english.pravda.ru 13:30 2003-02-21

It seems like the long running conflict between Chavez and his detractors is turning into a battle to the end. Only to weeks after the finalization of the national strike that claimed for the resignation of the President, the opposition is trying to recover from its defeat and strike back.

According to the last reports from Caracas, the opposition threatened the Government with new mobilizations after a strike leader was arrested by the secret police facing charges of treason and violence instigation. Also, opposition politicians denounced the assassination of three dissident military officers and an opposition activist.

International human right groups took part on this case, as the bodies of the four were found in the suburbs of Caracas showing signs of torture: hands tied and faces wrapped with tape. Darwin Arguello, Angel Salas and Felix Pinto and opposition activist Zaida Peraza, 25, had multiple bullet wounds and showed signs of torture, Raul Yepez, deputy director of Venezuela's forensics police, said Wednesday.

Carlos Ortega, head of the Venezuelan Workers Confederation, said that the murders and arrests were "terrorist attacks" against country's opposition. On Thursday, the morning after the midnight arrest of Carlos Fernandez, president of Venezuela's largest business federation FEDECAMARAS, opposition leaders threatened to call a new strike in response.

According to the New York-based Human Rights Watch, a witness saw the victims being forced into two vehicles by men wearing ski masks, not far from a plaza that has become the opposition's central rallying point. "The circumstances strongly suggest that these were political killings," said Jose Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch to the foreign press in Caracas.

The vice president of the Fedecamaras business association, Albis Munoz, warned of another nationwide strike. She said Fernandez was seized without a court order and was being held at secret police headquarters. "Definitely there will be actions, and very strong actions," Munoz said, adding that Fernandez was "practically kidnapped."

OAS Secretary General Cesar Gaviria issued a statement urging Venezuela's judiciary to treat Fernandez's case in "strict compliance with the laws and rights guaranteed by the (Venezuelan) constitution." These actions come only days after a formal declaration signed by all parties compromising not to use violence for political reasons.

For the sake of good order, is important to remark that is difficult to check reports from Venezuela, as the local media is completely against the Government. For instance, TV chains did not presented advertising during the general strike, financing with their own money the 24 hours anti-Chavez transmissions.

President Chavez has not yet referred to these episodes; instead, the national Assembly has passed new legislation about "media social responsibility", which threats, according to the opposition, freedom of speech in the country.

Hernan Etchaleco PRAVDA.Ru Argentina

www.timesleader.com Posted on Fri, Feb. 21, 2003 JAMES ANDERSON Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez demanded 20-year prison terms Friday for two prominent opponents who directed a nationwide strike that devastated Venezuela's oil-based economy.

Carlos Fernandez, head of Venezuela's largest business chamber, and Carlos Ortega, leader of its biggest labor confederation, are charged with treason and other crimes for the two-month strike, which cost more than $4 billion.

Fernandez was arrested by secret police Wednesday and hauled into court Friday. Ortega went into hiding when a judge issued an arrest warrant.

"These oligarchs believed that they were untouchable. There are no untouchables in Venezuela. A criminal is a criminal," Chavez thundered during a ceremony handing land titles to peasants in Trujillo state.

He demanded a 20-year term for Fernandez, president of Fedecamaras, and for Ortega, of the Venezuelan Workers Confederation, for allegedly sabotaging the oil industry, inciting civil disobedience "and trampling the human rights of the Venezuelan people."

The treason charge carries a 20- to 26-year prison term.

Oil is Venezuela's strategic industry, and its exports were the fifth-largest in the world before the strike began Dec. 2. The strike ended Feb. 4, but Chavez's government is battling a continuing walkout in the oil industry.

Citing nationwide hardship caused by gasoline shortages, Chavez condemned Fernandez and Ortega as "terrorists" who failed to topple his government - both during a brief April coup and this winter.

The tempestuous president also had a message for foreign critics. The United States, Organization of American States and other entities voiced concern that Venezuela's crisis is escalating.

"I want to remind all the governments of the world that Venezuela is a sovereign country! We are nobody's colony!" Chavez shouted.

Fernandez's arrest fueled speculation Chavez has begun a crackdown on his opponents.

Chavez won't allow strikers access to U.S. dollars under a new foreign exchange system, and he has threatened to shut down broadcast media for inciting rebellion. He also has warned he will seize private businesses and property to deliver gasoline, food and other basics.

Ruling party leader Willian Lara told the state Venpres news agency that the hundreds of strike organizers should be prosecuted "for crimes against the republic."

The labor confederation, meanwhile, said it wasn't planning another strike to protest Fernandez's arrest.

