www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, February 02, 2003 - 1:55:04 PM By: Oscar Heck

VHeadline.com commentarist Oscar Heck writes: These words come from the mouth of a close friend of mine living in the Caracas barrio (slum) where I find myself at this time.

A few days ago, he and his extended family, had been interviewed by a Canadian CBC reporter (and cameraman) and with a reporter from Denmark. At their request, one member of the family escorted each for day trips through the barrio ... they interviewed and filmed throughout a good portion of the barrio.

• Visits (with interviews) to the barrios by the media is extremely rare.  Seldom does the media take the time and effort to visit and listen to people who represent a great portion of the Venezuelan population.

The reporters were surprised by several things:

1. The fact that people here in the barrio CONFIRMED that during the entire time of "el paro" (the stoppage -which began December 2, 2003 - incited by the anti-Chavez opposition), almost everything was 'business as usual' ... at least 80-90% of all stores and businesses were open and functioning, and still are. (This is unlike what was being reported by the conventional Venezuelan media who reported that the entire country was shut down and on strike).

2. That about half the people approached who were asked about what they thought of the present Venezuelan political situation refused to respond or said "Go ask the politicians or the people who attend marches and demonstrations." (Which contrasts with what much of the Venezuelan media reports are saying about increased voiced opposition support).

3. That the majority of the people believe that Chavez, through good or bad governance, had done the best thing for the people (the thing that any former government had neglected to do); to OPEN the eyes of the poor people, to give them dignity and a voice, to allow them to know and exercise their rights as human beings rather than remaining "slaves" to the richer Venezuelans. (This contrasts with what much of the Venezuelan media and opposition are trying to tell the world; that there is no division between the people, no "class" division, no racism, and that there has never been any).

The eyes of the poor have been opened and some lose their privileges.

There are some anti-Chavez opposition people that write to me saying: "ignorant, communist, socialist, leftist, Canadian -- go home!, you are blind, you do not understand Venezuela, go to Cuba ... you are an embarrassment, etc."

I suggest to the people who respond to me in this fashion to spend some time in the barrios of Caracas.

Come to the barrios to do your reporting and your interviews .... like they did ... the CBC reporter and cameraman and the reporter from Denmark.

Oscar Heck oscarheck111@hotmail.com

www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, February 02, 2003 - 1:18:41 PM By: Oscar Heck

VHeadline.com commentarist Oscar Heck writes: This morning at about 8:00 a.m. I walked over to the "parada", the main intersection and entrance to the "barrio" (slum area) where I am at this time.

The "firmazo" ("signing") began before I arrived. It's a one-day coordinated effort to collect signatures throughout all of Venezuela ... a collection of signatures in an attempt by the anti-Chavez opposition (comprised mainly of minority middle-to-upper class Venezuelans), and headed up by the Coordinadora Democratica (Democratic Coordinator), to collect millions of real signatures from people in favor of ousting President Chavez from power as quickly as possible (and this, regardless of the legal process which allows for a binding referendum in August 2003).

Here in the barrio, the line-up for the 'firmazo' ... at 8:30 a.m. ... was approximately 500 people and the organization collecting the signatures (Primera Justicia - a recently born opposition political party) was processing approximately 5-8 people per minute. By 11:00 a.m. (the time at which I write this commentary), there was no more queue ... but people are still coming to sign. They'll be open all day and into the late hours of the evening. This is the only signing station in this Caracas barrio and there are about 6 major barrios in the Caracas area, representing what I estimate to be nearly half the population of Caracas (2 million people).

I made some calculations:

• The estimated population of this barrio is about 400,000.
• If say, 10 people per minute are signed up for a period of 14 hours, a total of  8,400 signatures will have been collected by the end of the day. This represents a total of 2.1% of the population of the barrio.  Throughout Venezuela, my estimate is that at least 50% of the population lives in barrio-like conditions or worse.
• I am sure that the percentage of collected signatures will be substantially higher amongst the middle-to-upper classes throughout Venezuela (which represent, in my estimate, about 35% of the Venezuelan population).
• What portion of the Venezuelan population will be represented by the number of signatures collected?
• What if the 'firmazo' was only held in barrio-like areas, such as in the barrio I am presently at?
• What figures would we get if a 'firmazo' was done to sign up people that WANT Chavez to stay?
• What will the Coordinadora Democratica LEGALLY do with these signatures anyway?

