www.alertnet.org   20 Jan 2003 21:03

BRASILIA, Brazil, Jan 20 (Reuters) - A coalition of nations seeking to help Venezuela negotiate an end to a seven-week-old strike against President Hugo Chavez will begin talks on Friday in Washington, Brazil's foreign minister said on Monday.

Speaking to reporters in Brasilia, Celso Amorim said the meeting would bring together the foreign ministers of a "group of friends" comprising Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Spain, Portugal and the United States.

The group, spearheaded by Brazil's new leftist president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, was created last week to aid talks led by the head of the Organization of American States, Cesar Gaviria.

Chavez, who was briefly deposed in a botched coup last April, has cast doubts on the plan by threatening to pull out of the OAS talks and insisting Lula's group be expanded to include other countries such as Russia, Cuba and France.

Brazil has resisted, arguing the coalition is already balanced.

Negotiations between Chavez and his foes have been deadlocked for weeks, raising international concern over global oil supplies at a time when energy markets are jittery over a possible U.S.-led war against Iraq. Venezuela is the world's fifth-largest petroleum exporter and supplies about one-sixth of U.S. oil imports.

Chavez has dismissed his opponents as "terrorists and fascists," refusing to step down or call early elections. His critics accuse him of seeking to turn the country into a Cuban-style authoritarian state.

www.accessatlanta.com Ex-president seeks end to 8-week-old crisis

By SUSAN FERRISS The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Former President Jimmy Carter met Monday with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and opposition figures for talks on how to resolve the country's political crisis and end a devastating 8-week-old anti-government strike.

An anti-government protester was killed Monday and 12 were wounded by gunfire during an anti-Chavez march in a community outside Caracas. Six people have died in gunfire during protests since the strike began.

Carter, who accepted the Nobel Peace Prize last month, emerged from Chavez's Miraflores Palace and told reporters in Spanish that his initial meeting with Chavez was "very positive."

Venezuela was the world's fifth biggest oil producer before the strike and supplied the United States with 15 percent of its petroleum imports. But striking national oil workers have nearly paralyzed the industry, in an action that is costing Venezuela $50 million a day.

The strike has shut down factories and shopping centers, and caused food and gasoline shortages. Motorists have to wait in lines as long as eight hours for fuel.

"President Carter is coming at a very difficult time," said Cesar Gaviria, secretary general of the Organization of American States. Gaviria also met with Carter in Caracas.

"Circumstances have changed a lot in the last few days. There's much more tension," said Gaviria, who has been struggling to negotiate a solution.

This weekend, Chavez threatened to pull out of negotiations and complained about a new "Friends of Venezuela" group that is trying to broker a deal. The group consists of the United States, Mexico, Spain, Portugal, Chile and Brazil. Chavez tried to persuade Brazil's new president, socialist Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva, to agree to add other nations, including Cuba, Algiers and China.

Silva declined. Some here speculate that Chavez, a left-wing nationalist, was deeply disappointed.

Opposition figures, led by a business group and a labor union, hoped a "civic strike" they declared on Dec. 2 would topple Chavez or force him to submit to an early election they are certain he would lose.

Tens of thousands of opponents regularly march against Chavez, accusing him of pushing Venezuela toward an authoritarian, Cuban-style state, and contending that he has committed a host of abuses of power and driven the country further into economic hardship.

Chavez, a former army paratrooper, survived a coup attempt in April when supporters, largely from Caracas' poor barrios, rose up to defend him as the first president who has identified with the poor. Despite its oil wealth, about 80 percent of Venezuelans live in poverty, and for decades the country has been awash in political corruption.

Chavez, elected as a populist maverick in 1998, has called strike leaders "fascists" and accused them of sabotaging the country.

On Friday, representatives of the "Friends of Venezuela" countries are to meet in Washington at the Organization of American States headquarters to discuss how the group will operate.

Gaviria said he hoped the group would advance talks and help both sides "see reality, to interpret it, put a little pressure so that they realize the damage being done to the country."

www.chinapost.com.tw 2003/1/21

CARACAS, Venezuela, AP Bloody clashes between foes and followers of President Hugo Chavez overshadowed efforts by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to help resolve Venezuela's crisis and end a strike that has crippled the world's fifth largest oil exporter.

