<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electonic News Posted: Sunday, May 25, 2003 By: David Cabrera

Date: Sat, 24 May 2003 23:09:51 -0700 (PDT) From: David Cabrera davidckr@yahoo.com To: Editor@vheadline.com Subject: open letter to HRW

Dear Editor: An open letter to Human Rights Watch

I feel I ought to contribute a little to the Human Rights Watch reports on threats to freedom of speech in Venezuela ... which of course have been a routine in our country, not as a consequence of a totalitarian government, but by an opposition that has had the broadest freedoms to criticize and even direct obscenities through any available medium that one can think of in any country in the world.

It is interesting to closely analyze the last paragraph of HRW's last report, where you quote the Executive Director for the Americas Division of HRW, Jose Miguel Vivanco: "it is crucial that his government take steps to end impunity for crimes against journalists and cease its efforts to muzzle private television stations,” referring to Chavez's professed willingness to conciliate with his political adversaries.

However, despite Mr. Vivanco remarks about the constant private media abuse ... such as non-stop months-long anti-government publicity ... he stopped short of denouncing these acts and regarding them as a threat to the freedom of  expression, and often limited himself to cite examples that are condemnatory only of the government. By this, I am not suggesting that HRW should not highlight government's interference with the right to inform but, instead, my expectations are that Mr. Vivanco ... as well as any other assigned correspondent of the HRW organization ... takes matter seriously when the violations come from the wealthy owners of the private media themselves.

For instance, there have been some cases where the El Nacional fired journalists because they failed to follow a preferred editorial line imposed by the bosses. Two of them are Vanessa Davies and Reynaldo Bolivar ... the former now works for the State-owned TV (VTV) and the other does it independently.

With regard to editorial lines, an important fact that has been omitted in your reports was the decision of the former manager of news-daily broadcasts at RCTV station, Andres Izarra, to quit the station on the grounds that information about the days during and after last year's coup was deliberately being censored by the station's top managers.

In my opinion, these abuses should have provoked a condemnatory response from the Human Rights Watch organization, however, they were not mentioned in any of the HRW reports.

Additionally, I believe that your personnel stationed in Venezuela should go deeply into investigating many other violations that have been committed, not solely by Chavez, but by the opposition as well.

One of them would be a case dealing with jailed journalists. Chavez, as the organization has admitted before, has not jailed any journalist or revoked any license so far from any radio or TV station ... in spite of the latter's almost unimaginable virulence against the government. However, a community journalist was harshly beaten and jailed on orders from Carmona's associates following last year's coup. Nicolas Rivera, a staff member at Radio Perola ... an alternative radio station in Caricuao, western-Caracas ... was held in prison with two other individuals without formal charges for almost a year.

Nicolas Rivera's was the only such case regarding jailed journalists during the last four years that I am aware of, yet, it failed to make it into the organization's report highlighting abuses of journalists.

With reference to harassment of journalists, HRW's last report cites an extract from a 26-pages documentary named "Caught in the Crossfire," pointing out that "Freedom of Expression in Venezuela, describes how journalists face physical violence and threats, often by fervent civilian supporters of President Hugo Chavez."

But what about journalists and other pro-government individuals facing "physical violence and threats" by "fervent civilians" who support the opposition?

There are certainly substantial witnessed and documented accounts to corroborate the latter claim. Take for instance the savage beating that a freelance cameraman received from "fervent civilians" of the opposition during an anti-Castro rally close to the Cuban embassy last month ... the attack was totally unprovoked, as was seen on Globovision coverage, and even the supposedly pro-Chavez National Guard at the scene did not do much to stop the "pacific demonstrators" (as the corporate media likes to call anti-chavistas) from continuing beating a lone man with a camera.

And what about the reported sporadic shootings toward the state-owned TV station in Los Ruices? Why hasn't HRW investigated this?

Is anybody in the organization aware that one or more persons could have been injured, and even killed by this form of harassment?

It seems to me that the only cases involving violence that are worth reporting about are the ones when pro-government demonstrators throw stones at the headquarters of an opposition newspaper, whereas the ones regarding "fervent civilians" throwing glass bottles at VTV personnel from outside the station do not awaken concern at all from Jose Vivanco or any HRW representative.

I still believe that the HRW organization has the potential required to present a balanced account of events for the public, especially the international one.

I would also like to make it clear that it is not my intent to oppose any attempt by the organization to expose any governmental action that may threaten the freedom of speech, but instead to motivate an awareness with regard to continuous abuses by the private press, television and radio disguised as "freedom of expression."

