By JUAN FORERO

BOGOTÁ, Colombia, May 23 — After six months of bitter negotiations, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and his adversaries have agreed to sign an accord that would lead to a referendum on his rule, officials on both sides said today.

The agreement, brokered late Thursday by the Organization of American States in Caracas, the capital, calls on both sides to spurn violence. It is likely to lead to a referendum this year after a new electoral board is chosen to oversee the vote. Advertisement

The pact, to be signed Wenesday, does not provide a complete framework for how a referendum would be held. But it offers the prospect of calming months of tumult in Venezuela, a major oil exporter.

Uncharacteristically, the two sides agreed with each other today and hailed the agreement, which is meant to help heal a nation badly divided over its president. Mr. Chávez, a former paratrooper whose support comes mostly from the country's poor masses, has made enemies with his leftist policies since his election four years ago.

"It is a reasonably good document," Alejandro Armas, an opposition negotiator, told reporters. He added, "From our point of view there is reasonable satisfaction for the objectives reached."

In Peru, where he was attending a summit meeting of Latin American leaders, Mr. Chávez said the pact showed "that the opposition at last understands there is a Constitution that must be respected."

Mr. Chávez was briefly toppled by a coup in April 2002. His adversaries, a coalition of businessmen, labor groups and private media companies, have staged four national strikes since December 2001. The latest strike, a two-month walkout that began in December and ended in failure for the opposition, devastated the economy and temporarily shut down Venezuela's oil industry.

Opinion polls show that Mr. Chávez would most likely lose a referendum. Since the last strike, the economy has contracted by 29 percent, and a majority of Venezuelans tell pollsters they want a change. Still, he has been able to remain in power, and he enjoys an important level of support among the poor.

Caracas, May 23 (<a href=quote.bloomberg.com>Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and opposition leaders said they would sign an agreement next week to let an electoral board set the date for a binding referendum on the former army lieutenant colonel's rule.

The 19-point accord, brokered by Organization of American States Secretary General Cesar Gaviria after eight months of talks, pledges both sides to respect the right of the electoral board to set the date and opens the way for international observers to monitor the voting.

``We're very happy that the opposition is assuming a democratic attitude and is trying to convoke a referendum,'' Chavez told Panamericana television station in Peru, where he is attending a regional summit.

A referendum may end two years of protest and strikes by the opposition demanding that Chavez resign or call early elections. Opponents agreed to a binding referendum to be held after August, the midpoint of Chavez's six-year term, after a two-month national strike failed to force a non-binding vote in February.

Polls have indicated that Chavez, who was ousted by the military for two days last year during a failed coup attempt, would lose a referendum. After the strike crippled oil production and consumer spending, the economy fell 29 percent in the first quarter and unemployment rose to 21 percent, both records.

Opposition and OAS officials said last month they had an agreement with the government, only to have Chavez block the accord a day before it was to be signed. The previous version of the agreement set November 19 as the deadline for the referendum.

International Presence

The accord says that the OAS, the Carter Center and the United Nations may provide technical assistance before the vote and observe the referendum.

``We've guaranteed an international presence during the referendum,'' said Alejandro Armas, an opposition negotiator.

Congress earlier this week postponed until next week a vote to choose the five members and 10 alternates of the electoral board, which would administer the referendum.

Opposition congressmen said they objected to government legislators, who hold a narrow majority, picking three of the five board members.

The constitution requires about 2.5 million signatures, or 20 percent of the more than 12 million registered voters, to convoke a referendum. To oust Chavez, the number voting against him must exceed the total that voted him into office in 2000, when he got about 3.7 million votes.

The government and opposition leaders signed an agreement earlier this year pledging to refrain from violence and incendiary rhetoric.

