<a href=>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Friday, May 23, 2003 By: Robert Reynolds

Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 04:50:59 -0400 From: Robert Reynolds mdog218@bellsouth.net To: Editor@VHeadline.com Subject: Carville joins the effort to overthrow President

Dear Editor: Who am I to tell a man how he should earn his money?   Who am I to question whether a man should take blood money that comes from the backers of the anti-Chavez movement: the CIA, the US Republican Party, and the Venezuelan oligarchs?

Just because a man espouses liberal causes and claims a position as a spokesman for liberal ideals does that mean he should pass up an opportunity to make money?   Politics is politics, and business is business, no?

<a href=www.vheadline.com>So let Carville work for the anti-democratic forces in Venezuela. Let him help overthrow the elected government.  Let him get in bed with the Republican Party and the CIA.  Let him enjoy his blood money.

But never again will I listen to a word he says or read a word he writes.

By taking this position he is selling his name in addition to his skills. They could have hired his wife Mary Maitland, but they wanted his name to legitimize their anti-democratic efforts. Politics makes strange bedfellows indeed!

This is just more proof that the Democratic Party needs to purge itself of the DLC opportunists and get back to supporting only real Democrats.

Robert E. Reynolds mdog218@bellsouth.net Orange Park, Fl

23 May – <a href=www.un.org>The United Nations refugee agency expressed grave concern today over the impact of Colombia’s civil conflict on the country’s indigenous peoples, including forced displacement and reports of rape, and called upon all armed groups to respect the rights of the civilian population and guarantee the safety of humanitarian workers.

“The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is extremely concerned” about the situation, the agency’s spokesman, Kris Janowski, told reporters in Geneva.

Last week, hundreds of Guahibo-Sikuani indigenous people were forced to flee their homes as a result of heavy fighting between left-wing guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries in the municipality of Tame, in the northeastern province (department) of Arauca, close to the Colombian border with Venezuela.

According to reports by municipal authorities, members of irregular armed groups have raped several indigenous women and girls, Mr. Janowski said.

Another group at risk of displacement are the Kuna, also known as Tule, in northwest Colombia, close to the border with Panama, he added. This community of some 400 members is considering leaving its ancestral lands and crossing the border into Panama to escape threats and intimidation by Colombian irregular armed groups.

UNHCR has been coordinating with the government’s Ombudsman's Office, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia and non-governmental organizations in order to monitor the situation in Tame. UNHCR is also liasing with the government agency dealing with internal displacement so that emergency assistance can be brought to the affected communities.

Fri May 23, 2003 09:36 AM ET By Tomas Sarmiento

CARACAS, Venezuela (<a href=asia.reuters.com>Reuters) - When Venezuela's Catholic patroness the Virgin of Coromoto was paraded through Caracas this month, her statue was borne not on the shoulders of the faithful but in a bullet-proof vehicle.

In a nation where polarized politics have led to violence in the last 18 months, authorities laid on extra security for the annual event. Despite their fears, the procession proved to be one of the rare times when feuding followers and foes of President Hugo Chavez have been able to congregate peacefully.

Forgetting their political differences, hundreds of Catholics took to the streets of Caracas to follow the life-sized wooden statue image in a two-week procession through the capital organized by the church.

According to legend, the Coromoto Virgin takes her name from a Venezuelan Indian tribal chief in the 17th century who saw an apparition of the Virgin Mary in the central town of Guanare. The apparition prompted mass conversions to the Catholic faith among Indians during Spanish colonial rule.

Today, the statue is the most revered Catholic icon in this country of 24 million, about 90 percent of whom are Roman Catholic. She is also a national symbol.

The procession crossed the city's sprawling poor neighborhoods -- a stronghold of support for populist former paratrooper Chavez -- and wealthier eastern districts where the opposition holds sway.

In both areas, the prayers of the faithful were mostly calls for peace and reconciliation.

"(The Virgin) Mary is the only hope all of us have for peace," an elderly priest, Father Alfredo Leon, said as he limped behind the Coromoto Virgin statue, which was blessed by Pope John Paul II in a visit to Venezuela in 1996.

The worshipers who joined the procession carried banners bearing the virgin's portrait and pleas such as "Pray for us!" and "Mary, help us!" -- a far cry from the hate-filled slogans that have galvanized pro- and anti-Chavez political rallies.

TROOPS GUARD VIRGIN

The calls for divine help for Venezuela seem justified. The world's fifth-largest oil exporter is mired in a deep recession, while unemployment and inflation are climbing.

Political violence, including a coup against Chavez last year, has killed several dozen people and injured many more.

Tensions between supporters and opponents of the president are simmering as the opposition seeks a referendum on Chavez' rule that can be held after August. The country emerged in February from a grueling two-month strike staged by the opposition in an attempt to oust Chavez and force elections.

Fear of violence was palpable in the virgin procession. In other countries sacred images are often carried by willing worshipers, but the Venezuelan Church employed a white "Popemobile" used by the pontiff when he last visited.

