www.alertnet.org 18 Mar 2003 15:17

CARACAS, Venezuela, March 18 (Reuters) - Venezuelan police shot dead two suspected Colombian right-wing paramilitaries and captured three leftist rebels from the neighboring country in a sweep of part of the border area, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

The operation followed charges by Colombia's government that Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chavez, was not doing enough to guarantee security along their 1,400-mile (2,200-km) common frontier, where Colombian rebel and paramilitary groups are active.

A police spokesman in Venezuela's western border state of Tachira told Reuters the two men killed on Monday were believed to be members of the outlawed United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC).

They were part of a group of eight men traveling in a jeep who opened fire on a police patrol on a border road outside Urena near the Venezuelan frontier town of San Antonio.

In the ensuing gunfight, two of the group were killed and the rest fled over the border into Colombia.

The incident followed the capture in San Antonio on Sunday of three members of the Colombian leftist rebel group, the National Liberation Army. Known by its Spanish initials ELN, the group is one of several outlawed armies fighting in Colombia's drug-fueled guerrilla conflict.

The police spokesman said the capture was the result of a joint crackdown on both sides of the frontier at San Antonio by Venezuelan and Colombian police. "We're exchanging intelligence and information," he said.

Chavez has angrily denied repeated accusations by Colombia's government and military that Colombian leftist rebels are operating from bases inside Venezuelan territory. He and his army commanders have said they will repel any guerrillas found on Venezuela's side of the border.

Police said the three rebels captured were members of a faction of the Cuban-inspired ELN suspected of carrying out a bomb attack in the Colombian border town of Cucuta earlier this month that killed more than 10 people and wounded dozens.

The leader of the ELN faction, who goes under the alias "Commander Tyson," escaped the dragnet on Sunday and was still on the run on the Venezuelan side of the border.

Some 300 Tachira state police officers were taking part in the sweep of the San Antonio area launched last Thursday, the spokesman said.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Monday, March 17, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) National Assembly deputy Pedro Castillo is accusing Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM) of freighting Iranian assault rifles on civilian flights, alleging that the weapons arrived at Caracas (Simon Bolivar) international airport as spare auto parts.

Castillo, who has been following the destination of Croatian small-arms brought into Venezuela late last year, has asked Vargas State prosecutor Edgar Davila to inspect a warehouse where the cargo is currently being stored and to take the corresponding measures.

“Since the law specifically prohibits raids on Customs & Excise yards, it must be an internal probe. When Croatian pistols were seized on November 27, 2002, the Police Detective Branch (CICPC) did nothing until January 7 by which time 260 guns were stolen.”

According to Castillo, the cargo came in on KLM flight 775 to be delivered to a Ray Medina ... however, he admits that he's not certain about the cargo’s final destination, which could have been Georgetown, Guyana.

www.voanews.com VOA News 17 Mar 2003, 20:06 UTC

A Venezuelan opposition leader who faces treason charges for organizing an anti-government strike may seek asylum in Costa Rica or another country.

Carlos Ortega was granted diplomatic immunity by Costa Rica Friday when he took refuge at the Costa Rican embassy in Caracas.

Quoted in local media Monday, his lawyers say he may apply for territorial asylum elsewhere.

Mr. Ortega, who heads Venezuela's largest labor union, went into hiding in late February after Venezuela issued a warrant for his arrest on charges stemming from the two-month strike.

Another strike leader, Carlos Fernandez, is under house arrest on charges related to the work stoppage aimed at ousting President Hugo Chavez.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, March 16, 2003 By: Gustavo Coronel

VHeadline.com commentarist Gustavo Coronel writes: According to Article 285 of the Constitution, the Attorney General of Venezuela has to guarantee that public officers who have committed criminal acts against the State (as defined by the Law) are rapidly and diligently brought to trial.

During the Presidency of Carlos Andres Perez, then Attorney General Ramon Escovar, did just that, bringing the President down by means of a legal action without violence. That was democracy in action. The crime committed by Perez was to give money from a secret account, traditionally handled by Presidents (including Chavez) to the President of Nicaragua, Mrs. Violeta Chamorro, to be used for her physical safeguarding ... the amount involved was some $4 million.

During this administration the Attorney General has received 11 accusations against President Chavez and ... so far ... has not acted on any one of them. Some of the claims against Chavez are quite substantial, and have even been publicly admitted by the President.  For example, he admitted having diverted the immense amount of $4 billion away from the Macroeconomic Stabilization Fund (FIEM) to pay Christmas bonuses and salaries to public employees ... against the laws of the country ... this money did not even belong entirely to the Government.

