www.washingtonpost.com

CARACAS, Venezuela, Jan. 20 -- Violence surged again today between supporters and opponents of President Hugo Chavez as former U.S. president Jimmy Carter renewed efforts to mediate Venezuela's political crisis. Gunfire during a protest march killed one person and wounded 15, officials said.

Chavez's government, meanwhile, told two private television stations that they were under investigation and faced possible fines for broadcasting political commercials backing a seven-week national strike against Chavez.

The governor of the state of Miranda, Enrique Mendoza, a Chavez opponent, said Chavez supporters attacked an opposition march in Charavalle, about 20 miles south of Caracas.

Raul Gonzalez, 38, who was shot in the leg, said he and other Chavez supporters blocked a road as opposition marchers approached, and both sides began tossing rocks and bottles.

"There were shots from all over," he said. "Everything was in confusion." Gonzalez said he did not know where the gunfire came from.

One opposition marcher, Mayordina Morales, 52, said both sides were throwing objects when police started shooting.

Fifteen people were wounded by gunfire, a state official said. Twelve people suffered other injuries.

Six people have died in protests since Venezuela's opposition called the strike Dec. 2, crippling the world's fifth-largest oil exporter.

Carter was meeting with Chavez, opposition figures and Cesar Gaviria, secretary general of the Organization of American States, who has been trying since November to mediate an electoral solution to the crisis. The Atlanta-based Carter Center is sponsoring the talks with the OAS and the United Nations.

The government notified private television stations Globovision and Radio Caracas Television that they faced administrative proceedings for allegedly supporting efforts to topple Chavez. The complaint alleges that the stations illegally ran opposition advertisements supporting the strike and promoting anti-government marches, Globovision reported.

The stations, which long have accused Chavez of trying to stifle freedom of expression, face fines or the loss of their broadcasting licenses. Their directors condemned the government inquiry as an attack against media freedom.

www.miami.com Posted on Tue, Jan. 21, 2003 BY FRANCES ROBLES frobles@herald.com

CASUALTY OF STRIKE? Oil leaking from a flow control station spreads on the surface of Lake Maracaibo in the western Venezuelan state of Zulia on Jan. 9. GENTE de PETROLEO/AP

CARACAS - Venezuelan workers running the country's oil industry in place of striking employees and managers have caused at least 60 industrial accidents in the past month, including oil spills whose black stains stretch for a mile, local government leaders say.

The increase in spills and accidents is the direct result of blunders by inexperienced people running a dangerous and delicate business, according to striking oil workers, environmentalists and local government officials.

Strike leaders say at least 4,500 barrels of oil have spilled and seven fires have broken out.

Citing damage to its fishing industry and beaches, a city in western Venezuela filed for an injunction last week, asking the court to force the government oil company to cease operations.

Oil company firefighters and loss prevention experts -- who had stayed on the job despite the strike -- joined in afterward, saying work conditions were too hazardous. Although the government denies it, one person allegedly died in a refinery explosion last week.

''They are making terrible mistakes,'' said Clemencia Rodner, president of the Venezuelan Audubon Society. ``Not only are they having many, many problems, but when they have a problem, they don't know how to solve it.''

The accidents are one of the obstacles confronting the Venezuelan government as it faces a debilitating nationwide strike aimed at removing President Hugo Chávez from office. With about 35,000 of its 40,000 oil workers having walked off the job, the government disregards maintenance operations in its zeal to bring production back to normal levels, foreign diplomats monitoring the industry said.

JOINING THE STRIKE

''If we stay with the company, we will be responsible for everything that's happening, and we can't allow it,'' fire department spokesman Omar Moreno said while announcing his department's decision to join the strike at the start of its seventh week. ``There are inexperienced people behind all of this.''

Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., known here as PDVSA, is leading a strike dubbed the ''national civic stoppage,'' called Dec. 2 to force Chávez out of office. The strike has lasted far longer than anyone expected, and has cost the nation at least $4 billion.

While some strikers elsewhere have gone back to work, PDVSA remains devastated. Production, which had been at three million barrels daily, is down to about 600,000, though the government asserts it is nearly double that amount. And each day, more and more of that oil winds up at the bottom of Lake Maracaibo in the western state of Zulia, where tankers load cargo for international shipments.

''Zulia is in a very delicate situation because of the profound improvisation in the petroleum industry,'' Gov. Manuel Rosales said in declaring a state of emergency. ``We have oil slicks on the lake that are 24 to 36 feet long. Some are a mile long.''

Among the mishaps cited by the opposition:

• About 4,000 barrels of oil spilled Jan. 14 from the Carenero distribution plant, destroying nearby mangroves.

• On Dec. 30, the Pilín León tanker spilled 300 barrels of leaded gasoline into the sea.

• On Jan. 7, 300 barrels of oil spilled in Anaco, but the government says it was only 50.

• A Jan. 7 explosion at the Palito refinery seriously injured two workers. The media reported one later died, but the company denied it.