Oscar Heck oscarheck111@hotmail.com

www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, February 02, 2003 - 10:42:59 AM By: Roy S. Carson

Violently anti-government Globovision Channel 33 TV News, caught napping Saturday in a report that (thanks to an obvious typo) extended the opposition sabotage until Monday, December 3, has hastily removed the troublesome web page at: www.globovision.com and replaced it with an admonishment that a supposed story headlined "Venevision dealing with Chavez" was not edited or published on their site:

Queremos aclarar a toda nuestra audiencia televisiva y de internet, que la información que lleva por titulo "Venevision negocia con Chavez" no fue publicada en nuestra pagina ni ha sido redactada por el personal que labora en www.globovision.com.

But, Globovision is painfully aware that the original story on that page had nothing to do with Venevision or any supposed deal with President Chavez Frias.  The headline (and we have secured a copy) dealt exclusively with the opposition stoppage and claimed that operations, depending on the necessities of each sector, would continue with restricted hours until the next Monday, December 3:

El paro pasa a la fase de "horario restringido"

La Coordinadora Democratica sugiere a los sectores privados que se mantienen en el paro civico nacional desde el pasado dos de diciembre la aplicacion de un horario restringido de operaciones, dependiendo de las necesidades de cada sector, a partir del proximo lunes 3 de diciembre.

Alejandro Armas, representante de la CD en la Mesa de Negociacion senalo que esta nueva fase de la paralizacion tiene que estar "articulada" a la consigna de protesta publica y a "la actitud de rebelde ciudadana".

Armas, aunque prefiere no hablar de la "flexibilizacion el paro", dice que la medida obedece a un "gesto de buena voluntad" y tambien un reconocimiento a la presencia del Grupo de Amigos en Venezuela, a fin de crear un espacio de "distension" para acercar la posibilidad de un acuerdo.

Globovision/EFR 31/01/2003

The original webpage -- observe the directory hierarchy! -- www.globovision.com has now been replaced with the rather lame excuse of a supposedly emailed story relating to Venevision and President Chavez.

The obvious question remains ... can/will Globovision TV face up to the truth and admit they made a silly little faux-pas typo

... or will they continue to insist on broadcasting convenient lies?

Editor's note: shortly after we originally uploaded this story to VHeadline.com, Globovision suddenly reversed their cover-up and restored the original page, complete with faux-pas.  For how long guys? Isn't it about time you made your mind up if the stoppage continues until next December 3 or already tomorrow: February 3?

www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, February 02, 2003 - 1:00:27 AM By: Michel Foster

Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 20:39:15 -0800 (PST) From: Michel Foster democraciapalapatria@yahoo.com To: editor@vheadline.com Subject: 'Pa Fuera

Dear Editor: You say Chavez was so-called "democratically" elected by the people of Venezuela. Nonsense! People cannot elect responsibly, without an education sufficient to view histories errors and past political scams.

Poverty and hunger gave the "majority" the "reasoning/reasons" to elect this person you call a President? Yes, the masses are uneducated and very poor. The previous governments made sure that this situation flourished ... it gave them the upper hand and allowed them to keep the masses under control, and Chavez is following in their footsteps.

Well tell us, how much food has Chavez put on the tables of the poor and impoverished people of Venezuela?

How much money has he put into their bank accounts?

Has he improved their quality of life?

Has the infrastructure of Venezuela improved in these last 3 years?

Their education system, has that become a model for the rest of Latin America to follow?

How about their hospitals/medical care?

And of course we all know how far the Bolivar goes nowadays since his "election"; try over 30% annual inflation. Yes, sir, that sure has improved the "quality of life" for the poor folks.

The past rulers were corrupt, this is true ... but, so is the current ruler, Chavez ... he is corrupt because he has perverted the meaning of democracy.

• He does not represent democracy; he represents an autocratic, authoritarian rule. He, who wrote his own constitution, his words only, thank you.
• He who disbanded the entire Supreme Court and replaced them with his own hand picked cronies.
• He, who disbanded the entire Congress and again replaced them with his "buddies".
• He, who has set up a system where neighbors spy and report on neighbors, do I hear shades of Hitler and the Nazis?

