www.vheadline.com Posted: Wednesday, March 12, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Snubbing Florida Republican congressmen calling for the application of Organization of American States (OAS) Democratic Charter against his administration, President Hugo Chavez Frias has invited a group of US Democrat congressmen to visit Venezuela to see democratic advances in Venezuela for themselves.

Venezuelan Ambassador to Washington, Bernardo Alvarez has passed a letter from President Chavez Frias to the congressmen, answering accusations that the government is hell-bent on persecuting political opponents.

The letter includes details of charges against the leaders of the failed national stoppage and a copy of the Attorney General’s Office about the arrest of Federation of Chambers of Industry & Commerce (Fedecamaras) president Carlos Fernandez.

Ambassador Alvarez admits that President Hugo Chavez Frias has asked the visitors to refrain from commenting on Venezuela’s domestic political affairs, but insists that they can talk to whomsoever they please.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Tuesday, March 11, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

A delegation of Coordinadora Democratica representatives is set to travel to Europe on March 16 to seek support for the opposition in Venezuela's political stalemate.

• The group will be led by Americo Martin, an opposition negotiator in the Organization of American States (OAS) led peace negotiations.

Also taking part in the trip will be Marco Angeli, a former manager at Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), Haydee Deutsch, a founder of the Liberal Party, and lawyer Gustavo Reyna.

This is the latest of several opposition visits abroad, as it seeks to build support for the removal of President Hugo Chavez Frias from office.

www.gainesvilletimes.com Local News  -   Monday, March 10, 2003 From staff, wire reports

Estella Pifano-Steffen of Gainesville has a question for the international community: "Why are you silent about Venezuela?"

Pifano-Steffen, a Vene-zuelan native, joined about 100 protesters Sunday in Atlanta to bring attention to that country's economic and political distress.

"There were protests in 36 cities around the world today," Pifano-Steffen said, "but we're not going to hear about it. The oil spills at Lake Maracaibo are horrendous. Why isn't Greenpeace doing something?"

In January, USA Today reported oil is spilling into the lake since oil workers joined a national strike against President Hugo Chavez in December. The lake, 325 miles west of Caracas, has about 8,000 active oil wells with 15,000 to 28,000 miles of pipes and tubes snaking along the bottom.

"This is so difficult to understand," Pifano-Steffen said. "Greenpeace makes a big commotion about other things, but nothing about Venezuela as far as I can see. The world is focused on Iraq."

But Chavez claimed Sunday an international campaign involving the United States was trying to discredit his government, and he warned other countries not to be fooled by the so-called smear tactics.

"There are still newspaper headlines in various parts of the world (and) officials from some governments ... that are spreading lies," said Chavez, who has been fighting a national movement attempting to force him to resign or call early elections.

Sunday's protest was the fourth for Pifano-Steffen. Chavez opponents from Washington to Atlanta to Santiago, Chile, also marched.

Two weeks ago, Chavez strongly criticized the United States, Spain and Colombia for allegedly meddling in Venezuela's domestic affairs. Within days, bombs ripped through the Spanish and Colombian diplomatic missions in Caracas.

The U.S. Embassy later closed temporarily because of a security threat. No one has been arrested for the bombings.

Pifano-Steffen's nephew, Juan Ernesto Lossada, said he wants the United States to pressure Chavez into submitting to early elections.

"Chavez is the only president of a constitutional nation to visit (Saddam) Hussein," said Lossada, who has been visiting Gainesville for two months from Venezuela. "There are pictures to prove he visited him."

Lossada said inflation and unemployment are crippling the country's middle class and the poor.

"How can he say he is the president of the poor?" Lossada asked. "He has impoverished the nation, and the middle class is against him."

Venezuela is trying to emerge from a failed two-month general strike against Chavez. The protest, which ended last month, was strongest in the oil industry, the source of half of the government revenues and 80 percent of export earnings.

Venezuela was the world's fifth-largest oil exporter before the strike began Dec. 2 and still is importing gasoline because of difficulties in bringing refineries back online.

Chavez, who was first elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000, says his foes want to replace him with old status quo, when an elite minority held power for decades.