One man was killed and 27 were injured Monday when gunfire erupted as Chavez supporters confronted opposition marchers in Charallave, a town 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of Caracas.

Both sides threw rocks, bottles and sticks at each other, and police struggled to keep them apart, but it was not clear who fired the live ammunition.

Opposition leaders blamed the violence on the government, saying Chavez sympathizers, instigated by the president's fiery rhetoric, attacked their march.

"The only one responsible is the government," said Juan Fernandez, an executive fired from the state oil monopoly, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., for leading the strike.

Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in October, attended negotiations between the government and opposition Monday and met separately with Chavez and strike leaders. His Atlanta-based Carter Center, the Organization of American States and the United Nations are sponsoring the talks.

Business leaders, labor unions and opposition parties launched the strike Dec. 2 to demand that Chavez resign or call early elections. After two months of negotiations, the two sides seem little closer to an agreement.

Chavez threatened Sunday to walk out of talks, accusing the opposition of trying to topple him even as they negotiated.

Strike leader Carlos Ortega said opponents would continue negotiating, but called Chavez undemocratic and said he would never accept a vote on his rule.

Ortega, president of the 1 million member Confederation of Venezuelan Workers, said Gaviria and Carter should "convince themselves once and for all that we are dealing with a regime that is not democratic, and that as long as Chavez stays in power there is no possibility of holding elections."

The National Elections Council, accepting an opposition petition, agreed to organize a Feb. 2 nonbinding referendum asking citizens whether Chavez should step down.

Chavez says the vote would be unconstitutional and his supporters have challenged it in the Supreme Court. But the president has welcomed a possible binding referendum halfway through his six-year-term, or August, as allowed by the constitution.

The strike has slashed Venezuela's oil production by more than two-thirds and caused shortages of gasoline, food and drinking water. It has cost Venezuela US$4 billion, according to the government, and contributed to the plummeting of the bolivar currency.

Six countries _ Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and the United States _ began an initiative called "Friends of Venezuela" to help end the crisis. Chavez warned that his government will not allow interference in domestic affairs.

The 48-year-old Chavez was elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000 on promises to redistribute the country's vast oil wealth among the poor majority.

His opponents accusing him of steering the economy into recession with leftist policies and running roughshod over democratic institutions.

news.ft.com By Reuters - January 21 2003 0:25

CARACAS, Venezuela - One person has been killed and two dozen wounded by gunfire during street clashes in Venezuela as Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter tried to salvage peace talks between leftist President Hugo Chavez and his foes, officials said.

Clashes involving police and rival protesters broke out on Monday when Chavez supporters attacked an opposition march in Charallave, about 30 miles (50 km) south of Caracas, where demonstrators exchanged volleys of bottles and rocks.

Local television images showed one man opening fire into a crowd with a handgun as he rode on the roof of a jeep. Both sides blamed each other for the violence.

Initial accounts of casualties were confused. But a Civil Protection official said one man was shot dead and 24 people were wounded by gunfire in the fighting. It was unclear who had opened fire. At least four others were injured in the clashes.

"The number of wounded is up to 28 and 17 of those are in critical condition," Edith Garcia, a Civil Protection spokesperson told Reuters.

Venezuela's tense, often violent political conflict has intensified during a seven-week-old opposition strike aimed at pressing Chavez to resign and call elections in the world's fifth largest oil exporter.

Carter, a former U.S. president on his second visit to Caracas in less than a year, held meetings with Chavez and the opposition, who have been locked in a political standoff since April when the Venezuelan leader survived a short-lived coup.

"There is always hope for a resolution and I hope that will be soon," Carter told reporters as he arrived in Caracas to meet with Organisation of American States head Cesar Gaviria, who brokered the peace talks.

Carter, who carries out international peace work through his Atlanta-based Carter Centre, has been in Venezuela for about a week on a fishing trip. Carter Centre officials have supported the peace talks since they began two months ago.

CHAVEZ THREAT TO QUIT TALKS

Negotiations between Chavez and his foes were thrown into doubt over the weekend after the populist leader threatened to quit the talks even as the international community stepped up support for OAS mediation.

