<a href=www.vheadline.com>venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Thursday, May 22, 2003 By: W. Wingfield

Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 11:54:30 +0000 From: W. Wingfield  will46@att.net To: Editor@VHeadline.com Subject: Reality

Dear Editor: I have read your web site with interest over the past year.  In that time I have read many differing viewpoints from those with diverse backgrounds.  I have hesitated to write more letters since the two that I have written prompted a deluge of negative (some threatening) responses to me.  My wife is Venezuelan and I am in contact with her family in Venezuela on a regular basis.  I know what is happening to the Venezuelan economy and the people: it is a tragedy.

I have read with amusement and sometimes amazement the diatribes and epistles of the "pro government" reporters on your web site.  Too often their editorials focus on the emotionalized political aspects of the struggle in Venezuela between the self-destructive Chavez and the inept opposition.

The reality is that there is no effective opposition in Venezuela.  What opposition exists certainly doesn't have any answers other than to blame all the country's ills on the elected megalomaniac President. 

The Chavez regime certainly can't take all of the blame for Venezuela's problems.  For decades Venezuela was in a political "malaise" and only now has it been "woken up" by Mr. Chavez.  The problem for Venezuela is not simply an entrenched pseudo-democratic dictator.

The real problem is that NOBODY is willing to work on any real solutions.

The reality in Venezuela is that there are shortages ... there is a shortage of honesty, of integrity, of justice, of security, and of food.  Of all the shortages the one that will plunge Venezuela into ultimate chaos is the lack of food.  Every day it is becoming more difficult to obtain foodstuffs from the markets in Venezuela.  Goods (the majority imported) are disappearing off of the store shelves due to the draconian fiscal policies imposed by its embattled regime.

A modern society is integrated with the world and no country can thrive when it isolates itself from that world economy.  All of the political rhetoric and dogma can't change the reality of the Venezuelan situation.

The absolute reality is that Venezuela is on the road to a blood-letting that it has not experienced in its modern history.

All the political garbage about the "Bolivarian" revolution won't matter when the people are hungry and adequate food is unavailable.  The cry of "Valor Venezuela" will be replaced by the cries of hungry children.  Time is running out for the Venezuelan people.

One of your frequent commentators, a Mr. Heck, is fond of reminding the readers that Venezuela's problems can only be solved by Venezuelans.  This is true and the Venezuelan people will find the courage to take the necessary steps to rectify the current situation.

When this happens, then it will not matter how many of the military are receiving "extra monetary compensation" from Mr. Chavez; for even they (the rank and file) will not shoot their family and friends: they most likely will turn their sights on Mr. Chavez and his entourage.

I spoke with some friends in Margarita yesterday.  They have told me that the police are almost non-existent in Porlamar now and that crime is rising at an alarming rate.  They have also that food is becoming more scarce at the market and that the once thriving tourist trade is only now a dream. 

Mr. Editor you say that your site is objective: is it really? *

Whenever I read the fantastic "reports" of Mr. Heck I can only imagine; is he simply a "mouthpiece" for the corrupt regime or does he really believe most of the profuse lies that he regularly submits as editorials?

Venezuela in 2003 is not the Cuba of 1959 and all of the "guidance" that Mr. Chavez receives from his master in Havana will not stop the inevitable.

W. Wingfield will46@att.net

Editor's response: We make no claim in our editorial policy statement other to be "a wholly independent e-publication promoting democracy in its fullest expression and the inalienable right of all Venezuelans to self-determination and the pursuit of sovereign independence without interference." Our declared editorial bias * is pro-democracy and pro-Venezuela.  Oscar Heck expresses his feeely-held opinion in the same way as Gustavo Coronel and other commentators of the Venezuelan scene expresses theirs ... that is the essence of press freedom in that we recognize the freedom of expression of all sides in the Venezuelan debate.  Like you apparently have been, we are also subjected to an effusion of hate-mail and abuse by those unfortunate individuals who are so deeply entrenched in their own bigotries that they do not recognize the possibility of any opinion other than the one to which they religiously cling.  We at VHeadline.com encourage and publish well-formulated editorial opinions provided they are within the usual concepts of upholding the law and recognized forms of democracy.  We have a zero tolerance policy on abuse and hate-mail.

<a href=www.stltoday.com>SLDispatch, By REPPS HUDSON Post-Dispatch updated: 05/22/2003 06:06 PM

January 2005 is the date that trade negotiators for 34 Western Hemisphere nations have set to create the massive framework for the Free Trade Area of the Americas, from the tip of South America to the Arctic Circle.

"The FTAA is the big game," Assistant Commerce Secretary William H. Lash III said during a luncheon Wednesday at the Frontenac Hilton attended by representatives of small and mid-sized businesses, which are interested in expanding trade with Latin America.

