<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Friday, June 06, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

The Venezuela National Statistics Office (INE)  reports that the number of tourists has dropped 60.7% in Q1 2003 compared to the same period in 2002. 

As result of the drop the entry of foreign currency from the tourist trade dipped 66.9%. The INE report says the average of days stayed in Q1 was cut almost 14% while the average night stayed went down 2% which boils down to a 15.6% drop in an average cost of staying. 

In general, the report says accommodation dropped a mighty 69.9% compared to the same period last year. 

• 7 of 10 European tourists dropped off coming to Venezuela more than any other group. 

As for Venezuelans themselves, there was a 35.7% drop in the number of persons traveling abroad causing a 15.8% drop in the exit of foreign currency.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Friday, June 06, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

The battle for the world famous environmental research institution (among other things) La Salle Foundation rages on.  90 year-old Brother Gines' legal adviser, Beatriz Di Totto accuses the religious congregation of falsifying the minutes of a general assembly held on April 30, proclaiming Brother Pereda as the new president. "On April 30 the assembly voted out the proposal ... I was assembly secretary and counted 62 votes against the proposal."

• Brother Gines, who founded the organization and been its president for 50 years, maintains that the appointment of a new president is illegal. 

Speaking on behalf of Brother Gines,  Di Totto says she collected the authentic signatures of those that attended the assembly before going to register the minutes but was surprised to discover that somebody had already introduced a similar minute report at the Registry Office  containing falsifications." 

On learning about the allegedly "falsified" acts, Brother Gines has reacted lodging a formal complaint at the Attorney General's Office and has called an extraordinary assembly for June 11 to resolve the crisis.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Friday, June 06, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Metropolitan Police (PM) director, Lazaro Forero says 109 firearms were seized in different operations throughout the metropolitan area during May ... "we have recovered an average 3 guns a day ... 90% of crimes in Caracas are carried out at gunpoint." 

Forero highlights  the fact that 67 cars were reported stolen during May, 4,000 packets of drugs were seized and 257 persons arrested in connection with different kinds of crime. 

The MP director says he has been surprised to discover that the majority of criminals with a long rap have gun permits from the Armed Force (FAN) Armament Office (Darfa), even though Forero complains that Darfa retains weapons taken off the PM during last year's stand-off with the government. 

The PM, Forero states, cannot penetrate red alert zones of Caracas because it lacks the necessary automatic weapons that criminal elements possess. "Our uniformed officers have.38s ... we haven't been in some barrio for 5 months ever since our weapons were taken off us."

Defense Minister Jose Luis Prieto continues to defend his position that police weapons are Armed Force (FAN) responsibility ... the government claims that the PM used their heavy weapons during the events of April 11-14 to repress government supporters.

Posted on Fri, Jun. 06, 2003 ALEXANDRA OLSON Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela - Meeting in a downtown park to avoid their rivals, lawmakers loyal to President Hugo Chavez adopted parliamentary procedures that allow them to swiftly pass several new laws, including one that would tighten restrictions on the media.

The lawmakers, gathering in tents in a poor neighborhood of hard-core Chavez supporters, adopted new debate rules intended to make it more difficult to block legislation supported by the president. Opposition members of Congress said they did not recognize the legitimacy of the vote.

The president's supporters hold a slim majority in the 165-seat Congress, but they wanted to cut the opposition out of the debate by meeting in a hostile neighborhood - a sign of the political bitterness in a country that is a major oil exporter to the United States.

"They are trying to create an assembly completely subservient to the interests of the government," said opposition lawmaker Julio Borges of the Justice First party.

Opposition lawmakers boycotted the session in the park, calling it illegal and a Chavez-sponsored attempt to undercut the Congress. They tried to convene a separate session at the legislative palace, but the president's supporters ordered the doors locked.

The bickering threatened to further delay Congress' attempt to choose election officials to run an internationally backed referendum on Chavez's presidency planned for later this year.

National Assembly President Francisco Ameliach defended the meeting in the park, calling it "completely justified."

Ameliach convened the session after ruling party and opposition lawmakers ended up in a brief shoving match at the legislative palace on Wednesday.

The new parliamentary procedure would make it easier to move legislation through a key 21-member committee in Congress that is dominated by the opposition. Chavez supporters claim that the opposition has used this committe to block legislation.

The opposition plans to ask the Supreme Court to invalidate Friday's session in the park and intends to ignore the new parliamentary procedure in the meantime.

The new media law would ban "rude" or "vulgar" language, prohibit depiction of sex or alcohol or drug use, and ban violence during daytime.

It would also require that 60 percent of programming be produced within Venezuela, half of which would have to be created by "independent producers" approved by the government.

Broadcasters, who tend to oppose the president, say the law will give too much influence to censors hand-picked by Chavez to crack down on the mostly opposition news media.

06 Jun 2003 19:16:26 GMT By Pascal Fletcher

CARACAS, Venezuela, June 6 (Reuters-AlertNet) - Venezuelan National Assembly deputies supporting President Hugo Chavez held a parliament session in a Caracas park Friday, approving reforms the absent opposition condemned as an illegal attempt to avoid democratic debate.

Opposition deputies boycotted the bizarre outdoor session by the pro-Chavez majority and accused the government side of trying to force through laws the opposition fears will restrict democracy in Venezuela.

The 93 pro-government deputies said they were forced to hold the one-sided session outside the National Assembly to overcome what they called an opposition block on legislation in a key parliament drafting committee.

"What we are doing is freeing up laws that had been kidnapped (by the opposition)," Deputy Nicolas Maduro told Reuters.

Protected by police and troops and cheered on by sympathizers, the pro-government members of parliament met in a large tent in El Calvario, a crime-ridden city park located in fiercely pro-Chavez west Caracas.

Opposition deputies, who gathered in the National Assembly building a few blocks away, dismissed the unilateral session as illegal and said they would appeal to the Supreme Court.

The split in the 165-member National Assembly, which followed a brawl between rival deputies on Wednesday, showed that a peace accord signed last week by the government and its foes had done little to defuse their long-running political feud.

The pro-government deputies passed reforms of parliamentary procedure they said would speed up the passage of legislation consolidating Chavez's self-styled left-wing "revolution" in the world's No. 5 oil exporter.

"They (the government) have kidnapped the parliament. ... They want to have a parliament that submits to the whims of President Hugo Chavez," Carlos Tablante of the small opposition MAS party told reporters.

Chavez, who survived a coup last year followed by a grueling opposition strike in December and January, accused the opposition of disrupting the National Assembly.

"They don't want to work. They just want to sabotage things," he said in a speech in eastern Venezuela.

The legislation held up by the opposition included government draft laws to counter terrorism and regulate the content of television and radio broadcasting.

Opposition leaders, who charge Chavez is ruling like a dictator and trying to install Cuban-style communism, say these bills contain clauses that seek to muzzle criticism of the government and restrict the right to stage public protests.

Last week's government-opposition agreement, which was brokered by international mediators, recommends the holding of a constitutional referendum on Chavez's rule after Aug. 19, halfway though his current term.

But it sets no precise date and the opposition says it fears Chavez will try to avoid the vote by any means.