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

There seems to be no light in the tunnel for the conformation of the new National Electoral College (CNE) yet, as analysts suggest difficulties in both government and opposition camps. 

Chief of the many obstacles in the path of the new CNE is that there a too few posts for so many aspirants. Both government and opposition are reported to be mulling through lists of would-be board members ... "everyone wants the top job." 

Movimiento Quinta Republica (MVR) has not resolved an internal debate about supporting the aspirations of current CNE board member, Romulo Rangel. 

Some MVR members suggest that it would be wrong to give a cold shoulder to the only CNE board member (Rangel),  who opposed the consultative referendum at the height of the opposition national stoppage offensive. 

In the end, it all may boil down to an agreement between the government and Accion Democratica (AD) and Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS). 

The problem, according to one MVR source, is that both opposition parties are stalling on the issue and weighing possible political fallout.  Accion Democratica (AD) is basking in glory as the most popular opposition political party.  The key factor in the negotiations will be to find and agree by consensus on someone acceptable to both sides for the fifth board  post. 

The National Assembly (AN), meantime,  has accepted to set up an ad hoc committee to try and untangle the threads of discord and appoint the CNE board as soon as possible. 

The new initiative will consist of a committee integrating 11 deputies from the original appointments committee, and parliamentary leaders of groups not represented on the committee, such as Primero Justicia (PJ), Causa R, Solidaridad and Tranparencia Revolucionaria.

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

El Universal columnist, Roberto Giusti has come under attack from a "flying column" group of a government supporters as he pulled his beetle car into the parking space outside RCR  radio station in El Paraiso where he was due to broadcast a daily radio show. 

Rabid anti-Chavist columnist Giusti says a mob belonging to Patria Para Todos (PPT) shouted insults at him,  attacked his car and nearly destroyed the doors of the radio station. 

According to Giusti, PPT apparently blames him for the death of PPT militant Jorge Nieves in Guasdualito after Giusti exposed alleged PPT extortion of ranchers in Apure and alleged PPT links with the Bolivarian Liberation Front (FBL).  Giusti had reported that Nieves had acted as middleman between the families of a hostage kidnapped by the FBL a few days before he was murdered.

Giusti retorts that he will not allow himself to be intimidated by opponents and will continue to issue reports on the presence of Colombian and Venezuela guerrilla camps operating inside Venezuelan territory (El Universal, April 28), adding that he will not complain to the police or sue PPT because he does not believe in the current Venezuelan legal system.

PPT leaders reply that the group approached the station and the journalist demanding the right to reply but Giusti was "dismissive, rude and refused to allow representatives to speak on his radio show."

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

Hot on the heels of opposition groups, Primero Justicia (PJ) and Proyecto Venezuela (PV), Alianza Civica (consisting of Elias Santana's Queremos Elegir, Movimiento 1.011 and Ciudadania Activa) have launched an appeal to Coordinadora Democratica (CD) to undertake a citizen consultation process to clear the air once and for all to see if a single candidacy to stand against President Hugo Chavez Frias is convenient or not. 

Santana is at pains to explain that the proposal is not a rapid answer to PV leader, Henrique Salas Romer's launching of his candidacy ... "it's exercising citizen power and the right to elections ... it still has to be discussed whether the outcome of the consultation is binding or not ... it will be a instrument to guide the CD decisions regarding single candidacy, re-election limitations and guidelines for a transition period." 

The self-proclaimed civil sector leader warns that President Chavez Frias is already on the campaign trail and the opposition must act quickly and efficiently. "Complaints that Chavez Frias doesn't want a recall referendum must stop now ... the government reads polls and is getting ready."

Launching a PR campaign called "Democratic Rule," Santana says it consists of 7 stages:

• Appointment of National Electoral College (CNE)
• Delivery of signatures requesting recall referendum on August 20
• Obtaining international tutelage
• Popular consultation
• Defining the problem of a single candidacy
• Convocation of presidential elections
• Installation of a transition government of national unity.

By Peter Wilson

Caracas, May 5 (<a href=quote.bloomberg.com>Bloomberg) -- Mercantil Servicios Financieros CA, holding company for Venezuela's largest bank, said first-quarter profit soared 53 percent as it boosted lending.

Net income rose to 51.8 billion bolivars ($32 million), or 131 bolivars a share, from 33.7 billion bolivars, or 92 bolivars, for the same period a year earlier, the company said in a release.

Mercantil said its loan portfolio expanded 60 percent to 4.09 trillion bolivars from 2.56 trillion bolivars in March 2002. Provisions for loan losses more than doubled to 48.7 billion bolivars from 19.6 billion bolivars.

The company bought back 8.4 percent of its stock as of March 31 as part of a share repurchase program, Mercantil Servicios said in a statement.

Mercantil Servicios includes Banco Mercantil, an insurance company and brokerage. Last Updated: May 5, 2003 09:05 EDT

Oliver Burkeman in Washington and Jo Tuckman in Mexico City Monday May 5, 2003 The Guardian

A data-gathering company that was embroiled in the Florida 2000 election fiasco is being paid millions of dollars by the Bush administration to collect detailed personal information on the populations of foreign countries, enraging several governments who say the records may have been illegally obtained.

US government purchasing documents show that the company, ChoicePoint, received at least $11m (£6.86m) from the department of justice last year to supply data - mainly on Latin Americans - that included names and addresses, occupations, dates of birth, passport numbers and "physical description". Even tax records and blood groups are reportedly included.

Nicaraguan police have raided two offices suspected of providing the information. The revelations threaten to shatter public trust in electoral institutions, especially in Mexico, where the government has begun an investigation.

The controversy is not the first to engulf ChoicePoint. The company's subsidiary, Database Technologies, was responsible for bungling an overhaul of Florida's voter registration records, with the result that thousands of people, disproportionately black, were disenfranchised in the 2000 election. Had they been able to vote, they might have swung the state, and thus the presidency, for Al Gore, who lost in Florida by a few hundred votes.

Legal experts in the US and Mexico said ChoicePoint could be liable for prosecution if those who supplied it with the personal information could be proven to have broken local laws. That raises the possibility that any person whose data was accessible to American officials could take legal action against the US government.

"Anybody who felt they were affected by this could take the US government to court," said Julio Tellez, an expert in Mexican information legislation at the Tec de Monterrey University. "We could all do it ... We are not prepared to sell our intimacies for a fistful of dollars."

How the US is using the information remains mysterious, although its focus on Latin America suggests obvious applications in targeting illegal immigrants. Whatever the reasons, its commitment to ChoicePoint is long-term: last year's $11m payment was part of a contract worth $67m that runs until 2005.

ChoicePoint denied breaking any laws. "All information collected by ChoicePoint on foreign citizens is obtained legally from public agencies or private vendors," it said. It also denied purchasing "election registry information" from Mexico.