<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Thursday, June 05, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

According to Zulia State Movimiento Quinta Republica (MVR)  deputy Rodrigo Cabezas,  more than 300 signatures have been collected demanding a recall referendum against State Governor Manuel Rosales. 

Speaking to Venpres government news agency, the deputy has announced that once the new National Electoral College (CNE) has been appointed, then the signatures will be presented. "The signatures are correct, no tricks,  no cloning with bank agencies or any other institution's databases." 

Cabezas insists that Zulia State Bolivarian forces will accept the verdict of the CNE and if necessary, will take to the streets again to secure signatures. 

MVR suggests that recall referendums against State Governors and Mayors should come before a recall referendum against the President. "We needed 270,000 signatures against Rosales and we got 300,000 ... I am certain the people of Zulia don't want these guys with Accion Democratica (AD) culture to rule them."

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Thursday, June 05, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias has announced the birth of his National Front (FN) aimed at " agglutinating political parties, civil sector and other groups supporting the government and its Bolivarian Movement." 

Speaking at a rally in Guarico State, the President says the new organization is important because it embodies  a sense of unity and ties together groups supporting the process in a single purpose. 

The first aim of the organization, the President says,  will be to reach the highways and byways of Venezuela to impart a message of union and consolidation of the Revolution, which is on the road to victory." 

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias

Chavez Frias reminded his followers that the events of last year and earlier this year placed serious obstacles in the path of the Revolution.  

Since the failure of the national stoppage, President Chavez Frias has made it his business to be seen and heard in the provinces as part of his campaign to defeat any recall referendum against him and the visit to Guarico is typical of what is seen as preparations to offset opposition influence in the provinces.

The President also announced that Venezuela will soon be producing "naval aluminum" to build ships for export. The project is a joint Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and  Venezuelan Guayana Corporation (CVG) venture. "Venezuela used to import aluminium for ships, but now we are going to build ships here." 

The government will also import several thousand heads of  cattle from Brazil to boost agricultural development and cut the dependence of food imports.

Thursday, June 5, 2003 01:52 PM ET     CARACAS -(<a href=www.quicken.com>Dow Jones)- Oil ministers of Venezuela, Mexico and Saudi Arabia will gather next Monday in Madrid to discuss current world oil markets and cooperation of non-OPEC oil producing nations, the state-run news agency Venpres said Thursday.

Venezuela's Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez was quoted as saying he would meet his Saudi Arabian counterpart Ali Naimi and Mexico's Ernesto Martens in the Spanish capital Monday. Ramirez is then also set to meet his Norwegian counterpart, although it isn't clear when and where that meeting would take place.

"This is a very important meeting because it allows us to study the world oil markets and the oil prices," Ramirez was quoted as saying. Ramirez couldn't be reached for additional comment. Oil ministers from the three countries have met on a regular basis during the past few years in an effort to coordinate oil output policy. Mexico, a major non-OPEC member, has been cooperating with OPEC.

The meeting of the three oil ministers comes just before the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, meets in Doha, Qatar, June 11. OPEC has to decide whether to curb production in an effort to anticipate the return of Iraqi oil exports.

OPEC in April decided to hike the ceiling to 25.4 million barrels a day while at the same time, it pledged to remove 2 million b/d from the market.

By Fred Pals, Dow Jones Newswires; 58212-5641339; fred.pals@dowjones.com;

<a href=news.ncmonline.com>El Norte Digest NCM, Compiled and edited by Marcelo Ballve, Jun 05, 2003 Traducción al español

Creating an Al-Jazeera for Latin America?

Al-Jazeera has carved a place for itself in the global media landscape by broadcasting news shaped by the vision of Arabs and Muslims. Why can?t Latin America, endlessly sensationalized by European and U.S. media as a chaotic region of violence and dictators, create a similar broadcast network upholding its unique view of the world?

That was the provocative question posed by media expert Octavio Isaac Rojas Orduña in the Mexican on-line monthly magazine Sala de Prensa. He noted that several countries ? including Mexico, Venezuela and Brazil ? have sophisticated and financially strong media groups that currently are only focused on broadcasting within their borders, but would be capable of collaborating on such a project.

?The initiative of creating a united Latin American television with a global reach should begin with the support of governments and multinational institutions, who should be committed not solely for economic reasons, but for political ones,? he wrote.