The concept is similar to the North American Free Trade Agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico - but on a grander scale.

The key to getting the FTAA framework ready for congressional approval is bilateral trade talks with Brazil, Lash said. Discussions are continuous, he said, "like a floating crap game" held in various sites throughout the hemisphere.

Brazil is South America's largest nation and economy, with 170 million people and a gross domestic product of $1.32 trillion. The 34 nations involved in the FTAA talks have a combined 800 million people and a total gross domestic product of $12 trillion.

The GDP of the NAFTA nations is $9.6 trillion, with 400 million people.

Now, Lash said, the focus is on cementing a trade pact between the two largest economies in the hemisphere: Brazil and the United States.

"You don't bully Brazil. You educate them," Lash told about 50 people at the luncheon, part of World Trade Week.

He said the United States and Brazil, with other nations following the talks closely, can be expected to hammer out a trade pact that will lower tariffs and other trade barriers over roughly a 10-year period. It will be patterned along the lines of NAFTA, which dropped barriers among the three participating nations.

While NAFTA continues to be a sore point with some environmental, human rights and labor groups, many economists and politicians say it is raising the overall standard of living for residents of the three countries.

Much of Latin America south of Mexico is being grouped into three customs unions or trade zones: the Central American Free Trade Agreement (Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Nicaragua); Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay), and the Andean Community (Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Venezuela).

Lash, who is assistant secretary for market access and compliance, is a lead administration official in the effort to ensure that U.S. trading partners live up to their trade-pact commitments.

He said when Brazilian and U.S. negotiators resolve their differences, other Latin American countries, which already have begun to harmonize their trade policies through the regional agreements, can be expected to get on board.

He said Congress could ratify the pact as soon as 2005 under the new up-or-down trade promotion authority, or fast-track trade authority.

Congress gave the administration the power to negotiate trade agreements without later amendment during the ratification process. This authority gives other nations more confidence when they negotiate pacts with the United States, Lash said.

Key among the issues separating the United States and Brazil, Lash said, are protectionist measures for citrus fruits and juices and for sugar. They are global commodities, but both countries have vested interests that want to keep out citrus and sugar imports. Another big issue is intellectual property rights, particularly regarding compact discs, DVDs and computer software.

During a panel discussion on doing business in Latin America, Stewart Dahlberg, manager of the one-man department of export sales for J.D. Streett & Co. Inc., told how he spent hours searching the Internet and using the Commerce Department Web site to locate niche markets. His company, a privately held oil-products wholesaler, has been in business since 1884. But in recent years, it has begun to search for markets abroad.

Dahlberg said he spends a lot of time preparing for sales trips, and he worries over the details that can spell success - or failure.

"I don't want to travel without getting something back," he said.

If the Free Trade Area of the Americas materializes, Dahlberg said, it will be good for his business. At present, among his biggest concerns are the exchange rate and tariffs. He said not being able to speak Spanish or Portuguese is not a problem. He always asks for payment or a letter of credit "up front."

"The scariest part is losing someone (a former business partner) and never knowing why," Dahlberg said in an interview.

Sponsors of the trade meeting included the Commerce Department, Missouri's Office of International Trade, the World Affairs Council, the Regional Chamber & Growth Association and the University of Missouri at St. Louis' Center for International Studies, as well as US Bank and Webster, St. Louis and Southern Illinois universities.

Reporter Repps Hudson: E-mail: rhudson@post-dispatch.com Phone: 314-340-8208

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Wednesday, May 21, 2003 By: Gustavo Coronel

VHeadline.com commentarist Gustavo Coronel writes: There is a wonderful story by Ray Bradbury about a man who travels to the future in some kind of time machine. He goes there and he finds a world without poverty, without war, without hunger, where everybody enjoys a reasonable amount of wellbeing. He travels back to the present with these excellent news and the people, now knowing the bright future that awaits humanity, simply start working to realize it. Since there is no doubt that they will get there, all hesitations and uncertainties are removed from the minds of humans. The traveler, however, eventually feels the pangs of remorse and confesses to a reporter that he did not really travel to the future, that he made up the story and delivers to him a document to that effect. Once the reporter is alone, he briefly thinks about his alternatives and decides to ... burn the document.

It is a nice story. It simply means that if we are sure that we can attain our ideal world we can work effectively to fulfill the prophecy. Sometime ago, a young and bright Venezuelan economist, Ricardo Haussman, now self-exiled at Harvard (not a bad place to be an exile) expressed a similar concept. He said that "Venezuela" was " condemned to success." It was a great phrase but sometimes we wonder...

In my case, I will borrow the poetic license of Jorge Luis Borges, who used to say that we do not really know in what direction time flows, in order to feel nostalgic about the future of Venezuela.

