<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Friday, May 30, 2003 By: Jose Gregorio Pineda & Jose Gabriel Angarita

VenAmCham's Jose Gregorio Pineda (chief economist) and Jose Gabriel Angarita (economist) write: According to official figures issued by the National Institute of Statistics, the unemployment rate came to 19.8%, meaning 2.3 million of the approximately 12 million members of the country's labor force are out of work. The figure for the first quarter of last year was 15.1%, meaning that another 640,000 people have lost their jobs during the period. February's unemployment rate was 20.7%, but that has not brought much of a reduction in absolute numbers, given the expectations for the rest of the year.

However, some institutions like the Venezuelan Workers' Confederation (CTV) insist that the INE's statistics are skewed, and underestimate the number of people out of work. The labor movement calculates a 25% unemployment rate, with about 3 million people jobless.

Our estimates put the unemployment rate in the neighborhood of 25% as of the end of this year. The projected upward trend is based on the enormous contraction of the Venezuelan economy, which will undoubtedly continue through the end of the year, though to a lesser extent than in the first quarter.

The year-end unemployment rate will depend on the government's ability to take measures that enhance confidence among the economic agents, and to relax the foreign exchange restriction under which the economy is laboring, so that companies will be in a position to create new jobs, and hence, improve the Venezuelan people's deeply depressed standard of living.

BBC News An agreement has been signed by the government and opposition in Venezuela to end the political crisis that has gripped the country for more than a year.

The deal - which was brokered by the Organisation of American States (OAS) - sets out the framework for a referendum on the presidency of Hugo Chavez.

But no date for such a poll has been set, and the document is widely seen as a victory for the president.

At least 50 people have been killed in political violence over the past 14 months as critics accused President Chavez of amassing power and mismanaging the economy.

Under the new agreement, both the government and opposition have agreed to abide by the constitutional rules and try to avoid violence.

It says a referendum on President Chavez's rule can take place later in the year, although several procedural steps will need to be taken first.

Ease tensions

OAS Secretary-General Cesar Gaviria said it had taken months of hard work by his negotiators to get the two sides to agree.

"This is a good agreement for all Venezuelans," he said.

Analysts say that while the accord may ease tensions in Latin America's most politically polarised society, it does not automatically guarantee a referendum.

The two month general strike hit the economy hard

BBC correspondent Steven Cviic says the opposition - which brings together most political parties, business, the unions and the middle class - probably feels this is the best it is going to get in the short term.

At the end of last year, with a general strike hitting the oil industry hard, his opponents thought they had President Chavez on the run.

But he simply refused to budge, pointing out that he was the elected president.

The opposition seems to have recognised that if it is going to remove him from office, it has to be ready to settle down for a long haul, says our correspondent.

NewsMax Tiana Perez Monday May 19, 2003

The government of President Chávez may lack ideology and political direction, but it certainly knows how to cater to the sector of the population that is politically most important to its survival.

A few months away from a much discussed referendum that would question the President’s tenure, Chávez is making sure that while the private enterprise gets starved, popular markets can sell at below market prices.

In 116 days of foreign exchange control, the government has issued an estimated .5% of the average demanded dollars by Venezuelan importers and manufacturers. Many companies refuse to even file their paperwork in fear of political retaliation and so prefer to go to the black market instead.

The foreign currency shortages added to the price controls imposed on February have resulted in an average decline of 25% in products on-shelf threatening normal supply of basic food products, such as eggs and chicken.

Foreseeing a further closure of private businesses, the government has assigned US$261 million to a newly created government-run enterprise called Agricultural Services Supply Corporation. The firm will buy 501,000 tons of food products within the next 180 days to deliver cheap products to the planned network of popular stores called Mercal.

Operated by the military, the stores are a relief for many families who would otherwise not survive in view of the sharp rise in unemployment. The figure now stands at around 21%, 5% higher than at the end of 2002.

The Venezuelan Agricultural Ministry is using Cuban trading companies to import the products, but reserves the right to re-sell, export, intermediate, determine prices, ship and equip tax-free through the Agricultural Services Supply Corporation.

