Posted on Mon, May. 26, 2003 By Kevin G. Hall Knight Ridder Newspapers

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Thousands of Argentine supporters of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro broke through security Monday night, creating pandemonium and forcing authorities to cancel Castro's first speech in Argentina.

The University of Buenos Aires Law School was slated to host Castro's speech in the homeland of fellow revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevarra. Authorities late Monday were trying to arrange for Castro to address the country via a televised broadcast.

Supporters of Castro overran security to overflow an auditorium beyond double its 3,200-seat capacity. People fainted and were trampled in the chaotic confusion. There were no reports of deaths or serious injuries, but authorities decided to evacuate the hall and cancel the speech for security reasons.

Castro is in Argentina to participate the inauguration of President Nester Kirchner, the country's sixth president in 18 months, who was sworn in on Sunday. Kirchner, a center-left politician, has called for greater ties among nations in Latin America, and he has vowed to defend jobs and industry in Argentina, which has suffered through five years of recession. Half of Argentina's 36.2 million population is at or below the poverty line.

Castro twice has visited Argentina since seizing power in Cuba in 1959, but this was to be his first address to the nation and a rare one for the Cuban leader.

Castor has been cheered throughout his visit, including during a meeting Monday with the new president at the Casa Rosada (Pink House), the executive office of the Argentine president. As he left the meeting, he was greeted with shouts of "Viva Fidel!" and "We're with Cuba!"

Castro was a frequent critic of U.S.-backed free market policies that were heartily adopted by Argentina in the 1990s. But with election of a center-left Argentine president emphasizing social justice, Castro felt the time was right to address Argentina.

Average Argentines greeted Castro like a rock star. "Utopia never dies, " said Nora Alvarez, a photographer who arrived to the Plaza de Mayo without her camera to see Castro.

Although the United States has tried to isolate Cuba in Latin America, elections of left-leaning presidents in Brazil, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Argentina have won Castro political support he has not enjoyed for a decade.

Reuters, 05.26.03, 7:01 PM ET

BOGOTA, Colombia, May 26 (Reuters) - Colombia has declared new regions of the country as free of foot-and-mouth, bringing to 52 percent the total of its cattle of 22 million head as free of the disease, the government said on Monday.

The measure, certified by the Paris-based International Epizootic Office, includes 1.5 million cattle in the northern regions of Antioquia, Bolivar, Cesar, Norte de Santander and Santander, the Colombian Agriculture and Livestock Institute said in a news release.

"The certification will allow Colombia to increase its exports of beef products to other markets. The government is expecting visits by technical commissions from Chile and the United States in hopes of extending sales to those countries before the end of the year," it said.

Colombia, which says it has not detected a case of foot-and-mouth disease for the last 10 months, hopes to be totally free of the disease by 2005.

The highly-contagious virus causes sores on cloven-footed animals' feet and mouths, reduces meat and milk production and interferes with reproduction. It does not affect humans but eliminating the disease is a necessary step toward negotiating access to major world beef markets.

Colombia's beef exports in 2002 tumbled to 2,509 tonnes, against 10,101 tonnes in 2001, hurt by sales to neighboring Venezuela, which has been hit by an opposition-led general strike and currency controls.

Copyright 2003, Reuters News Service

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Monday, May 26, 2003 By: Jose Gregorio Pineda & Jose Gabriel Angarita

VenAmCham's Jose Gregorio Pineda (chief economist) and Jose Gabriel Angarita (economist) write: The negotiations for the creation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) are now stuck in a situation of divergent perceptions that may set back the timetable. Colombia and Peru, both member countries of the Andean Community (ACN), have announced their interest is bilateral negotiations with the United States, basing their initiative on Chile's experience.

But it is known that there is a mistaken impression (according to ACN Secretary General Guillermo Fernandez de Soto) that the United States is trying to pursue such bilateral negotiations. On the contrary, following the meetings between Bush and Uribe, plus the visit to the US Trade Representative's Office, the intention is to strengthen the negotiations for creation of the FTAA.

The proposal put forward by these ACN members ... to engage in bilateral negotiations reflecting the Chilean experience ... should be carefully examined, because Chile's situation is different; it has a productive and commercial structure unlike those of the Andean countries. "A strategy like this, pursued over 12 years under unique conditions, complete with a process of training for negotiators and persistent lobbying in Washington, is very difficult to replicate by other countries in a short-term bilateral adventure," asserted Fernandez de Soto.

Among the arguments in favor of this approach is that it would make it possible to evade the results of the World Trade Organization's Doha Round, with which the developing countries could obtain direct agreements on agricultural subsidies rather than having to rely on the multilateral mechanism. Fernandez de Soto finds it inexplicable that some Andean countries might want to give up something that has not yet even been negotiated in the Doha Round.

There is no trade agreement in which ALL sectors come out ahead; there are only trade agreements whose short and long-term economic benefits are big enough to compensate for the sectors that might be injured in the short term. It is up to the negotiators to identify those sectors and have the skill to obtain the best possible terms for their countries, establishing internal compensatory and adjustment mechanisms to guarantee the political viability of the agreements' implementation.

