.

A churro is a crispy and sweet pastry shaped in the form of a long, thin tube -- maybe a foot long and three-quarters of an inch in diameter. The insides are filled with assorted jellies or (my favorite) chocolate, and then the concoction is fried.

I don't eat them regularly (my waist-line says I shouldn't eat them at all). But when I do, they provide a sugar jolt that lasts a few seconds. The first (and last) time I ever had a Krispy Kreme, the sugar rush was so intense I could almost feel my arteries clogging, and my mouth was coated with so much goop the overall sensation was disgusting.

So who's going to win the upcoming Mexican pastry war? I'm sure Krispy Kreme officials will spare no expense in trying to spread themselves into Mexico and many people will try one just to experience something "American."

But if common sense prevails, the churro will knock the glazed doughnut out of the Mexican ballpark. That would be a victory for good taste benefiting all mankind, especially since insofar as the mass-produced U.S. doughnut is concerned, everybody knows Dunkin' Donuts is better.

-0- (Hispanidad is a weekly column about the culture of Hispanics and Latinos in the United States, written by Greg Tejeda, a third-generation Mexican-American. Suggestions for topics can be made to gtejeda@upi.com)