By David Papadopoulos and Vivianne Rodrigues

New York, April 25 (<a href=quote.bloomberg.com>Bloomberg) -- Petroleos de Venezuela SA will pay at least $700 million a month in taxes in the second quarter, easing concern Venezuela might default on its foreign debt after a two-month strike slashed government revenue.

The payments, which may be as high as $750 million, would be a 20-fold increase from a low of $37.5 million in January, said Alejandro Dopazo, the Finance Ministry's director of public credit, in an e-mail message. That is still below the $1 billion a month the company was paying before the strike began Dec. 2.

The surge in receipts indicates the company, which provides about half of Venezuela's tax revenue, is picking up the pace of collecting overdue payments from clients that accrued when it re- started exports in January, analysts said. That may help ease investor concern about Venezuela's finances, bolstering bond prices a month after President Hugo Chavez said the country needed to ``restructure'' its foreign debt.

The financial situation in Venezuela has stabilized,'' said Charles Cassel, who helps manage $725 million in emerging market debt at Standard Asset Management in Miami. For an external debt holder, things are getting better.''

Petroleos de Venezuela still has a way to go. ConocoPhillips, the largest U.S. oil refiner, said earlier this week that shipments from Venezuela haven't returned to normal, and are about 28 percent below what they were before the strike began.

Venezuelan bonds have rallied from a two-month low reached after Chavez's statements fueled speculation the country planned to default. The price on the country's benchmark dollar bond due in 2027 has surged almost 5 points, or $50 per $1,000 face amount, in six weeks -- even after sliding today to 63.75. Its yield has fallen 1.11 percentage points to 14.77 percent.

``There's still room for further gains,'' said Cassel, who said he holds some Venezuelan bonds.

The Finance Ministry has said the restructuring Chavez mentioned would be an exchange in which investors could turn in some of the $5 billion in foreign debt due this year for bonds with longer maturities to free up cash for the government.

Dopazo joined Finance Minister Tobias Nobrega and Luis Davila, Petroleos de Venezuela's chief financial officer, on a trip last week to New York, where they presented their budget figures to investors and analysts and sought to drum up demand for the exchange. They have said they plan to do the swap this quarter. Venezuela hasn't sold a foreign bond since 2001.

The strike, which opposition parties set up in an attempt to drive Chavez from office, throttled the country's oil output, lowering it to 150,000 barrels a day from about 3 million a day. While the government said it got production back to 3 million barrels a day in recent weeks, officials have said they struggled to collect payments. They said on March 28 that clients owed the company about $2 billion in overdue accounts. Last Updated: April 25, 2003 12:16 EDT

By Peter Wilson

Caracas, April 25 (<a href=quote.bloomberg.com>Bloomberg) -- Talks between Venezuela's government and the opposition for a referendum on President Hugo Chavez have stalled, Organization of American States Secretary General Cesar Gaviria said.

A tentative agreement reached April 11 is no longer valid, and will have to be renegotiated, Gaviria told reporters last night.

``There are major differences between the two sides,'' Gaviria said. He gave no indication when talks would resume. They started eight months ago.

A referendum may end two years of protests and strikes by the opposition demanding that Chavez, a former army lieutenant colonel, resign or call early elections. Opponents agreed to a binding referendum to be held after August, the midpoint of Chavez's six-year term, after a two-month national strike failed.

Chavez's Fifth Republic Movement political party said earlier this week it had at least six objections to the 22-point election accord, which calls for a referendum by Nov. 19. to force a non- binding vote in February. Among the objections was the use of international observers to oversee the vote.

``What happened with the agreement is just another heightening of the confrontation between those who want an electoral resolution, and the government that doesn't,'' opposition negotiator Alejandro Armas told reporters. The opposition will review the government objections and present their response to Gaviria later today, he said.

Venezuela's dollar bond due 2027 fell 0.35 cents on the dollar to 63.75, pushing the yield up to 14.77 percent, according to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. at 10:50 a.m. in New York.

The Caracas Stock Exchange's general index fell 0.1 percent to 8423.95. Last Updated: April 25, 2003 11:08 EDT

<a href=reuters.com>Reuters Fri April 25, 2003 11:29 AM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Two more dissident Venezuelan military officers have asked for political asylum in the wake of last year's short-lived coup against President Hugo Chavez, a source close to the case said on Friday.

An army captain and a sub-lieutenant sought refuge at the Peruvian Embassy in Caracas on Thursday and were inside the diplomatic mission, the source told Reuters.

An embassy official declined comment.

Their application came after two officers who took part in the April 2002 rebellion against Chavez, army captains Ricardo and Alfredo Salazar, asked for asylum in the Embassy of the Dominican Republic in Caracas on Thursday.

The brothers escorted Chavez to an island off the Venezuelan coast during the coup before he returned to power 48 hours later.

Their attorney said the brothers, who faced charges of military rebellion and of holding the president prisoner, feared threats and political persecution.

Dominican officials said the pair would stay at the diplomatic mission while their application was reviewed.

The flurry of asylum applications came a month after Costa Rica granted asylum to Venezuelan union chief Carlos Ortega, who led an opposition strike in December and January to try to force Chavez to resign.

Businessman Pedro Carmona, who briefly replaced Chavez in the coup, was allowed to leave last year for Colombia and navy Rear Adm. Carlos Molina, under investigation for his coup role, fled to El Salvador.

Chavez, who was elected in 1998 on a populist platform, has sought to bring to trial rebel military officers and the opposition leaders who organized the two-month strike by charging them with treason and rebellion.

Foes of the leftist former paratrooper accuse him of dictatorial rule and of driving the world's fifth largest oil exporter into political and economic ruin.

But he says his political enemies seek to undermine his self-styled revolution aimed at easing the plight of the poor.

<a href=www.lapress.org>LatinAmericaPres.org Defining times  Armando Chávez.  Apr 24, 2003

Following a decade of neoliberal policy in Latin America, grassroots movements dedicated to fighting unemployment, hunger, poverty and the business avidity of transnational economic groups, have emerged across the region.

Rooted in Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina and Uruguay, and backed by figures such as Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, these movements have succeeded in arousing public interest in who they are and what they represent.

By Peter Wilson

Caracas, April 25 (<a href=quote.bloomberg.com>Bloomberg) -- Organization of American States Secretary General Cesar Gaviria said talks between Venezuela's government and the opposition for a referendum on President Hugo Chavez have stalled.

Gaviria told reporters last night that a tentative agreement reached April 11 is no longer valid, and will have to be renegotiated.

``There are major differences between the two sides,'' Gaviria said. He gave no indication when talks would resume. They started eight months ago.

A referendum may end two years of protests and strikes by the opposition demanding that Chavez, a former army lieutenant colonel, resign or call early elections. Opponents agreed to a binding referendum to be held after August, the midpoint of Chavez's six-year term, after a two-month national strike failed

Chavez's Fifth Republic Movement political party said earlier this week it had at least six objections to the 22-point election accord, which calls for a referendum by Nov. 19. to force a non-binding vote in February. Last Updated: April 25, 2003 09:26 EDT