That is why, though there may be doubts regarding the desirability of seeking bilateral agreements between the ACN and the United States versus directly working for the FTAA ... some ACN member countries have recognized the importance to their countries' development of pursuing trade integration with the United States.

This understanding does not, unfortunately, seem to be shared by the Venezuelan authorities, who openly refuse to negotiate for our country's accession to the FTAA.

Reuters, 05.26.03, 5:12 PM ET By Tomas Sarmiento

CARACAS, Venezuela, May 26 (Reuters) - Venezuela's small and long-dormant stock exchange broke the 10,000-point level on Monday, setting a record in an unexpected boom as local investors frustrated by tight currency controls sought alternative investment options. The Caracas stock exchange index <.IBC> rose 6.31 percent, or 618.98 points, to close at a record 10,429.27 points on the eighth day of a continuing rally. The index closed Friday at 9,810.29 points. It was the first time the tiny Caracas bourse, which had languished in the doldrums because of unrelenting political and economic turmoil in the world's No. 5 oil exporter, had broken above the 10,000-point barrier. The exchange has jumped 30.12 percent since the start of the year. Unable to turn savings into dollars because of foreign exchange curbs introduced more than 100 days ago, many Venezuelan banks, companies and individuals are now turning to the local exchange to try to gain a return on their swelling holdings in the local bolivar currency. "We're stuffed full with bolivars at the moment," said Geronimo Paolini of brokers Valores Vencred. However, the current boom in the Caracas exchange is purely locally driven as would-be foreign investors are unable to legally convert trading earnings back into dollars. Trading volume at the bourse, which is very small by regional standards, has averaged only around $110,000 a day so far this year. This compares with a daily average volume of $9 million three years ago, before Venezuela was seized by a fierce and often violent political conflict between opponents and supporters of leftist President Hugo Chavez. HIGH LIQUIDITY, LOWER RATES Nelson Ortiz, president of the Caracas stock exchange, said he expected the current boom to continue, fueled by increased bolivar liquidity and lower interest rates, which were the direct result of the currency controls. "Since the purchase of dollars has been blocked, money looks for another way out," Ortiz told Reuters in a recent interview. In Monday's rally, shares in Venezuela's biggest private steel-maker Sivensa <SVS.CR> surged 20 percent -- the maximum range allowed in a day's trading -- to 10.20 bolivars a share. Energy company Corporacion Industrial de Energia <CIE.CR> recorded a similar gain. Its shares closed at 13.2 bolivars. Shares in market leader CANTV <TDVd.CR> (nyse: VNT - news - people), Venezuela's leading telecommunications company which is controlled by U.S. telephone firm Verizon (nyse: VNT - news - people), climbed 12.9 percent to 3,500 bolivars. During months of instability last year, which culminated in a brief failed coup against Chavez, many investors had shunned the stock exchange, preferring instead to change bolivars into dollars and channel them out of the country. Capital flight accelerated during a crippling anti-Chavez strike in December and January which slashed oil output and exports but failed to force the populist president to resign. To stop this flight and a slide in the bolivar currency, the government halted currency trading in late January and fixed the exchange rate at 1,600 bolivars to the dollar. A state currency board, Cadivi, headed by an ally of Chavez, has been tightly controlling the allocation of dollars. Private business leaders say the curbs are starving the economy of hard currency, worsening an already deep recession. The economy contracted a record 29 percent in the first quarter of 2003 after shrinking nearly 9 percent last year. Copyright 2003, Reuters News Service

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Monday, May 26, 2003 By: Gustavo Coronel

VHeadline.com commentarist Gustavo Coronel writes: In a recent story the Wall Street Journal comes down hard on Venezuelan Ambassador to the US, Bernardo Alvarez, for being "a hypocrite." The charge is explained by saying that, while Mr. Alvarez speaks admiringly of US democracy ... Jefferson and all ... he is a member of PPT, a Venezuelan small political party which is actually the ideological motor behind the growing totalitarianism of the Chavez government.

I believe the assessment of Alvarez by the WSJ is essentially correct but they were more lenient with Kemp, who explained his apparent endorsement of the Chavez regime by saying that he has had " an old relationship with Bernardo"...

No matter how long this relationship might have lasted it can not justify Kemp's association with one of the most undemocratic governments of the hemisphere. Hugo Chavez was elected President in a legitimate manner, after leading a failed coup against a democratically elected President in 1992 and causing over 100 deaths in the process. After his election, however, his systematic violation of the Constitution and his destruction of the independence of political institutions in the country have rendered his government clearly illegitimate.

Legitimacy is not merely of origin but also of performance. Who knows what his friend Bernardo has told him, but Kemp does not appear to be well informed about what is going on in Venezuela. In addition to what Alexandra Beech has already said to him in a very good letter, let me add the following:

This year the Venezuelan GDP will "grow" -17%, according estimates of J.P. Morgan. Last year the "growth" was -9%. This collapse, Mr. Kemp, is only comparable to those suffered by Cuba and Haiti in the 1990s ... but these countries are very poor while Venezuela has had extremely high petroleum income during the last three years. This is the Midas touch in reverse ... Chavez turns wealth into misery ... you might want to ask Bernardo about that.

