<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Friday, June 06, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Metropolitan Police (PM) director, Lazaro Forero says 109 firearms were seized in different operations throughout the metropolitan area during May ... "we have recovered an average 3 guns a day ... 90% of crimes in Caracas are carried out at gunpoint." 

Forero highlights  the fact that 67 cars were reported stolen during May, 4,000 packets of drugs were seized and 257 persons arrested in connection with different kinds of crime. 

The MP director says he has been surprised to discover that the majority of criminals with a long rap have gun permits from the Armed Force (FAN) Armament Office (Darfa), even though Forero complains that Darfa retains weapons taken off the PM during last year's stand-off with the government. 

The PM, Forero states, cannot penetrate red alert zones of Caracas because it lacks the necessary automatic weapons that criminal elements possess. "Our uniformed officers have.38s ... we haven't been in some barrio for 5 months ever since our weapons were taken off us."

Defense Minister Jose Luis Prieto continues to defend his position that police weapons are Armed Force (FAN) responsibility ... the government claims that the PM used their heavy weapons during the events of April 11-14 to repress government supporters.

Posted on Fri, Jun. 06, 2003 ALEXANDRA OLSON Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela - Meeting in a downtown park to avoid their rivals, lawmakers loyal to President Hugo Chavez adopted parliamentary procedures that allow them to swiftly pass several new laws, including one that would tighten restrictions on the media.

The lawmakers, gathering in tents in a poor neighborhood of hard-core Chavez supporters, adopted new debate rules intended to make it more difficult to block legislation supported by the president. Opposition members of Congress said they did not recognize the legitimacy of the vote.

The president's supporters hold a slim majority in the 165-seat Congress, but they wanted to cut the opposition out of the debate by meeting in a hostile neighborhood - a sign of the political bitterness in a country that is a major oil exporter to the United States.

"They are trying to create an assembly completely subservient to the interests of the government," said opposition lawmaker Julio Borges of the Justice First party.

Opposition lawmakers boycotted the session in the park, calling it illegal and a Chavez-sponsored attempt to undercut the Congress. They tried to convene a separate session at the legislative palace, but the president's supporters ordered the doors locked.

The bickering threatened to further delay Congress' attempt to choose election officials to run an internationally backed referendum on Chavez's presidency planned for later this year.

National Assembly President Francisco Ameliach defended the meeting in the park, calling it "completely justified."

Ameliach convened the session after ruling party and opposition lawmakers ended up in a brief shoving match at the legislative palace on Wednesday.

The new parliamentary procedure would make it easier to move legislation through a key 21-member committee in Congress that is dominated by the opposition. Chavez supporters claim that the opposition has used this committe to block legislation.

The opposition plans to ask the Supreme Court to invalidate Friday's session in the park and intends to ignore the new parliamentary procedure in the meantime.

The new media law would ban "rude" or "vulgar" language, prohibit depiction of sex or alcohol or drug use, and ban violence during daytime.

It would also require that 60 percent of programming be produced within Venezuela, half of which would have to be created by "independent producers" approved by the government.

Broadcasters, who tend to oppose the president, say the law will give too much influence to censors hand-picked by Chavez to crack down on the mostly opposition news media.

06 Jun 2003 19:16:26 GMT By Pascal Fletcher

CARACAS, Venezuela, June 6 (Reuters-AlertNet) - Venezuelan National Assembly deputies supporting President Hugo Chavez held a parliament session in a Caracas park Friday, approving reforms the absent opposition condemned as an illegal attempt to avoid democratic debate.

Opposition deputies boycotted the bizarre outdoor session by the pro-Chavez majority and accused the government side of trying to force through laws the opposition fears will restrict democracy in Venezuela.

The 93 pro-government deputies said they were forced to hold the one-sided session outside the National Assembly to overcome what they called an opposition block on legislation in a key parliament drafting committee.

"What we are doing is freeing up laws that had been kidnapped (by the opposition)," Deputy Nicolas Maduro told Reuters.

Protected by police and troops and cheered on by sympathizers, the pro-government members of parliament met in a large tent in El Calvario, a crime-ridden city park located in fiercely pro-Chavez west Caracas.

Opposition deputies, who gathered in the National Assembly building a few blocks away, dismissed the unilateral session as illegal and said they would appeal to the Supreme Court.

The split in the 165-member National Assembly, which followed a brawl between rival deputies on Wednesday, showed that a peace accord signed last week by the government and its foes had done little to defuse their long-running political feud.

The pro-government deputies passed reforms of parliamentary procedure they said would speed up the passage of legislation consolidating Chavez's self-styled left-wing "revolution" in the world's No. 5 oil exporter.

"They (the government) have kidnapped the parliament. ... They want to have a parliament that submits to the whims of President Hugo Chavez," Carlos Tablante of the small opposition MAS party told reporters.

Chavez, who survived a coup last year followed by a grueling opposition strike in December and January, accused the opposition of disrupting the National Assembly.

"They don't want to work. They just want to sabotage things," he said in a speech in eastern Venezuela.

