<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Friday, March 28, 2003 By: Gustavo Coronel

VHeadline.com commentarist Gustavo Coronel writes: Writing for Vheadline.com has given me dividends I never imagined. <a href=www.vheadline.com>Ms. Onefeather wrote a poem about one of my articles which I will treasure always. And now I get <a href=www.vheadline.com>an Oscar for my article on the Venezuelan Constitution!

I will not go into a detailed reply of Oscar's comments because I am sure that our readers will have arrived, by now, to their own conclusions about their merits ... there are just a few points which need additional precisions.

First of all, the title: Desperate last-ditch is both redundant and inaccurate. Last-ditch means desperate, no need for repetition. My article is not desperate but just the contribution of a Venezuelan citizen to unmask the hypocrisy of the President, who pays lip service to the Constitution while violating it almost every day. This is so obvious now that only the blind fails to see it. Also inaccurate is "attempt at discrediting Chavez..."  Dear friend: Chavez and his group do not need anyone's attempting to do this ... they have been doing a great job themselves.

My article did not pretend to be a "study" ... I said that I just read the Constitution, and compared my reading of it with what the President and his group are doing.  And, I repeat, is tragically obvious...

The Constitution can not be a document of intent. It is the supreme law of the Nation. I mentioned, specifically, many articles that can not be fulfilled, completely unrealistic.

When you ask the impossible, violations will be inevitable.

So, I said that the legislators were irresponsible to ask for the impossible. I hope this is not too hard to understand.

The explanations bravely attempted by Oscar for this major weakness do not require my comments. I also said that there are many other articles which can be fulfilled and are being violated.

Oscar pretends to absolve Chavez from many of those violations to the Constitution on the grounds that this was also done before by others...

Totally unacceptable.

The Colombian guerrillas have camps in several places within Venezuela territory, along the Perija mountain range in the State of Tachira, which borders with Colombia and in the State of Barinas, where the President comes from.

Frankly, the only thing they have not done yet is to call a press conference to advertise their presence. In the case of Carlos Fernandez, this gentleman was taken by a group of secret police without a judicial order and without the representative of the Attorney General Office being present. He was incommunicado for about 10 hours ... which represents a clear violation of his Constitutional rights. Why do I say this, you ask?  Because it is the truth, that is why ... the news which was broadcast by Globovision clearly said that no one knew where Fernandez was.

So, somebody is not telling the truth here.

In the case of the break-in at POLAR by the burping General, I know what I saw and heard. When asked by the female reporter if he had a judicial order, this fat Rambo said: "I do not need one ... I have direct instructions from the President."  This reckless statement was denied by Vice president Rangel, but my guess is that Chavez told him to go ahead. Acosta (Carles is his mother's name) did not hit the woman himself, but his assistant did. Why was she hit, you ask?  Is there a good reason why a woman should be hit? Have you been talking to Mike Tyson?

As far as telephone conversations are concerned, you demand proof. Since you do not live here all the time, you miss a lot of what is going on. Ortega's telephone conversation with Carlos Andres Perez about the need for a national strike was played days on end on the government television station. A conversation between Carrero (a former Chavez crony now in disgrace) and a judge about "twisting the arm" of some other judge, was also given publicity ... there are many other examples ... but I think you will be satisfied with these two.

You surprise me when you say that Chavez is entitled to his opinion, even if this entails slander. You worry me by saying that the President can go public accusing citizens of being criminals without having any proof, violating article 49 of the Constitution with great impunity and with obvious hate in his voice. He is the criminal, not the citizens he accuses. Hitler also had "opinions" about the Jews.

When you say that extortion in military and immigration control points have gone on for years, I can not accept this as an excuse for keeping doing it, under a government which was supposed to correct the vices of the past.

If this government is as corrupt as the previous ones, or more so, what kind of a "revolution" are you supporting?

The topic is endless, and I feel very confident that future governments will hold Chavez responsible for many grave violations of the Constitution which he carries in his pocket everywhere he goes. Chavez also carries a cross without being very spiritually inclined.

Oscar, your efforts at defending Mr. Chavez are commendable, and I wish you good luck in the future in your "mission impossible."

All I can say is: Oscar, Oscar, Oscar...