The OAS, the United Nations and the Carter Center, run by former President Jimmy Carter, have sponsored three months of talks to seek an electoral solution to Venezuela's crisis. The future of those talks was in doubt after Fernandez's arrest.

Venezuela's opposition wants early elections and collected more than 4 million signatures to back its demand. The government dismisses the petition drive; Venezuela's elections authority is in shambles.

Chavez is a former paratrooper who was elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000 to a six-year term. He vows to distribute Venezuela's oil riches to the poor. Critics accuse him of imposing an authoritarian state and driving the economy into the ground.

www.voanews.com VOA News 21 Feb 2003, 05:33 UTC

Former Peruvian spymaster Vladimiro Montesinos has again refused to testify on the second day of his public trial on corruption charges.

Montesinos remained silent Thursday as he was asked several questions relating to charges he helped the brother of a former girlfriend get out of prison. The charge carries a five-year prison sentence. The ex-girlfriend (Jacqueline Beltran) faces four years behind bars if convicted.

When opening arguments began Tuesday, Montesinos refused to testify, citing his right to remain silent. Montesinos' lawyer tells the Reuters news agency his client will not respond to questions because he is not guaranteed a fair trial.

The corruption trial is one of several facing the former intelligence chief, who was once Peru's most feared man.

Prosecutors say Montesinos built a criminal empire involving generals, legislators, the news media and judges while serving as President Alberto Fujimori's most trusted aide. Montesinos' fall from power began in September 200 with a videotape showing him bribing a congressman to switch to the government party.

Montesinos fled the country in the wake of the scandal, but was captured eight months later in Venezuela and extradited to Peru. He is currently serving a nine-year sentence for abuse of authority. Mr. Fujimori fled to Japan, his ancestral homeland.

reuters.com Fri February 21, 2003 12:09 AM ET By Missy Ryan

LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - The erstwhile lover of Peru's former spy chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, said on Thursday she admired and respected the man alleged to have shelled out bribes, made drugs and arms deals and even ordered murder, seeing him as "honorable" during their six-year affair.

"I never suspected anything bad about Montesinos. When I met him, he was an honorable person ... For me, he was a decent man and went to work and came home ... It was a quiet life," Jacqueline Beltran, her blonde hair draping a zebra-print top, told the court. "I admired him and respected him a lot."

"He never talked about his work ... When I asked him why he was tense ... he would say, 'No Mamita, I can't explain; you wouldn't understand,"' she added.

According to prosecutors, the work Beltran referred to included shelling out state funds for bribes, fixing court decisions and other back-room deals that led up to Peru's worst corruption scandal in history and sparked the downfall of Montesinos' boss, ex-President Alberto Fujimori.

Behind Beltran, Montesinos sat impassively with a tight frown on his face, barely looking at the woman he once took to Europe on holiday, bought a car for and set up in a luxurious beach house, and who wanted to have his children.

Beltran's testimony marked the second day of the Montesinos' first public trial, on charges of "influence peddling," which began this week, 29 months after the former head of Peru's intelligence agency was jailed on charges ranging from drug trafficking to money laundering to murder.

Prosecutors want five years for Montesinos and four years for Beltran for allegedly rigging a pardon for her brother, jailed on drug charges, and illegally helping her uncle in a business dispute.

She said Montesinos offered to help her brother, hotly denying that she pressured him for a favor.

Montesinos remained silent despite a battery of questions fired at him on Thursday. His lawyer, Estela Valdivia, said he would not testify because he was not guaranteed a fair trial.

MONTESINOS STAR OF SCANDAL

All of Peru was stunned in September 2000 when political opponents of Fujimori, who ruled this poor country for a decade, aired a video taped secretly by Montesinos in his office showing him paying a $15,000 bribe to a lawmaker.

Just weeks after the "Vladivideo" scandal erupted, Fujimori fled to Japan. A score of like videos followed.

Despite the government's efforts to get him back to Peru on corruption and human rights crime charges, Fujimori says he is innocent and is planning on running for president again.

Montesinos' trial -- under heavy security with snipers and armed guards -- had created expectations that Montesinos could offer explosive testimony. He admits to some crimes but denies the most serious and says he acted on Fujimori's orders.

While Beltran was Montesinos' lover since she had met him in 1994 and shared an apartment with him in Lima, she furiously accused him in the first day of the trial of trying to incriminate her in order to save himself from jail.

Montesinos -- flown by helicopter to the trial -- has been locked up in a six-person jail on a Lima naval base since he was captured in June 2001 in Venezuela.

A separate trial, on charges he bribed a former mayor, starts on Friday. According to Proetica, a private anti-corruption group, some 1,247 people have been investigated for links to corruption under Fujimori.