www.vheadline.com Posted: Wednesday, March 05, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Relatively unknown children’s affairs researcher Maria Angelica Sepulveda has been elected to serve on Child Watch International board of directors for the 2003-2006 period.

• Sepulveda is director of the Metropolitan University Infancy & Family Research Center. “It’s a real honor and recognition of the work our center has been doing for children and the family.

Child Watch International Research Network is based in Oslo, Norway and is said to be a leading light in the research of children’s standards of living throughout the world ... it has centered research over the last couple of years on the implementation of children’s rights.  She was elected at a conference of directors in Thailand to which she was invited.

www.granma.cu BY MARIA VICTORIA VALDES-RODDA —Granma International staff writer—

WITH the imperative of achieving a new Venezuelan economic model mainly benefiting a large part of the population, President Hugo Chavez has assured that his government "is ready to neutralize any intended terrorist act."

This refers to the recent attacks in the Spanish and Colombian diplomatic offices in Caracas and the failed sabotage of the oil industry in Zulia state. "Terrorism in this country will be defeated in the same way that Bolivarians put an end to last December’s strike," insisted Chavez on his "Alo Presidente" program of Sunday, March 2.

"If we have to repel the terrorists with weapons, then they will be repelled with weapons," he asserted, later stressing that such people will not get their way in Venezuela. In this context, he appealed to the ministries of defense, the interior and justice to "fulfill the sacred duty of protecting the homeland." The Venezuelan leader put the same request to the heads of garrisons.

THE GUILTY WILL BE FOUND

After the late February events that attempted to blame on the Bolivarian revolution of encouraging a climate of chaos and lack of security, Venezuelan Vice president Vicente Rangel recalled that "Venezuela is a country that does not have a history of terrorism like other countries and we are concerned about what precisely happened in the early morning of the 25 (February), because it seems to us that it is a kind of unprecedented macro neo-terrorism."

He announced that the national assembly had approved an anti-terrorist law, and in his own words: "This now obliges us to act in the light of these new circumstances, for what we are going to create is an anti-terrorist mechanism in Venezuela."

The law consists of five points and, according to PL, emphatically and unequivocally rejects the bomb attacks on the Spanish and Colombian facilities. It likewise condemns all forms of terrorism and calls on the relevant authorities to carry out effective investigations that end with the capture and sentencing of the guilty parties.

The body of the new legislation advocates for a national campaign in favor of democratic rights, human rights and peace, aimed at achieving understanding and conciliation among all social sectors.

On February 26, Rangel warned U.S. State Department spokesman Phil Reeker to "be more careful with his rhetoric." He was alluding to the Washington government’s opinions on the embassy attacks that painted Chavez as instigating violence.

UNSUCCESSFUL TERRORIST ACTIONS

In a long explanation on radio and television given during the first weekend in March, Venezuela’s leader accused the opposition of being happy with its attacks on the foreign embassies and of continuing with its tentative attempts to boycott the oil industry.

He denounced how they had sealed the valves of gas ducts en route to the Paraguaná refinery complex and that were it not for timely intervention by the National Guard, the plant’s workers and other security organizations, the plant would have exploded.

Cable dispatches datelined March 3 referred to the fact that 30,000 barrels of unleaded gasoline had been produced at the Paraguaná refinery, which experts mark as an important recovery for the sector.

Ivan Hernandez, the plant’s general manager, assured that in the first 15 days of the current month, the definitive reactivation process of the Paraguaná (the world’s largest refinery complex of its type) would be complete, allowing the country to stop importing gasoline.

PL reports that in his words on Sunday, Chavez referred to the attacks on the Colombian Consulate and the Spanish Office for Ibero American Cooperation, stressing: "There are very few people in the country who are trained in the use of explosives and those who are, we have registered.

"After the failure of the April 2002 coup, some destabilizing sectors are now placing their money on terrorism and also on attempts to paralyze the oil industry," he declared.

Nevertheless, the president affirmed that the opposition has not managed to affect the government’s good relations with friendly countries.

"The leaders of these incidents are trying to endanger links with Spain and Colombia, aiming to create international conflict; but they have not achieved their objectives and, conversely, representatives of these countries have rejected all forms of violence," highlighted Chavez.

REACTIVATING THE ECONOMY

Although the anti-terrorism fight was one of the main aspects analyzed in the president’s speech, he also touched on other topics of national interest, such as reactivating the economy.

Chavez reiterated the people’s will to move towards building a new development model, mentioning a new hydro-electrical center in Caruachi. The project is vital for generating 2.1 million kilowatts in 2005.