It took Chavez about 24 minutes to break that accord,'' said Francisco Toro, an analyst with research company Veneconomy in Caracas, referring to the president's almost daily speeches. We have more than four years to see that Chavez is not bound by any law, constitution or agreement.'' Last Updated: May 23, 2003 16:57 EDT

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic news Posted: Friday, May 23, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Former Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) executives and Unapetrol white collar association leaders, Horacio Medina and Edgar Quijano are still in Spain lobbying Spanish political parties and some Spanish trade union centrals to get support for their cause in the upcoming International Labor Organization (ILO) general assembly in Geneva. 

Medina says Unapetrol wants to intervene at the ILO's Trade Union Freedom Committee meeting scheduled for May 28 and during the general assembly scheduled for June 3-19 to lodge a complaint against the Venezuelan government for alleged persecution of trade union leaders. 

"We will ask the ILO to send a research and monitoring team to Venezuela to show how PDVSA is violating workers' rights." 

However, Unapetrol will have to explain to traditional trade union delegates at the ILO why it took them so long to form a white collar union in PDVSA in the first place and demonstrate their apolitical character. 

Critics point out that rebel executives & managers decided to form a union as a political tool before April 11, 2002 to avoid being dismissed by President Hugo Chavez Frias.

Blue collar oil sector workers are members of the Oil Workers' Federation (Fedepetrol) of which Venezuelan Confederation of Trade Unions president, Carlos Ortega was the boss for years. It has now been learned that former executives and managers are also in Spain proposing to set up a business corporation to seek employment denied them in Venezuela. 

Medina says the group has made contacts in Spain, especially among white collar trade union leaders and there are excellent openings for a new corporation ... "the idea is to provide support services in different areas, including tourism, finances and international law, as well as crude oil." 

A Gente de Petroleo spokesperson in Venezuela comments that transnational companies operating in the Orinoco Belt have been advised not to take on any employees that downed tools to take part in the national stoppage. "We are talking about 300 executives on management level dismissed at PDVSA installations in Puerto La Cruz, Anaco and Maturin." Conoco, Phillips, Mobil, Total and EcoFuel have not responded to the charges.

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

Opposition negotiator, Americo Martin states that all sectors opposed to President Hugo Chavez Frias have agreed NOT to sign a government counter-proposal to end the negotiation process. "The government wants to get out of negotiations and wants us to sign our death certificate ... we want to keep on living." 

Martin claims that the government is afraid of international reaction  and political fallout. "Chavez Frias is afraid of the recall referendum," Martin contends, " after telling everyone that the recall referendum was the solution." 

Martin and other opposition representatives have given no indication as to how long they expect the negotiation process will last. 

From his latest statement, Martin seems to suggest that the process be given a permanent status. 

The government, on the other hand, wants to end negotiations after an agreement has been signed and argues that democratic institutions should begin to function properly again. 

Some opposition leaders are coming around to the opinion that the National Assembly (AN) should return to its role as the country's democratic forum and that the opposition bench should accept the fact that the government is in the majority, just as the government could become minority if the recall referendum goes the opposition's way. 

Government defenders accuse the opposition of double-speak recalling that Accion Democratica and Christian Socialist Party steamrolled the minority during the Fourth Republic.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, May 20, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Former Supreme Electoral College (CSE) president under the Fourth Republic, Carlos Delgado Chapellin has advised the opposition to start a new signature campaign and stop wasting time in the National Assembly (AN) . 

Delgado Chapellin, who ran the CNE from 1980 till 1991, says the new CNE is obliged to convoke a recall referendum within six months after it is installed because it is the voters that decide.  

"The CNE is technically capacitated to run not just a presidential recall referendum but any recall referendum against State Governors, Mayors and councilors." 

Agreeing with Jorge Olavarria and Primero Justice (PJ) deputy, Gerardo Blyde,  Delgado Chapellin says the signature campaign must start again because of the lack of clarity in the heading of the signature papers." 

The conduct of AN political fractions is "irrational" because, he says, deputies have not be able to reach an agreement due the buddy system of proposing friends. 

Branding the proposal to leave the selection to the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) a "constitutional short-cut," the former CSE leader warns that it could take longer than the normal process, namely through debate in Parliament. "The electoral process got the jinks when they changed the name from CSE to CNE."