www.dailytrojan.com William Goodwin Kim Culotta | Daily Trojan

I find absolute rulers terrifying. Of late, one in particular has been weighing on my mind. At the helm of an oil-producing nation, he's guilty of numerous abuses of human rights and restricting freedom, accused of assassinating potential threats to his power, and is alleged to have ties to terrorists. He's a clear threat to regional stability and global security.

I don't have monsters under my bed. I have Hugo Chavez.

While that other deceptive and destabilizing dictator plagues more distant, though no less important regions, the Americas can be happy knowing they have their own autocratic ruler. President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, by imprisoning opposition leaders and, some say, orchestrating the assassinations of dissidents, has crossed the line from bully to tyrant.

In four years, Chavez has managed to undermine Venezuela's democracy, drive a growing economy into the dirt, foment unrest in an unstable region and, allegedly, support a number of terrorist groups.

Long held up as a paradigm of democracy for Latin and South America, major cracks began appearing in Venezuela's political structure at the end of the 1980s. Oil revenues had managed to prevent a fierce class dichotomy for more than 30 years; however, the last decade saw the birth of a populist movement.

Accusations of political corruption and squandered oil profits set poor against rich. Chavez was on the vanguard of this movement. In 1992, Colonel Chavez led an attempted coup with other military leaders. His subsequent imprisonment spanned more than two years and another failed military coup.

Popular support garnered him a pardon before the end of his term and ultimately carried him to election as president, after he assumed the mantle of democracy. Considering his past, one might conclude that Chavez takes, shall we say, a more "forceful" approach to governing. Over the course of his time in office, the president-turned-dictator has been quite obliging and done absolutely nothing to dissuade anyone of that opinion.

The latest child in the lineage of democratic leaders-turned-tyrants (think Robert Mugabe or Alberto Fujimori), Chavez immediately altered the constitution to permit him a second term. Media criticism accelerated the restriction of free speech. An assembly of appointed stooges replaced the popularly elected congress. With increasing regularity, basic republican values were being trampled.

The rise of authoritarian rule coincided with a vicious decline in the economy. The Washington Post commented last year, "(Chavez's) senseless mix of populist and socialist decrees seriously damaged the economy and galvanized opposition from businesses, media and the middle class."

Chavez tried to deflect criticism of his feckless economic initiatives by heaping invective on the upper classes.

Oil officials were described as "living in luxury chalets where they have orgies, drinking whiskey." The hierarchy of the Catholic Church (Venezuela is 96 percent Roman Catholic) has also endured constant attacks, according to Chavez's BBC profile. His recurring theme on his weekly call-in television address and in his addresses to the national assembly is the rift between the haves and have-nots.

Increasing poverty and economic hardship, however, have disillusioned many of the poor, on whose shoulders Chavez rose to power. Things have reached a boiling point this year. Already, Chavez has narrowly avoided an attempted coup by the military (prompted by Chavez's orders to open fire on civilian protesters outside the presidential palace). Rallies that once were massive displays of support now ring with cries for new elections.

Most recently, worsening conditions prompted a general strike that crippled oil production. The bitter fight for new elections and/or Chavez's immediate ouster let petroleum exports fall to 250,000 barrels a day, down from 3,000,000. With Venezuela typically responsible for roughly 10 percent of the United State's imports, the near-anarchy has had an immediate negative impact on our economy, albeit mildly negative.

As if alienating his own people was not enough, Chavez decided to take it to the next level and try on the international community. Besides being a good personal friend of the bearded pajama revolutionary himself, in the summer of 2000, he wined and dined with everyone's three favorite regimes; Iran, Iraq and North Korea.

U.N. sanctions notwithstanding, the-man-who-would-be-Bolivar was enchanted by the desert nations, specifically Baghdad. "His courting of Fidel Castro, Colombia's Marxist guerrillas and Saddam Hussein made him a pariah both in Latin America and in Washington," the Post reported.

Even more troubling are allegations of support for international terrorist organizations. Several high-ranking military defectors, including the former head of the border service, claim Chavez has helped conceal the identities of terrorists, many Middle Eastern, passing through the country. More fantastically, and more likely fabricated, is the charge that he funneled money to al-Qaida in October 2001, in the guise of humanitarian aid.

The testimony of former higher-ups should be taken with more than a grain of salt; however, the claims are entirely possible. Chavez has done nothing to crack down on the drug smuggling taking place in the border regions that directly benefts Colombian rebels. And he has sent members of his fanatical civilian support groups, his Bolivarian Circles (often referred to as "Circles of Terror"), to Cuba for "unspecified training."

His contentious and troublesome history aside, Chavez deserves special attention now as he carries out his pledge to make those behind the recently defeated strike pay for challenging his authority. "Twelve-armed men kidnapped the four victims on Saturday night as they were leaving a protest. They were bound and gagged, and some were tortured before the gunmen executed them, the police said," the New York Times reported Wednesday.