"Caruachi is one of the largest and most important projects in the continent and will create great economic and employment benefits for the entire Guayana region," he explained.

During his weekly radio and television program, Venezuela’s leader repeated the project’s outlines: more employment, incomes and work plus a guaranteed better quality of life for Venezuelan people.

"The time has come to transform the economic model, we have to supercede the 20th century economic model, a model that created wealth for a minority and poverty for the majority; a model based on inequality that has created unemployment and poverty; it was the model of exclusion," he emphasized.

Despite his concerns, Chavez said he had no intention of "getting rid of the country’s business class, rather to call on businesspeople to reflect."

"I call on all honest businesspeople in Venezuela to reflect. They cannot let themselves be used by coup plotters, by fascists and terrorists, because the future belongs to all Venezuelan people," concluded Chavez.

web.worldbank.orgmenuPK:34463-pagePK:34370piPK:34424theSitePK:4607,00.html Also available in : Portuguese Spanish   Press Release No: 2003/242/LAC Contacts: Alejandra Viveros (202) 473-4306 Aviveros@worldbank.org Lee Morrison  (202)-458-8741 Lmorrison1@worldbank.org

WASHINGTON, March 5, 2003.- Women in the Latin America and the Caribbean have made significant advances with regard to equality but traditional social patterns continue to undermine their participation in the labor market, and hinder the ability of households to escape from poverty, a new study of the World Bank indicates.

According to Challenges and opportunities for gender equality in Latin America and the Caribbean, prepared to commemorate International Women’s Day on March 8, women have made significant improvements in education and access to the labor market. However, the report indicates that there is much to be done with regard to poverty and social exclusion, reproductive health care and protection from domestic violence.

“In spite of the significant progress over the past 20 years, gender inequalities remain   an obstacle to the full development of the countries in the region,” said Maria Valéria Pena, Leader of the World Bank’s Gender Unit for Latin America and the Caribbean. “Inequality translates into losses resulting from the unrealized potential of women’s full integration in the economy, the social and economic cost of violence against women, and the loss in human capital from maternal mortality and pregnant girls and boys who drop out of school.”

The study, which describes the most important changes in the condition of women in Latin America and the Caribbean over the past two decades and the challenges, both by region and by country, points out that even though the participation of the women in the formal economy has continued to increase, there are still obstacles -especially those in rural areas and affecting indigenous women.

Overall, the participation of women in the labor market continues to be much lower than that of men. In Brazil, 56 percent of women take part in the labor market; in Chile, 44 percent; Colombia 56 percent, Mexico 43 percent and Peru 55 percent, while in all of these countries the participation of men is over 88 percent 

Although the salary divide between genders has narrowed considerably in many countries such as Honduras, Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina and Mexico, women earn less than men in all countries of the region with the exception of Costa Rica. In Argentina, women earn 98 percent of what men earn, in Mexico 89 percent, in Colombia 84 percent, in Peru 80 percent, 77 percent in Brazil and Chile, in El Salvador 74 percent, and in Nicaragua 64 percent.

Factors contributing to this phenomenon include the large-scale participation of women in the service sector, which is generally the most poorly paid sector of the economy. What’s more, women are generally the ones who are responsible for caring for their families, often leading to a higher turnover rate in the labor force and a preference for part-time work.

“Even though Latin American women have almost reached the same level of education as men, and in some countries have even surpassed them, they continue to participate less in the labor market and earn less than men”, writes María Elena Ruiz Abril, author of the World Bank report. “This is a fundamental issue that should be addressed by public policies”.

This situation is all the more acute for rural women, since they also deal with high fertility rates, a high number of dependents and lack of access to land. Although access to land has significantly increased in countries such as Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Chile and El Salvador, Mexico is the country with the region’s biggest gender gap in land ownership, with women only holding 21 percent of all land titles.

The report shows that women, especially older women and heads of household, are more vulnerable to poverty. Accordingly, discrimination concerning access to education and to health care puts indigenous women at a disadvantage at the same time they are fighting against poverty and social exclusion.

“In order to address poverty in Latin American households, we need policies and programs aimed at redressing gender inequalities, since they will benefit not only women, but their families and the Latin American society as a whole,” said Ernesto May, World Bank Director for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management in Latin America and the Caribbean..

To do this, the report recommends labor policies aimed at reducing the barriers that women face, particularly, poor women, when attempting to enter the job market. These policies include increasing the number of daycare centers, providing family planning services, and a more equitable distribution of the workload at home.

