Meeting Aims to Calm Venezuelan Turmoil

www.newsday.com By GEORGE GEDDA Associated Press Writer January 21, 2003, 4:59 PM EST

WASHINGTON -- Leaders from the United States and five other Democratic countries will meet here Friday in hopes of finding ways to help Venezuela overcome a political impasse between the government and the opposition.

The meeting will be hosted by the Organization of American States, which until now has taken the lead in resolving the stalemate. OAS Secretary General Cesar Gaviria has spent much of the past two months in Venezuela, but he has been unable to bridge differences between the parties over the timing of a new election.

Former President Carter, in Venezuela Tuesday on his second mediation visit, proposed an election plan that both sides are studying.

U.S. officials have strongly supported Gaviria's efforts and see the Friday meeting as a supplement to his activities.

Joining the United States at the meeting will be Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Spain and Portugal -- members of a newly formed "Friends of Venezuela."

The meeting will be at the foreign ministers level but it is not clear whether Secretary of State Colin Powell will attend. He will depart Friday afternoon for a meeting in Switzerland.

Chile's foreign minister, Soledad Alvear, will not attend for personal reasons.

The United States has been concerned about the possible effect on world oil supplies of sharp cutbacks in Venezuela's oil production, resulting from a politically motivated strike by oil workers.

Last Friday, Venezuela's embattled president, Hugo Chavez, said he welcomed the creation of the "friends" group but recommended that it be expanded to include Russia, France, Algeria and China. Diplomats say the current makeup of the friends group achieves a needed balance. Brazil under new President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is seen as perhaps the most sympathetic to Chavez. The Bush administration, meanwhile, has never been a strong backer of Chavez, who has a warm relationship with President Fidel Castro.

Strike leaders want Chavez to agree to a plebiscite in February on his presidency. Although the vote would be nonbinding, these leaders believe Chavez would be pressured by the outcome to step down.

The opposition believes Chavez has ruined the country's economy and tried to gather too much power in his own hands.

Chavez said any plebiscite held before August would be unconstitutional. Venezuela's constitution allows for a binding recall referendum halfway through the presidential term, which would be August.