• Two barges have sunk and one crashed at the Tia Juana port.

The Venezuelan government says the accidents have been exaggerated and are within industry norms. But even so, the government also blames sabotage by striking workers and the absence of security and maintenance personnel.

''It's not desirable, but it's within habitual frequency,'' Environment Minister Ana Elisa Osorio told reporters, insisting that there were 29 oil spills the month before the strike. The opposition strikers ``are responsible. It's exactly their sabotage that is responsible for these accidents. These gentlemen didn't think about the implications of abandoning their posts.''

Striking PDVSA managers rebut Osorio by saying the 29 spills in November were minor -- and happened while the company was producing three million barrels a day. The recent spills occurred while the company's output has slowed to a trickle.

A U.S. official monitoring the situation said accidents occurred not so much because of staff incompetence but because PDVSA -- without the staff to do it -- has suspended routine maintenance. For example, another diplomat said, 50 people are working at the San Tomé oil field; it takes 280 to run it.

During a recent presidential address, Chávez displayed photographs of what he said were sabotaged PDVSA systems. His pictures showed yanked wires, but it was not clear who was responsible.

In an interview with El Universal newspaper, Osorio said spills largely occur because pipes sometimes rupture when pumps are turned on after periods of inactivity. But oil industry experts say experienced workers would know that and turn systems back on slowly. Further, the strike-breakers are unfamiliar with emergency contingency plans, experts said, and appear not to know how to shut systems off once a spill begins.

In the Carenero case last week, the spill continued from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m., a PDVSA manager said.

''There will be more spills,'' Osorio said. ``The responsibility goes to whoever decided to suspend operations.''

Rodner said environmental damage will result not so much from the oil itself but from outdated, highly toxic chemicals the government uses to sink the oil to the bottom of the lake.

CHAIN OF POISONINGS

''The oil will decompose, get eaten by bacteria and enter the food chain,'' Rodner said. ``It will poison the fish and poison the people who eat the fish. There will be illnesses and cancers. Every creature at the bottom of the lake will die.''

Meanwhile, three Venezuelan oil tanker captains who were stripped of their command last month for participating in the strike appeared in Miami on Monday to accuse their government of beating and threatening tanker crews and replacing them with unqualified Iraqi, Libyan and Cuban nationals.

''Members of the merchant marine have been tortured, threatened, detained and beaten,'' said Miguel Rodríguez, a dismissed PDVSA tanker captain. ``The government calls us pirates. Perhaps we are pirates, but for a good cause -- rescuing Venezuela.''

The Venezuelan ambassador to Washington said the claims were lies.

''That never happened. It's totally false. There was no violations of human rights and these Iraqis and Libyans are not operating our boats,'' said Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez.

Herald staff writer Richard Brand contributed to this report.

frontpagemag.com By Adrian Karatnycky The Wall Street Journal | January 20, 2003

Our confidence in the judgments and objectivity of the United Nations is set to be shaken yet again. Today, Libya is certain to be elected to the chairmanship of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights by its 53 member states over vociferous U.S. objections.

The election of Libya -- ruled by Col. Moammar Gadhafi, the dictator best known for his country's links to the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland -- will deal a major blow to the credibility of the U.N. system. In recent years, Libya has jailed and tortured hundreds of peaceful political dissenters. Political trials are held in camera. It is a country that has well documented links to international terrorism. It was for this reason that President Bush recently renewed an economic embargo.

What can possibly explain the fact that Libya stands on the verge of chairing the U.N. Commission on Human Rights? Under the U.N. system of regional blocs, members rarely overrule a region's nominee for a top post. States frequently trade favors and rarely apply objective criteria to the selection process.

So this time it is Africa's turn to chair the commission and, because Gadhafi has been helping bankroll the fledgling African Union, that body has made Libya its choice. More surprisingly, while more than three-fifths of the members of the rights commission are democracies, they do not represent a cohesive bloc and appear at the moment unwilling to challenge the status quo.

A recent study of voting patterns at the Human Rights commission found that from 1995 to 2000 most of the world's most repressive states, including Belarus, China, North Korea, Laos, Pakistan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Libya, successfully avoided any censure.

If Libya takes over the leadership of the commission today, the action will embolden dictators like Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, whom Gadhafi has staunchly defended, as well as Hugo Chavez, who has proposed Libya as an arbiter for Venezuela's mounting strike and protest movement. The U.N. deserves better.

Secretary General Kofi Annan has been making efforts on behalf of human rights. And the U.N. Development Program last year issued a report that emphasized the links between democracy, transparency and human development, and a report focused on the democracy deficit in the Arab world. Yet such efforts are being undermined by the business-as-usual attitude of member states, including a large number of established democracies. The member states of the European Union will likely abstain in today's vote.