According to the law which regulates the fund, this money was partly owned by PDVSA and by the governments of regional States.

The arbitrary, unilateral decision to use the money is technically considered as theft in Venezuelan Law (Peculado de uso).

Nevertheless, the Attorney General did not act ... he is an unconditional follower of Chavez. His performance has received widespread criticism due to his lack of independence and integrity.

Another open (and proven) violation of the Law by the President, of having received one million dollars from a Spanish bank ... a year after becoming President ... has not been acted upon by the Attorney General. This is what impunity means ... and it is one of the many reasons why this government of Hugo Chavez is no longer legitimate.

However, something is starting to happen.

A Mr. Pedro Sanoja, an Attorney General subordinate, in charge of looking at the Venezuelan-Cuban petroleum agreement, has just sent a letter to his boss telling him (this is a free translation of rather obscure legalese):

"I am respectfully writing to you to inform you that, based on my investigations related to possible irregular actions related to the supply and sale of crude oil and products to Cuba, within the framework of the Agreement of October 30, 2000, I have reached the conclusion that, according to the Article 49 of the Constitution and the Article 130 of the Penal Code, President Hugo Chavez Frias should be indicted for having committed crimes described in Law. Given the high rank of the public officer involved, I request your instructions relating to where the indictment should take place....."

The specific crime is not defined in the letter, as it will only be made known at the time of the indictment. However, we can speculate that some of the violations of the law include the decision by the President to go ahead with the agreement without consulting and obtaining the approval of the National Assembly ... as well as the clearly damaging clauses contained in the agreement, giving Cuba huge subsidies at the expense of PDVSA and of the Venezuelan nation. The agreement, in fact, constitutes a clear act of treason against Venezuelan national interests and can only be explained on the basis of the unusual and asymmetrical friendship between Chavez and Castro.

The action by his subordinate puts Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez in a very tight spot. Up until now he has killed all accusations against the President coming to his office as being from "political enemies." Now he has a formal action taken from someone within his own office ... an action already known to the public ... the whole country is watching to see what he will do now.

My guess is that he will probably try to do nothing. He'll call his subordinate to his office and have a "heart-to-heart conversation,  either convince him not to rock the boat or, if he can not, will dismiss the subordinate.

Scandals in Venezuela usually last between four days and one week ... the time required for the next scandal to be brought to the limelight.  I've been fighting corruption in my country for more than 12 years now, and I know this to be the case.

Today, however, there is a better chance that something will really happen, because the President is already highly-weakened by multiple accusations of impropriety regarding low transparency in the use of public funds, human rights violations, unduly friendly relations with the Colombian guerrilla and a tolerant stance regarding terrorism.

Many of his followers ... including the shrewd and unprincipled Attorney General ... might be starting to feel that the time to break away from the President is getting near, and it might be better to secure a place in future political scenarios.

This feeling of uncertainty among Chavez' followers is growing as August gets nearer.

The Referendum that can not be denied will come around that month, no matter how hard the government tries to delay it. And ... when it comes ... the President will be soundly rejected by an estimated 75% of the population.

The government is already claiming that, if that happens, the President should be able to be a candidate for elections that should immediately take place.

Obviously this is preposterous ... it would be equal to say that the husband who is divorced by his indignant wife would be eligible to compete for her hand in the next wedding. The bride does not want him! Why is it so difficult for some people to understand they are not wanted?

The President and the Attorney General are coming closer to their moment of truth.

Will the Attorney General indict the President and save whatever remains of his highly damaged reputation?

...or will he go down with him, faithful to the end, like the little guy in Francis Coppola's Dracula?

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

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

The Friends of Venezuela group is set to hold its second official meeting in Brazil today, as the member nations continue to search for a solution to Venezuela's political stalemate. 

Representatives from Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and the United States will all meet in the Itamaraty Palace in Brasilia, with Venezuelan opposition and government spokesmen also in attendance to put forward their cases. 

The government will be represented by Jorge Valero, Venezuela's Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), and Vladimir Villegas, Venezuelan Ambassador to Brazil.

The opposition members present at the meeting will be Coordinadora Democratica negotiators Timoteo Zambrano and Manuel Cova.

Both sets of Venezuelan political representatives will have the chance to make presentations before the group.