The military has also been involved in pleasing the populace at the high cost of violating private property rights through a so-called agrarian reform that would use certificates of ownership as its main instrument.

Initially, the National Institute of Lands, presided by Adán Chávez, brother of the President, had promised to grant landownership certificates to low income families who were willing to work the empty lands. The government of Venezuela owns about 70% of the countries’ territories. Most of it will be empty.

However, the brothers chose to grant the certificates for privately owned land alleging under-utilization of the farms. Lines of people wait at the entrances of farms with the certificates in their hands, waiting for the military to pave the way for the invasion. In Barinas, home state of Chávez, the best lands have already been taken by his brother and 150,000 acres have been distributed in the form of agrarian certificates.

The country’s rule of law, civil society, Foreign Direct Investment or economy are obviously not on Chávez’ concern list. To date, the economy shrunk 15 to 25% in 2002 according to the Venezuelan Central Bank. Priorities first.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, May 18, 2003 By: Calvin Tucker

International commentarist Calvin Tucker writes: Over a hundred people packed into a room at Friends Meeting House in London Friday to hear a first hand report from members of an international women’s group that recently returned from Venezuela.

To loud applause from the audience, co-organizer Selma James described how the Bolivarian Revolution of Hugo Chavez Frias as empowering ordinary Venezuelan women to defend their rights at work and in the home. "Co-operatives are being set up. There is new women’s bank. People in Venezuela are transforming themselves. Look at their faces. That’s what the Revolution is all about."

A Bolivarian Circle UK representative told the meeting how important it is to get the real facts about the Revolution publicized and not to allow the hostile private media to distort and twist the truth. Another speaker spoke of the destabilization and coup attempts in Venezuela and their similarity with the US-orchestrated overthrow of the Allende government in Chile in 1973. The speaker finished by sounding a note of caution: "Chavez has won some key battles against the opposition, but he has yet to win the war"

The delegation, organized by Women’s Global Strike, spent two weeks touring the barrios with a video camera, filming ordinary citizens and asking what the Revolution meant to them. Women cleaners from one workplace in Caracas told of how, for years, they had been exploited by greedy employers and made to work for a pittance.

• The Chavez Frias government had helped them to set up a co-operative ... now they earn twice as much pay and work less hours.

In another sequence, hotel workers were shown describing how the CTV union leadership was failing to protect their interests and really represented the employers and the coup plotters. In protest, the workers had left the CTV and joined a pro-worker union.

Calvin Tucker writes on British and international issues for the British monthly "Straight Left". In November 2001 Tucker correctly predicted a coup attempt after becoming convinced that the United States of America was preparing for a coup against Venezuela's elected President Hugo Chavez Frias

Posted on Thu, May. 08, 2003 FABIOLA SANCHEZ ForthWayne.com-Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez's supporters said Thursday that they would agree to a referendum on Chavez's rule if his political opponents would also face recall votes.

Government delegates last month backed out of a deal setting up a plebiscite this year on President Chavez's rule.

Representatives from Chavez's government and opposition officials met with envoys from Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and the United States Thursday as the six nations attempted to restart talks.

Chavez's opponents, who led a two-month failed strike this winter to force Chavez's ouster, want to end his presidency with a referendum.

They say the constitution allows for a referendum on Chavez's rule halfway through a president's six-year-term - in Chavez's case, in August.

On Thursday, government representative Aristobulo Isturiz said any referendum on Chavez should also allow Venezuelans to vote on opposition politicians.

"How can we talk about a referendum for the president and ignore the requests for referendums on governors, mayors and congressmen?" Isturiz said. "We have to talk about referendums in the plural."

Chavez supporters have requested recall referendums to remove elected officials from office. All those officials have already reached the midpoint of their terms.

There was no immediate comment from opposition leaders on Isturiz's proposal.

Venezuela has been riven with political violence in the past 13 months. Dozens of supporters from each side have been killed and hundreds of others wounded in street marches and rallies over the past 13 months.

Venezuela's opposition blames Chavez's left-leaning policies for the country's deepening economic crisis and accuses the former paratrooper of riding roughshod over the democracy.

Chavez blames the two-month strike for the economic downturn. The strike was called to force his ouster, but was unsuccessful.