Adamant: Hardest metal

Carlos Fernandez plays fiddle to "Cuban Communist card" from Canary Islands

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Monday, April 28, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

"Convalescing" Federation of Chambers of Industry & Commerce (Fedecamaras) president, Carlos Fernandez has turned up in the Canary Islands playing the latest hardliner opposition "Cuban Communist card" for all it's worth ... "The Cuban government's interference in Venezuelan affairs is public and notorious." 

According to news reports, Fernandez is currently a legal resident in Miami.

Fernandez calls on the USA government to be more aggressive towards the Chavez Frias administration, which he claims has become a serious threat to US interests in Latin America. 

The man, who refuses to pass the Fedecamaras presidency on to someone else, not that he is ill and living outside of Venezuela, suggests that Venezuela is fast becoming totalitarian and a Cuban satellite ... "the brain is in Havana not Caracas." 

As the most important country in the Americas, Fernandez says the USA must deal with the Cuban-Venezuelan axis which is threatening Central America and democracy on the continent. 

Fernandez was in Canary Islands at the invitation of the Canary Islands Young Businessmen Association which awarded Fedecamaras a special plaque for its work in Venezuela.

Venezuelan officers seek asylum in Dom. Republic

alertnet.org-Reuters, 24 Apr 2003 22:25:19 GMT

CARACAS, Venezuela, April 24 (Reuters) - Two dissident Venezuelan army captains have sought political asylum in the Dominican Republic, a year after they helped oust President Hugo Chavez in a brief coup, their lawyer said on Thursday.

Brothers Ricardo and Alfredo Salazar, who escorted Chavez to an island off the Venezuelan coast during April's rebellion, were at the Dominican Republic's embassy in eastern Caracas, attorney Alonso Medina told Reuters.

An embassy official would not comment.

The captains were the fourth and fifth Chavez opponents to seek asylum since the leftist former paratrooper made a spectacular return to power 48 hours after he was toppled.

Costa Rica granted refuge in March to union boss Carlos Ortega, who led an opposition strike in December and January to try to force Chavez into resigning.

Businessman Pedro Carmona, who briefly replaced Chavez in last year's coup, was allowed to leave for Colombia and navy rear-admiral Carlos Molina, who faced investigation for his role in the coup, was granted asylum in El Salvador.

Chavez has sought to bring to trial opposition leaders and former workers at the state oil company, who spearheaded the opposition strike, charging them with treason and rebellion.

The Salazar brothers were part of a group of dissident military officers involved in a Caracas plaza protest in October when they declared themselves in civil disobedience against the Chavez government.

Foes of the populist Venezuelan leader accuse him of ruling the world's fifth largest oil exporter like a dictator and say his self-styled revolution is driving Venezuela to political and economic ruin.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Wednesday, April 23, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Analyst Romero forecasts Chavez Frias will opt for radical line over elections

Opposition analyst, Anibal Romero says President Chavez Frias has but two options open to him ... "while it is true that the opposition is facing a difficult period so is the government and it has limited options." 

The first option is to go for elections. 

Opposition Romero says he is convinced that President Chavez Frias will lose, even with several opposition contenders (unless he resorts to fraud). 

The economy of the vote, he claims, will ensure that the national will to be rid of Chavez Frias will prevail ... losing the referendum means defeat for the "Project." 

"It will be a serious upset for the radical left, as happened to the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and the idea to handover power freely is anathema to a group of people that have been pushing people around, committing abuses, crimes and other misdemeanors ... they won't be able to defend themselves form the courts and international tribunals after losing the elections." 

For the above reasons, Romero is of the opinion that the government will avoid elections like the plague and that Chavez Frias will embark on the only option left to him ... to radicalize the situation,  moving from a "soft" to "hard" authoritarianism, closing opposition media, rounding up and imprisoning opposition leaders and intellectuals, breaking with the Organization of American States (OAS) and Washington, and accelerating union with Fidel Castro and the Colombian guerrilla movement in an attempt to close the circle of absolute power. 

Taking a step backwards, Romero allows for the possibility that Chavez Frias will go for elections, if international and domestic pressure is applied and if the President realizes that his chances of "closing the circle" are slipping through his fingers. 

Romero says he thinks Chavez Frias will opt for the second option. 

