Brazil leads way in push to end Venezuelan strife

www.miami.com Posted on Sat, Jan. 25, 2003 BY TIM JOHNSON tjohnson@herald.com

WASHINGTON - Pressure on Venezuela mounted on Friday as the United States and five other nations -- led by Brazil -- sought to break an impasse in the strife-torn nation even as the Caracas government said it was breaking the back of an opposition-led strike.

''The problem in Venezuela is a problem of great urgency and it requires therefore that we act immediately,'' Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said after a closed-door meeting of the six-nation Group of Friends of Venezuela.

Friday's meeting of foreign ministers or senior envoys from the United States, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Spain and Portugal marked significant new international pressure in efforts to resolve fierce unrest over the rule of President Hugo Chávez. Amorim said the group would pursue peace proposals presented by former President Jimmy Carter in Caracas this week designed to end an eight-week strike that has crippled oil production in the world's fifth-largest oil exporting nation. The proposals call for new presidential elections.

''Some momentum has been created,'' said a senior U.S. official who sat in on the meeting and who spoke later on condition of anonymity.

But Venezuelan Foreign Minister Roy Chaderton indicated that the Chávez government believes it is breaking the back of the strike and feels little need to show flexibility.

''The country is moving on. We've paid dearly for this but we've beaten the strikers,'' Chaderton said after a speech to the Group of Friends at the headquarters of the Organization of American States.

Chaderton complained bitterly about opposition-controlled media in Caracas, saying it is common to hear Chávez labeled as an ''assassin, killer, thief and other things'' on the airwaves. He called for international help in reining in what he called the excesses of the opposition to Chávez, who has ruled Venezuela since early 1999.

''We have a very violent and irrational opposition,'' Chaderton said, asserting that opponents to Chávez employ ''psychological terrorism'' in spreading false rumors, a charge that foes of Chávez have denied.

Chaderton said the Chávez government has no plans to meet an opposition demand that it re-hire fired oil managers and workers from the huge crippled state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., which is a bastion of opposition to Chávez. ''They are the ones who have brought about this failed strike,'' he said.

Secretary of State Colin Powell joined other envoys from the six-nation group in selecting Amorim to lead efforts to facilitate a peace deal in Venezuela.

Chávez sought a large role for Brazil in the Group of Friends, hoping that new Brazilian leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a leftist former union leader, would be supportive of his government, but Amorim, who has been in his job only since da Silva's inauguration Jan. 1, struck a noticeably impartial role.

Amorim said the Group of Friends would send envoys to Caracas Jan. 30-31 to push confidence-building measures between Chávez and his opposition and seek ways to reduce violence that has left dozens dead in the past two months.

Amorim called on both sides to make ``clear declarations against violence.''

''An appeal was made to the media for moderation so that dialogue can proceed in a constructive way,'' Amorim said.

Amorim, who met earlier in the day with Venezuelan opposition leaders, said all sides in the Venezuelan dispute concurred that Carter's proposals this week ``could constitute an important way forward.''

Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for his globe-trotting peacemaking efforts, presented two proposals in Caracas on Tuesday. One calls on the opposition to lift its nationwide strike in exchange for Chávez agreeing to a binding Aug. 19 recall referendum on his rule. Another proposal suggests a constitutional change that would cut the term of the president from six to four years, and allow new elections before August.

Powell called Carter's proposals ''the best path available to Venezuelans,'' according to a text of his remarks.

Amorim said the Group of Friends would work through César Gaviria, the former Colombian president who is the secretary general of the OAS. Gaviria has been in Caracas for two months pushing the two sides to a settlement.

''There was absolute unanimity that the purpose of this group is to build on those efforts [by Gaviria] and not to supplant them,'' the U.S. official said.

The U.S. official indicated that the Group of Friends might stay engaged on Venezuela beyond any immediate agreement between Chávez and his opposition.

''We can perhaps offer to remain engaged as observers of compliance with any agreements that are reached that help to bridge the present lack of trust that is there,'' he said.