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CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned the world to stop meddling in the domestic affairs of his troubled South American nation on Sunday, as police locked up a strike leader on "civil rebellion" charges.

The populist president accused the United States and Spain of siding with his enemies, warned Colombia he might break off diplomatic relations, and reprimanded the chief mediator in tortuous peace talks for stepping "out of line."

"I ask all of the countries of this continent and of the world ... are you going (to) stop this meddling?" Chavez asked angrily, during his state-sponsored television show 'Alo Presidente.' "This is a sovereign nation."

The tongue-lashing followed a recent flurry of diplomatic communiques expressing concern over Carlos Fernandez, a strike leader and prominent businessman who was yanked out of a Caracas steakhouse on Thursday at gunpoint by police.

A judge placed the silver-haired executive under house arrest on Sunday to await trial for charges of civil rebellion and criminal instigation, which could land him up to 26 years in prison. He spearheaded a two-month nationwide shutdown by oil workers and industry in a failed bid to force elections.

Chavez carped that the same international worry by diplomats over Fernandez wasn't shown when he was briefly ousted in a 48-hour coup last year. He said some countries, including Spain and the United States, applauded the putsch.

"It's worth remembering that the Spanish ambassador was here, in this room, applauding the coup. So the Spanish government is going (to) keep commenting?" Chavez asked.

"We say the same thing to the government in Washington. Stop making mistakes ... A spokesman comes out there saying he's worried. No! This is a Venezuelan matter."

Venezuela's crisis has drawn the international spotlight with leaders afraid the world's No. 5 supplier of oil could slide into civil war as Chavez allies and enemies face off.

Hailed by supporters as a champion of the poor, reviled by enemies as an ignorant dictator, Chavez has pledged to crack down on enemies of his self-styled "revolution."

Chavez crushed an oil walkout by firing 13,000 dissident workers, and laughed off the two-month-old strike which hurt the private sector and was meekly abandoned in early February.

He won an arrest warrant for another strike leader, union boss Carlos Ortega, and threatens to lock up a group of media moguls he dubs the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse."

The United States, Spain and four other countries have dispatched diplomats to the negotiating table in a bid to defuse tensions fueling the crisis. But the talks have so far proven fruitless, and Chavez on Sunday seemed pushing away members the six-nation group.

Chavez reserved his most severe criticism for Cesar Gaviria, who is the chief mediator in talks to end the political deadlock. Gaviria, a former Colombian president, is the head of the Organization of American States.

"Mr. Gaviria, this is a sovereign nation, sir. You were president of a country. Don't step out of line," Chavez said.

The maverick leader, whose fiery rhetoric inflames adversaries, also took time on Sunday to include Colombia in his tirade. The neighboring nation's foreign minister accused Chavez last week of meeting frequently with rebel leaders.

Chavez has always denied those allegations, and on Sunday criticized the country for providing asylum for Venezuela's brief president during the April coup -- Pedro Carmona.

"What do they want? For us to break off (diplomatic) relations? That we break off ties?" Chavez exclaimed.

"Over there in Colombia they had a party on the day of the coup ... They applauded Carmona and they have Carmona over there in Bogota. He lives over there, that fugitive."

Venezuela's internal standoff has left at least seven dead and scores injured in street violence since December. Police are also investigating last week's killings of three dissident soldiers and an anti-Chavez protester, which relatives of the victims blame on political persecution.

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www.chron.com Feb. 23, 2003, 11:04PM Houston International Scene By MAE GHALWASH Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

Latin Americans are closely watching the newly elected leftist Brazilian government's reform policies, which are a middle ground between socialist and free-market strategies, Enrique Hidalgo-Noriega, a senior analyst for the New York-based Eurasia Group, said in Houston last week.

Having been hit by a series of political upheavals and economic crises, Latin Americans have reached a "crossroads," with people wondering whether to continue with political and economic reforms toward democracy and free markets, Hidalgo-Noriega said.

Some politicians blame the reforms for the crises, while others insist the reforms are insufficient, Hidalgo-Noriega said. The Brazilian government of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva believes that the solution lies somewhere in between: reforms are necessary but should be coupled with some government control, Hidalgo-Noriega said.

Lula's people criticize past economic reforms for giving too much autonomy to state companies and too much power to regulating agencies.

"The government wants to have a greater say in planning and administration," Hidalgo-Noriega said. "The objective is to take back some of the autonomy and the power."

One example is the planned sale of major hydroelectric plants, which, according to energy reports, are not likely to be auctioned off to the highest bidder but to the company that will offer better terms for consumers. Also, the government appointed some loyalists to the state-oil firm Petrobas but kept many of the company's experienced career employees.

