<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Elecronic News Posted: Friday, June 13, 2003 By: Chris Herz

Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 19:19:36 -0400 From: Chris Herz lildemocracy@earthlink.net To: Editor@VHeadline.com Subject: Iraqi Oil Sales

Dear Editor: This month, the US vice-regal authority in Iraq will begin sales in the open market of crude and refined petroleum products from their new colony.

The obvious policy will be to hold prices low, so as to be the better able to destabilize Venezuela and other OPEC countries -- ultimately to allow US interests to overthrow their governments and confiscate their oil. All the better to enable and establish the new Bush policy of global hegemony through control of oil.

At the same time, the US satrapy in Colombia is seeking to push fighting, and social instability up to and over the border into your country.

The people of Venezuela and other countries had better expect a prolonged period of assault by both economic and military means. From the perspective of Washington, where I work, it is clear enough what is happening -- no more and no less than what Messrs Wolfowitz, Cheney and Rumsfeld have always openly advocated in their voluminous writings ... see their Project for a New American Century.

My advice, and that of other honest North Americans, will be to avoid casting blame for serious economic and security problems on your own (Venezuelan) government ... but rather look to the origins of the problems, right here in the US capital.

In the last US election, 87% of the male Anglo vote, and 63% of their sisters, went to Bush ... these people know where the cheap fuel for all those sport utility vehicles is going to come from. And with a $550 billion foreign exchange deficit, they're not interested in paying a fair market price for this commodity ... nor will they tolerate paying in any currency but all the dollars they can print.

Like it or not ... Venezuela is now exposed on the front line of the struggle for American Empire.

Chris Herz lildemocracy@earthlink.net

<a href=www.fayettevillenc.com>Fayetteville Online Published on: 2003-06-13 By Al Greenwood Staff writer

Summer drivers will probably pay more money at the pump this travel season because oil prices continue to increase.

The average price of a barrel of oil reached $30.72 on June 2, according to the Energy Information Administration. On Thursday, the price closed at $31.73. Before June, the last time the price of oil was above $30 per barrel was April 21, when it reached $30.76.

In Fayetteville, the average price of a gallon of gasoline was $1.39 on Thursday, according to AAA Carolinas. That's lower than $1.42, the average price for last month. But Thursday's figure is still 6 cents higher than last year's average.

On average, gasoline prices take two to five weeks to follow the trend of oil prices, said Ron Planting, an economist at the American Petroleum Institute, a trade group in Washington.

Chet Sechrest said he already has noticed the increase. He was filling up his 1991 Jeep Cherokee on Thursday at the Family Fare station at 2036 Gillespie St. A gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was selling for $1.419.

"There is no reason for an increase in gas prices," he said.

International market

World events would seem to support his claim. The strikes in oil-rich Venezuela have ended. Drilling has started in Azerbaijan, an oil-exporting country between Russia and Turkey. Oil production has resumed in Iraq.

Yet Sechrest is paying more for gasoline than last week, he said.

In the Southeast, the average price of a regular gallon of gas has risen from $1.570 on June 2 to $1.586 on Monday, according to the Energy Information Administration.

"I was hoping it would go down, to tell you the truth, but I don't like the increase," said Dennis Williams of Fayetteville. He was filling up his company truck at the Quick Stop at 1302 Robeson St. A gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was $1.419.

Williams owns D&D Refinishing, a company that restores furniture. His business requires a lot of driving, Williams said. To lower his travel expenses, he said, he tries to group appointments in the same region.

Gasoline prices typically increase during the summer because more people are driving, said Michael Walden, an economics professor at N.C. State University.

Prices also have increased because forecasters overestimated the amount of oil that Iraq would be exporting after the war.

If oil prices remain at $30 a barrel, it will not slow down the economy, Walden said. But it will slow down Sechrest.

He said he is riding his bike more often to save money.

Staff writer Al Greenwood can be reached greenwooda@fayettevillenc.com or at 486-3567.

June 13 (<a href=quote.bloomberg.com>Bloomberg) -- Venezuela sold $900 million of bonds to China and Qatar this week, the Financial Times reported, citing unidentified people in London and Caracas.

The debt sale was a private placement, the FT said, a transaction in which securities are sold directly to the buyers rather than through a public offering.

