One dead in Venezuela clashes

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.