Gustavo Coronel is the founder and president of Agrupacion Pro Calidad de Vida (The Pro-Quality of Life Alliance), a Caracas-based organization devoted to fighting corruption and the promotion of civic education in Latin America, primarily Venezuela. A member of the first board of directors (1975-1979) of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), following nationalization of Venezuela's oil industry, Coronel has worked in the oil industry for 28 years in the United States, Holland, Indonesia, Algiers and in Venezuela. He is a Distinguished alumnus of the University of Tulsa (USA) where he was a Trustee from 1987 to 1999. Coronel led the Hydrocarbons Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in Washington DC for 5 years. The author of three books and many articles on Venezuela ("Curbing Corruption in Venezuela." Journal of Democracy, Vol. 7, No. 3, July, 1996, pp. 157-163), he is a fellow of Harvard University and a member of the Harvard faculty from 1981 to 1983.  In 1998, he was presidential election campaign manager for Henrique Salas Romer and now lives in retirement on the Caribbean island of Margarita where he runs a leading Hotel-Resort.  You may contact Gustavo Coronel at email ppcvicep@telcel.net.ve

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, March 25, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

Venezuela's Executive Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel has cautioned that the United States may be looking at targeting other nations once the current war on Iraq is over. Rangel's comments come during a visit to Santiago, Chile as part of his whistle-stop Latin American tour to explain the current Venezuelan political situation in the country to its neigbors. 

"The United Nations has received a blow that now leaves our peoples' sovereignty defenseless. What they are today doing to Iraq can also be carried out against other nations. No one is safe from now onwards because the only safeguard, the UN, has collapsed. 

Rangel's comments come amid strong criticism from leading Venezuelan government representatives, including President Hugo Chavez Frias himself who has openly defied the US by slamming their invasion on Iraq. 

Nigeria: Double speak By Victor Ahiuma - Young Tuesday, March 25, 2003

AS Nigerians groan under the torturing fuel crisis despite being a major producer of the products, president of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Comrade Peter Akpatason, in this chat with EnergyThisWeek, gives insight to reasons for the un-ending fuel scarcity in the country.  He also speaks on the union's  preparedness to take on alleged anti-labour practices and employers in the industry.

Excerpts:

What is the union’s position on the un-ending fuel crisis?

Well, our position is that the government has not been sincere about its efforts to address the issue from the onset.  They made a mistake in attempting to give Nigerians the impression that the only way to solve the problem of fuel scarcity is to increase the pump price.  They wanted to increase the fuel price as a result of that they had to seize the opportunity of the gulf war threat as well as the Venezuela problem to create the artificial scarcity situation that we have.

The truth is that government has always been in a position to forecast such situations and make arrangements to forestall such developments or to absorb such shocks. That is what happens elsewhere in the world. People have reserves to address problems     like this.

Unfortunately, we don’ t have reserves in Nigeria. The government at the moment, rather than think of how to find solution of the fuel scarcity, is actually waiting to use that as an opportunity to increase prices. That exactly is why they have not been able to address the problem.

We want to see the attempt by major marketers to push for a price  hike as a furtherance of government plans. They are just acting as agents of government to give Nigerians the impression that without price  increase, it would not be possible to address the problem. But the truth is that government has all it takes to address the problem. They get a lot of revenue as a result of this increase in crude prices. What they are getting is so much that they can use just a little of it to subsidise the import for this period and after which the situation might stabilize and we would go back to the normal where they would not have to subsidize beyond what it is presently. But unfortunately,  because of their insensitivity to the needs and  problems of Nigerians, they have not bothered to do that. I think they owe us a duty in that respect.

The authorities have talked about low production of the local refineries and heavy dependance on import. Why is it that up till now,  we still talk about low capacity utilisation, can’t the government do something to increase the capacity of  local refineries?