The legislation held up by the opposition included government draft laws to counter terrorism and regulate the content of television and radio broadcasting.

Opposition leaders, who charge Chavez is ruling like a dictator and trying to install Cuban-style communism, say these bills contain clauses that seek to muzzle criticism of the government and restrict the right to stage public protests.

Last week's government-opposition agreement, which was brokered by international mediators, recommends the holding of a constitutional referendum on Chavez's rule after Aug. 19, halfway though his current term.

But it sets no precise date and the opposition says it fears Chavez will try to avoid the vote by any means.

ALEXANDRA OLSON, Associated Press Writer Friday, June 6, 2003
(06-06) 20:14 PDT CARACAS, Venezuela (<a href=www.sfgate.com>SFGate.com-AP) --

Meeting in a downtown park to avoid their rivals, lawmakers loyal to President Hugo Chavez adopted parliamentary procedures that allow them to swiftly pass several new laws, including one that would tighten restrictions on the media.

The lawmakers, gathering in tents in a poor neighborhood of hard-core Chavez supporters, adopted new debate rules intended to make it more difficult to block legislation supported by the president. Opposition members of Congress said they did not recognize the legitimacy of the vote.

The bickering boded more turmoil for Venezuela, a major oil exporter to the United States convulsed by a brief coup in 2002 and a ruinous general strike earlier this year. It threatened to further delay efforts in Congress to choose election officials who would run a possible referendum on Chavez's presidency.

Under a recent pact brokered by the Organization of American States, Venezuela's opposition may seek to hold a referendum later this year on Chavez's mandate, which runs to 2007.

The president's supporters hold a slim majority in the 165-seat Congress, but they wanted to cut the opposition out of the debate by meeting Friday in a hostile neighborhood. They argued they were forced to do so after a shoving match with opposition lawmakers disrupted a session at the legislative palace Wednesday.

"I ask Venezuelans to applaud these legislators who have assumed their responsibility with courage and continued legislating," Chavez said of Friday's unusual outdoor assembly.

Opposition lawmakers called the session illegal and said it was a Chavez-sponsored attempt to undercut Congress. They tried to convene a separate session at the legislative palace, but the president's supporters ordered the doors locked.

"If the government persists in the progressive dissolution of the legislature, there will be no path left except popular rebellion," said opposition lawmaker Leopoldo Puchi.

The new parliamentary procedure would make it easier to move legislation through a key 21-member committee in Congress that is dominated by the opposition. Chavez supporters claim that the opposition has used this committee to block legislation.

The opposition plans to ask the Supreme Court to declare Friday's vote illegal.

The new media law would ban "rude" or "vulgar" language, prohibit depiction of sex or alcohol or drug use, and ban violence during daytime.

It would also require that 60 percent of programming be produced within Venezuela, half of which would have to be created by "independent producers" approved by the government.

Broadcasters, who tend to oppose the president, say the law will give too much influence to censors hand-picked by Chavez to crack down on the mostly opposition news media.

Friday, June 6, 2003 Posted: 1240 GMT ( 8:40 PM HKT)

What a sad sight these opposition deputies are! -- President Hugo Chavez

CARACAS, Venezuela (CNN-AP) -- President Hugo Chavez accused opposition legislators on Thursday of using violence to "sabotage" the discussion of pending laws. His accusation comes a day after a scuffle broke out between rival lawmakers.

"What a sad sight these opposition deputies are! They go to parliament to sabotage a session when patriotic deputies are trying to approve laws necessary for the country," said Chavez.

Pro-government and opposition lawmakers exchanged insults, shoved each other and some even traded punches in the National Assembly on Wednesday. Meanwhile, a crowd of "Chavistas," as the president's supporters are known, staged a rowdy protest outside the legislature.

Opposition lawmakers accused the ruling party, which controls 84 of the unicameral assembly's 165 seats, of attempting to amend the debate rules without taking the opposition's observations into account.

The change in rules, they argued, was meant to speed up approval of a law to regulate what television and radio stations can and cannot broadcast. Critics say the legislation could be used to quash freedom of expression.

Ruling party lawmakers convoked a special congressional session to be held in El Calvario, a park in a poor and dangerous downtown Caracas district, on Friday.

The opposition said they will not attend the session because it was not approved with a required simple majority but decided unilaterally by assembly president Francisco Ameliach, a close Chavez ally.

'An ambush'?

Pedro Alcantara, a member of the Democratic Action opposition party, said the ruling party was planning "an ambush" against the opposition by armed Chavez supporters during the session in El Calvario.

The district is generally considered pro-Chavez.

Opposition leaders are occasionally harassed, and sometimes even attacked, by radical Chavez backers as they enter and leave the legislature. On Wednesday, two dozen opposition lawmakers chose to wait for police escorts and an end to the protest before leaving the building.

The ruling party plans to vote to amend the debate rules on Friday.

In a related development, ruling party lawmaker Nicolas Maduro said government opponents are planning to bribe a pro-Chavez lawmakers in an attempt to break the "Chavista" majority.

"We have information they are offering one million dollars so a deputy leaves the country," said Maduro. He refused to give details of the alleged plan.