Sun June 8, 2003 11:47 AM ET By Richard Mably and Jonathan Leff

DOHA, Qatar (<a href=reuters.com>Reuters) - OPEC this week is set to pressure independent exporters to back the cartel's next supply cut to prevent the resumption of Iraqi exports undercutting oil prices. OPEC President Abdullah al-Attiyah made clear Sunday that major non-aligned producers Mexico, Russia and Norway would be called on to help the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries defend its $25 a barrel price target.

"Yes. We require their support ... I feel we have their support," Attiyah, also oil minister of Qatar, told reporters in Doha ahead of Wednesday's meeting.

With oil prices at the top end of the group's $22-$28 preferred price range, ministers have said there is no need for any immediate cut from its 25.4 million barrel a day output limit.

But the cartel is preparing the ground should it need to reduce supply later this year by making sure non-OPEC countries are aware it requires their cooperation.

OPEC powers Saudi Arabia and Venezuela met with Mexico in Madrid Friday to discuss the reemergence of Iraq on the world market and Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez travels to Norway Monday.

Recovering from the U.S.-led war, Baghdad is preparing to resume international sales in about a week's time, but shipments are expected to stay well below pre-war levels for several months.

With U.S. crude now over $30 a barrel, alarm bells are ringing in Washington as summer gasoline demand puts upward pressure on import prices.

"We won't just cut for the sake of cutting," Attiyah said.

"I don't want to see my consumers angry, I believe the customer is always right but we have to be careful about the balance between demand and supply."

OPEC has not needed to reduce production limits since late 2001, when it slashed supplies on condition that independent producers contribute. They resisted until prices slumped and then fell into line.

Russia, Mexico, Syria, Oman, Egypt and Angola among non-OPEC will be represented officially in Doha, for the first time at an extraordinary OPEC meeting.

The main subject of oil market debate, Iraq, will not send a delegation, an issue which has rankled Iraqi officials.

Attiyah acknowledged there had been no contact between OPEC headquarters and Baghdad since the U.S. occupation, but urged Iraq to get in touch.

"I did not receive any request from Iraq, but personally I'd be happy to talk to them," he said, adding he hoped Baghdad would make OPEC's next scheduled meeting in September.

Sun June 8, 2003 10:38 AM ET By Jonathan Wright

WASHINGTON (<a href=reuters.com>Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell left for Chile on Sunday to meet his Latin American colleagues as a group for the first time since disagreements over the U.S. invasion of Iraq early this year.

Most Latin American countries, mindful of U.S. intervention in their region, opposed the invasion, but welcome the attention implied by Powell's attendance at the annual assembly of the Organization of American States in Santiago.

Powell will also travel to neighboring Argentina on Tuesday to meet newly elected President Nestor Kirchner, symbolically endorsing his campaign to rid the country of cronyism and corruption after economic and political turmoil.

The Bush administration came to office with promises to pay more attention to its southern neighbors, but Latin Americans, especially Mexicans, feel they have slipped down its list of priorities because of Washington's focus on Iraq, Afghanistan and President Bush's "global war on terrorism."

The two Latin American U.N. Security Council members, Chile and Mexico, which did not support the U.S. quest for an explicit endorsement of its Iraq invasion, have important economic reasons for avoiding confrontation with the world's most powerful nation.

A senior State Department official said last week that the United States and opponents of the Iraq war had agreed to disagree.

"We are not dwelling on that (Iraq). We have a very full, constructive agenda on other issues," he said.

"You are seeing an intensified focus by the United States on the region and I think that will be a welcome development for most of our friends in the Americas," added the official, who asked not to be named.

CUBA OFF AGENDA

The annual assembly brings together the foreign ministers or other representatives of 34 countries in the Americas, and the theme this year is good governance in the region.

The OAS has kept off the agenda the question of human rights in Cuba, which has cracked down on dissidents this year, because many members say Cuba cannot defend itself at the OAS. Cuba has been excluded from OAS deliberations since 1962.

The senior U.S. official said the United States expected the meeting to release a declaration reaffirming member states' commitment to good governance, including increased efficiency, probity and transparency in public administration.

"We'll call for the elimination of social exclusion and the promotion of sound public policies that promote equal opportunity, education, health, full employment and the eradication of poverty and malnutrition," he added.

The meeting will also keep up diplomatic pressure on Haiti's government to move toward democratic elections.

Venezuela, one of the Latin American countries least favorable to the Bush administration, plans to circulate a document condemning the "powerful multinational oligarchies" it says dominate the Venezuelan media.

Many dominant media organizations in Venezuela were sympathetic to the unsuccessful campaign early this year to remove populist President Hugo Chavez from office.

But the U.S. official said he doubted Venezuela could muster much support.

"By and large, I think most people recognize that an unfettered press is absolutely essential to a democratic system," he said.

On Monday afternoon, the ministers will prepare for a special interim Summit of the Americas expected in Mexico late this year, between the Quebec summit of 2001 and the next regular summit in Argentina in 2005.

