Organization of American States Situation in Venezuela April 9, 2003

Venezuela is making “substantive progress” in the political dialogue between the government and the democratic opposition,” Ambassador Jorge Valero, that country’s Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States, told the Permanent Council today.

Recalling the coup d’état against President Hugo Chavez’ government on April 11 last year, the Ambassador said “thanks to the courageous and noble Venezuelan people, the coup leaders were defeated when the legitimate President was restored to power,” as “the OAS and the international community condemned the coup and hailed the return to democracy."

According to Ambassador Valero, “the plan to sabotage the oil industry had inflicted 7.36 billion dollars in damage—equivalent to 33 per cent of the national budget.” The Ambassador said that despite the economic setback and the political excesses, “Venezuela is gradually returning to normal.”

Explaining the surprisingly rapid recovery in the oil industry, Valero said crude oil production currently exceeds 3 million barrels a day, with exports of 2.8 million barrels to meet OPEC quotas. He said “Venezuela is moving towards full recovery of the productive capacity.”

The Venezuelan Ambassador told the Permanent Council that last year’s coup in his country had put the Inter-American Democratic Charter to the test for the first time. He said OAS Permanent Council and General Assembly resolutions have reaffirmed the Organization’s commitment to democracy, and “encourage the Venezuelan government to continue expanding the frontiers of democracy.”

Human Rights Watch - Venezuela

The government of Hugo Chávez should carry out a thorough and impartial investigation into the abduction and murder of four opposition supporters whose bodies were found on February 16 and 17, Human Rights Watch said today.

<a href=www.vcrisis.com>The Venezuelan News Service | Apr 10 2003 20:25:30 GMT By Aleksander Boyd

As the creator and editor of Vcrisis, director of ProVeO and exerting my right to freedom of expression I feel compelled to raise my voice about some issues. The present circumstances of world affairs and geopolitics are paving the way to increase extremism. Saddam Hussein biggest crime to date -in the eyes of the international community- was his attempt to use oil as a weapon to condition his permanence in power. Bush & Blair, have been rather busy trying to convince the general public about the urgent necessity of removing the Iraqi dictator for humanitarian reasons. Humanitarian reasons? I think not!! Iraq reserves of oil are second only to those of Saudi Arabia. In times of recent economic embargo, 50 % of Iraqi oil was flowing to the American market, yes you read it correctly 50 %. The USA consumes 40 % of the world's gasoline production and a quarter of the total oil production. Their own production, contrary to what everyone believes, picked in 1978 and it's been decreasing ever since according to analysts. Should the current rate of energy consumption remains in the same trend in America, their reserves will last only 8 years. Whereas countries like Iraq or Venezuela have reserves which will last about 50 years depending of course in production levels. "Big Oil" is choked with the prospect of getting their hands on the Iraqi reserves and they are most certainly imposing the rules of the game behind the scenes.

Having said that, I need to stress that the humanitarian factor is completely irrelevant nowadays. Prime example of it is the Venezuelan case. Hugo Chavez differs from Saddam Hussein only in that the latter has been in power a longer period of time. Their ulterior motives are equal, i.e. to subjugate their compatriots in order to ransack rapaciously the wealth generated from the riches of their countries and to use it as means of perpetrating themselves in power. Last night, the BBC aired a program about Hugo Chavez, international news outlets have been echoing all sorts of statements coming from the Venezuelan president and his henchmen. There must be a reason to explain why Saddam on the one hand is the number one threat to western societies and as such he has been marketed and on the other hand Hugo Chavez having an appalling record of humanitarian abuses and crimes continues to be portrayed as the darling of the poor. Could it be that since Venezuelan oil keeps flowing to the US none of it matters? Or perhaps the hypothesis of lucrative contracts to be had in reconstructing the already in shambles PDVSA? Or maybe even to eliminate PDVSA altogether as a worldwide contender among energy companies whilst Chavez plays his game of Robin Hood? Whatever it is, freedom loving Venezuelans are in the middle of this collision course between the crystallization of the Bolivarian revolution and international energy interests.