He pointed out that a news channel advancing balanced views of Latin American reality and showing how democracy -- despite many remaining obstacles -- has become rooted in the region, would improve stability. He said regional integration efforts, such as the South American trading bloc Mercosur, would be helped along as citizens would become more aware of what was occurring in neighboring countries. Currently, he noted, many Latin Americans receive their news on other countries in the region through U.S. cable news.

New York Reverses ?Sanctuary? Policy for Undocumented

The unexpected news that New York City will drop its longstanding ?sanctuary policy? ? which prohibits local law enforcement from inquiring about immigration status ? is rippling through the city?s Latino media.

New York City Spanish-language daily El Diario/La Prensa reported in its June 3 edition that Mayor Mike Bloomberg, despite his support for a federal immigration amnesty for undocumented immigrants, had not upheld portions of the sanctuary policy created by a mayoral order dating to the 1980s.

Other city employees are still barred from inquiring about immigration status but are not prevented from reporting immigration information to federal authorities, said the paper, which estimated the city?s undocumented at 500,000 people.

Although city council members said they will now make the sanctuary policy a permanent law, immigrant rights groups said the city?s undocumented were now vulnerable to raids and may feel too frightened to report crimes. The Spanish-language daily Hoy had this headline June 4: ?Don?t Leave Home Without Your Papers!?

Several cities, including San Francisco and Houston, also have sanctuary policies that are being challenged through legal actions funded by groups that say the policies violate federal law. In a June 3 newsletter, Washington DC-based Project USA, a group that seeks to restrict immigration, said Bloomberg?s decision was a result of its legal pressure on New York City.

Have Matrícula Consular, Will Travel

A Mexican airline announced it will offer a discount to ticket-buyers who hold a matrícula consular, as the identification card issued by Mexican consulates to its citizens living in the United States is known. The announcement marks the first move by private businesses not only to accept the controversial card, but also to provide incentives to its use.

Mexicana de Aviación in Mexico City, which owns Mexicana Airlines, will offer a 5 percent discount on air travel to customers in the United States, Canada and Mexico who purchase tickets with the card, according to a story by Notimex, the Mexican news agency, published June 2 in the web edition of Mexico City daily El Universal.

?The constant increase in the use of this legal document... and its increasing acceptance in the United States, demonstrates the appreciation and recognition that is enjoyed by the Hispanic community,? the airline was quoted as saying.

Many U.S. municipal and county governments, hospitals and major banks, such as Wells Fargo, already accept matriculas, often used by undocumented immigrants who lack any other identification. Immigrant rights groups and the Mexican government argue the cards protect Mexicans from abuse and allow them to access to services.

Groups that seek to restrict immigration into the United States oppose the acceptance of the cards, arguing that it tends to encourage and legitimize illegal immigration.

U.S. Salvadorans: Not So Distant Anymore

Brother, Welcome Home. That will be the new name for a prominent monument in El Salvador honoring the large proportion of Salvadorans who live abroad, mostly in the United States, reports Departamento 15. The large arch was built on the approach to San Salvador?s international airport.

The old name ? Monument to the Distant Brother (Monumento Al Hermano Lejano) ? was deemed inappropriate by associations of U.S. Salvadorans.

They said they were not distant, since they were in constant contact and that the money ? nearly $2 billion annually ? they sent back home fueled the local economy, Departamento15 said. An estimated 1 million Salvadorans reside in the United States, with concentrations in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Florida and New York. Some 6.4 million live in El Salvador.

Miami Salvadoran Eva María Silver, won a renaming contest launched in mid-2002 by the city of San Salvador and U.S. Salvadoran groups. Silver will receive a $1,000 cash prize and a free roundtrip ticket.

?I thought of the name quickly because that is exactly what my parents said when they received me back home,? the winner was quoted as saying June 1 in Departamento 15, which is a section of the La Prensa daily in El Salvador that focuses on U.S. Salvadoran communities.

June 5 (<a href=quote.bloomberg.com>Bloomberg) -- Brazil's real rose for a third day after yesterday's central bank sale of contracts used to protect investors from a decline in the currency, reducing the demand for dollars.

The real gained 1.4 percent to 2.8745 per dollar in Sao Paulo at 1:51 p.m. New York time from yesterday's three-week closing high. The real has gained 23 percent in 2003, the best performance of the 16 most traded currencies. Mexico's peso rose.

Investors, primarily bank Treasury desks, have more bets the real will fall than it will rise, said Helio Ozaki, a trader with Finambras Corretora de Cambio e Titulos Ltda., a Sao Paulo brokerage that handles more than a quarter of all Brazilian spot- market currency trades. The central bank's sale yesterday of the currency protection made it less likely demand for dollars will rise allowing their bets to pay off.