Encased in bullet-proof glass, the statue of the virgin in red robe and gold crown surrounded by fresh flowers was escorted by National Guard troops with automatic rifles.

But, in spite of the security precautions, an atmosphere of joyful celebration accompanied the procession.

Aboard trucks piled high with loud speakers, priests urged the crowd to cheer the virgin. Leading the procession, a school band -- accompanied by mini-skirted cheerleaders -- played catchy pop tunes.

But in a nation where almost every aspect of life is tainted by politics, even divine favor can be disputed.

Chavez, whose energetic style of oratory has been compared to that of an evangelical preacher, often invokes Jesus Christ as his "commander in chief."

"God is with us!" he assures supporters, arguing his "revolution" for the poor is based on Christ's teaching.

But the leftist leader's foes also openly pray for help.

As the Coromoto Virgin's procession approached Altamira Square, a bastion of opposition support in east Caracas, a small group of women held up a banner that read: "Virgin of Coromoto, give your people freedom."

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic news Posted: Friday, May 23, 2003 By: VHeadline.com Reporters

Wall Street Journal (WSJ) staff reporter Marc Lifsher files from Caracas today that "It's the economia, stupid ... Venezuela's embattled private sector is banking on the colorful US political consultant James Carville to help oust leftist President Hugo Chavez ... the hire may herald an effort by the anti-Chavistas to focus more on the issues than on personality."

Lifsher continues: According to several individuals with knowledge of the matter, a group of business executives contracted with Mr. Carville this year to craft a strategy that will unify a fractious and frustrated Chavez opposition and resonate with voters in a possible recall referendum. The executives are hoping that Mr. Carville -- the folksy, 59-year-old Democratic Party consultant from Louisiana known as the Ragin' Cajun -- will push a variation of his "It's the economy, stupid" theme that helped propel Bill Clinton to victory in 1992.

But analysts say Mr. Carville and his clients face a formidable challenge. Mr. Chavez has strengthened his hand since surviving a military coup in April 2002 and defeating a recent two-month national strike led by oil executives, labor leaders and business organizations.

Despite a deepening economic recession, the business elite here and its middle-class allies are finding it hard to persuade core Chavez supporters in urban slums and the countryside that the President isn't delivering on his populist promises. They have another hurdle to jump in blaming all the country's economic problems on Mr. Chavez after their own ill-starred strike accelerated the economy's slide.

"These business owners are arrogant ... they can bring Carville or anyone else, but they don't stop to understand what everyday life is like for the people," says Patricia Marquez, an anthropologist and academic director of the Institute for Higher Administrative Studies, a graduate school of management here in the capital.

<A href=www.rsf.org>Reportes without Borders, Venezuela 11 April 2003

Reporters Without Borders issues a report on press freedom on the first anniversary of an abortive coup

One year after the coup attempt of 11 April 2002, in which President Hugo Chávez was ousted for 48 hours, Reporters Without Borders is issuing a report on press freedom violations in Venezuela since Chávez took office in February 1999. The report is entitled "Caught between an authoritarian president and intolerant media".

Reporters Without Borders stresses in its conclusions that, "the chief responsibility for the decline in press freedom lies with President Chávez and his government" and it condemns the repeated physical attacks by the president's supporters against journalists with the privately-owned news media.

It also deplores a presidential offensive against the press since January that includes the possible closure of several privately-owned TV stations, the reintroduction of exchange controls that could deprive the print media of newsprint, the use of taxation to put pressure on the media and a proposed law limiting press freedom. The report makes recommendations to the authorities on each of these press freedom violations.

The report also analyses the serious breaches of profession ethics by the privately-owned media, which have for months been locked in a head-on battle with the president. It notes that, "while taking a stand as press freedom defenders as regards the president, the privately-owned media would paradoxically be happy to see the pro-Chávez community media shut down."

A key point made in the report is that, "The situation has become extremely sensitive for press freedom since the privately-owned media openly sided against the government. It was without question their right to do so, but the excesses they have committed in so doing have undermined press freedom."

Reporters Without Borders makes two recommendations to the privately-owned news media in the report : that they should show more respect for professional ethics and that they should unequivocally condemn all physical attacks against journalists " including, obviously, those against journalists who work for news media that support President Chávez."

The report is based on information gathered by Reporters Without Borders over the past four years and during a fact-finding visit to Venezuela from 11 to 18 February. In the course of this visit two of the organisation's representatives met with journalists, editors and lawyers of the privately-owned press, journalists with the state-owned media, journalists with community media, foreign correspondents, the head of CONATEL (the government agency that regulates broadcast licences) and opposition members. Reporters Without Borders regrets that neither President Chávez nor any member of his government responded to its requests for an interview.

Read/download the complete report (.pdf) :

Caught between an authoritarian president and intolerant media Reporters Without Borders Venezuela Report (application/pdf, 232 KB)

• April 2003