www.alertnet.org 18 Mar 2003 15:17

CARACAS, Venezuela, March 18 (Reuters) - Venezuelan police shot dead two suspected Colombian right-wing paramilitaries and captured three leftist rebels from the neighboring country in a sweep of part of the border area, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

The operation followed charges by Colombia's government that Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chavez, was not doing enough to guarantee security along their 1,400-mile (2,200-km) common frontier, where Colombian rebel and paramilitary groups are active.

A police spokesman in Venezuela's western border state of Tachira told Reuters the two men killed on Monday were believed to be members of the outlawed United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC).

They were part of a group of eight men traveling in a jeep who opened fire on a police patrol on a border road outside Urena near the Venezuelan frontier town of San Antonio.

In the ensuing gunfight, two of the group were killed and the rest fled over the border into Colombia.

The incident followed the capture in San Antonio on Sunday of three members of the Colombian leftist rebel group, the National Liberation Army. Known by its Spanish initials ELN, the group is one of several outlawed armies fighting in Colombia's drug-fueled guerrilla conflict.

The police spokesman said the capture was the result of a joint crackdown on both sides of the frontier at San Antonio by Venezuelan and Colombian police. "We're exchanging intelligence and information," he said.

Chavez has angrily denied repeated accusations by Colombia's government and military that Colombian leftist rebels are operating from bases inside Venezuelan territory. He and his army commanders have said they will repel any guerrillas found on Venezuela's side of the border.

Police said the three rebels captured were members of a faction of the Cuban-inspired ELN suspected of carrying out a bomb attack in the Colombian border town of Cucuta earlier this month that killed more than 10 people and wounded dozens.

The leader of the ELN faction, who goes under the alias "Commander Tyson," escaped the dragnet on Sunday and was still on the run on the Venezuelan side of the border.

Some 300 Tachira state police officers were taking part in the sweep of the San Antonio area launched last Thursday, the spokesman said.

reuters.com Tue March 18, 2003 09:58 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Satellite television operator DirecTV Latin America LLC said on Tuesday it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, as economic turmoil in the region forced the company to restructure its costs and debts.

DirecTV Latin America, the largest pay-television operator in Latin America, has been hammered by recessions and strife in Argentina, Venezuela and Brazil that have resulted in fewer subscribers.

The filing does not apply to the company's parent, Hughes Electronics Corp GMH.N , or to DirecTV Latin America's operating companies in Latin America and the Caribbean, which will continue regular business, the company said. Hughes is controlled by General Motors Corp GM.N .

DirecTV Latin America said it would ask the bankruptcy court to reject contracts that are "uneconomic and not in (the company's) best long-term interests," including a contract to broadcast the 2006 World Cup and a deal with Walt Disney DIS.N to carry the Disney Channel Latin America.

In the United States, Disney and Hughes are embroiled in a dispute over Disney's ABC Family Channel, with DirecTV threatening to drop the channel rather pay the 35 percent price increase that Disney is demanding.

DirecTV Latin America, owned in part by Latin American media conglomerates Cisneros Group and Grupo Clarin, said Hughes has agreed to provide $300 million in debtor-in-possession financing, subject to bankruptcy court approval. The filing was made in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware.

DirecTV Latin America also said that Kevin McGrath has retired as chairman, and that Larry Chapman has been named president and chief operating officer, effective immediately.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Tuesday, March 18, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

The Police Detective Branch (CICPC) investigating the murder of three soldiers that formed part of the Altamira Plaza military rebellion has confirmed reports of a third women allegedly kidnapped in the incident.

A CICPC spokesperson says the woman’s name emerged from interrogations and she has been tracked down and is a key witness in the murder enquiries.

The unnamed woman is said to be emotionally involved with one of the main suspects that now number 8 persons.

The police source has clarified that the beating received by former suspect, Edgar Machado Rojas is not directly connected to the murders but was an excuse to cover up the real motives of the murders.

Investigations now point towards vengeance killings and not crime of passion.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Tuesday, March 18, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

A Colombian mainstream newspaper has published a story, alleging that top Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) commander, German Briceno Suarez, known as “Grannobles,” slipped into Venezuela late last year to avoid immediate capture by the Colombian Army.