Energy pundits have said the moves hint of socialism, but they are not absolute dismissals of free market policies. Hidalgo-Noriega agrees and points out that Brazil is not heading in the direction of Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez has appointed political comrades with little or no business or energy experience to run the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela S.A.

While Hidalgo-Noriega says he supports more autonomy and power for companies and agencies, he points out, for example, that Brazil's energy sector has had failings, like the blackouts of 2001. Whether the government's new approach will correct these failings is something pundits are waiting to see, he said.

As for Latin America, the looming war with Iraq is hindering its emergence from its crises, the analyst said. The effect the war will have on world economy undoubtedly will delay any economic recovery in countries like Argentina, which has just started to recover from its crisis.

For Mexico, whose development depends on the United States, the war is particularly troublesome. The government of President Vincente Fox is caught between wanting to appease America in its move toward war and its fear of alienating the Mexican people, who are largely against the war, in an election year.

A delay in economic recovery would cause the general populations to "not equate democracy with prosperity, but with poverty," Hidalgo-Noriega said.

International calendar:

·Brazil/Venezuela: Paulo Sotero, Washington correspondent for the leading Brazilian newspaper O Estado Des Paulo, will discuss how the leaders of Brazil and Venezuela might direct their countries through reform or crisis at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Westin Galleria Hotel, 5060 W. Alabama. Reservations are required. Call the Houston World Affairs Council at 713-522-7811.

·Eurasia: The Greater Houston Partnership will present a workshop on Eurasia, focusing on oil and gas projects and the investment opportunities there. The event is at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday at the GHP, 1200 Smith St., Suite 700. Today is the last day to register. Call Cari Broderson at 713-844-3635.

·United Nations: The United Nations Association-Houston is organizing a group for young professional people of diverse ethnic backgrounds who are interested in international affairs. The meeting starts at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the Whole Foods Market, 4001 Bellaire Blvd. Reservations are required. Call 713-626-7410.

·Great Britain: Louis Markos, professor of English at Houston Baptist University, will discuss British romantic poetry. at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Briar Club, 2603 Timmons Lane. Reservations for the event, which includes dinner, are required. Call the English-Speaking Union at 713-666-1044.

·Japan: The Kodo Drummers of Japan will perform in Houston to help commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Japan-U.S. relationship and the 100th anniversary of the Texas-Japan relationship. The event starts at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Jones Hall, 615 Louisiana. Reservations are required. Call 713-2274772.

www.dailytrojan.com William Goodwin Kim Culotta | Daily Trojan

I find absolute rulers terrifying. Of late, one in particular has been weighing on my mind. At the helm of an oil-producing nation, he's guilty of numerous abuses of human rights and restricting freedom, accused of assassinating potential threats to his power, and is alleged to have ties to terrorists. He's a clear threat to regional stability and global security.

I don't have monsters under my bed. I have Hugo Chavez.

While that other deceptive and destabilizing dictator plagues more distant, though no less important regions, the Americas can be happy knowing they have their own autocratic ruler. President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, by imprisoning opposition leaders and, some say, orchestrating the assassinations of dissidents, has crossed the line from bully to tyrant.

In four years, Chavez has managed to undermine Venezuela's democracy, drive a growing economy into the dirt, foment unrest in an unstable region and, allegedly, support a number of terrorist groups.

Long held up as a paradigm of democracy for Latin and South America, major cracks began appearing in Venezuela's political structure at the end of the 1980s. Oil revenues had managed to prevent a fierce class dichotomy for more than 30 years; however, the last decade saw the birth of a populist movement.

Accusations of political corruption and squandered oil profits set poor against rich. Chavez was on the vanguard of this movement. In 1992, Colonel Chavez led an attempted coup with other military leaders. His subsequent imprisonment spanned more than two years and another failed military coup.

Popular support garnered him a pardon before the end of his term and ultimately carried him to election as president, after he assumed the mantle of democracy. Considering his past, one might conclude that Chavez takes, shall we say, a more "forceful" approach to governing. Over the course of his time in office, the president-turned-dictator has been quite obliging and done absolutely nothing to dissuade anyone of that opinion.

The latest child in the lineage of democratic leaders-turned-tyrants (think Robert Mugabe or Alberto Fujimori), Chavez immediately altered the constitution to permit him a second term. Media criticism accelerated the restriction of free speech. An assembly of appointed stooges replaced the popularly elected congress. With increasing regularity, basic republican values were being trampled.

