www.vheadline.com Posted: Thursday, January 30, 2003 - 8:55:36 AM By: Matthew Riemer

International commentarist Matthew Riemer writes: This past Sunday, January 26, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez greeted a reported 100,000 supporters at the third annual World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil; this year, the forum was appropriately titled "Life after Capitalism."

Such a title is appropriate because of the transformational throes and growing pains that world society and the global economy are now entering. As globalization's reach expands and its pace quickens, so too does the resistance and crisis. The events in Venezuela over the past year are the perfect example. They represent the new economic warfare formula whereby the masses of a country (typically overwhelmingly poor) and their leader resist international forces usually comprised of the World Bank/International Monetary Fund, multinationals, and incredibly wealthy private investors.

These "international forces" are represented locally by the regional elite: bankers, union heads, wealthy businessmen, and the upper-middle class. Their goal is to de-nationalize industry and replace it with privatization, thus making accessible to foreign investment the whole of a country's resources. These resources are then developed with foreign money using cheap domestic labor while the products are almost exclusively exported.

This results in the inherent wealth (resources, human potential) of a country being siphoned off to the international "market" while the native population reaps no reward from their country's own wealth or their own labor.

• Such was the case in Argentina. Such is the case in Venezuela. And Brazil could be next.

Venezuela's biggest prize is the state-run (nationalized) oil company, PDVSA. The reasons why should be obvious: PDVSA is the country's largest company and employer; Venezuela is a member of OPEC, and the only one in the Western hemisphere at that; Venezuela is the world's fifth largest oil exporter and third largest to the United States; the oil industry accounts for a full third of the Venezuelan GDP.

Control of the PDVSA means not only incredible control of the fortunes of Venezuela but also control of the world oil market. A Venezuelan economy in the hands of the United States and their proxy financial institutions is crucial to the life of globalization as Washington, with its newfound doctrine of unprecedented militarism and unilateralism, continues to destabilize both the world economy and social fabric.

Recently, opposition forces staged a sleepover protest on a section of one of Caracas' highways. The claims that the opposition is solely made up of the pampered upper-middle class is certainly born out by the photos from the event: the scene looked like some kind of rock concert festival held in the United States or Europe where a sea of brightly colored tents, sleeping bags, and inflatable mattresses are all the eye can see. This in a country where about 75 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Yet "the opposition" looked like they'd just visited their local REI or EMS outdoor retailer.

But Chavez is still holding tight. He survived the coup last April, even after temporarily being removed from power. Now, with the current work stoppage about to enter its third month next week, there are signs that the opposition is weakening and that Chavez will hold on for yet another round.

Such resistance should be quite indicative to globalizing forces of the human spirit's newfound resolve. One can only hope that the global elite, like so many times in the past, won't let their frustration get the better of them when subtler methods fail and resort to overt and bloody repression.

[Matthew Riemer has written for years about a myriad of topics, such as: philosophy, religion, psychology, culture, and politics. He studied Russian language and culture for five years and traveled in the former Soviet Union in 1990. In the midst of a larger autobiographical/cultural work, Matthew is the Director of Operations at YellowTimes.org. He lives in the United States.]

YellowTimes.org is an international news and opinion publication.  www.YellowTimes.org  Matthew Riemer encourages your comments: mriemer@YellowTimes.org

www.vheadline.com Posted: Thursday, January 30, 2003 - 2:52:25 AM By: Robert Rudnicki

Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) officials are set to meet their Colombian counterparts in Caratagena, Colombia, in the next few days to assess what effects Venezuelan exchange rate controls might have on its ability to meet debt payments.

• The concerns revolve around the issue that businessmen in Venezuela may be unable to pay Colombian businessmen what they owe them, once exchange rate controls are put in place.

The government announced a suspension of foreign exchange trading last week, which was extended by a further five days earlier this week, as the BCV and the Finance (Hacienda) Ministry decide what measures to take to prevent the bolivar from losing anymore ground on the exchange market.

Since the start of this year the bolivar was lost around 25% of its value as concerns over the long term effects of the strike lead many Venezuelans to seek the relative safety of the US dollar.

