<a href=www.voanews.com>VOA News 31 Mar 2003, 10:11 UTC

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says government forces have carried out an air strike against suspected Colombian guerrillas inside Venezuelan territory.

Mr. Chavez said during his weekly television program Sunday that he ordered the strike after the guerrillas attacked a Venezuelan military post near the border. He said the military action was effective and that his government will not tolerate Colombian armed groups entering Venezuela.

Mr. Chavez did not identify the guerrillas as either leftist Colombian rebels or right-wing paramilitaries. Nor did he say if there were any casualties in the attack.

Critics in Venezuela and Colombia have accused the leftist populist leader of supporting Colombian rebels inside Venezuela, a charge Mr. Chavez has repeatedly denied.

Reuters 03.28.03, 5:08 PM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela, March 28 (Reuters) - Breaking a two-month hard currency drought, Venezuela's government on Friday approved the first allocation of dollars for essential imports under strict currency controls which many private firms fear will put them out of business. Leftist President Hugo Chavez's government suspended foreign exchange trading in January and decreed the curbs to halt capital flight and a slide in the bolivar currency triggered by a crippling opposition strike in the world's No. 5 oil exporter. The government set a fixed exchange rate of 1,600 bolivars to the dollar but a 65-day delay in the implementation of the hard currency allocation mechanism had left importers, exporters and individuals clamoring for greenbacks. Edgar Hernandez, head of the state currency control board Cadivi, said on Friday the board had authorized the allocation of $5.29 million covering the first five applications of a list of 60 requests made by companies seeking dollars to import goods. "This is expected to be paid out today," Hernandez, a former military officer and a political ally of Chavez, told a news conference in Caracas. He did not say what products were involved but added other allocations would follow. Oil-rich Venezuela imports around 60 percent of its basic needs and business leaders said the dollar drought threatened many firms with financial ruin. They have also predicted the currency controls will generate corruption, cause shortages of products and stimulate inflation. Hernandez said an additional $30,000 had also been authorized to cover the needs of students studying abroad and other special cases requiring hard currency. Foes of Chavez, including many private business executives who supported the strike in December and January, have accused the populist president of trying to use the currency controls in a political vendetta to starve them of dollars. They say the president, who survived a coup last year, is trying to crush his powerful private business opponents as part of a plan to implant Cuban-style communism in Venezuela. Chavez says the strike, which slashed vital oil output and exports, inflicted serious damage on the oil-reliant Venezuelan economy. He says the controls are needed to protect the country's international reserves and ensure that scarce dollars are used to import essentials like food and medicine. Hernandez said the long delay in the start of the centralized dollar allocations was due to logistical problems. The government has said the curbs will be lifted when oil exports recover momentum and political tensions ease. Before the forex market was closed Jan. 22, the Central Bank had been selling an average of around $60 million a day. Since the controls were introduced, a flourishing black market in dollars has emerged, in which the greenback is being traded at between 2,200 bolivars and 2,300 bolivars. Opponents of Chavez have appealed to the Supreme Court to annul the controls, arguing they were unlawfully introduced without the approval of the National Assembly. The country's top tribunal has still not made a ruling on the appeal.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Thursday, March 27, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

 The Finance Ministry has agreed to release 22 billion bolivares from the Macro-Economic Stabilization Fund (Fiem) to the Metropolitan Mayor's Office. 

At a meeting with Metropolitan Municipal authorities, public sector trade union, firefighters, health worker and Metropolitan Police (PM) representatives, a Ministry negotiator also promised to release (as of April 2003) resources corresponding as due to the municipality from the yearly Constitutional Situation Fund, which will go towards normalizing fortnightly salaries and other commitments to workers. 

The resources released will pay help pay two of three backlog salaries owed municipal workers. Municipal pensioners, who have not been paid since December, were unlucky and will have to wait until the Ministry issues a payment order.  Part of the 22 billion must be set aside to build up depleted hospital supplies and stock until the situation returns to normal.

<a href=www.phillyimc.org>Read more By John S. James

"Bolivarian circles" -- Venezuela's community groups of about 10 people each -- have grown from zero to over 200,000 groups in the last two years. The national coordinator of these circles explained the movement on March 19, 2003, in Philadelphia.