I am also familiar with HRW reports on other countries, acknowledging that even its correspondents often take on dangerous tasks in order to reveal torture incidents in Uzbekistan or selective assassinations in Colombia.

I am hopeful that HRW eventually will pursue violations on both conflicting sides ... in this case the Venezuelan government and opposition ... and I am confident that, after you have properly reviewed the records, you will conclude that it is not Chavez who is the sole threat to freedom of expression in my country ... but you will easily realize that it would instead be the opposition that best fitted the protagonist role for your next "Caught in the Crossfire" documentary.

David Cabrera davidckr@yahoo.com Caracas, Venezuela

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, May 25, 2003 By: Chris Herz

Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 23:38:41 -0400 From: Chris Herz  lildemocracy@earthlink.net To: Editor@VHeadline.com Subject: US Hegemonism

Dear Editor: Our US authorities tolerate only one course by any Latin nation -- supine obedience. This is especially so in the case of nations unlucky enough to possess the resources we need. In your case of course it's oil.

Historically, we require several things in this hegemonic system. First, the resources are to be controlled either by corrupt private interests or by corrupt public interests. Note the important factor being corruption. For in no case will US interests pay full market value for the products. We will demand heavy discount for payment with all the dollars we can print.

Thus honest, democratic governance cannot be tolerated ... people may get strange ideas like their country should be fairly compensated for its resources and that the proceeds accrue to the general ... and not private welfare. And, God forbid, independent countries might even decide to take payment in appreciating currencies like the Euro rather than declining dollars.

Thus a country like Venezuela, seeking moderate and reformist measures for its social and economic improvement, is going to be treated with the same inveterate hostility as real enemies of the United States, like, say Cuba ... even a major power, like France will experience severe punishment for disrespecting the empire.

The present US regime, that of Mr. Bush, has faced up to a serious problem created by its predecessors ... that is bankruptcy. The national economy is in severe stress, facing a declining dollar coupled with the threat of deflation. This has reached such proportions that it has become a serious temptation to wholly abandon even the pretense that we are "buying" the resources of other countries. We must now simply take them with the tremendous military built up in decades of cold war.

What happened in Iraq was an hostile takeover: of the Iraqi National Oil Company by Texas, Incorporated.

I believe the proximate cause of this bankruptcy is the failure to get real about alternative energy conservation, fuel cell technology and lots of other prudent measures following the oil embargo of 1973 and the fall of the Shah of Iran in 1979. Of course over-investment in military power and a vain attempt to take over the European imperial position after World War II is the ultimate cause of the problem.

But anyway, you can expect more calls for embargo from more people than Steve Forbes ... you will see more provocations against your government. It would seem now that the countries to our South who do not yet have US troops upon their territory need to consult amongst themselves as to whether they wish to remain independent, and then ... if they so wish ... unite in a true and steadfast Bolivarian manner.

• But either way, the people of this hemisphere are in for a prolonged period of desperate struggle.

I believe that you face a stark choice: Either feed your own people, your own family, or feed our North American profligacy ... live as Cuba, or die as Haiti.

Respectfully, Chris Herz lildemocracy@earthlink.net

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, May 25, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

The Accion Democratica-led "Assault on Catia" has left one person dead and 22 persons injuries. Urban warfare started early on Saturday morning as an armed group set up a barricade of two hijacked municipal buses.

National Guard (GN) soldiers sent to remove the buses after they took potshots from unidentified gunmen ... GN (CORE-5)  Regional Commander General Marcos Rojas says he is certain that the group belonged to opposition Bandera Roja (BR) ... BR leaders have denied the charges.

The AD rally itself only lasted an hour and had to be suspended because of increased street-fighting between opposition and government supporters threatening to spill over on to the site where the rally was being staged ... bottles, stones, shots and insults were exchanged in equal servings. 

Both sides are claiming that  the dead person, Modesto Graterol Bastidas (48), who received a bullet in the mouth and was declared dead on entering Catia Magallanes Hospital dead, is one of theirs. 

The shooting incident leading up to Graterol Bastidas' death took place near 23 de Enero Zone F Apartment Blocks 40. According to Las Ultimas Noticias tabloid,  a group of persons manning a street barricade fired on State Political & Security (DISIP) Police pickets ... the agents allegedly shot back killing Graterol Bastidas. The opposition claims that the dead man was an AD trade unionist motorcyclist and part of a security brigade. 