The rise of authoritarian rule coincided with a vicious decline in the economy. The Washington Post commented last year, "(Chavez's) senseless mix of populist and socialist decrees seriously damaged the economy and galvanized opposition from businesses, media and the middle class."

Chavez tried to deflect criticism of his feckless economic initiatives by heaping invective on the upper classes.

Oil officials were described as "living in luxury chalets where they have orgies, drinking whiskey." The hierarchy of the Catholic Church (Venezuela is 96 percent Roman Catholic) has also endured constant attacks, according to Chavez's BBC profile. His recurring theme on his weekly call-in television address and in his addresses to the national assembly is the rift between the haves and have-nots.

Increasing poverty and economic hardship, however, have disillusioned many of the poor, on whose shoulders Chavez rose to power. Things have reached a boiling point this year. Already, Chavez has narrowly avoided an attempted coup by the military (prompted by Chavez's orders to open fire on civilian protesters outside the presidential palace). Rallies that once were massive displays of support now ring with cries for new elections.

Most recently, worsening conditions prompted a general strike that crippled oil production. The bitter fight for new elections and/or Chavez's immediate ouster let petroleum exports fall to 250,000 barrels a day, down from 3,000,000. With Venezuela typically responsible for roughly 10 percent of the United State's imports, the near-anarchy has had an immediate negative impact on our economy, albeit mildly negative.

As if alienating his own people was not enough, Chavez decided to take it to the next level and try on the international community. Besides being a good personal friend of the bearded pajama revolutionary himself, in the summer of 2000, he wined and dined with everyone's three favorite regimes; Iran, Iraq and North Korea.

U.N. sanctions notwithstanding, the-man-who-would-be-Bolivar was enchanted by the desert nations, specifically Baghdad. "His courting of Fidel Castro, Colombia's Marxist guerrillas and Saddam Hussein made him a pariah both in Latin America and in Washington," the Post reported.

Even more troubling are allegations of support for international terrorist organizations. Several high-ranking military defectors, including the former head of the border service, claim Chavez has helped conceal the identities of terrorists, many Middle Eastern, passing through the country. More fantastically, and more likely fabricated, is the charge that he funneled money to al-Qaida in October 2001, in the guise of humanitarian aid.

The testimony of former higher-ups should be taken with more than a grain of salt; however, the claims are entirely possible. Chavez has done nothing to crack down on the drug smuggling taking place in the border regions that directly benefts Colombian rebels. And he has sent members of his fanatical civilian support groups, his Bolivarian Circles (often referred to as "Circles of Terror"), to Cuba for "unspecified training."

His contentious and troublesome history aside, Chavez deserves special attention now as he carries out his pledge to make those behind the recently defeated strike pay for challenging his authority. "Twelve-armed men kidnapped the four victims on Saturday night as they were leaving a protest. They were bound and gagged, and some were tortured before the gunmen executed them, the police said," the New York Times reported Wednesday.

The killings of the three dissident soldiers and an opposition organizer, while perhaps not directly authorized by Chavez, were undoubtedly politically motivated. The Bolivarian Circles have been known to physically threaten protesters with violence. To counter this, some protesters have formed their own armed bands, raising the terrible, if still distant, specter of all-out urban warfare between opposing camps.

Such an apocryphal warning may be necessary, however, as Venezuela continues to destabilize. Labor-government negotiations are on the cusp of dissolving, and the possibility has led many to take to the streets in protests dwarfing antiwar crowds in the United States.

The downward spiral of Venezuela, both country and leader, demands close observation from the United States. Without constant attention to the democratic devolution and the ascension of Chavez the dictator, the prospect of having to a face another Saddamite is not so easy to ignore. Only this time, it's in our backyard.

Editorial columnist William Goodwin is an undeclared freshman. To comment on this article, call (213) 740-5665 or e-mail dtrojan@usc.edu.

www.guardian.co.uk Agencies in Caracas Monday February 24, 2003 The Guardian

The Caracas central court has put a leading opponent of President Hugo Chavez under house arrest on charges of civil rebellion and criminal instigation.

Carlos Fernandez, president of the Fedecameras, the chamber of commerce, was seized by the state security police during a midnight raid on a restaurant in the capital, Caracas, on Wednesday.

The court dismissed a charge of treason, and two other charges, during a 13-hour preliminary hearing which ended yesterday morning, and confined him to his home in Valencia, in west Venezuela.

The president's opponents linked it to the issuing of a warrant for the arrest of Carlos Ortega, another leader of the political strike intended to bring down the regime, described it as the beginning of a political witch hunt.