Lossada will return to Venezuela on Friday and said he will continue to work to free the country from Chavez' rule.

"I will not allow that man to become the owner of Venezuela," he said.

Originally published Monday, March 10, 2003

www.vheadline.com Posted: Monday, March 10, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

Protests that had been planned by Venezuelan opposition groups based abroad were scheduled to take place in several cities across the globe, but many saw very low turnouts, while in other cities the marches failed to materialize.

The opposition had been hoping that the international demonstrations would draw extra attention to Venezuela's political plight, but only a few marches were able to start as expected.

Around 200 people demonstrated outside the White House and around half that number in Atlanta, while protests in many European cities never got underway.

www.chron.com March 9, 2003, 10:38PM By MAE GHALWASH Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

Venezuelan community joins protest

Waving Venezuelan flags and posters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez alongside U.S. enemies Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, members of Houston's Venezuelan community staged a demonstration in the Galleria area Sunday to demand early elections in their native land to oust Chavez.

About 250 marchers banged pots and pans -- a tradition in Venezuelan protests -- and chanted "we want freedom" and "he's leaving, he's leaving," in Spanish. They also waved signs that read "Watch out America, Chavez sponsors international terrorism," with pictures of Chavez next to Iraqi strongman Hussein, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, Cuban leader Fidel Castro and terrorist bin Laden.

"We elected Chavez in democratic elections, but he's turning the government into a dictatorship. We don't want that. We want democracy in Venezuela; we want respect for civil rights," said Gerardo Urdaneto, a spokesman for the Houston chapter of the Civil Resistance of Venezuelans Abroad, which organized the Houston demonstration.

The demonstration was part of worldwide protests held in some 42 cities around the world, including the United States, Europe, Canada and Latin America, said Norman Carnaham, a publicist for the Houston chapter.

Venezuelans are split over Chavez's rule. His opponents accuse him of destroying the petroleum industry and the economy and of trying to form a Cuba-style leftist state. His supporters credit him for ridding Venezuela of oil giants who filled their pockets with the country's petroleum profits.

In December, oil workers in Venezuela went on strike, crippling the country's economy, to force Chavez from office. The tension spread to Houston, where anti-Chavez activists staged protests demanding a nationwide referendum that would ask Venezuelans whether Chavez should stay in office.

Chavez's opponents were dealt a blow in January when the Venezuelan Supreme Court ruled that the nationwide referendum, which would have come in February, would be indefinitely suspended.

Since then, membership in the organization's Houston chapter soared from 150 to 565, said Mary Grunewaldt, who was dressed Sunday in a T-shirt emblazoned with the Venezuelan flag and who manages the group's membership database. Sunday's march was the group's third since January and eighth since December.

International calendar:

• Iraq/Middle East: Marc Ginsberg, adviser to major news networks on Middle East issues, former U.S. ambassador to Morocco and former presidential adviser on Mediterranean security will discuss post-conflict peace and governance in Iraq and the Middle East. The event starts at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the Junior League Building, 1811 Briar Oaks Lane. Reservations are required. Call the Houston World Affairs Council at 713-522-7811.

• China: Scott Arrington, a partner in the Baker & McKenzie law firm, and Tyrena Holley, commercial officer at the Houston Export Assistance Center, will be among the speakers at the 2003 Exporters Workshop Series, which will focus on exporting to China. Topics will include business opportunities for American companies, legal considerations and whom to call for assistance. The event starts at 8:15 a.m. Thursday at the Greater Houston Partnership, 1200 Smith St., Suite 700. Reservations are required by noon Tuesday. Call the GHP at 713-844-3636.

• Italy: Louis Markos, associate professor of literature at Houston Baptist University, will discuss Dante Alighieri's thoughts on hell, sins and punishments in a talk on Dante's classic Inferno at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Houston Italian Cultural and Community Center, 1101 Milford. Reservations are required. Call 281-344-9742.

• Hispanics: Author Oscar Casares will read from and sign his debut collection of short stories on Tex-Mex culture titled Brownsville, which is set in that border Texas town, at 7 p.m. today at Brazos Bookstore, 2421, Bissonnet. For information, call 713-523-0701.