<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela´s Electronic News Posted: Monday, March 31, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

According to the Currency Administration Commission (Cadivi) president Edgar Hernandez the controls and application procedure for the approval of foreign currency purchases have finally been completed by the Commission, over six weeks after the Commission was originally appointed.

Hernandez insists that the delay has been necessary and wise and said that the new system will increase transparency in the authorization process which will see the bolivar initially trading at Bs.1,600.00 to the US dollar.

Approvals for imports, students abroad and special cases are set to commence shortly and agreements with currency exchange offices are currently being signed with a view to reinstating sales as quickly as possible.

As for exporters, from April 11 onwards they will be required to submit cargo manifests and bills to Cadivi for inspection and they will be permitted to keep hold of 10% of their dollar revenues.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela´s Elecronic News Posted: Monday, March 31, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

According to a poll carried out by pollsters Consultores 2, President Hugo Chavez Frias may win a general election with 32% of the overall vote if opposition candidates run separately in any upcoming general election.

In the Consultores 21 model, if Primero Justicia leader Julio Borges and Miranda State Governor Enrique Mendoza both stood as opposition candidates they would each obtain around 14% of the vote, with rebel Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) executive Juan Fernandez coming in with 10% despite the fact he is not a politician.

The poll has carried out in several Venezuelan cities and involved a sample of 1,200 people. Of the people questioned, 53% said they didn't believe the President would still be in office at the end of his term in 2006, while 41% said he would still be in power.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela´s Electronic News Posted: Monday, March 31, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

President Hugo Chavez Frias has announced the creation of a new central union movement called the Venezuelan National Workers Union (UNTV) aimed a replacing the Confederation of Trade Unions (CTV) which played a key role in the two month long opposition work stoppage which crippled the Venezuelan economy.

According to the President the union grouping will hold its first national assembly in the near future and it will be made up of "hundreds, thousands of unions who were part of the CTV but are currently leaving the it ... they support the Constitution not against it."

The President said he is hoping to create a new model of cooperation between the private sector and Venezuelan workers and ruled out any "invasion of factories" as some opposition leaders had been warning about.

The CTV and its leadership have long been a thorn in the President's side and the exile of its president Carlos Ortega late last week was a major step in the government's efforts of reduce the CTV's sphere of influence.

Posted on Mon, Mar. 31, 2003
INTERNATIONAL BY MARIKA LYNCH mlynch@herald.com

CARACAS - Jose Luis Rosal fell off a pick-up truck and needed 15 stitches in the crown of his head. But the hospital in his hometown, about an hour outside the capital, couldn't do an X-ray to see if he had a skull fracture because it didn't have the materials.

Three days later, 20-year-old Rosal waited seven hours outside a Caracas hospital for an X-ray.

Like many Venezuelan companies and institutions, the country's chronically strapped hospitals and their patients have been further pinched since the government stopped selling U.S. dollars needed to import supplies, medicine and other goods.

The government imposed the currency controls two months ago, after a national strike aimed at ousting President Hugo Chávez failed and all but shut down the oil industry -- the country's primary source of foreign exchange. With the bolívar, the nation's currency, plummeting and fears of capital flight increasing, the government imposed controls to keep dollars in the country.

But since Venezuela relies heavily on imports bought with U.S. currency, the dollar drought is creating ripples throughout the economy.

Pharmacists say they have a three-week stock of medicines and then ''the Venezuelan health system could collapse,'' said Edgar Salas Jimenez, president of the Venezuelan Pharmaceutical Association.

Manufacturers and distributors are running through inventories, and they warn that goods from toilet paper to electronics could become scarce. Meanwhile, farmers say their crops will be thinner this year without the proper imported fertilizers. Then they'll have to scrounge for packaging material to wrap what is produced.

Big business, shopkeepers, and even street vendors like Fortunata Humani, who sells bikinis and lace panties from a sidewalk stall, expect to feel the dollar crunch. Wholesalers already have warned Humani their imported inventory is sparse. Humani, 46, says she may have to start sewing her own clothes -- if she can find the material.

The Venezuelan economy, private analysts say, could shrink up to 30 percent this year, and currency controls will be a factor.

''They are destroying the entrepreneurial fervor of the Venezuelan people -- what little there is left,'' said economist Orlando Ochoa.

Venezuela's economic problems already are affecting Florida. Nearly $3 billion in Venezuela-bound exports -- from machinery to medicines -- passed through Florida's ports in 2001, according to Enterprise Florida, the state public/private economic development agency. Last year Florida's exports to Venezuela fell to $2.1 billion.

The currency controls also prohibit Venezuelans from using credit cards abroad, which could cut into their shopping in South Florida stores. Business travelers will be allowed to get dollars, but only $1,000 per trip. Trips are limited to three per year.

This week, the government said it started selling some of a $645 million monthly allotment of U.S. dollars to be used for purchasing goods such as food and medicine that are on a priority list.

A newly-created government agency will decide who gets the greenbacks, and only a fraction will actually be given to private importers, said Jose Piñeda, head economist for the Venezuelan American Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The government will use some, he said, to import food and distribute it to the poor at markets.

Venezuela has imposed currency controls twice in the past two decades, and both periods ended with high inflation, Piñeda said. This time, though, the economy has already been weakened by the two-month strike, and the impact of currency controls could be worse.