Mr Ortega, a trade union leader and one of the president's fiercest critics, has gone into hiding.

Mr Fernandez, 52, told Globovision television: "They treated me very well, they respected all my rights."

Applauding the judge's decision during his weekly television address, Mr Chavez described Mr Fernandez as "a terrorist and a coup-plotter".

"Let the decision be obeyed; it is the court's order. If it were up to me he wouldn't be at home, he would be behind bars," he added.

Julio Borges, of the Justice First party, said: This is like someone giving you a huge blow to the head and then handing out sweets, when they drop some of the charges and put you under house arrest. But the whole incident makes no legal sense; this is about politics."

The strike, which fizzled out in the first week of February, severely disrupted oil exports, which account for half Venezuela's state revenues.

But the state oil monopoly's headquarters is picketed by supporters of the president, some of them armed, and on Saturday night a group of policemen passing by on their way from a colleague's funeral came under fire. One was killed and five wounded, the head of the police motorcycle brigade, Miguel Pinto, said.

After a series of attacks on the police by Chavez supporters, the chief of police, Henry Vivas, ordered officers to stay away from the oil company offices to avoid clashes. But the funeral home is only a few hundred metres away.

"We never thought it would come to this," Mr Pinto said.

Mr Fernandez's arrest came a few days after the killing of three dissident soldiers and an anti-Chavez protester. The police are investigating the deaths, which relatives say were acts of political persecution.

lookbackinanger.blogspot.com

One of the things that gets lost in the international press' coverage of the crisis in Venezuela is just how compromised the judiciary has become under Chavez. Take, for example the Fernandez/Ortega arrest warrants. Here's how Reuters reported the story:

A judge ordered Fernandez and union boss Carlos Ortega, who led a crippling two-month shutdown to oust Chavez, detained for rebellion against the state, sabotage and other charges.

Seems pretty straightforward - especially to readers here in the US who presume an impartial judiciary, at least on procedural issues like arrest warrants. We expect that if a warrant is issued, certain legal requirements must have been met. We also presume that if a judge does swear out an improper warrant, there are checks and oversights that will catch the mistake.

Now let's take a more detailed look at the circumstances surrounding the Fernandez/Ortega warrants - specifically, the judge who issued them. Miguel Octavio has posted an illuminating resume for Judge Maikel Moreno at his site. The run-down:

1987- As a member of the intelligence police he is found guilty of homicide and sent to jail.

1990- Released from jail

1990- Weeks after being released, he finds a position in a Court.

2002- Is seen with Chavista Deputies during the disturbances of April 11th.

May 2002- The Head of Chavez MVR in Caracas says the party will provide defense for the gunmen filmed shooting from Puente El Llaguno at the peaceful opposition march. Among the gunmen were an MVR City Councilman and two workers of the same municipality. Then lawyer Maikel Moreno is put in charge of their defense.

September 2002- He is appointed provisional Judge by a Government panel and ratified by the Supreme Court to the position. The law says to become a judge you need to have some form of postgraduate work which Judge Moreno does not have.

February 2003- He orders the two opposition leaders detained despite of the fact that one of the charges is not even in the criminal code. The charges are brought by a prosecutor who is the niece of the Attorney General (Chavez' first Vice-President) whose area of expertise is not even criminal law.

This information certainly puts the warrant process into question, though the Reuters story doesn't even hint at this. I've heard the international media criticized as being biased against Chavez and I've also heard it being accused of being pro-Chavez. It seems to me, neither characterization is true. The problem with the international media, especially the newswires, is two-fold: first, they lack the time and resources to research their stories in depth; and second, far from being biased one way or the other, they strive to be as apolitical as possible, whenever possible, in order to project the appearance of impartial reporting. Doesn't work - they still get criticized by both sides - but they have to try.

I've received some email criticizing me for using Francisco Toro and Miguel Ocatavio - two supporters of the anti-Chavez opposition - as sources for my posts on Venezuela. There's not much I can say in response to this: I do read the pro-Chavez stuff at Narco News and ZNET, too, but I don't find it compelling. Francisco Toro, in particular, is often critical of opposition leadership and strategy; I haven't read anything on Narco News or ZNET that is critical of Chavez - even in regards to his proposed "content" laws for media coverage, something you'd expect the Chomsky-ites at ZNET and free speech defenders at Narco News to jump on and throttle. But their silence on this and other issues is conspicuous. And I have to conclude that, unlike the newswires, lack of information, and the code of journalistic ethics, isn't to blame. posted by Robert Griffin at 1:57 PM