Finance Minister Tobias Nobrega also is considering offering investors an exchange of existing foreign-currency bonds for new longer-term debt, the report said. Nobrega met with investors in London last week, the FT said.

Venezuela is trying to stretch out debt payments after losing about $4 billion in revenue during a strike in December and January aimed at ousting President Hugo Chavez. The economy shrank 29 percent in the first quarter, the worst recession in the South American country's history.

The government swapped about $2.7 billion in domestic debt last year and another $445 million this year.

Chinese companies are competing to participate in a $675 million paper pulp project with Corporacion Venezolana de Guayana, Venezuela's state heavy-industries holding company. The company plans to pick a partner this year.

(Financial Times 6-13, 45)

For the Financial Times' Web site, see {FITM } Last Updated: June 13, 2003 05:12 EDT

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Friday, June 13, 2003 By: David Coleman

VHeadline.com commentarist Gustavo Coronel's often controversial editorials are getting an airing on a United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Canada website where one of his recent thought-provoking editorials has been brought to the attention of some 230,000 trade union members participating actively in the Canadian Labor Congress and Provincial Labor Federations.

The UFCW website says that while Coronel's More Leaders and less Power Addicts, published May 30, pertains to Venezuela and is not directly aimed at unions, the topics of power and leadership are always relevant to union reformers.

Many union reformers are tired of existing leaders whose main objective is a desire to achieve and hold onto to power.

Coronel states in his article that power addicts and leadership are old foes. The names and faces of the holders of power have changed over the course of time, but most have only had a lust for power and many were promoters of misery and ignorance.

True leaders on the other hand are rarely officially elected to positions of power says Coronel, but play a part in influencing change.

Robert C. Tucker's book Politics as Leadership brings forth the concept of leaders in the platonic sense, one that has to do with inspiring followers to better themselves and work together rather than reducing followers to the condition of members of a herd.

James MacGregor Burns in his book Leadership states that leadership has to do with the persuasion of followers "to act for certain goals which represent the values, the motivations, the needs, the aspirations and expectations of both leaders and followers." Burns also distinguishes between leaders and power-wielders.

Leaders, in Burns view, are there to satisfy the motives of their followers whereas power-wielders are intent only on realizing their own purposes.

If we were to use Burns' analysis, where would those who run our unions fit? Leaders or power wielders?

Are your union's leaders power-wielders as defined by Burns? Do they use a transactional or transforming leadership style?

In the union reform arena, will there still be room for leaders as we know them today or will the word "leader" have a different context? Is there a need for power wielding leaders within unions at all or are workers capable of deciding their own values and motives? Are union reformers really union transformers?

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Friday, June 13, 2003 By: Gustavo Coronel

VHeadline.com commentarist Gustavo Coronel writes: When I am in Caracas, my morning walk takes me along streets lined with "samanes" and "jabillos" which are pretty old now, but keep their majestic appearance. The lush foliage retards the morning light and one walks as in a forest, although in the middle of La Florida residential section. This is one of the remnants of the old, colonial Caracas. One of the avenues, Los Jabillos, is home to one of the oldest funeral homes in Caracas. As is often the case, there is a drugstore nearby ... there should be a clinic as well, since these three things always go hand in hand in most Venezuelan cities but, somehow, there is not. In place of the clinic there's a bakery.

My walk also goes by the street where the headquarters of Petroleos de Venezuela are located. I could choose to cut this street out of my route but I'm fascinated ... somewhat masochistically ... by the new aspect of the place, with small tents from which food and soft drinks are for sale and with groups of "vikingos" looking for empty bottles and cans to collect and sell.

• "Vikingos," vikings, don't ask me why, is a term applied in Venezuela to the usually harmless homeless and chronic drunkards, possibly because of their long hair and unkempt appearance.

Well, today, I had a very pleasant encounter with someone I had not seen for over 30 years ... yes, that long ... as I was walking south, I saw this man walking towards me. He looked familiar ... he looked at me in perplexity, and we both recognized each other almost simultaneously. "Tabaquito," I said, as he called me "Dr. Gustavo" ... the way I have been called most of my life by those who do not dare to be over-familiar, but feel that I am not formal enough to be treated with protocol. At any rate, we embraced each other with some difficulty, as I am slightly over 6 feet and he is, perhaps, around 4½ and I already have some problems bending.