The killings of the three dissident soldiers and an opposition organizer, while perhaps not directly authorized by Chavez, were undoubtedly politically motivated. The Bolivarian Circles have been known to physically threaten protesters with violence. To counter this, some protesters have formed their own armed bands, raising the terrible, if still distant, specter of all-out urban warfare between opposing camps.

Such an apocryphal warning may be necessary, however, as Venezuela continues to destabilize. Labor-government negotiations are on the cusp of dissolving, and the possibility has led many to take to the streets in protests dwarfing antiwar crowds in the United States.

The downward spiral of Venezuela, both country and leader, demands close observation from the United States. Without constant attention to the democratic devolution and the ascension of Chavez the dictator, the prospect of having to a face another Saddamite is not so easy to ignore. Only this time, it's in our backyard.

Editorial columnist William Goodwin is an undeclared freshman. To comment on this article, call (213) 740-5665 or e-mail dtrojan@usc.edu.

Copyright 2003 by the Daily Trojan. All rights reserved. This article was published in Vol. 148, No. 26 (Monday, February 24, 2003), beginning on page 4 and ending on page 6.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, March 09, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Movimiento Quinta Republica (MVR) deputy Calixto Ortega says Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) rebel leader, Juan Fernandez should hand himself over to justice.  “Nobody is being politically persecuted in Venezuela …  Fernandez sparked off the oil stoppage at PDVSA should accept the consequences of his acts.”

The National Assembly (AN) Energy & Mines Committee president insists that Fernandez and companions had abandoned their PDVSA obligations to take on political leadership and must therefore respond to trial before the courts.

Fernandez has declared that he has gone "clandestine" and is playing cat and mouse with security forces, managing to fool a State Political & Security (DISIP) police unit that attempted to serve an arrest warrant on him when he showed up at an opposition rally in Caracas this weekend.

www.sfgate.com David Gonzalez, New York Times Sunday, March 9, 2003

Maracaibo, Venezuela -- In this sun-drenched city built on oil and agriculture, government workers complain of missed paydays and stalled projects.

Beyond the high-rises and office towers, impoverished families live in dank, crumbling shanties along unpaved streets.

These scenes in the western state of Zulia make the billboard outside the government-run oil company seem like a cruel taunt, particularly given that Venezuela's journey to becoming the world's fifth-largest oil exporter began here in 1914.

"Social Investment Fund," the sign proclaims. "Improving the Life of All Zulianos."

Complaints that the central government has exported not just oil from the region, but increasingly its attendant profits as well, have turned many residents against President Hugo Chavez, whom they have accused of withholding $500 million from their state budget over the years.

Only one of the state's 21 mayors supports Chavez, while the governor, Manuel Rosales, has easily rallied tens of thousands of people against him.

In Chavez's struggle to overcome the devastating effects of a two-month nationwide strike, Zulia, the country's most populous state with 3.2 million residents, is a crucial battleground. Chavez must not only boost oil production, but also his support in this state whose people tend to vote as a bloc.

Two weeks ago, with the strike faltering, Chavez set his sights on removing Rosales, urging people to demand the kind of recall referendum that his own critics have sought unsuccessfully against him. Chavez's supporters accuse the governor of being unwilling to see the wealthy give up their privileges.

Yet even among the poor, the very group that Chavez says benefits most from his Bolivarian Revolution, disenchantment has grown.

"The economy is fatal, and since Chavez came to power it has gotten worse, because there is no work," said Addis Atencia, who shares a dusty compound of five shanties with nearly three dozen adults and children. "In a country that produces petroleum, how can you live like this?"

Zulianos consider themselves a breed apart, which is evident in their accent, culture and temperament. The differences are a result of having been cut off from the capital, Caracas, for years, and of frequent contact with foreigners through the port here.

For years before the bridge spanning Lake Maracaibo was built in the 1960s, residents intent on going to Caracas had to get a visa, since the ferry stopped first on the Dutch island of Curacao.

When Chavez introduced reforms, including one that allowed squatters to occupy fallow farmland, Zulianos reacted with a statewide strike in September 2001. For many, the reforms were another insult after years of seeing no returns on the revenue Zulia produced for the country.

"Zulia paralyzed the state and lit the fuse that led to a national strike," said Tomas Guanipa Villalobos, the local leader of the Primero Justicia political party. "Zulia has suffered the most under Chavez. The money which was generated by oil was not invested into making Venezuela truly productive."

Roads on the outskirts of Maracaibo are potholed, while signs heralding a commuter rail station rise above empty lots where work has stopped. The public hospital in the Veritas neighborhood looks rundown, paint flaking from its walls and weeds choking one entrance even as patients stream into the building.

A state medical supply store is closed.

Guanipa said that rather than tackle problems like those, Chavez devoted most of a brief visit here last month to lambasting the governor and the opposition as coup plotters.

"He said nothing about any program of investment to elevate Zulia," Guanipa said. "He spent hours urging people to eliminate the enemy. It was the politics of revenge, and that is very dangerous. It will get worse unless we get out of this fast."

The government has insisted that oil production has improved among the oil rigs on Lake Maracaibo, where soldiers patrol the lake and shores to prevent sabotage. It has estimated that oil production nationwide is now up to 2.1 million barrels daily after being paralyzed by the strike. Venezuela produced 3.1 million barrels a day before the strike.

