<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, April 15, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

In the run up to next week's April 23 meeting between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velaz, the tit-for-tat debate on each country's armies' links with paramilitaries/guerrillas has been heating up. 

Venezuela's Executive Vice President, Jose Vicente Rangel has been giving as good as he's been getting, accusing top Colombian military officers of supporting the Self-Defense Units of Colombia (AUC) . 

Colombian Foreign Minister, Carolina Banco replied sending a diplomatic note of protest to her Venezuelan counterpart, Roy Chaderton Matos, rejecting Rangel's declarations. 

The Colombian Military High Command has announced that it will study Rangel's allegations of presumed links between the Colombian army and the right-wing paramilitaries. 

Former Colombian military officers say they feel offended by the remarks and that it is public knowledge that President Hugo Chavez Frias sympathizes with left-wing Colombian guerrillas. 

Colombian Senator Enrique Gomez calls President Chavez Frias an "aspiring dictator, who should be brought before the United Nations (UN)  and Organization of American States (OAS) for promoting aggression against Colombia."

Jose Vicente Rangel insists that the Colombian Army has turned a blind eye to the presence of paramilitaries on its side of the border and wants the matter to be on the agenda when the two Presidents meet. "There are parts of the border where the paramilitaries are in full control." 

Two weeks ago, Colombian Armed Forces chief, General Jorge Enrique Mora accused the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) of using chemicals to cause more damage to government troops. 

In an obvious reference to accusations the USA has raised against Iraq and Syria, the Colombian Army is milking the international moment for all it is worth to spin the story that the Venezuelan government is fully supporting the guerrillas and secondly, the latter are using weapons of mass destruction, albeit on a minor scale. 

The AUC has been adding oil to the fire accusing the Venezuelan Army and Air Force (FAV) of joint exercises with FARC flying over Colombian territory and strafing border villages. It claims that overflights have been continuous in the last months ... "more than 600 guerrillas were transported from Arauca to Catatumbo in full combat against the AUC."

Forums

Venezuelan Foreign Policy discuss the relative merits of Venezuela's foreign policy and its effects

Our editorial statement reads: VHeadline.com Venezuela is a wholly independent e-publication promoting democracy in its fullest expression and the inalienable  right of all Venezuelans to self-determination and the pursuit of sovereign independence without interference. We seek to shed light on nefarious practices and the corruption which for decades has strangled this South American nation's development and progress. Our declared editorial bias is pro-democracy and pro-Venezuela ... which some may wrongly interpret as anti-American. --  Roy S. Carson, Editor/Publisher  Editor@VHeadline.com    © 2003 VHeadline.com All Rights Reserved.  Privacy Policy Website Design, hosting and administration by: Integradesign.ca 

<a href=www2.ocregister.com>Orange County register Saturday, April 12, 2003 From Register news services

He won't work in New York but did not resign. Diplomatic mission stays open.

UNITED NATIONS – Iraq's U.N. ambassador, Mohammed Al-Douri, said he was leaving the world body because he could no longer work in the United States while it was "destroying, ravaging and killing" his countrymen.

Al-Douri, the first Iraqi official to concede the defeat of President Saddam Hussein's government, planned to leave Friday for Paris, then Damascus, Syria, and eventually to Iraq, Arab diplomats said.

"I am leaving because I don't think I can work in a country that is invading Iraq, destroying, killing and demolishing whatever it wants," Al-Douri told Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television Friday.

With tears in his eyes, he added: "It is a country that occupies Iraq from the north to the south, from the east to the west. I don't think this occupying country will allow me enough freedom to work at the United Nations."

Arab diplomats said Al-Douri is not resigning and Iraq's U.N. mission will remain open. The third-ranking diplomat, Said Shihab Ahmad, will become the charge d'affaires, the diplomats said.

Despite three years of publicly defending Saddam's government, Al-Douri said he hopes Iraq is on the path to democracy "without any obstructions and restrictions."

"I would like to find our country free as America has promised," said Al-Douri, a Baghdad University law professor for 30 years and a diplomat for four.