According to El Tiempo, people working in Cucuta courts where the guerrillas are said to have placed spies tipped Briceno Suarez off about his imminent arrest. Venezuelan Ambassador to Colombia, Carlos Rodolfo Santiago says the story is just another part of a current Colombian and Venezuelan media blitz to force the Venezuelan government’s hand and he asks why wasn’t the Venezuelan government advised beforehand when it was discovered that Briceno Suarez had passed from Arauca to Apure.

“It’s the third media breaking news on alleged guerrilla presence in Venezuela … top FARC commander, Raul Reyes was reported undergoing a prostate operation in Rubio, Tachira … then they said a 400-man FARC camp had been discovered in Zulia.”

Santiago claims that the media wants to see a war of words between President Chavez Frias and Alvaro Uribe … “it’s not going to happen … dialogue and relations between the two men are very transparent and direct.”

www.vheadline.com Posted: Tuesday, March 18, 2003 By: Joop Kreislan

European media commentarist Joop Kreislan writes: Under the title of Security in Venezuela: A lack of Clarity on Terror, The Economist magazine could well be building a case against Venezuela. In nine main arguments, it leads the readers to deduce how ambivalent President Hugo Chavez Frias is in his attitude toward terrorism. Although it states that none of this amounts to credible evidence of Presidential complicity in terrorism, the nine arguments and conclusion clearly suggest that President Chavez Frias is ... if not an active supporter ... at least a passive accessory to terrorism.

According to the magazine, this passivity would have something to do with not doing enough to stop the fund-raising activities of terrorist groups in Isla de Margarita; not doing anything to help Colombia fight against the guerrilla; not doing anything to close the three Colombian guerilla camps in Venezuela; and with letting Venezuela be used as a transport corridor by the Colombian guerrilla.

As The Economist is a serious magazine, we have no doubt at all that it will soon publish the material evidence of its accusations. The article is not clear as to what President Chavez Frias might effectively be doing that might be called 'active terrorism.' His trip to Baghdad in 2000, his condemnation of the Afghan war, his letters to 'Carlos The Jackal' and the qualification of "terrorist" he gave to some of his opponents, seem to be his most violent and brutal terrorist sins ... because even the bombs against the Colombian and Spanish Embassies (sic) might be attributed to his radical supporters.

But, most interesting for Venezuelan historians, is the accusation that as a young army officer, he was close to Venezuelan guerrillas with links to Saddam Hussein and North Korea.

As (again) The Economist is a serious magazine, we have no doubt that it will soon give us the names of the Venezuelan guerrilla groups in activity in Venezuela 20-25 years ago, and describe the relations of those groups with Saddam Hussein ... and most important, with North Korea. I am not sure that The Economist is really objective when it says that the United States has "applauded" the military coup last April, because as we all know, the United States is "a promoter of democracy" and I cannot imagine that, as such, it can applaud a military coup against a democratically-elected President ruling the country according to its Constitution. And the very truth it that we have not seen any US official clearly clapping in his hands.

To some suspicious readers, the last sentence of the article might sound just like a veiled threat, mentioning that the United States would not tolerate any ambivalence of Mr. Chavez on the terrorist issue. But I know it is not the case, because The Economist ... a magazine which condemns terrorism ... would never try to create terror in a foreign population or in a democratically-elected administration, by threatening with military invasion or occupation.

And those who have listened to the clear condemnation of terrorism made by President Chavez Frias in different speeches, have no doubt at all that we are facing a constructed and artificial accusation with no basis for worry. If this article had been published in another period of history, it might have been very irrelevant because it is rich in rumors and poor on hard facts. But, published the week in which Mr. Bush ... notwithstanding the opposition of the international community and public opinion ... is almost starting a war against Iraq in order "to bring democracy to the region," this article needs to be taken seriously.

In order to maintain its worldwide credibility, The Economist should publish its material evidence, if any.

And if the Venezuelan government has no active or passive terrorist sin to confess, it must clearly communicate to international public opinion, community and the media, its clear condemnation of terrorism.

Joop Kreislan, European Media Commentarist based in Amsterdam (Netherlands). independent Researcher, Lecturer, Writer and Journalist. Soon to be published: "The dictatorhsip of the media: truth o lies? An investigation into European media"