Movimiento Quinta Republica (MVR)  leader, Omar Mezza counterclaims that the dead man was a party sympathizer and says he has spoken to Libertador Mayor Freddy Bernal to pay for the funeral since Modesto Graterol Bastidas was poor and lived with an aunt who is very old. The MVR leader also slammed mainstream media for claiming the dead man as an AD militant. Mezza claims that 2 MVR militants were wounded in afternoon incidents in 23 de Enero. 

• Citizen Security Minister, Danny Azuaje has issued a statement saying security forces are carrying out an investigation into the identity of the group that allegedly started the rumpus by shooting at GN soldiers. 

AD president, Henry Ramos Allup is reported as saying he's pleased with the results of the rally and claims AD has recovered a foothold in western Caracas ... "the rally was a success and despite the violence, it was a triumph for democracy ... we showed our mettle ... AD provided the people and the grit." 

Boasting, Ramos Allup also stated that he would not rest until he discovered who fired on GN soldiers, hinting that it was the (23 de Enero-based) Tupamaros and other government armed bands. 

Coordinadora Democratica (AD) leader and presidential wannabe,  Enrique Mendoza was more low-key, saying he preferred to wait and see before establishing responsibilities. Ultimas Noticias reports that police presence helped keep down the number of casualties.

List of injured persons  to date: With bullet wounds Henry Mora Valero (38), Leonel Ramirez (20), Luis Viloria (29); GN soldiers Romero Nunez and Frank Lugo and civilians taken to the military hospital ; Catia Magallanes Hospital: Henry Ramirez and Richard Portillo (34); Catia Periferico Hospital: Damaso Silveira (43), Orlando Sanchez (46), Francisco Incerti (39), Pedro Perez (49), Diego Diaz, Orlando Montanes, Jacinto Benitez and Eris Villega (19) ... Alberto Pino with a knife-wound to the chest ... Alberto Gutierrez, Elio Fermin, Jose Calatayu and Jose Perez with concussion and bruises. An unnamed citizen was hit with a powerful firework.

Heedless of Saturday's provocation, AD leaders have confirmed that they will hold a similar rally in Petare during the coming month and it seems that what is left of the Coordinadora Democratica (CD)  is running the gauntlet as well.

What is clear from yesterday's incident is that AD has finally brought out its goon squads in a strange alliance with former Cold War enemies, the former ultra-left guerrilla group Bandera Roja (BR).

Yesterday's incidents quashes opposition media hype that Bolivarian Circles are reponsible for most of the political violence in Venezuela. The new opposition tactic spear-headed by Accion Democratica (AD) and the Christian Socialists (COPEI)  to regain the streets using traditional goon squads is an open invitation to violence and chaos and a prelude to political assassination and other terror tactics.

AD is banking on the theory that what  worked during the Fourth Republic, especially in the trade union movement will work today. Whether it has the same success depends on the reaction and response of the government and organized Chavists grass-root organizations and of course, the rational opposition, which still has something to say in the matter.

Sun May 25, 2003 09:36 AM ET By Pascal Fletcher

MACHIQUES, Venezuela (<a href=asia.reuters.com>Reuters) - In the dawn light, it looked like an official road block.

There were red traffic cones on the road and the armed men guarding it wore camouflage uniforms that seemed similar to those used by Venezuela's National Guard.

But the Venezuelan bank executive making his daily early morning drive to work in western Zulia state had the fright of his life when the four men pointed their automatic rifles at him and ordered him out of the car.

"Their leader said they were guerrillas and that they needed my car to get to Colombia," the executive, who asked not to be named, told Reuters. The gang, who he said spoke Spanish with Colombian accents, threw the traffic cones into the car trunk and sped off toward the Colombian border.

Such hold-ups are common in Venezuela's neighbor Colombia, where a bloody four-decade-old war pits leftist rebels against government troops and right-wing paramilitaries.

But the executive's recent experience took place more than 30 miles inside Venezuela, near Rosario on the main road leading south from Maracaibo, Venezuela's second-biggest city and a major oil producing zone in the world's No. 5 oil exporter.

Ranchers and farmers in the Zulia border region say that Colombian guerrillas and paramilitaries are increasingly encroaching into Venezuelan territory, bringing with them an increase in killings, kidnappings, robberies and extortion.

And they complain that left-wing President Hugo Chavez' government is doing little, if anything, to stop it.

WAR SPILLOVER

The spillover of Colombia's war into Venezuela is a point of friction between the two Andean neighbors. Their 1,400-mile frontier is a rugged patchwork of mountain, jungle, savannah and rich pastureland.

