www.dailynews.com By Fabiola Sanchez Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Soldiers loyal to President Hugo Chavez seized submachine guns and shotguns from Caracas' police department Tuesday in what the opposition mayor called a bid to undermine him.

Federal interference in the capital's police department is one reason Venezuela's opposition has staged a strike -- now in its 44th day -- demanding early elections. Tuesday's raids stoked already heated tensions in this polarized nation.

Greater Caracas Mayor Alfredo Pena said the weapons seizure stripped police of their ability to control street protests that have erupted almost daily since the strike began Dec. 2. Five people have died in strike-related demonstrations.

A smaller district police force used tear gas Tuesday to separate pro- and anti-Chavez protesters. Officials said two protesters were injured.

Strike leader Manuel Cova said opponents would "strengthen the struggle to topple" Chavez in response to the raids.

"This demonstrates the anti-democratic and authoritarian way in which this government acts," said Cova, leader of the Venezuelan Workers Confederation, the country's largest labor union.

Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel vowed there would be no early elections until a possible referendum in August, halfway into Chavez's six-year term. Opponents insist Venezuela is too unstable to wait that long.

"Chavez opponents must get it out of their heads that the way out is ... for Chavez to go," Rangel told foreign reporters. "That proposal is profoundly undemocratic."

Rangel said the weapons seizure was part of an effort to make police answer for alleged abuses against Chavez demonstrators. The government accuses police of killing two Chavez supporters during a melee two weeks ago that involved Chavez followers, opponents and security forces.

"The metropolitan police cannot be above the law, above the executive, above citizens," Rangel told foreign reporters. "We are trying to make them answer to the law. That's why we seized their equipment and weapons."

Troops searched several police stations at dawn, confiscating submachine guns and 12-gauge shotguns used to fire rubber bullets and tear gas, said Cmdr. Freddy Torres, the department's legal consultant. Officers were allowed to keep their standard-issue .38-caliber pistols. It was not clear how long the seizure would last.

Chavez ordered troops to take control of the force in November, but the Supreme Court ordered it restored to Pena last month.

Chavez is trying to break a strike that has paralyzed Venezuela's crucial oil industry and cost the government an estimated $4 billion. He has warned he might send troops to seize food production plants that are participating in the strike.

Called to press Chavez into accepting a nonbinding referendum on his rule, the strike has depleted many Caracas supermarkets of basics like milk, flour and bottled water. People spend hours in lines at service stations and at banks open only three hours a day. Many medicines are no longer available in pharmacies.

Rangel said the strike was weak outside of Caracas -- one reason the government has been able to survive. "Is there a country on Earth that can withstand a strike for 44 days? I don't think so," the vice president said.

With hopes of helping resolve the dispute, former President Jimmy Carter plans to visit Caracas on Jan. 20 to observe the crisis, the Atlanta-based Carter Center announced.

Carter, who just won the Nobel Peace Prize, will consult with Cesar Gaviria, secretary general of the Organization of American States, who has been mediating talks between the two sides, the center said.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he plans to meet Chavez Thursday when he comes to the United Nations to hand over the chairmanship of the Group of 77, an organization of mainly developing nations. Annan said he will discuss with Chavez "how one can intensify the mediation efforts ... to calm the situation and return it to normalcy."

"He knows that I believe that one should use constitutional democratic means to resolve this issue and that is my message not only to him but to the opposition," the secretary-general said.

Venezuela's oil industry provides half of government revenue and 80 percent of export revenue. With the strike, about 30,000 of 40,000 workers in the state oil monopoly, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., are off the job.

Venezuela was the world's fifth-largest oil exporter and a key supplier to the United States, and the U.S. Energy Department has said the crisis could cause American motorists to pay up to $1.54 per gallon of gasoline by spring.

Rangel said oil production will reach 1.5 million barrels a day next week -- about half prestrike output. Currently, production is 800,000 barrels a day according the government, 400,000 according to striking executives fired by Chavez.

The president has vowed to restructure the oil monopoly and reduce bureaucracy at its Caracas headquarters, a hotbed of dissent.

Mayor Pena said Tuesday's police raids would force officers to stop patrolling many dangerous neighborhoods. Venezuela's crime rate rose 44 percent last year, the government says, partly because of a sharp rise in robberies.

"There is an escalation here leading to a dictatorship," Pena said. "The lives of the 5 million citizens who inhabit this city are in danger."

abcnews.go.com Venezuela's Vice President: Gov't Would Accept Court Ruling Upholding Referendum on Chavez Rule The Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela Jan. 15 —

Venezuela's vice president said Tuesday the government would respect the high court if it rules to allow a Feb. 2 referendum on President Hugo Chavez's rule.

However, Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel warned that such a ruling would create chaos in this country of 24 million coping with a general strike called by opponents to overthrow Chavez.