Alexis Arellano, the coordinator of the oil company's Tia Juana district, said he was now able to pump almost 800,000 barrels daily, despite having fired 60 percent of his workforce during the strike.

Combined with joint ventures that were not affected by the strike, he said, regional production hovered at a little more than 1 million barrels daily.

"They said it was impossible to increase production," he said. "The people who stayed with us see it as a personal challenge to keep on operating and make the company grow."

But former executives have disputed the government's figures and insist that actual production is half of that claimed.

"If they are producing a million barrels a day with so many fewer people, then they should have fired us," joked Tarciso Guerrero, who used to manage the gas facilities. "They are only saying they reached a million to show the country that everything is normal."

Outside the oil company's Miranda Building, lines of job applicants file past a ragtag group of "Commando Reservists," Chavez supporters who have guarded the area since December, with a battered bus as their headquarters and dormitory.

The mood has been tense, especially after two people were injured this week when unknown assailants tossed a grenade and fired a dozen shots while the Chavez supporters slept by the sidewalk.

"We are defending these trenches because this institution is ours," said one of the group, Leonardo Sencial. "Without this we are nothing. If they try to take it away, we will take to the streets as the president said."

www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, March 09, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

Addressing an International Women's Day event this weekend President Hugo Chavez Frias accused opposition members of being responsible for recent violent acts, including the explosions at Colombian and Spanish diplomatic missions in Caracas, as well as the killings of three soldiers and a civilian woman. 

• The President claimed that the acts were orchestrated by the opposition in an attempt to discredit him and his government.

So far no arrests have been made for the two bombings, but government officials, including the President, claim they are closing in on the suspects.

The Colombian Consulate has handed a security video taken at the mission moments before the explosion, to Venezuelan security forces and it is thought to capture several individuals acting suspiciously.

As for the killing of the soldiers and the civilian, police have arrested a man and he has confessed to the murders.

www.boston.com By Associated Press, 3/9/2003

CARACAS -- After four months of talks, negotiators said this week they have little to show for their efforts to end a bitter political stalemate between President Hugo Chvez and Venezuela's opposition.

The Organization of American States and other mediators have so far failed to get the two sides to agree on the new elections sought by the opposition or to convince the political rivals to curb their harsh rhetoric.

The slayings of three dissident military officers in mid-February, the Feb. 18 arrest of opposition leader Carlos Fernandez, and bomb blasts outside Spanish and Colombian diplomatic missions last week have further complicated the impasse.

Each side blames the other for the incidents, which have raised tensions in the South American nation of 24 million, a major oil supplier to the United States.

Cesar Gaviria, secretary general of the Organization of American States, has sought to prevent a full-fledged confrontation like the street violence that rocked Caracas in April.

Opposition leaders say Chvez's leftist rhetoric and authoritarian policies have weakened the country's institutions and scared away investors. They briefly ousted Chvez in a coup following the April violence, but loyalists returned him to power two days later. Opponents tried again to topple him by organizing a two-month general strike. That effort collapsed Feb. 4 with Chvez still in power. Since then, his government has arrested strike organizers.

Meanwhile, opponents have been locked in negotiations with the government, trying to get Chvez to call a new election.

Although the negotiations have lacked any substantial advancements, said Nicolas Maduro, one of six government representatives at the talks, they have served as a ''containment mechanism ''to regulate the Venezuelan political conflict.''

Proposals to end the conflict by Jimmy Carter, the former US president, and the creation of the ''Group of Friends,'' a forum of six nations backing negotiation efforts, failed to give impetus to the talks, which have lacked ''rapid advancement,'' Maduro said.

Government adversaries have put ''obstacles'' in the way of progress because they aren't ''playing their cards in favor of a democratic . . . pact,'' said Maduro.

The opposition continues insisting on ousting Chvez, who was elected in 1998 and reelected in 2000 to a six-year term, as soon as possible, Maduro said.

Juan Rafalli, an opposition representative, blamed the lack of progress on the government, ''which hasn't shown any type of political will'' to agree on an electoral solution to the crisis.

Rafalli expressed optimism that Venezuela's wrenching economic downturn, coupled with the deepening political crisis, will force Chvez's government to negotiate an agreement soon.

Venezuela's economy shrank by nearly 9 percent in 2002 and analysts predict an even more abrupt contraction this year. According to official government statistics, unemployment stands at 17 percent.

Chvez, a former paratrooper, has balked at opposition demands for early elections. He insists that opponents must wait until August, when the constitution allows for a binding recall referendum on his rule.

During a recent speech, Chvez warned Gaviria, along with the governments of Spain and the United States, ''not to meddle'' in Venezuela's domestic affairs.

Delegates from the United States, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Brazil, and Chile -- the nations making up the so-called ''Group of Friends'' -- are slated to meet in Brasilia tomorrow to discuss progress of the talks and escalating violence in Venezuela.

This story ran on page A11 of the Boston Globe on 3/9/2003. © Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.