<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic news Posted: Monday, June 09, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Lt. Colonel Francisco Arias Cardenas continues to preach about the importance of the recall referendum and it would appear that he is fighting a losing battle.  During visits to the provinces, Union party leaders say they have not managed to convince many people about the advantages of the recall referendum. This fact must acknowledged, Arias Cardenas says, and the opposition must not be distracted by whatever President Chavez Frias threatens or throws at it. 

The recall referendum is checkmate for the government ... "it's impeccable and we have to give it top priority." 

The former Zulia State Governor insists that the opposition must be magnanimous to open the door to adversaries because what the country needs now is a national consensus with minimum conflict. 

Aware that the government is intent on widening its power base, Arias Cardenas warns that President Chavez Frias will attempt to divert the opposition towards partial objectives, which gives him the chance to re-group and counter-attack. " The opposition should stick to its guns and promote the recall referendum ... it will take will and conscience."

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Monday, June 09, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

National Electoral College (CNE) president Romulo Rangel has ruled out the Sumate organization as an electoral observer group, saying that in organizing the opposition signature campaign in January for anything going, it has taken on a political role and is clearly identified with one side of the political spectrum. 

Rangel says he has no problem with Sumate as one of the recall referendum political tendencies but rules out any "independent" role.  

Critics say the Andres Bello Catholic University (UCAB) Observers Network is another organization that has lost its independent observer status because of the partisan stance of its leaders, even though it was on the CNE 2000 mega-elections roster, along with the Federation of Chambers of Industry & Commerce (Fedecamaras). The Bolivarian Workers Front (FBT) is another non-starter ... perhaps the only independent groups are PROVEA and Red de Apoyo.

Among the groups approved for the July 30 and November 8, 2000 elections were the following: Red de Veedores de la UCAB, Asamblea de Dios, A.C de Vecinos por Venezuela, Jovenes por Venezuela, Universidades Nacionales, Grupo social Cesap, Fedecamaras, Grupo Caruao, Federacion de Estudiantes Universitarios, Fundabeo, Frente Bolivariano de Trabajadores (FBT) , Fundacion Dale al Voto, Iniciativa Propia  and five other regional groups.

<a href=www.voanews.com>VOANews David Gollust Santiago 09 Jun 2003, 17:54 UTC 

Secretary of State Colin Powell, in the Chilean capital Santiago, has appealed to regional foreign ministers to take a stand against Cuba's crackdown against dissidents. There is resistance within the Organization of American States to taking up the issue, without also dealing with the U.S. economic embargo against the Fidel Castro government.

Mr. Powell's policy address to the OAS General Assembly included some of the Bush administration's strongest criticism of the Cuban crackdown, and an appeal to OAS member countries to stand together against the "depredations of the hemisphere's only dictatorship."

Seventy-five prominent Cuban dissidents were given long prison terms in April on subversion and treason charges, and three men were executed after a summary trial for trying to hijack a ferry boat to the United States.

Deploring the crackdown by the Castro government, the Secretary of State said the Cuban people "increasingly look" to the OAS for help in defending their fundamental freedoms, and reminded delegates of their commitments under the group's 2001 declaration of support for hemisphere-wide democratization.

"The Inter-American Democratic Charter declares that the peoples of the Americas have a right to democracy. It does not say that the peoples of the Americas, except Cuba, have a right to democracy. I commend the OAS members who stood by their principles and the Cuban people in supporting the recent declaration on human rights in Cuba on the floor of the [OAS] Permanent Council. My government looks forward to working with our partners in the OAS to find ways to hasten the inevitable democratic transition in Cuba," Mr. Powell said.

The declaration condemning Cuba, sponsored by Canada, Chile and Uruguay, was presented in the OAS Permanent Council last month, but it has been signed by only half the organization's 34-member countries.

Most Caribbean member states have not signed the measure, arguing among other things, that Cuba's human rights record should not be debated, as long as the Castro government is suspended from the OAS, which it has been for 40 years.

A senior OAS official told reporters many members of the organization are ready to debate the issue of Cuba, but in a balanced way that includes the U.S. economic embargo and efforts to isolate the communist government in Havana.

In his policy speech, Mr. Powell also welcomed the agreement late last month for an August 19 referendum on the political future of controversial Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. He congratulated OAS Secretary-General Cesar Gaviria for his months of work in mediating the accord, and said the United States is committed to working with the OAS and the so-called "group of friends" of Venezuela to bolster implementation of the agreement.

Mr. Powell announced a million dollar U.S. special grant, on top of $70 million in U.S. humanitarian aid to Haiti this year, to assist a special OAS mission trying to improve security conditions for long-delayed elections there.

He said the government of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has failed to fulfill OAS resolutions for an electoral solution to the Caribbean country's political impasse. He said if it has not laid the necessary groundwork for elections by September, then the OAS should "re-evaluate" its role in that country.

The OAS ministers have agreed to call a special summit-level meeting of the organization, to be held in Mexico in November, to deal with threats to the region's democratic institutions posed by the protracted economic slump and financial crises in key member states including Argentina.

Monday, June 9, 2003 Posted: 1307 GMT ( 9:07 PM HKT)

SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in Chile on Sunday to meet his Latin American colleagues as a group for the first time since disagreements over the U.S. invasion of Iraq early this year.