With regard to health care, the document points out that even though maternal mortality has decreased in most countries, it continues to be women’s principal healthcare problem, above all in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic. AIDS, in turn, has become one of the most serious problems in the Caribbean, where men and women suffer from a similar level of infection.

In education, the gap between men and women has been closing in all countries in the region, and in some, women have reached a higher level of education than men, such as in Brazil, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Argentina, Jamaica, Nicaragua and Colombia. This is due to the fact that fewer boys enroll in school and leave school more frequently in order to help their families economically. However, during economic crises, it is the daughters that parents are more likely to take out of school.

For its part, the study emphasizes that domestic violence “remains a challenge for countries across the region”, with Haiti being the country with the highest rate of the female population affected (70 percent). According to the document, “the risk of physical abuse for women decreases with household income level and years of completed schooling, and increases with marriage and, disturbingly, with  women’s independent income in certain countries.” 

The document explains that even though there are some gender problems that are shared in most of the countries in the region, such as maternal mortality, these same countries often have their own unique development challenges related to gender.

While access to the labor market is the main problem for Mexico, Chile, Uruguay and Venezuela, in Colombia it is domestic violence, and in Guyana, French Guiana and Surinam, maternal mortality. Argentina has problems related to the job market and teenage pregnancy; in Brazil, the labor market and maternal mortality are the foremost problems; in Central America, Ecuador, Peru and Paraguay, the main problems are maternal mortality and domestic violence; in Bolivia, they are maternal mortality and teenage pregnancy and in the Caribbean, AIDS and domestic violence are the greatest problems.

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To read Challenges and opportunities for gender equality in Latin American and the Caribbean online, please click here: 

For more information about the World Bank’s work in Gender in the Latin America and Caribbean region, please visit: www.worldbank.org/lacgender

www.vheadline.com Posted: Wednesday, March 05, 2003 By: David Coleman

Ultimas Noticia claims that CICPC Homicide Division detectives have identified three suspects in the murder of three Plaza Altamira rebel soldiers and a teenage girl which opposition propagandists had claimed were killed by pro-government supporters.

Originally accused of the horror, Military Intelligence (DIM) agent Edgar Machado has been freed of all suspicions and investigators say that, instead, evidence is clearly pointing towards that the crime was committed by rebel security personnel close to the opposition Plaza Altamira HQ.

Investigation files and documentation have been filed at the Prosecutor General's Office revealing that the killings bear all the hallmarks of a personal revenge attack by the perpetrators who are now subject to search & capture warrants to be brought to trial by the courts.

english.pravda.ru 14:31 2003-03-05

While President Chavez keeps on searching for a responsible of the attack to the Colombia's Consulate in Caracas, the Government of Alvaro Uribe handles reports that may prove cooperation between Venezuela and the FARC. The Administrative Security Department of Colombia (DAS) said that was after information about rebel groups illegally crossing the Venezuelan border to avoid Security Forces.

The Colombian department of Arauca is an area badly controlled by the Government and has the longest border with Venezuela. According with these reports, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Liberation National Army (ELN) usually find shelter in the Venezuelan State of Arupe.

In declarations to the Spanish Press Agency EFE, DAS' Chief in Arauca, Hugo Hernan Jimenez, said that FARC's forces "permanently" crossed the border with Venezuela. Also, other official sources confirmed that this was a normal procedure after guerrilla's actions in the area.

Colombia's President, Alvaro Uribe, had complained last week on the lack of cooperation from neighbor to fight insurgency. In turn, Chavez warned Colombia he might break off diplomatic ties if Uribe insisted in the accusations.

After Chavez warnings, an explosion rocked the Colombia's Consulate in Caracas, but the Government repudiated the actions. Bogota did not complain to its neighbor for the action, but surely expects a clear explanation on what happened.

Both countries share a 2,219 kilometers mountainous border very difficult to control. Colombian rebel groups, mostly the FARC, get benefited from the hard terrain to operate safely.

Last Saturday, Colombia's and Venezuela's Security Forces uncovered, during a joint operation, a truck carrying 1.5 tons of explosives; the cargo was to be used by the FARC to blow up a bridge. Also, Venezuela delivered four Colombian citizens presumably connected with the bombing attack to a nightclub in Bogota.

Alvaro uribe thanked the attitude of the Venezuelan authorities, but asked for more cooperation to fight guerrilla's warfare. However, if Colombia's intelligence services find connections between Chavez and the rebel groups, the political temperature will quickly rise between the left wing Venezuela and the far right wing Government of Colombia.

Hernan Etchaleco PRAVDA.Ru Argentina