The central bank slapped a lot of people yesterday,'' Ozaki said. There are about 30,000 more dollar futures contracts out there betting the dollar will strengthen than weaken -- yesterday's sale has pulled the rug out from them and made anyone else ready to bet against the real think twice.''

Many treasury desks were forced to stop adding to their positions yesterday, said Flavio Farah, head of the Treasury desk at the Sao Paulo unit of Dusseldorf, Germany-based Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale.

Betting against the real right now makes no sense,'' Farah said. It's going to be a while before we figure out just what to do for the medium term.''

Inflows

In the meantime, capital flows to the country continue, boosting demand for the real and helping it rise. More than $8 billion of bonds and loans have been contracted abroad this year, according to the O Globo daily newspaper, helping the real outperform all the world's major currencies.

Yesterday, Banco Votorantim SA, the financial services arm of the Sao Paulo-based Votorantim cement, mining, banking and industrial group sold $180 million of two-year bonds to yield 6.25 percent.

Telesp Celular Participacoes SA, based in Sao Paulo and Brazil's biggest cellular telephone service provider, said it plans to sell $150 million of 18-month bonds. Telesp Celular Par is controlled by Vivo, a joint-venture between Madrid-based Telefonica SA and Lisbon-based Portugal Telecom SGPS SA.

Also boosting investor sentiment, Alain Belda, the chief executive of Pittsburgh-based Alcoa Inc., the world's biggest aluminum maker, said his company plans a new power plant in Brazil and will invest $2.7 billion in Brazil over the next seven to eight years.

Capital flows remain strong and the swap sale makes it easier for the flows to cause the real to rise,'' Ozaki said. There are few forces now preventing the dollar from weakening'' against the real.

Inflation Comments

The real's rise may also have been helped by comments today from central bank President Henrique Meirelles.

The inflation rate for the previous 12 months will fall to 10.8 percent, within the range the government has set as a target for this year, by the end of 2003, he said during a visit to investors in Berlin, according to newswire Agencia Estado.

A stronger real will help reduce inflation by reducing the costs of imports and commodities, which are priced in dollars.

Interest rates also fell on expectation lower inflation may give the government room to cut its benchmark target rate at central bank monetary policy committee meetings June 17 and 18.

The overnight interest-rate futures contract for Jan. 2 settlement, the most-traded interest-rate futures contract on Sao Paulo's BM&F futures and commodities exchange, fell for a fifth day in seven, losing 1 basis point to 23.83 percent. The contract indicates investor expectations for the end of December. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.

Rate Backdrop

In coming days expectation the U.S. will cut interest rates may lift the real further. Much of the rally in Brazilian bond prices in recent months has been fueled by U.S. and European investors seeking higher returns than they can receive at home.

Fitch Ratings' upgrade of the outlook on Brazilian debt to positive from stable may add to the demand for Brazilian investments even as the perception of default risk on $400 billion of government debt falls along with borrowing costs.

Brazilian banks have taken advantage of low U.S. rates -- yields on two-year U.S. Treasury bonds fell to a 53-year low of 1.198 percent this week -- to invest at Brazilian rates. Brazil's benchmark 26.5 percent rate is at a four-year high.

Lower U.S. rates could maintain the difference between U.S. and Brazilian rates that has sparked the bank bond sales even if Brazilian rates were to fall.

Investors are focusing on the possibility of another U.S. interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve as soon as its June 25 meeting, said Daniel Katzive, a currency strategist at UBS Warburg, the biggest trader in the $1.2 trillion-a-day foreign exchange market, in Stamford, Connecticut. ``The currencies that have done best are the ones with the highest yield.''

Brazil's benchmark 8 percent bond maturing in 2014 gained 1.19 cents to 91.50 cents on the dollar, causing the yield to fall to 10.07 percent, according to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. The bond rose to a record high of 91.75 on May 13.

Mexico

The peso rebounded from its biggest plunge since Brazil devalued its currency in January 1999 by gaining for the first day in three.

The peso strengthened 0.2 percent to 10.5516 per dollar from yesterday's 10.5725 per dollar close, when it fell 2.8 percent, the currency's largest one-day decline since Jan. 13, 1999.

Colombia's peso rose from a three-week high, rising 0.2 percent to 2,835.48 per dollar. The Argentinean and Chilean currencies were unchanged. Peru's new sol weakened 0.1 percent to 3.4840 per dollar. Venezuela fixed it bolivar at 1,598 this year.