Chavez Frias would get 52% against 49% in a united opposition vote

www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, January 26, 2003 - 8:09:25 AM By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Miguel Salazar forecasts in his weekly column that the government will not accept former US President Jimmy Carter’s suggestion to pardon dismissed Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) employees and workers ... President Chavez Frias is alleged to have asked Carter what would he have done as President of the USA if the oil wells had come under sabotage … “would you have pardoned the saboteurs?”

Smoke: A warning to lawyers concerning the new Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) structure, namely dividing the company into PDVSA-West and PDVSA-East. The Constitution stipulates that the State must control totality of shares but not so in the case of subsidiaries, JVs etc. Suspicion: the Constitution does not permit the privatization of PDVSA but does allow that of other companies and subsidiaries.

Change: Surprises in Coordinadora Democratica. While Confederation of Trade Unions (CTV) president Carlos Ortega moves with oilmen towards the extreme right that espoused Carmona, a recent Christian Socialist arrival has joined them and it would seem that Primero Justicia (PJ) brown shirts will not stand down … Elias Santana has signed up … pure and unrepentant rightwing stuff.

Intesa: I have highlighted irregularities in the Intesa-PDVSA relationship on several occasions and was criticized for allegedly interested attacks. Well, we would be singing another song today, if I had been taken seriously … I also got it right that the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) would say no to the consultative referendum.

High voltage: Last Sunday a group of executives and managers of an important electricity company met with the lawyer of one of the dissident generals on the tenth floor of a Las Mercedes apartment. In the conference room seven work groups were set up to analyze scenarios for a huge electricity blackout throughout Venezuela … the strategy is to start maintenance work on the central-west and eastern plants and blame black-outs on human error.

The Spy: An official at the Venezuelan consulate in New York has been leaking information to government opponents. Each movement of President Chavez Frias visit to New York was known.

Good fellows: Two groups in the oil industry board:

The Ciavaldini group: Aires Barreto, Jorge Perez Mancebo, Luis Correa and Favio Gonzalez.

Patria Para Todos (PPT): Mario Isea, Lesli Paez, Carlos Azpurua, Julio Montes and Nestor Francia.

• The latter group has a political vocation, apart from the management.

Meanwhile, PDVSA board has opened negotiations with hidden coupsters, a kind of rearguard of dismissed oil workers. One of the motives of the reappearance of gas pump station queues has to do with the dismantling of the group that monitored and guarded filling stations, trucks ands service stations. PDVSA leaders have put distribution of domestic gas and gasoline second on the list.

Candidate: If there were elections tomorrow Chavez Frias would get 52% of the votes to 49% of a united opposition candidate. Almost a tie. However, Chavez Frias tendency is to rise in the polls, while the opposition loses ground, something unimaginable before December 2. President Chavez Frias’ ascendancy is helped by the opposition’s not having a united candidate, rejection of political parties and the reigning confusion inside the Coordinadora Democratica (CD) itself.