GREGORY WILPERT

What has lain behind the massive social conflicts that have unfurled round the Chávez regime? The spurious and real reasons for the rampage of Venezuelan managers, media and middle class against the country’s elected President. Oil, land and urban rights as the stakes in a social war of colour and class.

Few contemporary political upheavals have been as dramatic as the events that have convulsed Venezuela in the past five years. In 1998, former paratroop colonel Hugo Chávez was elected President by a landslide majority, on a platform calling for a fundamental reconstruction of the whole political framework of the country. Within two years, he successfully pushed through an ambitious new Constitution, and was reelected President for six more years, equipped with an even larger majority—some 60 per cent of the vote—and a Congress dominated by his supporters. By the autumn of 2000, the country seemed to be at his feet. [1] Eighteen months later, he faced a general strike and massive street demonstrations against his rule, swiftly followed by a military coup that deposed and imprisoned him. Despite being restored to power by popular counter-demonstrations and a revolt against his ouster originating within the armed forces themselves, Chávez was under siege again in less than a year.

This time he confronted the largest and longest employer/trade-union confederation strike in Latin American history, mobilizing virtually the entire mass media and a galvanized middle class that proved capable of remarkable—even sacrificial—levels of militant collective action, backed by a wide spectrum of senior commanders. Lasting from 2 December 2002 to 2 February 2003, this vast battering-ram paralysed Venezuela’s oil industry, its key economic sector, for seven weeks, leading to widespread expectations of the final demise of Chávez’s meteoric Presidency. But once again his popular and military support held firm, and after inflicting savage blows to the state’s finances, the strike collapsed. The opposition fronde has by no means given up its aim of driving Chávez from office, but for the moment he sits more securely in the Miraflores Palace than for many months.

Read the complete article. New Left Review 21, May-June 2003

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, June 08, 2003 By: James Feltus

Date: Sat, 7 Jun 2003 00:15:37 -0400 From: James Feltus jfeltus@seneca24.net To: Editor@vheadline.com Subject: Venezuela should adopt War on Drugs

Dear Editor: It is unbelievable what I just read from Luis Zuleta.  He claims that the only way an American can lose the right to vote is to become a citizen of another country

Under New York State law, one permanently loses the right to vote if convicted of possession (not selling or growing) 8 ounces or more of cannabis (less than 1/4 kilo), and this is counting leaves and stems. One also permanently loses the right to possess a firearm, thus, essentially, losing the right to self defense.

Some "rights."  Some "free country."

The US now has more drug prisoners than it had total prisoners in 1970. The total prison population has quadrupled in 20 years. The US has 5% of the world's population and 25% of its prisoners.

If Venezuela wants to see government power expand to unprecedented levels, all she has to do is adopt Amerika's "war on drugs."

James Feltus jfeltus@seneca24.net

Cuando era niño, el grueso del destierro cubano en Caracas vivía en la urbanización San Bernardino -- un sector que le hacía recordar a nuestros padres “el barrio” habanero de El Vedado -- donde apenas unos años atrás, entonces, vivieron algunos de los miembros más destacados del régimen perezjimenista.

Frente a la hoy desaparecida “Plaza La Estrella” (de San Bernardino) había un edificio donde vivía Jesús “Chucho” Vital, un cienfueguero – recientemente fallecido en Miami – a quien el exilio cubano caraqueño le llamaba cariñosamente con el mote de “Coramina”, o más familiarmente: “Cora”.

En el apartamento del “Cora” nos reuníamos todos los sábados a degustar un arroz-con-pollo “a la chorrera” que se cocinaba cortesía del aporte económico de paisanos como Manolo Gómez, José Pérez “Chacho” Santander, Ivo Suárez, Isidro Castiñeyra, “El Guaca”, mis padres y unos cuantos cubanos más que se fueron perdiendo en la historia de este triste, largo, injusto, inútil y tormentoso destierro.

Jesús Vital se ganó el remoquete de “Coramina” gracias a su entusiasmo y optimismo ante la desgracia que producía en nosotros el haber tenido que dejarlo todo atrás para rehacer nuestras vidas en una tierra ajena, que aunque generosa y noble, no era la nuestra.  Había entonces una droga que lo curaba todo, hasta la depresión más aguda, llamada “Coramina”.  El efecto que “Chucho” Vital producía en los cienfuegueros desterrados era como aquella medicina que servía para todo y en especial, para levantar el ánimo ante el ataque desmesurado de éste o aquel virus.

Era Don Jesús un hombre austero con alma de banquero.  Solía asegurarnos a todos que “los americanos” no eran estúpidos y por ende, nunca dejarían que Castro se afianzara en el poder.  Jamás olvidaré como a mis doce años llegaba al apartamento de la familia Vital con mi tocadiscos portátil de cajón y los discos de la Billo, Los Melódicos y uno muy popular entre nosotros donde se incluían canciones que cantaba Fernando Albuerne, como “Cuando Salí de Cuba”, “Virgencita del Valle de Venezuela” y “El Son se fue de Cuba”.  También recuerdo un disco cargado de puntos guajiros cantados magistralmente por el hoy también fallecido Guillermo Portabales, como “El Carretero”, “Lamento Cubano”, “Al Vaivén de mi Carreta”, “Junto al Palmar del Bajío”, “El Amor de mi Bohío”, “La Sitiera”… y mi favorito: “Entrada al Silencio”, entre muchas otras canciones que nos transportaban al Cienfuegos que habíamos dejado atrás hacía apenas unos meses que parecían siglos.