The U.S. State Department has wisely decided to challenge Libya's election and call for an open vote. This first step, in challenging tyrannies, should be followed up with the establishment of a democracy caucus at the U.N. If such a course is taken, the lamentable recent record of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights will be reversed. And the selection of Libya to serve as its head will have become a wake-up call to democracies that it is time to work together to ensure the U.N. reflects the values of its charter.

Mr. Karatnycky is the president of Freedom House.

sf.indymedia.org by Bolivarian Solidarity Network / copytrastor • Tuesday January 21, 2003 at 12:29 PM

Bolivarian Solidarity Network is presenting today its complaints about Lula's initiative of an International Group of Countries "friends of Venezuela" to help out finding a solution to Venezuelan crisis. Also they state that "We must be alert because the US government and the opposition are looking forward to create conditions to overthrow the Venezuelan government".

----- Original Message ----- From: Bolivarian Solidarity Network To: lasolidarity@topica.com Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2003 12:58 AM Subject: LASC: Venezuela in critical period.

Dear friends,

Under the advice of Lula (who promised to work everything out) Chavez decided to accept an "unfriendly" group of Venezuelan friends.

The government stated that the acceptance of this group of friends--United States, Mexico, Spain, Chile, Portugal, and Brazil--will be under the premise that these countries will state their support to the Venezuelan constitution and will openly express their rejection to the opposition attempts to overthrow Chavez's democratically elected government. It is not clear how the Venezuelan government is going to obtain these statements because the group is already formed, and there is not a special protocol to sign.

In an additional note, the government stated their desire to continue looking for friends elsewhere. We must remember that the United States and Spain recognized the dictatorship of Pedro Carmona after the April coup d'etat in Venezuela. Mexico kept an ambiguous position in April and recently called for not supporting the Chavez government because the opposition could consider it an intromission in Venezuelan internal affairs. Chile and Portugal have been critics of Chavez government in the international arena. We are not sure if Brazil is a friend now. Really!

The government also decided not to abandon the dialogue with the opposition for now, hoping that the presence of Jimmy Carter in Caracas will help the process. Although Chavez stated that: "We in the government ... are considering withdrawing our team from the negotiating table because those people (the opposition) are showing no sign that they really want to choose the democratic path."

The opposition is covertly calling for an increase of violent activities on the streets, the sabotage of the oil industry, and the electric system. The police have confiscated documents on this regard and people have visited TV stations to denounce the situation. They are also calling for the formation of "emergency-units" in wealthy and middle-class neighborhoods, and for the identification of government sympathizers in those areas in support of actions that are to take place by the end of the month. Pure Fascism and terrorism.

After his recent trip to the United States, Carlos Ortega, a top member of the CTV and the opposition also stated that they were not alone in this struggle (in a clear reference to the meeting they had with Otto Reich, people from the State Department, and with business people from the United States).

We must be alert because the US government and the opposition are looking forward to create conditions to overthrow the Venezuelan government.

Bolivarian Solidarity Network

The Latin American Solidarity Conference website can be found at www.lasolidarity.org

www.guardian.co.uk Leader Monday January 20, 2003 The Guardian

As the long-running political crisis in Venezuela begins to have an ever-greater international impact, efforts to end a divisive general strike and get the country back to work continue to founder. Until this week, outside mediation intended to defuse the confrontation between President Hugo Chavez and his vociferous opponents has been led by Cesar Gaviria, secretary-general of the Organisation of American States. But Mr Gaviria has made no headway and has now been reinforced by a new group, to be known as the Friends of Venezuela, initiated by the new Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva, and including Mexico, Chile, Spain, Portugal and the US. It is not yet clear what the "friends" may propose - but the problem is plain enough. Venezuela, losing $50m a day and moving ever closer to bankruptcy, escalating violence and possible civil war, cannot afford to allow the present situation to continue unresolved. The neighbours, and in particular the US, think so too.

Washington, unsurprisingly given its disproportionate wealth and power, has more to lose than most. Venezuela supplies about one-sixth of US oil imports or did so, at least, until managers at the state oil company joined the anti-Chavez rebellion at a cost to their country so far of $4bn. Non-emergency US crude stocks are now touching a 27-year low and pump prices are rising, just as its designs on Iraq threaten to disrupt Middle Eastern supply. For the US, the problem is increasingly strategic, not local.

Despite this growing sense of urgency and a clear US temptation to try to take charge, the damage caused by Washington's perceived backing for last year's abortive coup against Mr Chavez has taught it to tread warily. Last week, controversial Latin American policy chief Otto Reich was moved to a lesser position. The state department has meanwhile taken to emphasising the need for a "peaceful, constitutional, democratic and electoral" solution. Regional leader Brazil would in any case be likely to oppose any US attempt to force the pace and warns that "aiming for magic solutions could lead to more violent conflicts". Indeed, Mr da Silva is far from unsympathetic to Mr Chavez, and rightly so. While both have their flaws, both are elected presidents attempting to reform badly run countries, raise the poor and reverse decades of entrenched injustice. Pressure from special interests, from whatever quarter, should be resisted.