Venezuela and Colombia earlier this year accused each other of not protecting the border. The war of words threatened to damage relations, and Chavez met his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe in April to defuse the crisis.

In a surprisingly cordial encounter, they pledged to work together to try to keep the border secure.

But their smiles did little to dispel the fears of Venezuelan ranchers at Machiques, a prosperous farm town surrounded by lush grazing land near the frontier.

The ranchers say that guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Colombia's biggest rebel group, are roaming freely in the nearby Sierra de Perija mountains which straddle the border.

They said that from this stronghold sprinkled with drug traffickers' poppy fields, the guerrillas are foraying into Venezuela, raiding farms, extorting money and kidnapping landowners.

"The guerrillas are not even hiding any more ... they're setting up road blocks," Fabricio Rincon, president of the Machiques Ranchers' Association, told Reuters.

He said there had been five kidnappings of local farmers in the area so far this year, the most recent in early May.

Colombian officials and army commanders, and Venezuela's fiercely anti-Chavez media, have repeatedly denounced what they say are FARC camps located inside Venezuelan territory.

Chavez, a former paratrooper who was first elected in 1998 and survived a coup last year, rejects these accusations and insists Venezuelan troops will repel any incursions.

BORDER REINFORCED

This month, Chavez ordered two army ranger brigades, more than 4,000 men, to join the 20,000 troops Venezuela says it already has guarding the frontier.

But commanders admit that, apart from the main crossing points, it is almost impossible to police the whole frontier. "It's not a line, a fence you can see...There's dense jungle," Venezuela's Interior Minister Gen. Lucas Rincon told Reuters.

Opponents of Chavez, including landowners he condemns as wealthy "oligarchs," accuse the president and the armed forces of tolerating and even collaborating with the guerrillas, who are termed "terrorists" by the Colombian and U.S. governments.

"Our armed forces don't do any intelligence work or patrolling," said Adonay Martinez, leader of the Maracaibo Lake Ranchers' Association.

Critics point to Chavez' anti-capitalist rhetoric, his self-declared "revolution" in favor of social justice and his close alliance with Cuba's communist President Fidel Castro as evidence that he sympathizes with the Colombian rebel cause.

"We do not support any guerrillas," the populist president said recently, dismissing these criticisms.

The Miami herald Posted on Sun, May. 25, 2003 BY FRANCES ROBLES frobles@herald.com

CUZCO, Peru - Cuban President Fidel Castro will be invited to attend next year's Rio Group summit, Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced Saturday at the end of the pro-democracy group's 17th conference.

''I confess. I see no reason for Cuba to be out of the Rio Group,'' da Silva said. ``Since it was first created in Brazil, I don't know why they have not been invited. We are going to investigate that, and, next time, Cuba will be invited.''

The roots for the organization of Latin American presidents began in 1983, with a handful of nations trying to bring peace to Central America. It was formalized three years ago, and its 17 conferences since then have stressed strengthening democracy.

Cuba has been shunned from the Rio Group for years partly because of its communist government, but more because the group largely focuses on South American integration ssues. In past Rio Group summits, the organization has ''expressed profound concern'' for the situation in Cuba, but never condemned Castro.

The big difference now is that next year, da Silva -- a friend of Castro's -- will be president of the Rio Group and Brazil will host the summit.

The move to invite Cuba is unlikely to make many waves in Latin America, where Castro has friendly relationships with the presidents of not just Brazil but Venezuela, Bolivia and Peru. Cuba already participates in the Ibero-American Summit, and even recently signed a pro-democracy declaration.

''It's not going to be controversial in Latin America; it'll be controversial in Washington,'' said Eduardo Gamarra, director of the Latin America and Caribbean Center at Florida International University. ''Washington is going to be angry at any attempt to incorporate Cuba to anything.'' But Gamarra said inviting Cuba could even open Castro up to scrutiny and put the island on the global map.

Antonio Jorge, an expert on Cuba, said the invitation is significant because the invitation by da Silva -- president of the largest country in Latin America -- comes in the wake of the harshest wave of repression in more than a decade against government opponents on the island. Seventy-five dissidents arrested in mid-March are serving prison sentences of up to 28 years. Cuban authorities also executed three men last month who hijacked a passenger ferry.

Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo closed the two-day conference by emphasizing the ''concrete results,'' including a plan to raise international funding for highways linking South American nations.

''The debate has been frank, intense and rich,'' Toledo said.

Herald staff writer Nancy San Martín contributed to this report.