Oh that's right; Chavez calls this his "Circulo Boliviriano." And let's not forget his democratic ways of taking over privately owned businesses by force, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Polar, with no court orders. Dragging away executives at gunpoint, yes that certainly does sound very democratic to me. There is no such thing as group rights, group rights are merely a composition of individual rights. One of the foremost of these is property ownership, the ownership of your own labors.

Chavez cannot say he supports democracy and freedom out of one side of his mouth while advocating the confiscation of individual’s property out the other side of his mouth. It’s a short step from “I disagree with you, your property is confiscated” to “your labors belong to the government.” Yes, let's do have freedom ring a la Chavez style. Hell with that kind of democracy, I'm sure the next step will be to drag everyone that opposes him off to the ovens.

Chavez idolizes Castro and the workers paradise that he has created in Cuba. Odd isn't it, though Castro decries capitalism and the bourgeois elite, his net worth is estimated at over $300 million dollars!

Would you want to hazard a guess as to the net worth of Chavez since he was "democratically" elected, while his poor comrades have become poorer? We all know just how prosperous Cuba has become under the rule of Castro.

Venezuela for years has needed economic reform, a broader more diverse market and better use of its revenues for infrastructure and education. For the last century the benefits of Venezuela’s oil wealth have been squandered and stolen.

• Unfortunately, in an attempt to correct this situation, the Venezuelan people chose as their President a man willing to sacrifice individual freedom for his personal power.

The great majority of Venezuelan people may have only a 6th grade level of education, but they are NOT stupid ... they have realized that Chavez is not good for them or their 'patria' ... and with this awakening comes the realization that they do not have a democracy.

If Chavez truly loves his country and his countrymen, if all he wants is the best for them, then he has an obligation to listen to the masses and step down once and for all!

Let the people of Venezuela unite, stand tall and stand strong!

Let true freedom ring! 'Pa fuera Chavez!

Michel Foster democraciapalapatria@yahoo.com

www.smh.com.au February 3 2003

Crude oil prices, which reached a two-year high in London last month, might drop in the second quarter because of excess supply, the president of OPEC said.

"If Venezuela's oil output recovers in the coming weeks, we could see 3 million barrels per day of oversupply in the second quarter," Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah said in Abu Dhabi before an environmental conference.

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries would be unable to reduce prices now because of "political crisis" in Iraq, said Mr al-Attiyah, who is also the oil minister of Qatar.

Oil prices in New York have held above $US30 a barrel for six weeks, the longest period in two years. A $US5 to $US10 drop would ease pressure on economies in the US and Europe, where growth has slowed and oil demand has stagnated since 1999. The unemployment rate in the US, the world's largest oil consumer, has risen to 6 per cent. In Germany one in 10 workers is jobless.

OPEC agreed last month to increase quotas by 1.5 million barrels to 24.5 million barrels a day starting last Saturday. The move was intended to push prices below $US28 a barrel and allow some members to make up for a shortfall from Venezuela, where a two-month nationwide strike has crippled oil exports.

"Venezuela could reach 2.6 million barrels a day within weeks," Mr al-Attiyah said. "It looks like the strike in Venezuela is coming to an end."

OPEC might be forced to cut quotas when they meet on March 11 in Vienna, he said. "We will have to study the possibility of an oil surplus."

Demand for oil will drop by about 2.5 million barrels a day in the second quarter, compared with the first, Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi told reporters at a press briefing in Abu Dhabi. International inventory levels were on the low side, particularly in the US, he said.

Officials from Saudi Arabia, the top producer among OPEC countries, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have said they can do nothing to lower oil from about a two-year high because the threat of war with Iraq is inflating prices.

"What more can they do," said Salim Shaban, deputy oil minister of Oman, the sixth-largest Middle East oil producer and a non-member nation that has cooperated with OPEC to bolster prices. "You could see oil prices fall by a third if the Iraq issue were solved tomorrow," he said.

Most OPEC states are pumping as much oil as they can to fill a gap caused by a nine-week strike in Venezuela.