The amount of money involved in oil markets is overwhelming. Taking that into account, to even consider the possibility of changing the political game on humanitarian reasons is plain wishful thinking. Unfortunately, the battle for control of the once almighty PDVSA has brought about levels of misery to the Venezuelan people unrecorded in the contemporary history of the country. Alas this detail does not count. Hugo Chavez is using PDVSA's monies to buy all kinds of favors and opinions from the world's "most respected" news sources and the BBC is only one of the accomplice companies at the receiving end of this deal. About seven days ago, I was doing searches in Google and Yahoo for the following subjects: "crisis venezuela" "venezuela crisis" "human rights violations venezuela" "hugo chavez venezuela" "terrorism venezuela" "hugo chavez terrorism" In the first four Vcrisis continues to appear right at the top of the search -even before BBC and organizations of the stature of Human Rights and Amnesty International-. The last two, after some corrections that I made to the page, were resulting in Vcrisis being right at the top of the search of many possible results. I repeated the operation daily to monitor any changes. A couple of days ago I wrote an article about Hugo Chavez and his international rabble, referring to the Gott's, Weisbrot's, Lemoine's and Ramonet's of this planet. Yesterday I had a big rumpus with a member of the BBC. Incredibly as it may sound, Google as well as Yahoo have removed Vcrisis from the search results dealing with the relationship between Hugo Chavez and terrorism. Is it just coincidence, or is it that someone is trying to silence me? I would like to ask to all my readers to help me in the slander fight against Hugo Chavez. I do not want financial help, however linking this site to many others increase the chances of our truth being read by more people. I would like to urge the writers, economists, journalists, lawyers, businessmen, citizens of Venezuela whom are victims of this barbaric regime to forward your reports and opinion pieces, to help me convert this site in the voice of freedom, in the symbol of our genuine right to freely express our ideas, in example for history that an entire nation will not be defeated by a bunch of criminals. One thing is certain, we are on our own. The least thing that we could do is stick together. Please help me to help Venezuela.

<a href=www.vcrisis.com>The Venezuelan News Service | Apr 10 2003 20:22:53 GMT

Le 11 avril prochain, 4 journées de réunions et festivités sont organisées à Caracas en l´honneur de la Révolution Bolivarienne menée par le président Hugo Chávez.

Des personnalités sont annoncées entre autres Danielle MITTERAND, Jean-Pierre CHEVENEMENT, José BOVE, Ignacio RAMONET, Bernard CASSEN… Pour l´opinion publique locale, ces noms sont étroitement liés à la France…mais quelle France ! Nous sommes donc assimilés, nous français locaux, qui luttons contre ce régime castriste révolutionnaire, à des supporters de cet homme violent, mégalomane, terroriste, ami de Fidel et de Sadam HUSSEIN, qui par esprit de vengeance fait agoniser tout un pays voulant le mener à la mer de félicité que connaissent Cuba et Haiti.

Comment, nous français, installés ici depuis tant d´années, fiers de notre nationalité, ayant des racines dans ce pays, aimant profondément cette terre qui nous a prodigué de belles amitiés, comment ne pas avoir honte lorsque les médias annoncent que des personnalités françaises viennent fêter les évènements du 11 avril, lorsque ce jour là, nous avons tous vécu un cauchemar.

Injustement prise à parti par des espagnols et des vénézuéliens chez un commerçant que je connais depuis plus de 20 ans, je suis rentrée à la maison en larmes.

-Larmes de tristesse car le 11 avril, nos enfants, nos amis, nos employés manifestaient pacifiquement contre l´autoritarisme et la violence. Bilan : 20 morts et une centaine de blessés.

-Larmes de rage : comment se réjouir un jour de deuil national et quelle indignation de se voir assimilé à un supporter du terrorisme !!!

-Larmes de honte : j´ai honte face à nos voisins, face à nos amis vénézuéliens, face à nos employés, qui tous, sans exception, manifestent contre ce régime totalitaire.

C´est beau, la liberté d´opinion, la liberté d´action de tous ces gens qui ne vivent pas la tragédie que vit actuellement le Vénézuéla. Ils ne perdent ni leur patrimoine, ni l´espoir d´un futur décent pour leurs enfants. Ils changeraient certainement d´avis s´ils vivaient le chaos d´un magnifique pays qui agonise injustement sous l´effet de l´incompétence, de la corruption effrénée et du machiavélisme de la Révolution Bolivarienne qui, par un régime totalitaire de terreur, en finit avec tout le secteur productif du pays qui représente tout de même 75% de la population.