"Bolivarian circles" are grassroots groups of about 10 people each, focused mainly on local practical needs and with funding from the government. First proposed in 2001, these circles grew so rapidly that there were 2,000 in Venezuela by mid December of that year. By the time the U.S.-supported failed coup occurred almost a year ago there were 75,000 Bolivarian circles; now there are 220,000. The national coordinator of Venezuela's Bolivarian Circles, Rodrigo Cháves, spoke on March 19 at Robin's Bookstore in Philadelphia.

Cháves explained that the main goal of the government, under President Hugo Chávez, is to end the poverty of 80% of the population in the resource-rich country, the world's fourth largest exporter of oil. For example, 90 people a day die of heart disease, 80% of them with no treatment. And indigenous communities have particularly severe problems, with some having a 90% tuberculosis rate and producing no food; the people would die if the state did not give them food.

The circles are only one of various antipoverty initiatives; for example, a microfinance system makes loans directly to women and indigenous people without using intermediaries. There are many other projects to develop agriculture, fishing, construction, and other industries. Chavez said that traditionally, 80% of oil revenues had gone to the public and 20% to the expenses of the oil company. But by 2000, with corporate privatization and outsourcing, 80% of the revenue went to expenses and only 20% to the public. Education, also, is particularly important, especially since most people in the country never had a chance for leadership or meaningful participation in the society, a condition that must change if poverty is to be successfully addressed. Much of the leadership in these movements has been from women.

Rodrigo Cháves admitted that the government had made mistakes while inventing new ways to construct participatory democracy -- a task made difficult by lack of examples in other countries. He suggested that the Bolivarian circles may have grown too rapidly (from zero to over 200,000 in less than two years), and that the emphasis now should be on quality.

The talk was organized on three days' notice, and sponsored by Global Women's Strike and Robin's Bookstore.

Analysis

Venezuela is bitterly divided between the poor majority, mostly people of color, and a mostly white, corporate elite that fears loss of its privileges. Both sides have done very well in mobilizing mass support and getting people out to their demonstrations. Bolivarian circles are seen as part of a permanent mobilization to defend the democratic revolution under President Chávez. But they are not a political party, and focus mainly on practical issues like improving schools, infrastructure, or access to healthcare.

These circles are important because they bring people together for ongoing work on projects they themselves have chosen, with the help of government financial and other support. People get to know each other and learn how to work together, building widespread popular solidarity.

Could Venezuela's Bolivarian circles be a model for grassroots organizing in the United States? Not in the same way, because they depend on government funding that will not be available here. In this country the government overwhelmingly supports big business (and now, selected religions), not popular mass organizing. The U.S. has many nonprofits, but funding realities, excessive paperwork, legal restrictions, limited missions, and entrenched bureaucracies damage their effectiveness. It has a handful of affinity groups, but little organized effort to develop affinity groups as a general social movement, able to help in everyday practical problems (like getting people jobs and healthcare) as well as in demonstrations and civil disobedience.

We can learn from the Bolivarian circle movement that behind the noisy facade of events, the real fight is for widespread public engagement within everyday life. Organizations, movements, and communities become real through ongoing cooperative work on important, self-chosen projects for individual and public good. The key issue is how to build widespread human cooperation without starting with a lot of money.

For More Information

Here are two mainstream U.S. newspaper reports with details of what the movement is, and a more recent overview of Venezuela on Znet:

• The Washington Post, "Venezuela's 'Bolivarian Circles' Get a Direct Line to President," December 4, 2001 www.rose-hulman.edu

• The Christian Science Monitor, "Venezuelans Square Off Over 'Circles'," May 13, 2002 www.csmonitor.com

• Znet Venezuela Watch, "Chavez is On the Offensive: He Does Not Intend to Share the Fate of Salvador Allende or Michael Manley," February 2003 www.zmag.org

For much more information check search engines (such as www.google.com -- we found different viewpoints through that site). Be aware that most media in Venezuela, or coming from that country, is owned and controlled by a corporate elite furiously opposed to the Chavez government, and to the Bolivarian circles.