"Tabaquito" (small cigar) is ebony black and now has light gray, "chicharron," hair. He has gained a few pounds since I saw him last. "Tabaquito" is the closest I have seen to a pigmy ... those fellows who played in the Tarzan movies ... I could easily picture him with a long blowpipe, hunting in the forests surrounding the Kilimanjaro.

When I became a Shell executive ... way back in 1971 ... one of the first persons I met was "Tabaquito."  He was in charge of delivering our newspapers every morning. No matter how early I arrived at the office, my newspapers were already on my desk. "Tabaquito" always had a nice word for everyone. As he sold the newspapers all over the place, his trousers were always bulging with bills. Sometimes, when giving change, bills would fall to the floor and he had to be alerted to it, since otherwise he would leave the money behind. He constantly told secretaries how beautiful they were, and gave us systematic encouragement. He said: "I sleep soundly every night because I know that you are running the business well. We all trust you..."

And, of course, this trust from "Tabaquito" had to be honored. If I ever had a desire to take a bribe or take home a piece of office furniture,  Tabaquito's face would instantly come into focus.

Although we tended to underestimate him, and consider him just a picturesque addition to the office, we soon found out that "Tabaquito" had much more depth than we gave him credit for. He started his day at 3 a.m. and by 9 a.m. had delivered all of his newspapers. Then, he went to a school in Petare ... a poor section of east Caracas ... and dedicated three-four hours to serve as a baseball coach to the children. We found out through time that he also helped several poor children to buy books and pencils. He was an altruist. His civic vocation went beyond the call of duty. He would never talk about his work but always marveled at the work done by us.

My secretary had a special bond with "Tabaquito." Mariela was, and is, a tall, blonde woman, full of life and good humor ... her dialogues with "Tabaquito," which I sometimes overheard at the expense of my work, were masterpieces of happy talk. They dealt with love, politics and harmless social gossip.

Today, "Tabaquito" said to me: "You know, I often talk to Mariela ... she has a nice shop in Las Mercedes and I take the newspapers to her." He added: "We talk about you and about Dr. Quiros and ... " he gave a good number of names of the old guys ... he remembered details I had forgotten long ago ... he had almost total recall of those years, now distant.

He said: "You know, Dr. Gustavo, I still get up at 3 a.m. to deliver the newspapers. I now bring the newspapers to PDVSA.  Of course, now things are different, but we have to keep working."  He said he was now 81 years old ... but he did not look older than the last time I had seen him.  "I have never been sick."  Some 10 years ago, he had been run over by a car and suffered a fractured leg ... "I couldn't deliver the papers for a while, but I used to sit in front of my house (which is at a very dangerous street intersection) and started to conduct traffic from my wheelchair ... I had a good time, and I guess I prevented a few accidents."

As "Tabaquito" and I made small talk, and I did all I could to delay my departure, I could not help thinking how this man had touched so many lives and helped so many people from his apparently unimportant social position. And, as I said goodbye ... who knows until when ... I said to him: "See you around, Dr. Tabaquito." He looked surprised and then he gave me the widest of smiles.

Gustavo Coronel is the founder and president of Agrupacion Pro Calidad de Vida (The Pro-Quality of Life Alliance), a Caracas-based organization devoted to fighting corruption and the promotion of civic education in Latin America, primarily Venezuela. A member of the first board of directors (1975-1979) of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), following nationalization of Venezuela's oil industry, Coronel has worked in the oil industry for 28 years in the United States, Holland, Indonesia, Algiers and in Venezuela. He is a Distinguished alumnus of the University of Tulsa (USA) where he was a Trustee from 1987 to 1999. Coronel led the Hydrocarbons Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in Washington DC for 5 years. The author of three books and many articles on Venezuela ("Curbing Corruption in Venezuela." Journal of Democracy, Vol. 7, No. 3, July, 1996, pp. 157-163), he is a fellow of Harvard University and a member of the Harvard faculty from 1981 to 1983.   You may contact Gustavo Coronel at email gustavo@vheadline.com