Asked if he feared anything from U.S. authorities, he said: "Not at all. They've always treated me with dignity."

Confusion, denial and paranoia reigned in Iraqi consulates worldwide as diplomats awaited word of their uncertain future. They burned boxes of papers, shredded documents or watched television for any word of home or their new boss.

In Egypt, Iraqi Ambassador Mohsen Khalil approached at least two other embassies seeking asylum, officials said on condition of anonymity.

Muaead Hussain, the Iraqi charge d'affaires in Berlin, spoke through the locked iron gate of his embassy.

"I haven't had contact with Baghdad for two or three weeks," Hussain said. "I have no idea what's going on there."

Hussain insisted he still represents Saddam Hussein's government. Asked whether he might switch allegiance, he said: "Why not? I am serving my country."

In Tokyo, Iraqi diplomats hauled garbage bags stuffed with shredded documents from the embassy. Neighbors said the amount of trash was three times the usual level.

After seeing Saddam's statue tumbling in Baghdad on TV, Iraqi diplomats in Brazil carried box after box of papers outside and set them on fire, according to police.

An embassy official denied it. "It's all lies," Abdu Saif said. "We are only burning debris and recently cut tree branches."

Amid scenes of U.S. troops taking control of Baghdad, Iraq's ambassador in Venezuela, Taha Al-Abassi predicted continued resistance.

"The war does not end, resistance will continue ... I think it will be a long marathon war," he said.

In Vietnam, Ambassador Salah al-Mukhtar took up his post only three weeks ago and immediately warned that if he ran into U.S., British or Australian envoys, he would slap their faces. On Thursday, he said, "I will never shake hands with assassins - definitely. This is our homeland destroyed by British and Americans."

But First Secretary Talal Waleed at the embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, called Saddam's regime "the former government."

<a href=www.regiaodeleiria.pt>regiaodeleiria.pt

O ministro dos Negócios Estrangeiros venezuelano, Roy Chaderton, realiza hoje uma visita oficial de 24 horas a Portugal durante a qual a profunda crise que afecta o seu país desde há um ano estará no centro da agenda. Roy Chaderton, em Portugal a convite do chefe da diplomacia portuguesa, António Martins da Cruz, é recebido às 11:00 pelo presidente da Assembleia da República, João Bosco Mota Amaral, e, às 15:30, em audiência pelo Presidente da República, Jorge Sampaio. Pelo meio, celebra uma reunião de trabalho, marcada para as 11:45, seguida de um almoço com Martins da Cruz. No comunicado em que anuncia a visita, o Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros enquadra-a no contexto da participação portuguesa no chamado "Grupo de Amigos da Venezuela" (Portugal, Brasil, Espanha, Estados Unidos, México e Chile), criado em Janeiro deste ano para contribuir para a resolução da crise política, económica e social venezuelana. Em debate na reunião vão estar também, segundo o comunicado, as relações entre a América Latina e a União Europeia, a Comunidade Ibero-Americana e as relações bilaterais luso- venezuelanas, nomeadamente o reforço das relações económicas.

By Al Kamen Monday, March 31, 2003; Page A11

Moving On

Career diplomat John F. Maisto, former ambassador to Venezuela and to Nicaragua and now senior director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council, has been tapped to be ambassador to the Organization of American States. Word is another career foreign service officer, Thomas A. Shannon, currently deputy assistant secretary of state for Latin America, is the leading candidate to replace him.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Monday, March 17, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Venezuelan Foreign Minister (MRE) Roy Chaderton Matos has confirmed that he has passed a list of coup plotters’ names to ministers of friendly countries assembled in Bogota (Colombia) for a regional security meeting.

Chaderton Matos, however, denies as "absolutely false" a report circulating in the US State Department that he had listed foreign security agencies (a.k.a. the CIA) as parties to a plot to assassinate President Hugo Chavez Frias.

“Apart from Ministers of friendly nations, human rights groups and international bodies also received the document which highlighted the names of plot suspects.”

Chaderton Matos says he's against any extremes and condemns domestic “silver bullet” opposition theorists that frequently appear in print & broadcast media to push their extreme views.