"If the Supreme Tribunal confirms the referendum is constitutional we will accept this verdict," said Rangel. The government, he added, complied with a ruling exonerating the leaders of an April 11 coup against Chavez.

Anger is growing on both sides as the strike drags into its sixth week. It has hurt oil production in the world's fifth largest exporter and depleted store shelves. Chavez's opponents call him authoritarian and unfit to govern, while his supporters of the leftist former paratrooper accuse strikers of trying to force a coup.

On Tuesday, an airliner headed to the Dominican Republic was forced to return to Caracas when passengers staged an on-board protest targeting an ally of Chavez.

They shook fold-out trays and shouted to protest the presence of retired Gen. Belisario Landis, Venezuela's ambassador in Santo Domingo, shortly after the Aeropostal-Alas de Venezuela flight left the ground. The pilots returned to Caracas, and everyone on board was evacuated.

The Boeing 727 took off again an hour later, after passengers promised not to disrupt the flight again.

Another incident occurred inside the airport on Tuesday when an unidentified man threw a tear gas grenade at a group that was shouting "Assassins! Assassins!" at three pro-Chavez lawmakers.

After a few minutes of confusion, the airport continued functioning normally.

On Nov. 6, opposition groups fought through tear gas and bullets on Nov. 6 to present election authorities with 2 million signatures required to convoke the nonbinding referendum on Chavez's rule.

Under Venezuelan law, citizens can convoke a referendum by gathering signatures from at least 10 percent of the nation's 12 million registered voters.

If high court magistrates declare the referendum legal, Rangel said, the government will urge "Chavistas," as the president's supporters are called, to abstain from casting ballots.

Allies and adversaries of Chavez have presented the Supreme Tribunal with 14 cases for and against the plebiscite.

Chavez, who was elected in 1998 and re-elected two years later, argues the only way he can be removed from office is through a recall referendum in August, halfway through his 6-year term.

Chavez says his government won't transfer $22 million required by election authorities to organize balloting until the court decides if the vote is legally sound.

While the fate of the referendum remains in limbo, opponents of Chavez claim the former paratrooper is building an authoritarian regime and riding roughshod over public institutions.

The Bloque de Prensa, the nation's largest association of newspapers, issued a statement Tuesday accusing Chavez of "violent repression of peaceful marches" and preparing "to close television and radio stations" critical of his government.

Leaders of the Democratic Coordinator opposition movement said they would intensify the strike in response to a government takeover of the Caracas police force.

Soldiers loyal to Chavez seized riot gear from the police department Tuesday in what Caracas Mayor Alfredo Pena called a deliberate effort to undermine him.

Pena said the raid stripped police of their ability to control street protests that have erupted almost daily since the strike began Dec. 2. Five people have died in strike-related demonstrations.

Police used tear gas Tuesday to separate pro- and anti-Chavez protesters. Caracas Fire Chief Rodolfo Briceno said one protester was wounded by gunshots and another hit by a vehicle. Both were in stable condition, he said.

Rangel said the seizure was part of an effort to make police answer for alleged abuses against Chavez demonstrators. The government accuses police of killing two Chavez supporters during a melee two weeks ago.

Troops searched several police stations at dawn, confiscating submachine guns and 12-gauge shotguns used to fire rubber bullets and tear gas, said Cmdr. Freddy Torres, the department's legal consultant. Officers were allowed to keep their standard-issue .38-caliber pistols.

Chavez ordered troops to take control of the force in November, but the Supreme Court ordered it restored to Pena last month.

english.pravda.ru 10:25 2003-01-15 The crisis in the South American country may frustrate US plans in Iraq

As political temperature in Venezuela keeps on rising, the US Department of State decided to take the conflict very seriously and designed a new action plan to avoid a global oil crisis. The problem for Washington is that Venezuela's strike has mined the normal flow of crude to USA just weeks before the so-called attack on Iraq.

Venezuela's strike has contributed to an increase in U.S. gasoline prices by 5 cents per gallon in the past three weeks to an average $1.50 a gallon, according to the Lundberg Survey of 8,000 U.S. service stations. No one can predict which will be the impact on oil prices of a war against the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Citing scarce gasoline imports from Venezuela, the U.S. Energy Department said American motorists could pay up to $1.54 per gallon of gasoline this spring even if war is averted in Iraq.

"The market underestimated the tenacity of the Venezuelan strikers,'' said Phil Flynn, head of the energy trading desk at Alaron Trading Corp. on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to the foreign press. "People are finally starting to wake up not just to the strike but also to Venezuela's importance as an U.S. supplier".

Therefore, an immediate resolution of the crisis in Venezuela is absolutely necessary to secure oil supplying in case the battles in the Middle East become long. Therefore, the US Department of State initiated talks with other powers amid the region to reinforce OAS mission in Caracas. Washington wants Brazil, Mexico and probably Argentina to be part of the "Friends of Venezuela" group, to conclude the mediation talks with a reasonable agreement between Chavez and the opposition. The sooner, the better for US interests.