On ne peut profiter des médias, publiant ces noms liés à la France, pour mettre à exécution une telle machination qui ternit incontestablement l´image de notre pays et nous fait, nous français sincères et honnêtes, trembler d´indignation.

Gabriel, en tant que Délégué, se doit de vous transmettre le mécontentement général dont il reçoit les véhéments témoignages.

Je ne suis pas experte en diplomatie mais c´est la rage au cœur, l´ oeil larmoyant que je vous transmets mon indignation et celle de la plupart de nos compatriotes.

Il est très dur, loin de la Mère Patrie, que l´on s´efforce à bien représenter, d´arriver lamentablement à ressentir un certain " malaise " d´ être français.

Hélène et Gabriel LAFAVERGE.

Caracas, le 4 avril 2004.

The Venezuelan News Service | Apr 10 2003 20:19:00 GMT    By Aleksander Boyd

The rather awkward title of today's editorial is a metaphor of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez present state. Foreign secretary Roy Chaderton has not been this busy in his entire existence. He is traveling up and down this earth attempting to maintain his boss' democratic façade with the help of the Venezuelan diplomatic network, arguably the only government personnel capable of maintaining educated enough conversations in languages other than Spanish. They have an image problem therefore they had recourse to international P. R. firms, Irish filmmakers, obscure analysts, leftist news outlets and a whole array of spin doctors to try to prove their legitimacy and democratic behaviour. Quite frankly they are struggling, their main problem seems to be the Venezuelan president himself. True to its form, a couple of weeks ago in his dominical "Hello President", he brash about the weight of the external debt on the national budget, which cause the Venezuelan bonds to plummet in international markets. The price of his verbal diarrhea is the following; no one in the financial world will advice companies of any size or field to invest in the country.

Similarly, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its April 2003 forecasts of the World Economic Outlook. The IMF envisages a -17.0% recession in Venezuela, surpassing Zimbabwe's -11% recession, for the worst performance in the world. This follows a -8.9% recession in 2002, for a two year -26% collapse in the economy, which is only seen in economies of war or during the Great Depression of the United States. After Zimbabwe, Cote D'Ivoire, and Ethiopia are the next worst performers, with -2% recessions in 2003. I am dying to see how the spin professionals are going to masquerade that !! Or shall we assume that the (IMF) is just another opposition mouthpiece trying to discredit the creole Robin Hood?

Expatriate opposition organizations are poping up like mushrooms everywhere for Chavez's misfortune and the fundamental problem that he has got in this particular area is that we are too many, too difficult to silence, impossible to control. In the secure and comfortable western societies there is no space for Bolivarian Circles, Freddy Bernal's or Lina Ron's gangs, which takes out of the equation the possibility of attacking or intimidating us. Such thugs can not operate in civilized communities. Another "lethal aspect" of these organizations is the level of education of its members, as they are formed by the increasing numbers of professionals whom have decided to abandon the country due to the chaotic situation. These extraordinary group of people are doing the utmost to show the ugly face of Chavez's revolution and they are succeeding at it. Private conversations held with top government officials, economists, the media, human rights organizations and jurists demonstrate that the credibility of Hugo Chavez is in the substratum. Everyone knows, or at least the policy makers, who the Venezuelan president is. A good adage for it would be "El sol no se puede tapar con un dedo" or "you can't block the sun with a finger". The enormity of the failure can not be obviated with a power point presentation given by the foreign secretary or a bent film by some Irish fellows.

The country's indexes in economy, poverty, crime, terrorism, corruption, unemployment constitute the best arguments that the opposition has. The level of these conditions are consequence of 4 years of absolute mismanagement of Hugo Chavez and his useless government. Thus, Venezuelan monies can buy favors from news agencies, reports from dodgy institutions, prime time programmes, Irish filmmakers, analphabets from the Middle East and so on but most certainly will not buy the lost credibility. The beast is cornered and wounded. We shall see its end.