There is a Venezuela that, either because we have already seen her in the future, from where Borges said we might come from, or because we have dreamt so much about her, we already take for real.

We are certain that there is such a Venezuela ... one that contains the material and spiritual ingredients that we desire to see in our country. Knowing that she exists, we yearn for her, suspecting, however, that it might be located in a bend of the river of time which we might not get to visit.

• In this Venezuela, the Synagogue and the Mosque are built side by side. As it has been already noted by someone whose name I do not remember, the group that manufactures our textiles worships in the Synagogue while the group that sells them worships in the Mosque, but they say hello to each other as they cross paths...
• In this Venezuela, "negro" only has an affectionate meaning and racial hate or class resentment does not exist. We can walk in the east and the west of our cities without feeling we are in enemy territory.
• In this Venezuela, a teacher or a famous novelist can become President of the nation and a military man can be a President who walks among the people without bodyguards, revered by all.
• In this Venezuela land reform can be done without violating private property and peasants do not have to invade lands to be able to work them.
• This Venezuela has plenty of good main and secondary roads, new hospitals and universities in which people are attended in a dignified manner, where everybody pays according to their means.
• In this Venezuela there are few beggars since most everybody has a decent job. Street children are rare since the State will not allow children to be abandoned.

In short, the Venezuela of the future will look a lot like the Venezuela we have already had in the past. The Synagogue and the Mosque already exist and our Jews and Muslims have been able to coexist peacefully for years and to complement their economic activities.

Gallegos, the teacher and novelist was our President, until the military overthrew him. General Medina was our President and was the most civilian of civilians, revered by all, until he was overthrown by the military in combination with a political party. The Land reform of the 1960s gave land to more than 320,000 families without arbitrary land takeovers.

Venezuela was an example of relative prosperity for the region.

Venezuela surely can be that good and better in the future ... provided that our political leadership, by whatever name, opts for the promotion of an integral national effort based on respect for dissidents and civilized manners ... provided that our resources are developed with common sense and a modicum of administrative tidiness ... provided that democracy prevails over totalitarian ideologies.

To know that the future of Venezuela can be bright we do not really need a time machine, like the character in Ray Bradbury's story. All we need is to look back to our better years of democracy, the years of Medina, of Gallegos, of Betancourt, of Leoni and of the first Caldera, refine the good experiences we had then, exercise more social solidarity, educate our people to empower them to create wealth and elect capable political leaders, not leaders who pretend to know all, but leaders who surround themselves with the best and the brightest ... not leaders who sow hate but leaders who inspire people to realize their potential ... not a leadership based on terror, but a leadership based on example.

I feel very nostalgic about that Venezuela ... about the Venezuela we once had and of the Venezuela we could have again ... their positive aspects reinforced, their negative aspects minimized ... all in an environment of decency, respect and dignity.

A Venezuela where physical and spiritual garbage do not exist.

A Venezuela we can feel justifiably proud of.....

Some claim that the future is no longer what it used to be...

I am sure that it can be, if we apply our best efforts as a society to make it happen.

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

<a href=www.vheadline.com>venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Wednesday, May 21, 2003 By: Jose Gregorio Pineda & Jose Gabriel Angarita

VenAmCham's Jose Gregorio Pineda (chief economist) and Jose Gabriel Angarita (economist) write: The price controls imposed on our economy comprise a mechanism by which the government regulates the prices at which a set of goods and services can be sold. In other words, the government sets mandatory prices for the sale of certain goods or services to the consumers.

One of the arguments for price controls is that the State will not allow corporations (large monopolies or oligopolies) to set the prices of goods and services at their discretion, and that on the contrary, it is the State which should administer and regulate those prices t prevent the corporations from speculating. However, apart from the "good intentions" policy makers may have, there is an enormous difference between the desired effects, in terms of benefits for the general population, and the effects actually provoked by controls. And it is also necessary to consider that there is a regulatory agency (Procompetencia) which ought to be the party responsible for keeping companies from engaging in monopolistic and oligopolistic practices; price controls can only achieve the same goal in a highly inefficient way.

Under the current circumstances in the Venezuelan economy, price regulation is not yielding the results anticipated by the authorities. Proof of that is the fact that the Central Bank's inflation statistics show a 1.7% increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for April, chiefly reflecting increases for products subject to control.

Venezuelans still remember what happened in 1996 when inflation surged to 103.2% after the price control system was dismantled. Estimates for this year point to an inflation rate on the order of 50%, and it is important to recall that production costs have been rising for a number of reasons, and once the price controls are lifted, businessmen will seek to pass those cost increases along to the prices of their final goods. An indication that this is already happening is the disproportionate growth of the producer price index, which will sooner or later have to be reflected in consumer price increases as well.