Part of the insincerity of government is manifest in the area of refinery maintenance. They have always come out with programme of maintenance. The last one they came out with was so uptismistic. They gave us the impression that by June last year, everything would have been all right. Again, unfortunately, they did not do much. So, we want to believe that it is not as if they don’t have the solution to it or the idea as to how to solve the problem. But what happens is that, this same politicians who are the policy makers, they are the core investors who want to sell NNPC to themselves. So they want to perpetuate this situation. They want the situation to persist such that Nigerians will believe that the best way out is to sell NNPC and its subsidiaries. They are creating the ground for themselves to buy the corporations’  subsidiaries. It is not going to be good for Nigeria because these people don’t actually have the interest of Nigerians at heart. Most of them fraudulently acquired their wealth from public treasury and they want to use the same public wealth to buy public companies, to own them and turn public monopoly to private monopoly without actually attempting to really solve the problem of NNPC. We want to believe that if they really want to solve the problem of the refineries, they have the resources to turn around the refineries to make them work. Not by politicizing issues. Not by awarding contracts to companies that lack the technical and other resources to make the refineries work. If they are sincere, they will award the contract to competent contractors. The oil wells are flowing. There are buyers who we are exporting oil to. The money is coming. They divert too much of the money into politics. They should use part of the money to make the refineries work. Let the technocrats, let those who have the technical know how be involved in this  repairs not for politicians who know nothing about the technical management of refineries to take charge. That is what is killing the country. We don’t see the sincerity of the present government and the party in power to address the problems of this country. Rather than address problems, you see top party officials saying all sort of funny things about workers resistant to privatisation of public companies. Like the chairman of PDP, Chief Audu Ogbeh said recently. I think that is not a very responsible way of talking. They should make very visible and responsible efforts to solve this problem.

How does the face-off in the gulf impact and relate to the crisis in the country?

The crisis in the gulf has not affected  other countries the way it is affecting Nigeria. I said earlier that they are just using that opportunity to attempt to increase prices. Actually, we agree that crude prices went up and could still go up. There are two implications. One, the refineries in Europe and other parts of the world where we import refined products, they will definitely have their prices up because the crude, the raw material for refining the products has gone up. So, whatever we import is very likely that the prices would also go up. But another implication is that as a result of the crisis in the gulf region and the Venezuela problem, the crude we sell in this country has increase in quantity and the prices have also gone up. So a lot of money is accruing to the federal government. So, if so much is accruing to the government much more than what goes out or what will possibly go out as subsidy to get more fuel for Nigerians, then they don’t have reason for not been able to address this problem. They only lack the foresight to look at the situation as it was coming and have continency arrangement to checkmate the present suffering that Nigerians are passing through.

Do you think this time, it is politically wise to talk about pump price increase?

That is the blunder they are making. That is why they are coming up with a lot of unreasonable explanations and excuses like accusing sabotuers that are not existing. We believe that if there are saboturs at all, they are politicians in power. There are government  officials who are sabotaging Nigerians’ efforts, who are sabotaging the efforts of oil workers in Nigeria, who are diverting money that ought to be used for more important thing into political campaigns and all sort of things . I think it is unfortunate and we in NUPENG are not happy about it. I know every responsible Nigerian is not happy about such development. The government needs to be forthright on issues. As for this one, they are not serious. I think it is very clear to them now that it is a wrong time to talk of increasing pump prices. That would not solve the problem any, way. It will be suicide  mission to embark upon. If they do it, well only God knows what will happen but I know Nigerians would not be stupid enough to ask such people to come back, if they dare it this time. But for our union, as usual, you should know we will react. We will react in some new ways,  not necessarily the way we use to do it. But definitely, we will make it very difficult for them. I will believe it is not going to be possible.

Recently, your union sent a petition to the minister of employment, labour and productivity intimating him, about unfavourable industrial situation in the industry and your resolve to tackle it head on. What is the situation now?

Well, the situation still remain the same. It is only one of them that I think his done a little improvement. In Eleme Petro Chemical Company Limited (EPCL), Port Harcourt, we are made to understand that NNPC has retired, instead of reinstating workers that were sacked because of their union activities. That is a far cry from our expectation. But all the same,  because the people affected have decided to take it in good faith, we have decided also, to accept it like that. But in other areas like the contract workers in Shell, they are still facing the same problem. In fact, the situation is worsening. We are so surprised that the DGM of NAPIMS who is supposed to be a Nigerian and reason like other Nigerians in terms of the welfare of working in the industry has decided to turn the other way round. Rather than address an issue that was brought before him on the instruction of the Group Managing Director (GMD) of NNPC, we are surprised that he decided to take side with the multi-nationals. In fact, he made comments that are very unethical which we think are not good for the industry. But we are going to react. We are going to write the GMD of NNPC complaining about the activities and role of the DGM of NAPIMS and also to put the industry on an alert about our reaction to it. Definitely we are going to take on the industry. We are not going to allow Shell to just throw out that workers and change the contracting formular in the industry. There is a new development too. Just after the Shell issue, Chevron has also come up with something similar. Chevron is also pointing at the same DGM of NAPIMS. It appears he has some thing he is benefitting personally from that and as a result of that, he is all out to destroy the industry. But NUPENG will make sure we resist that. In fact, NUPENG and our petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), we are in concert, as a team in doing that. We are going to ensure that this neo-colonialism and re-colonialism is resisted vehemently. If it involves taking him as an individual or personalising it, we will do it with the man and we will take on every company in the industry that has decided to be anti-labour. On the case of Mike Adenuga and his management team  in National oil, they have cleverly converted the sacking of our vice president to early retirement which for now we have not got the details. But one thing is clear, the man is out of employment for now as we are talking.