Most Latin American countries, mindful of U.S. intervention in their region, opposed the invasion, but welcome the attention implied by Powell's attendance at the annual assembly of the Organization of American States in Santiago.

Powell will also travel to neighboring Argentina on Tuesday to meet newly elected President Nestor Kirchner, symbolically endorsing his campaign to rid the country of cronyism and corruption after economic and political turmoil.

The Bush administration came to office with promises to pay more attention to its southern neighbors, but Latin Americans, especially Mexicans, feel they have slipped down its list of priorities because of Washington's focus on Iraq, Afghanistan and President George W. Bush's "global war on terrorism."

The two Latin American U.N. Security Council members, Chile and Mexico, which did not support the U.S. quest for an explicit endorsement of its Iraq invasion, have important economic reasons for avoiding confrontation with the world's most powerful nation.

Speaking to reporters aboard his plane, Powell cited strong U.S. relations with both countries and said he did not expect the disagreement to mar ties.

"We're anxious to talk about the future and not the past and I don't see any lasting consequences," Powell said.

"After all the time and attention that we spent on Iraq, the Middle East and elsewhere, we're looking forward to once again turning our diplomatic attention to our own hemisphere."

Cuba off agenda

The annual assembly brings together the foreign ministers or other representatives of 34 countries in the Americas, and the theme this year is good governance in the region.

The OAS has kept off the agenda the question of human rights in Cuba, which has cracked down on dissidents this year, because many members say Cuba cannot defend itself at the OAS. Cuba has been excluded from OAS deliberations since 1962.

But Powell said he would discuss the situation in that country anyway.

"I will talk about Cuba rather directly, point out once again, that Cuba remains the anachronism of the hemisphere and it's not getting better," he said.

A State Department official said last week the United States expected the meeting to release a declaration reaffirming member states' commitment to good governance, including increased efficiency, probity and transparency in public administration.

The meeting will also keep up diplomatic pressure on Haiti's government to move toward democratic elections.

Venezuela, one of the Latin American countries least favorable to the Bush administration, plans to circulate a document condemning the "powerful multinational oligarchies" it says dominate the Venezuelan media.

Many dominant media organizations in Venezuela were sympathetic to the unsuccessful campaign early this year to remove populist President Hugo Chavez from office.

But the U.S. official said he doubted Venezuela could muster much support.

Monday afternoon, the ministers will prepare for a special interim Summit of the Americas expected in Mexico late this year, between the Quebec summit of 2001 and the next regular summit in Argentina in 2005.

NewsStand - Monday, June 09, 2003 <a href=www.menafn.com>MENAFN-Agence France-Presse Kamal Taha BAGHDAD, June 9 (AFP)

BAGHDAD, June 9 (AFP) - Iraq plans to resume oil exports in the third week of June but does not expect production to return to pre-war levels for at least a year, acting oil ministry chief Thamir Ghadhban said Monday.

"We are processing contracts now with various interested parties and we hope that during the third week of this month the first shipment will be made available to the international market," Ghadhban said.

"Hopefully by the end of this month we will be producing about 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and about two-thirds of that will be made available for export."

Ghadhban said output had already reached 500,000 bpd in the northern oil fields and 200,000 bpd in the south, but said he did not expect output to reach its pre-war levels for at least a year because of continued looting of the infrastructure and the wartime collapse of the power grid.

He has previously put pre-war production at three million bpd, although most Western analysts estimate it at closer to 2.5 million.

Ghadhban said the oil ministry had already recruited 3,000 security guards to protect facilities and expected to take on more.

The Iraqi bureaucrat said his staff and their advisors from the US-led coalition were reviewing all the existing contracts signed under the old regime, which favoured Chinese, French and Russian firms.

"We will be studying our contracts and evaluating them for contractual, legal and economic viability and take the proper decision in the future in the right time," he said.

But he promised that all foreign oil firms would be treated fairly as Iraq valued its position as a major supplier.

"We will be fair and just to everybody," he said.

"We are an international oil industry and therefore we are very careful and very serious about having amicable relationships with all international oil companies."

Ghadhban said Iraq was keen to reopen a 2.5-billion-dollar pipeline to Saudi Arabia which has been closed since Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait and said he hoped the Saudi authorities would recognize Iraqi ownership over its entire length now that the strongman has been ousted.

He said it would not be for him to decide the fate of a pre-war agreement under which Jordan received all its import needs from Iraq, half of it for free and the rest at preferential rates.

"The agreement was between governments, not between oil ministers," he said. "That's why it is not a matter for the oil ministry to decide."

Ghadhban reiterated that there were no immediate plans to pull Iraq out of the OPEC oil cartel, although it would ultimately be a matter for a future Iraqi government to decide.

"Iraq is one of the founder members of OPEC with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran and Venezuela and ... has been and remains a member," he said.

"I am certain that as soon as the government is established, it is going to take the appropriate decision and Iraq certainly has all the means to remain a member."

British and US officials have made clear that they do not foresee handing over power to a sovereign Iraqi government for between one and two years.

In the meantime, US officials have pledged they will do nothing to prejudice the eventual decision.

"We will want to make sure that any decision on their future participation in OPEC is a decision that the representative government takes," US Under Secretary of State for Economics and Business Alan Larson told a Senate committee earlier this month.

"We need to be careful not to be seen as steering that because it does need to be seen as a decision they make in the interests of Iraq."