By the way, the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, got also involved in the conflict on Tuesday. Annan offered his help to calm down the situation in Caracas. But he does not lose time: on Thursday, Annan will meet Chavez in New York during the turning over of Venezuela's leadership of the "Group of 77" developing nations to Morocco for 2003.

"I will be seeing President Hugo Chavez here on Thursday ... and I hope to be able to discuss with him the developments in Venezuela, and how one can intensify the mediation efforts, to calm the situation and return it to normality," Annan said to Reuters.

Venezuela already lost $4 billion due to the oil strike. How much can lose the oil depending US industry if solutions do not come soon?

Hernan Etchaleco PRAVDA.Ru Argentina

www.heraldtribune.com By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER Associated Press Writer

A seven-week-old opposition strike against President Hugo Chavez dropped Venezuela's currency to a new low Wednesday and sent Venezuelans in the capital scrambling to banks to buy dollars.

Support for Chavez's adamant refusal to consider early elections showed signs of crumbling as three pro-Chavez lawmakers unveiled a plan for an early vote on his presidency.

The strike has slashed oil exports to a trickle, depriving the government of half its income. Venezuela's bolivar currency closed at 1,716 to the U.S. dollar, down 6 percent from Tuesday. In Caracas, hundreds of citizens waited in long lines at banks and exchange houses to buy dollars.

Trying to calm fears of an economic crash, the government denied speculation that it plans to devalue the bolivar so it can balance its $25 billion budget. Most government income is in dollars and a weaker bolivar would increase its domestic spending power. Venezuela has acknowledged the oil strike has cost $4 billion so far.

Venezuela's opposition launched the strike Dec. 2 to demand that Chavez resign or call early elections if he loses a Feb. 2 nonbinding referendum on his rule.

The National Elections Council is organizing the vote, but Chavez says he will ignore it, and ruling party lawmakers have challenged its legality in court. Venezuela's constitution allows citizens to petition for a binding referendum halfway through a six-year presidential term, or August. Opposition leaders fear Chavez will find a way to postpone it.

Chavez was elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000.

Rafael Simon Jimenez, a pro-Chavez lawmaker who quit the leftist Podemos party, said he and two other legislators would introduce a measure as early as next week to amend the constitution. It would end Chavez's term later this year and allow general elections.

The proposal by Jimenez and Chavez supporters Guillermo Palacios and Luis Salas would leave opposition legislators just one vote shy of a simple majority needed to pass an amendment in the 165-seat Congress. Jimenez said he was looking for that vote. Elections are the only way to solve Venezuela's political crisis and end the 45-day-old strike, which has raised gasoline and oil prices abroad, Jimenez said.

"We don't see an elections as a break with Chavez. We see elections as a response to the country's crisis," Jimenez said. Legislator Freddy Lepage of the opposition Democratic Action party said Chavez was steadily losing support in Congress as the crisis deepened. "We still don't have the majority, but I'm confident we'll have it soon," he said.

Chavez enjoys the support of the military, which he purged of dissidents after a brief April coup. The government claims oil production is back up to 800,000 barrels a day, compared to a pre-strike level of 3 million barrels a day.

The U.S. Energy Department says American motorists could pay up to $1.54 per gallon of gasoline this spring even if war is averted in Iraq. Home heating oil prices rose 4.7 percent in December. Negotiations mediated by Cesar Gaviria, secretary general of the Organization of American States, were briefly suspended while the region's leaders attended the Wednesday inauguration of Ecuadorean President Lucio Gutierrez.

In Quito, Ecuador, Chavez lashed out at his opponents as "a subversive movement from the far right, a fascist movement backed by economic elites."

Chavez was to meet with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in New York on Thursday before returning to Caracas. Some strike leaders, meanwhile, were in the United States pleading their case with U.S. government and business leaders.

Several nations voiced support for a so-called "Friends of Venezuela" proposal to strengthen the efforts of Gaviria, who has had little success in mediating talks since November.

"The solution must be democratic, constitutional, and, it seems, electoral," said Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada. Former President Jimmy Carter arrived in Venezuela on Wednesday for a fishing trip with Venezuelan businessman Gustavo Cisneros. Carter, whose Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center also is trying to resolve Venezuela's crisis, said that he would meet with Gaviria and government and opposition leaders next week.

BUSINESS IN BRIEF www.washingtonpost.com Wednesday, January 15, 2003; Page E02 Venezuela's currency fell to a record low against the dollar, deepening investor concern about the country's ability to pay its debts as a nationwide strike entered its 44th day. The bolivar closed 3.9 percent lower, at 1,650 to a dollar. The bolivar has dropped 16 percent this month.