We are definitely not happy about that. They are also some other people in Belbop for instance who also are staff of that same conglomerate belonging to Chief Adenuga. They have been put out of job for more than a year now because they are members of workers’ union. Management attitude towards union in that place is so discouraging and we are going to resist that culture. If it is allowed to continue, it will definitely create problem. The syndrome will spread round the industry just like the Shell contract is going round the entire industry now. The union is very set at this moment to resist all those anti-labour employers. We are particular about those ones we have mentioned. There are a lot of others. You have the owner of Lonestar and Deutag who is completely anti-labour. He uses community influence, he uses all sort of crude measures to fight the union. He goes to court at will. He takes union from upper court to lower court. If he is defeated in an upper court, he goes to a lower court which is actually not the right thing to do. He claims he has the money and the influence to do whatever he wants and has decided he would continue to give us problem.

In Delta presently, you can imagine a situation where a whole rig is manned by expatriates and contract workers.  No Nigerian staff. Every Nigerian there is a casual worker. That is against Nigerian labour law. Unfortunately,  because we do not have effective judicial system and modern labour laws in place and our politicians are not ready to protect Nigerian workers they do what ever they like. Some of these multi-nationals and core investors take laws into their hands. It is very bad. But we are not going to sit down and lament. We will take them head on.

Double speak March 8, 2003 Posted to the web March 24, 2003 Philip Oladunjoye

Key managers in the oil sector engage in double speak as Nigeria groans under acute fuel scarcity

His mobile phone was his saving grace that day. With it, Charles Obinna, an accountant, virtually ran the activities in his office from a petrol station in Lagos where he had been trapped for hours in the long queues for fuel.

Although he kept assuring his subordinates that he was arriving office soon, he didn't succeed in getting there until about 3.30 p.m.

Obinna was not the only Nigerian whose programme was disrupted by fuel scarcity that has seen the return of long queues to petrol stations nationwide.

Kikelomo Akanbi is yet another. She was stranded at a bus-stop as a result of fuel scarcity that persisted throughout last week. The money she had on her could not pay her way to her destination. The transport fare had suddenly jumped by more than one hundred percent. Akanbi eventually boarded a cab and alighted at a point where her money could cover. She had to trek the remaining two kilometres to get to her destination. These are some of the agonising experiences of many Nigerians in the past three weeks when the country was hit by a fuel scarcity.

The fear that there might be fuel scarcity first reared its head, February 14 when workers in the department of petroleum resources embarked on a strike action to press home their demands on the Federal Government for improved working conditions. Motorists swooped on all the filling stations to fill their vehicle tanks. An action which was regarded by top officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, as panic buying.

Ndu Ughamadu, group general manager, public affairs of NNPC, had attributed the initial scarcity to panic-buying resulting from the indefinite strike embarked upon by DPR workers. Jackson Gaius-Obaseki, group managing director, NNPC, however, allayed the fear of Nigerians saying that the nation's refineries were operating at optimum capacity. He called on Nigerians to go about their legitimate businesses without fear of shortage of the products.

Similarly, Belema Osibodu, DPR spokesman had further allayed the fear entertained by Nigerians when he disclosed that all management staff of DPR had been drafted to the depots, terminal and jetties to man facilities, and to ensure that operations were not disrupted. "Operations will continue as normal crude oil will still be lifted and the nation will not incur any loss," Osibodu had said. Those assurances did not ease the scarcity.

Seven days later, February 21, DPR workers called off their strike and resumed their normal activities. But the fuel scarcity refused to go. It has even been aggravated. Many reasons were advanced for the lingering shortage of the commodity.