The Venezuelan Central Bank ... not the opposition ... reports a drop of 23% in food consumption for the first quarter of this year and a catastrophic drop of 29% in the GDP, as compared to the first quarter of last year ... which was already pretty poor. A seasoned politician like Mr. Kemp should wonder about the quality of a government which produces these dismal figures.

The government has imposed, not exchange controls, but a currency blockade for the last 4 months which has produced an increase in international reserves at the expense of total national economic paralysis. About $1.5 billion have had to be bought by the private sector in the only market available ... the black market.

The social impact of these measures has been tragic: unemployment is almost 25%, crime rate is the highest ever and almost 500 Venezuelans are murdered every month in an atmosphere of total impunity.

Venezuela shows more violent deaths, I am sure, than the ones derived from the Israeli- Arab conflict. About 200,000 children live abandoned, many under drug addiction. Beggars and "buhoneros" overflow the streets of the cities. The services of garbage collection, the hospitals, the schools, the public infrastructure, all show sad signs of extreme deterioration. The poor are now destitute, the middle class is now largely poor, the rich are now largely gone.

If Mr. Kemp lived here, he would realize that this involution can not be merely the product of stupidity. Of course there is much of that. He would see it as soon as he met the ministers of the cabinet. But what is going on, in parallel, is a very shrewd (you can be a stupid administrator and a shrewd politician) plan to turn Venezuela into a fundamentalist, totalitarian society, just like those in Cuba, Libya or Iran.

The Cuba of Fidel Castro was made possible ... to a large extent ... by the support it received during its early stages by idealistic US politicians and intellectuals, at a time in which Castro still professed to be leading a "democratic" revolution.

How you can fall for it a second time around is beyond my understanding ... fortunately, not everyone has been mesmerized and can see that the King is naked.

The US has developed almost zero tolerance for rogue governments and I think this time there will be no honeymoon with the apprentice of dictator.

I read an article by Mr. Kemp in which he speak of the saga of Martin Luther King against racial discrimination with great admiration ... and yet he seems to endorse a racist government. Racism is not only practised against colored people but also against whites ... as shown in Zimbabwe, and in Venezuela. Chavez speaks with hate of the "oligarchs", the white, blue-eyed (says Chaderton, the Foreign Minister) businessmen and managers who are blamed for most of the ills of the nation. Venezuela is a 'mestizo' country, Mr. Kemp, for years free from racism ... until Chavez started his preaching full of social resentment, just like a new "mahdi"....

At this time, laws are being passed ... bulldozer style ... to give Chavez control of the institutions not yet in his grasp: the media and the Supreme Tribunal of Justice. Public bidding has been eliminated. Land invasions are now common place, under the protection of the military siding with Chavez. Governance and guarantees for the citizen do not exist in Venezuela, Mr. Kemp...

The government which Mr. Kemp's friend Bernardo represents in the US has done so much damage to the country ... in only 4 years ... that it might take 20 years or more to reverse it. The petroleum company PDVSA, which used to be the third of the first world, is now the first of the third world. It is now at the hands of Bernardo's boss, a former Cuban-supported guerrilla who used to try to blow up the pipelines he now tries to operate.

Try to find out the truth about Venezuela, Mr. Kemp, do not listen only to Bernardo ... do not associate yourself with such an (un)kemp(t) regime ... talk to former President Carter and to Cesar Gaviria, who have no axe to grind. Talk only 5 minutes to Adina Bastidas, is all I ask from you ... listen to Chavez sing on national TV, is all I ask from you ... read about the Head of the Currency Exchange control referring the Venezuelan foreign currency problem to prophet Malachias, is all I would ask from you.

And ... if after you do this ... you still feel like endorsing the government of Hugo Chavez, so be it ... it will be God's will...

Gustavo Coronel is the founder and president of Agrupacion Pro Calidad de Vida (The Pro-Quality of Life Alliance), a Caracas-based organization devoted to fighting corruption and the promotion of civic education in Latin America, primarily Venezuela. A member of the first board of directors (1975-1979) of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), following nationalization of Venezuela's oil industry, Coronel has worked in the oil industry for 28 years in the United States, Holland, Indonesia, Algiers and in Venezuela. He is a Distinguished alumnus of the University of Tulsa (USA) where he was a Trustee from 1987 to 1999. Coronel led the Hydrocarbons Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in Washington DC for 5 years. The author of three books and many articles on Venezuela ("Curbing Corruption in Venezuela." Journal of Democracy, Vol. 7, No. 3, July, 1996, pp. 157-163), he is a fellow of Harvard University and a member of the Harvard faculty from 1981 to 1983.  In 1998, he was presidential election campaign manager for Henrique Salas Romer and now lives in retirement on the Caribbean island of Margarita where he runs a leading Hotel-Resort.  You may contact Gustavo Coronel at email gustavo@vheadline.com