The talks have been stalled over the timing of elections and how to end the opposition strike that has cut oil output and severely disrupted fuel and food supplies.

Chavez, elected in 1998 six years after leading a botched coup, has dismissed his foes as "fascist terrorists" plotting to overthrow him. But his critics, who say Chavez has wielded power like a corrupt, inept dictator, have vowed to keep up the strike until he steps down. Chavez rejects their calls for early elections.

The strike deadlock has raised international concern over global oil supplies at a time when energy markets are already jittery over a possible U.S.-led war against Iraq. Venezuela usually supplies about one-sixth of U.S. oil imports.

Oil prices crept higher Monday after Washington said time was running out for Baghdad to prove compliance with United Nations disarmament resolutions. U.S. crude prices last week hit two-year highs of $34 a barrel.

Crude supply fears have intensified diplomatic efforts to end the Venezuelan crisis. The United States, Brazil and other governments have agreed to form a group of six nations to lend weight to mediation efforts by OAS chief Gaviria.

U.N. ENVOY TO VENEZUELA

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan plans to send an envoy to Venezuela to take part in the initiative, which also includes Spain, Portugal, Chile and Mexico. The group will hold its first meeting in Washington on Friday, the Brazilian foreign minister said.

But Chavez cast doubt on the plan by insisting that other countries, such as Russia, Cuba and France, also be included.

Opposition leaders are also planning to hold a nonbinding referendum on his rule on February 2. But Chavez insists a binding referendum can only be held after August 19, halfway through his current term.

The Venezuelan leader said on Sunday he was restarting the strike-bound oil industry, which accounts for about half of the government's revenues, using troops and replacement crews. But strikers insist production is still mostly paralysed.

Government officials on Monday warned two private television stations, which have been critical of Chavez, that they faced fines for running commercials backing the strike. The stations slammed the move as an attack on media freedom.

Chavez has also ordered troops to raid factories, banks and schools joining the stoppage, as well as food and drink manufacturers he accuses of hoarding supplies. National Guard troops sparked opposition outrage on Friday after they broke into a local bottling affiliate of Cola-Cola Co. to take away crates of drinks.

www.guardian.co.uk Giles Tremlett in Madrid Tuesday January 21, 2003 The Guardian

From Buenos Aires to Bogota, the daily queues outside Spanish consulates have begun to stretch around the block as up to a million Latin Americans exploit a new law allowing them to become Spaniards.

The law, which came into effect 10 days ago, opens the doors of Spain and, by extension, of the European Union, to children and grandchildren of Spanish exiles and emigrants in the Americas.

The Spanish foreign minister, Ana Palacio, expects a million applications, equivalent to a 2.5% rise in the population.

Ms Palacio, from the ruling conservative People's party, said the law would help right the wrongs suffered by those forced into exile by General Franco. But it has also been seen as a way of ensuring that the next wave of immigrants are people who share its language and religion.

With its low birth rate and booming economy, Spain has reversed its status as a country of emigrants, attracting an influx of mainly Moroccans, east Europeans and Africans. It now takes almost 25% of the foreigners who moved to the EU last year.

With Latin America, especially Venezuela and Argentina, suffering a major economic crisis, Spanish consulates have been inundated with requests.

Argentina, Cuba, Uruguay, Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela have the biggest Spanish emigrant populations, and therefore the most applicants.

In Argentina, where some 300,000 people are eligible to apply, news of the law made it onto the front pages.

There is a long wait, however - up to 18 months before applicants even have their cases looked at.

But such is the demand in Buenos Aires that professional queuers are charging £1 a day to applicants who cannot afford the time to queue or who wish to escape the harsh summer sun.

The law rights some of the anomalies of traditional Spanish machismo, which allowed children of Spanish men born abroad to claim nationality but not those of women who married foreigners. It also allows the grandchildren of exiles or emigrants to claim nationality if they themselves have resided in Spain for more than a year.

The new measure has gone largely unremarked upon in Spain, which is beginning to get used to the idea that its economy will need the labour of millions of new immigrants.