Obaseki, who later admitted shortage of the product in the country attributed it to the threat of war in Iraq and the political crisis in Venezuela . He said the threat of war and the political crisis in Venezuela had a toll on Nigeria stocks, saying that import supplements had been difficult to come by as some countries were buying the product at any cost at the international market in readiness for the war. "The national stock was really low when the department of petroleum resources went on strike," he declared.

Obaseki said NNPC had mapped out a strategy to forestall future scarcity. "Therefore, we have decided to place orders for fuel imports for two quarters at a time, whereby orders for the second and third quarters for this year will be made at the same time," he promised

Joseph Akinlaja, general secretary, National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, disagreed with Obaseki. He attributed the scarcity to shortfalls in supply from NNPC depots. He said the scarcity could have been a serious shortfall arising from a disagreement between NNPC and its fuel - importing contractors over freight and products costs.

Newswatch gathered that a solution to the scarcity in the immediate future might not be possible owing to the crisis between the NNPC and its fuel import contract holders over the price to be paid on the cargoes. The contractors were demanding for a review in the cost of the cargoes following the change in international market prices of refined oil. The NNPC has been battling to manage the demand.

Another reason being advanced for the fuel scarcity is the fear of possible increase in the price of the product. In the past, price increases were preceded by fuel scarcity. Government officials often argued that they could not guarantee constant supply of petroleum products due to existing subsidy on the products. Government had gradually removed the subsidy on the product which brought about the current price of N26.00 per litre of petrol and N24.00 for diesel and kerosine respectively.

The fear of a possible increase in the prices of petroleum products was, however, doused by the Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Committee, PPPRC, a committee that advises the Federal Government on petroleum products pricing.

Rasheed Gbadamosi, chairman PPRC, had assured Nigerians that any speculation of an increase in the price of petroleum products was baseless "Of greater significance to the PPRC is that the committee is not contemplating any upward adjustment of price ceilings of products and any speculation in this regard is baseless," he said in a statement he made available to newsmen. According to him, the scarcity was as a result of unanticipated hitches in the supply chain. He urged Nigerians to stop panic-buying and allow the resumption of normal product flow. "We have been advised by the NNPC, which is the only participant left in the importation of supplement that the situation is under control and normalcy would return if the general public will eschew panic-buying and allow the resumption of normal product flow," he advised.

Newswatch learnt that NNPC had been ordering fuel from neighbouring countries to ease the tension created by the scarcity. It was gathered that two vessels of a combined capacity of 66,000 tonnes arrived Lagos Port last week from Cote d'Ivoire .

The DPR workers' demand which culminated in the strike action that triggered off the scarcity has been partially settled. The workers had demanded that the Federal Government should grant autonomy to the DPR and create a petroleum inspectorate commission, which would enable the department to generate its own fund.

The workers had also accused the management of DPR of not paying their welfare benefits which include: rent subsidy /home maintenance allowance; payment of arrears of 2002 salary increments, payment of hazard allowance and distribution of personal protective equipment/uniforms to security men and drivers.

The government, however, had even before the strike sought for a measure of autonomy for the petroleum department in its bid to re-organise the oil and gas sector. It has sent a bill to the national assembly to the effect, but it is yet to be passed.

On the workers' welfare package demand, that Federal Government had instructed the special adviser to the president on petroleum matters to take adequate steps to ensure that funds were available for the procurement of operational facilities and the payment of staff benefits.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Tuesday, March 11, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez, Ombudsman German Mundarain, Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) president, Ivan Rincon and Interior & Justice (MIJ) Minister General (ret.) Lucas Rincon Romero have met to seek solutions to drastic prison conditions.

Speaking after the meeting, Ombudsman Mundarain says the State will ask international bodies for funding to implement a definite solution to the problem.

As for prisoners' main complaint over delayed legal processes, Mundarain says meetings have taken place in several States between leading judges, state attorneys, public defense lawyers and ombudsmen to create mechanisms aimed at speeding up the legal process ... 9,000 prisoners are said to be still waiting for a sentence to be passed.

Special courts will be set up inside jails as one solution.

The government denies charges that prisoners have resorted to eating cats and dogs declaring that the meals situation is already taken care of and that the media has blown the food situation out of all proportion.

Countries like the USA and the UK have funded legal system and prison reforms since the last Caldera administration but not much has been published about the results.