Business leaders want a parallel dollar market, where they can buy currency at a higher rate than the established 1,600 bolívares to the dollar. So far the government has shunned the idea. Some businesses are already turning to the black market, where the rate is $1 to 2,800 bolívares.

There are also fears in business circles that the government currency agency will use its power to punish people who supported the national strike and oppose President Chávez.

Such concern isn't unwarranted. Chávez has said that ''not one dollar'' will go to the ''coup-plotters,'' his name for those who tried to force him out through the strike, which ended in February.

First elected in 1998, Chávez was briefly ousted by a coup last April. A coalition of union, oil and business leaders tried again via the strike route but failed to topple him or force new elections.

Meanwhile, Venezuela's newspaper owners fear that newsprint will not get on the import list, for political reasons. Their newspapers have been highly critical of Chávez. Newsprint first appeared on the list for a day, then was quickly removed. But officials have since said it will be restored.

On average, local newspapers have enough newsprint in stock to keep printing through April and into May.

But if newsprint doesn't appear on the priority import list, ''we're going to be the first country in the world without a newspaper,'' said Miguel Henrique Otero, publisher of the daily El Nacional.

By Joseph Kay 31 March 2003

The enormous opposition to the war against Iraq was evident again this weekend, as protests were held in numerous cities in the United States and internationally.

In Boston, Massachusetts, protestors on Saturday held the largest demonstration in that city since the Vietnam War. Between 30,000 and 50,000 people gathered, including many students as well as workers, farmers, elderly people and children. The crowd marched through one of Boston’s main shopping areas. Several thousand protesters participated in a “die-in,” lying down on Boylston Street to represent those being killed in the war.

Rana Abdul Aziz, a student at Tufts University, spoke at the rally. “I am the Iraqi whose vice has been denied,” she said. “It was only in their houses that Iraqis could find peace,” she continued, referring to the dictatorial policies of the regime of Saddam Hussein, and “now those refuges too have been violated” by American bombardment.

According to a report by Matthew Williams posted on Chicago Indymedia, many of those participating sought to draw a connection between the war and the increasing attack on social services and jobs in the United States. Chants during the course of the march included the demands, “Make jobs, not war” and “Money for jobs and education, not war and occupation.” Signs included, “Why not bomb Texas? They have oil too” and “Bush is killing our country.”

Phyllis Freeman, a professor of public health at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, said, “Even if the president isn’t listening, we want people in other counties to know we don’t agree with what our president is doing.” Another protestor, 67-year-old Mary Delavalette, said, “I’m ashamed to be an American. This is an illegal, immoral war. It’s for evil, for empire.”

Eric Weltman, one of the protest organizers, said the die-in was a protest directed not only at the American-led war against Iraq. “We’re working now to stop the next invasion. We’ve invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. Who’s next? Iran? North Korea? Columbia?”

Thousands of people also participated in marches and rallies in other American cities, including New York and Patterson, New Jersey. Over 1,000 gathered in Manhattan’s Union Square to demand an end to war. One speaker also drew connections to the ongoing oppression of the Palestinian people, and a moment of silence was held in remembrance of Rachel Corrie, the 23-year old American student murdered by Israeli forces on March 16 in southern Gaza.

The protestors in the US were joined by hundreds of thousands in other countries. In Germany, protests were held in Berlin and other cities, with over 100,000 participants. In Stuttgart and Frankfurt, hundreds gathered outside American military bases and the US military’s European Command, calling attention to the fact that the German government is cooperating with the war by allowing its airspace to be used by the US-British coalition troops.

Elsewhere in Europe, thousands gathered in Italy and Greece. In Rome, which has been home to massive protests over the course of the past several months, demonstrators hung black banners on bridges in several locations. One demonstrator said that the banners symbolized both the deaths being inflicted on the Iraqi people and oil, “which is the real reason for the war.”

In Spain, demonstrators picketed American military bases, and in Morocco thousands of marchers chanted, “We are all Iraqis,” as they walked through the city of Rabat.

Poland’s largest demonstration against the war also took place over the weekend, with 2,000 denouncing the war for oil supported by the Polish government. A similar number gathered in Budapest, Hungary, while an estimated 6,000 took part in protests in Moscow. Ten thousand marched in Paris and 8,000 in Dublin, Ireland. All these numbers are official estimates, which are generally substantially lower than the actual figures.

Protestors also gathered throughout the Middle East, including estimates of 10,000 in Egypt, 3,000 in Jordan and several hundred woman protestors in Yemen. In South America, thousands gathered in Venezuela and Chile.

In Asia, protestors faced down riot police outside the US embassy in Bangladesh. Police used tear gas against thousands protesting outside the Australian embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Howard government of Australia has fallen behind the Americans in supporting the war. Thousands of students marched in Seoul, South Korea and chanted, “Stop the bombing! Stop the killing!”

The Stalinist bureaucracy in China allowed a small protest at Beijijng University, undoubtedly a response to the enormous opposition in that country to the war. While any manifestation of popular discontent is generally suppressed, a few dozen students were allowed to demonstrate at the country’s premier university.

Some of the most significant protests were held on Sunday, particularly in Asia. In Jakarta, Indonesia, official estimates quoted 200,000 demonstrators, though organizers put the figure in the millions. These included both Muslims and Christians. Over 100,000 took part in demonstrations in Pakistan.

See Also: International protests continue against US war in Iraq [27 March 2003]