Wed June 4, 2003 10:36 PM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela (<a href=reuters.com>Reuters) - At least three people were killed and around 40 were missing, feared dead, after landslides triggered by heavy rain buried homes in Venezuela's Andean region, officials said on Wednesday.

Survivors said entire families were missing after torrents of mud and boulders smashed into houses, overturned vehicles and blocked roads on Tuesday in the mountainous western Andean state of Merida.

The neighboring state of Barinas was also hit by flooding and landslides.

Civil defense officials said only three bodies had been recovered so far, including two children, but some 40 people were listed as missing. "Tragically, we must presume they are dead," Merida state governor Florencio Porras told Globovision television.

However, officials from Venezuela's Civil Protection Service said they would only list the missing as casualties if their bodies were found.

In the village of Pueblo Llano, several homes were destroyed and six people were missing. "A torrent of water swept away several houses. They haven't found the bodies. They were carried away by the water," Maria Yaura Santiago, a doctor at the local hospital, told Reuters by telephone.

Several houses in another hamlet, La Primavera, were also destroyed by the slides along the rain-swelled Santo Domingo river that broke its banks in several places. Rescue workers used bulldozers to try to move the rubble and recover bodies.

Porras declared a state of emergency in the area and appealed for drinking water, food and mattresses to help several hundred people evacuated or made homeless. Troops were also brought in to help with the rescue operations.

The landslides destroyed a bridge, brought down power and telephone lines and cut several roads, including the main trans-Andean highway between Merida and Barinas.

In December 1999 at least 10,000 people were killed in massive mudslides triggered by torrential rain that swept through coastal towns and villages in the central Venezuelan states of Vargas and Miranda.

05 Jun 2003 00:25:09 GMT

CARACAS, Venezuela, June 4 (Reuters) - Supporters and foes of President Hugo Chavez traded insults and shoved each other in Venezuela's National Assembly on Wednesday in a noisy brawl over what opposition deputies said were government plans to force through legislation without debate.

The violent scuffles broke out when opposition deputies prevented leading pro-government members of parliament from taking their seats in the National Assembly, where Chavez supporters hold a slim majority.

The incident reflected simmering political tensions in the world's No. 5 oil exporter a week after Chavez's government and its opponents signed a peace agreement recommending that a referendum on the president's rule after Aug. 14.

Shouting "clowns" and throwing papers into the air, anti-Chavez deputies demonstrated their objections to the government's plans reform assembly procedures by eliminating quorum requirements in committees and other debating rules.

National guards in riot gear stood by as a small crowd of militant Chavez supporters gathered outside the National Assembly, shouting pro-government slogans and insults against the opposition. Opposition deputies complained they were being intimidated and said they were afraid to leave the building.

National Assembly president Francisco Ameliach suspended the day's session and called a new extraordinary session for Friday to discuss the proposed reforms. He announced as the venue a nearby monument, El Calvario, which is in a fiercely pro-Chavez district close to the presidential palace.

Opponents of the populist president, who was elected in 1998 six years after failing to seize power in a botched coup, accuse him of ruling like a dictator.

They are contesting a number of government-sponsored draft laws, including one regulating the content of television and radio broadcasting which the opposition says is an attempt to censure the press and muzzle criticism.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Wednesday, June 04, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Family members of victims of police murder squads in Anzoategui State have gone to Caracas to highlight their situation and lodge a formal complaint at the Attorney General's Office about constant police harassment and threats. 

Anzoategui State Human Rights Foundation president, Alcides Magallanes claims there have been 300 extra-judicial killings attributed to police murder squads since 2000 ... "the killer police officers are under the wing of State Governor David da Lima and started functioning after a police officer was wounded ... since then it has been eye for eye." 

Foundation coordinator Veronica Avila says the State Police (Polianzoategui) is responsible for 70% of the murders and the rest are attributed to municipal police forces, Police Detective Branch (CICPC) and the National Guard (GN). 

Showing a bizarre side of the murder gangs, the Foundation's leaders say the squads have not been targeting them but rather their families with threats. 

The commission protesting in Caracas claims that Anzoategui has suffered more homicides at the hands of the police than Portuguesa State, which has at least two known police murder gangs ... in the latter state there have been alleged 279 extra-judicial killings since 1999.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic news Posted: Wednesday, June 04, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

In a frank statement of views, US Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) John Maisto says democracy and the free market have not really improved standards of living in Latin America. 

Speaking at a US Senate hearing to endorse his appointment as Ambassador, Maisto says Chile has taken a wise decision to make governance the main theme of next Sunday's OAS general assembly in Santiago. 

• "The failure of democracy and to erase poverty has created serious problems of governance." 

The former Ambassador to Venezuela says he will insist at the OAS on implementation of the Inter American Democratic Charter and a more prominent OAS role in seeking change in Cuba. 

As US representative, Maisto told the Senate committee that he will propose an important role for the OAS in pushing for change that allows greater social mobility and strengthening of security on the continent

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Wednesday, June 04, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Venezuelan human rights group Red de Apoyo por la Justicia y la Paz has asked the National Assembly (AN)  to pass a law preventing and penalizing torture in Venezuela. Congregating in front of the AN, the Red de Apoyo lobbied passers by and passed out fliers to illustrate their conviction ... a striking display of bannered colors and photographs showed victims of torture and extra-judicial killings.

Red spokesperson, Laura Roldan says the organization has received 121 complaints (16 in 2003) from people allegedly tortured and insists that the Assembly grant the police, tribunals and Attorney General's Office more resources to fight torture perpetrated by police and military officers. "Legally torture isn't typified and there are no legal or disciplinary penalties either ... the public organs must have the resources to combat impunity."

The human rights group has been working on a draft law that stresses prevention and punishment for perpetrators, as well as establishing State responsibility when it comes to helping victims. 

The Police Detective Branch (CICPC), Roldan points out, does not come out in shining colors as regards the practice of torture ... "our research on the CICPC has surprised us because that particular police force is investigative by nature ... it is supposed that CICPC officers have been trained to legally elicit information. 

"The Red de Apoyo has received reports of illegal arrests, physical and psychological mistreatment and even extra-judicial killings on the part of the Metropolitan Police (PM) and Sucre Municipal Police.