“¡Ahora sí!”, solía gritar eufóricamente “Coramina” al tiempo que nos abría la puerta de su pequeño apartamento.  Si Cuba sufría un huracán, eso era para “El Cora” un signo inconfundible que a Castro le quedaba horas de vida… tal vez días.  A cada fracaso de la “contra-revolución” (que fueron muchos), “Coramina” le encontraba un “lado positivo”.  Era en su casa donde oíamos “La Voz de las Américas”, que se transmitía en onda corta y en español desde Washington y fue en su casa donde nos instalamos todos en los últimos días del mes de octubre de 1962, seguros de que el “¡Ahora sí!” de “Chucho” Vital se haría realidad en medio de la peor crisis que la humanidad había conocido, la cual pasó a la historia con el nombre de “La Crisis de Octubre” o “La Crisis de los Misiles”, que colocó al mundo al borde de un inimaginable desastre nuclear gracias a los misiles atómicos que Castro instaló en Cuba con la ayuda de los soviéticos, con los cuales pudo haber desaparecido del mapa a todas y cada una de las ciudades norteamericanas con la excepción de Seattle, en el extremo noroeste de EE.UU., la cual se escapaba del alcance misilístico castro-soviético.

Terminaré esta historia que podría ser extremadamente larga resumiendo en espacio y en dolor. 

En 1979 llegó al poder Luis Herrera Campins, un socialcristiano miembro del partido COPEI.  Entre sus filas se encontraba un dirigente albino que llevaba el nombre de Abdón Vivas Terán quien hablaba de una “cosa” llamada la “Propiedad Comunitaria”.   Al día siguiente del triunfo de Herrera Campins, nuestro amigo Jesús “Coramina” Vital -- junto a un grueso número de cubanos exiliados en Venezuela -- decidió abandonar abruptamente el país rumbo a los Estados Unidos de Norte América.  Jamás regresó ni de visita.  Le cogió miedo – al igual que muchos de nuestros compatriotas -- a la famosa “Propiedad Comunitaria” y al “socialcristianismo”.   “¡Perro macho lo capan una vez!”, dijo finalmente “Chucho” antes de montarse en el avión que desde Maiquetía lo llevó para siempre a Miami.  Había aguantado en Venezuela 18 años de estéril optimismo.

Hoy, 42 años después de haber salido de Cuba, mi familia y yo nos encontramos todavía en Venezuela.  No nos queremos ir.  Mi padre ya se compró el hueco donde quieren que lo entierren, con la única condición que parte de sus restos – no todo – sea trasladado a la Perla del Sur, su Cienfuegos querido, cuando Cuba sea libre.  “Coramina” ya no existe más que en nuestros recuerdos, corazones… y en crónicas como ésta que hoy les regalo a mis lectores a modo de “alerta”. 

Mientras en Venezuela los nuevos “coraminas” intentan impresionar a la “Comunidad Internacional” para que tumben – o nos ayuden a tumbar – al régimen CASTRO-COMUNISTA de Chávez y Castro en Venezuela, tal y como “los americanos” nos iban a ayudar a nosotros los cubanos a tumbar a Fidel en Cuba, el monstruo del Caribe defeca sobre la “Comunidad Europea” e insulta a Silvio  Berlusconi y a José María Aznar con apelativos dignos de ser pronunciados por cualquier arrabalero de mierda.   No debemos olvidar que se está dirigiendo a sus “socios del alma”, a aquellos individuos que representan el grueso de las inversiones que en Cuba mantiene viva -- junto al petróleo venezolano que le regala el Sr. Chávez -- la revolución que comenzó verde como nuestras palmas y terminó teñida de un rojo intenso como la sangre de las decenas de miles de cubanos dignos, valientes, mártires, cristianos y patriotas que murieron en los paredones del sátrapa más grande que ha parido la historia de nuestros infaustos pueblos.

Lo único que falta hoy es que aparezca por ahí un nuevo “Coramina” cubano y ante el inminente desastre que supone la pérdida del ignominioso y bochornoso apoyo que en detrimento de todo un pueblo que sufre le viene brindado a Castro la “Comunidad Europea” nos grite, con el cuerpo encorvado, una pierna en el aire y los dos puños fuertemente cerrados: “¡Ahora sí!”

Caracas, 16 de junio de 2003

ROBERT ALONSO

Envíen sus comentarios – UNICAMENTE – a robertalonso2003@cantv.net pues los otros buzones colapsan con la cantidad de correo que reciben.  --

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