"It will not last long and carry a high price ... his regime will lose international support and internal legitimacy ... Venezuelans will not allow society to be transformed into a second Cuba."

Forums

Referendum 2003 discuss the pros and cons of a revocatory referendum

President Hugo Chavez Frias express your opinions on the Presidency of Hugo Chavez Frias and his Bolivarian Revolution

Bolivarian Circles Are Bolivarian Circles a Venezuelan form of Neighborhood Watch Committees or violent hordes of pro-Chavez thugs?

Venezuela's Opposition What is it? Is a force to be reckoned with or in complete disarray?

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

Negotiators try to save Venezuelan election deal

Reuters-Alertnet 22 Apr 2003 16:57:33 GMT By Patrick Markey

CARACAS, Venezuela, April 22 (Reuters) - International negotiators on Tuesday scrambled to salvage an accord for a referendum on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's rule after his government appeared to shy away from signing the initiative.

Officials from the Organization of American States and the Carter Center, which brokered the agreement between the government and opposition, furiously worked the phones after Chavez's ruling party demanded revisions to the accord hours before a signing expected on Tuesday.

"This has really set things back. We are going to need more negotiations and more sitting down around tables now," said one source close to the talks.

The OAS announced the deal April 11, exactly a year after Chavez survived a brief military coup that triggered months of political turmoil and street protests by opposition groups demanding early elections.

The accord was the first concrete result of talks between Chavez, a populist first elected in 1998, and his opponents, who accuse him of ruling the world's No. 5 oil exporter like a corrupt dictator.

The initiative would pave the way for a referendum later this year on whether Chavez should complete his current term of office, scheduled to end in early 2007.

Under Venezuela's constitution, such a poll can be held after Aug. 19, half way through the president's mandate. The opposition must collect signatures from 20 percent of the electorate to trigger such a recall vote. No date had been set for the referendum.

Opposition leaders, who accuse Chavez of deliberately stalling over elections, said they were waiting for the government to clarify their position on the accord.

"The deal is not going to be signed today. They have to tell us now what the government's position is in these negotiations," said Manuel Cova, a union leader and member of the opposition negotiating team.

MORE TIME NEEDED

Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel indicated clearly that the government was in no rush to immediately sign the election agreement. He said the government would need more time to study the initiative and consult its supporters.

"We respect the impatience of the opposition, but obviously we don't share it," Rangel said in a statement Tuesday. "In times of negotiations, pressure must be excluded."

National Assembly deputies from Chavez's governing Fifth Republic Movement on Monday stoked confusion by demanding revisions to the agreement.

Chavez, who survived both last year's coup and a grueling opposition strike in December and January, has said the National Assembly must appoint a new National Electoral Council to set a date for the referendum, oversee the vote and reorganize the electoral register.

The Venezuelan leader appears determined to press on with his self-styled revolution as his opponents, a loose alliance of business leaders, unions and political parties, struggle to present a united front.

Six nations, including the United States and Brazil, backed months of tortuous OAS efforts to secure an electoral deal between the government and the opposition.

Mediators are still searching for an acceptable site for renewed negotiations after a bomb blasted the Caracas building where the talks were last held. No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing, one of several to hit the capital in the last three months.

(Additional reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez)

Cardinal Ignacio Velasco: to the catacombs if Venezuela falls to communism

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, April 22, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Archbishop of Caracas, Cardinal Ignacio Velasco has come out fighting, warning that the Roman Catholic Church in Venezuela is prepared "to go down into the catacombs to praise God if the disgrace of a communist and atheist regime should befall Venezuela." 

Speaking at a religious ceremony marking the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, Velasco told the faithful assembled at San Jose de Chacao church that Jesus preached a gospel of peace and union and the Venezuelan people has always identified itself with that message but must keep alert against the dangers of a Communist regime "because it would take away the catechism and freedom." 

Recalling that "communism denies God and the human spirit and heralds dictatorship," the Cardinal insists that "it has never done any good for the poor ... the Church laments the executions of dissidents in Cuba ... it's a sign of lack of respect for human life." 

Cardinal Velasco has confirmed that he received death threats by phone during Holy Week, admitting that he felt fear but insisting that he would continue his mission on earth.  Commenting the situation in Venezuela, Velasco says he is concerned that no agreement has been reached yet and believes that an electoral solution is the best.

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

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