Colombian Finance Minister Roberto Junguito says "in the next few days these payment concerns will be discussed by central bank directors from Colombia and Venezuela."

www.vheadline.com Posted: Thursday, January 30, 2003 - 2:57:23 AM By: Robert Rudnicki

According to striking Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) managers, who have already been sacked for their abandonment of their positions in support of the Coordinadora Democratica-led national work stoppage, Venezuelan oil production fell to 1.04 million barrels per day on Wednesday, down from Tuesday's 1.05 million. 

The rebel workers claim that 692,000 barrels per day is coming from production in the east of Venezuela, while production in the oil rich west of the country was languishing at around 260,000 barrels per day. The striking managers estimate production in the south to be around 92,000 barrels per day. 

However, eastern production levels are forecast to rise by as much as 300,000 barrels per day over the coming few weeks. 

The strikers' figures remain short of government estimate, with President Hugo Chavez Frias claiming that PDVSA is now producing 1.32 million barrels per day, while PDVSA president Ali Rodriguez Araque has said the production is well over one million barrels per day.

Although unclear, estimates show that over 400,000 barrels per day is now being refined, with around half of this coming from the Puerto La Cruz refinery in eastern Venezuela.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Thursday, January 30, 2003 - 2:59:22 AM By: Robert Rudnicki

According to a report published in the El Universal newspaper, the Venezuelan government is hoping to cut Petroleos de Venezuela's costs by as much as 51% by carrying out the planned restructuring of the company it announced several weeks ago.

PDVSA president Ali Rodriguez Araque announced plans to split the company into PDVSA East and PDVSA West, thus cutting out many administrative costs, mainly at the company's Caracas headquarters, where most workers continue to support the opposition's work stoppage.

The huge cost cutting is planned to come from layoffs, tax reforms, asset sales and the opening up of certain ventures to private participation.

If the cost cutting is a achieved, operating costs would be slashed by nearly $2 billion, helping the company to cope with lost sales of around $520 million per month.

Over 5,000 PDVSA workers have already been sacked and a further 1,000 are expected to be fired in the company's western operations some time over the next few days.

new.vheadline.com

I would like to present VHeadline readers with commentaries on the Venezuelan political situation, hoping to transmit the concern of many of my countrymen about the future of our country, for the benefit of those who do not already have a frozen position regarding our political problems.

In this first installment, I would like to list, first of all, the theoretical components of totalitarian regimes and of totalitarian leaders. They are mostly taken from literature and I make no claim to being original.

What is Totalitarianism?

Briefly, the exercise of limitless political power, or the attempt at doing that.

A totalitarian regime usually exhibits some of the following characteristics:

Strong Nationalism

Promotion of class struggle

Pronounced Statism

Collectivism prevailing over Individualism

Existence of "myths"  and "religious creeds" as in the Fascist "The Ten Commandments"

Considering the nation as equal to the government and government equal to a Supreme leader

The existence of groups for the defense of the system

A progressive replacement of the professional Army by paramilitary groups, as in Cuba, China and Communist Russia.

In turn the totalitarian leader exhibits some of the following characteristics (after Robert Tucker and Hanna Arendt in "Political Leadership", Univ. Pittsburg, 1986):

The Leader sits at the center of the movement

He survives by spinning intrigues and constantly changing personnel

His will is.... the Law

Remains secure not because his superior gifts about which his inner circle has no illusions but because without him everybody is lost

The Leader does not tolerate criticism

The Leader has the monopoly of explanations therefore seeming to be the only person who knows what he is doing

The Leader is infallible. Therefore he has no need to tell the truth

The totalitarian leader dominates the decision making process

The system rarely survives the Leader.

In addition to these theoretic models, I would like to add some reflections by James MacGregor Burns on what true leadership means:

Leadership is collective. One man leadership is a contradiction in terms since a symbiotic relationship between leader and the whole of society, without exclusion, is required.

Leadership is dissensual. This requires respect for dissenters and the acceptance of conflict

Leadership is causative. It produces events and creates institutions that will survive the Leader.

Leadership is not destructive.

In my second commentary I will try to describe the step by step political involution suffered by the government of Mr. Chavez.

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.  In 1998, he was presidential election campaign manager for Henrique Salas Romer and now lives in retirement on the Caribbean island of Margarita where he runs a leading Hotel-Resort.  You may contact Gustavo Coronel at email ppcvicep@telcel.net.ve