<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, June 22, 2003 By: VHeadline.com Reporters

Two women were physically attacked at a weekend meeting in a Philadelphia (USA) church by a group of 20 claimed to be support the  Venezuelan opposition which failed to overthrow the democratically-elected government of President Hugo Chavez Frias.  Organizers say the anti-government rebels attempted to censor the truth in "One year after an uprising reversed the coup" statements organized by the Global Women's Strike.

"The disrupters were stationed in and outside the Tabernacle Church ... they harassed a multiracial crowd, which included several older women, a wheelchair user, youth and church members.  There were two assaults: one outside the church against a woman going into the meeting as she attempted to shield her face from a camera-wielded by a disrupter; the other inside the church against a meeting organizer who was slapped loud enough to be heard across the room."

Police officers have taken statements from several other witnesses at the Germantown (Quaker) Meeting Peace & Social Concerns Committee endorsed event: "We in the US have a hard enough time finding out what is really happening in Venezuela, since the mainstream press is biased against President Chavez Frias ... although he was elected by a landslide, the US government is hostile to his refusal to privatize oil or allow the oil revenue to be siphoned to the US, and because he encourages grassroots people to take charge of their own society -- the kind of democracy we in the US have not known for many moons," says Global Women's Strike coordinator Phoebe Jones Schellenberg.

"When people got together to hear what we saw on our April visit, the first anniversary of the popular reversal of the coup, we were physically attacked. They behaved just like their counterparts in Venezuela, to prevent US people finding out what is being accomplished there, and what we can learn from it."

"Despite Venezuela supplying 14% of US oil needs, 80% of Venezuelans live in extreme poverty. People have organized themselves into neighborhood groups, cooperatives, and unions to organize for the housing, education and food they need."

One of the Venezuelan speakers, Dozthor Zurlent says "the Venezuelan opposition is increasingly desperate and violent, having twice now failed to overthrow President Chavez Frias who has emerged from the latest failed attempt stronger than ever."

TENERIFE, Canary Islands, MAY 14, 2003 (<a href=www.zenit.org>Zenit.org).- The Catholic Church under attack in Venezuela is not alone, the president of the Venezuelan episcopal conference says "there is a persecution of the whole of Venezuelan society."

In the following interview with ZENIT, Archbishop Baltazar E. Porras of Merida spoke about the ways President Hugo Chavez's government exerts pressure on the Church and trims democracy in the country.

Chavez, who staged an unsuccessful military coup in 1992, came to power in 1999. Among other things, he is noted for his harsh attacks against the country's bishops, and for reducing the public funds allocated to the Church's evangelizing and humanitarian work in the country.

Q: Perhaps the most acute moment of tension was lived a year ago, with the unsuccessful attempt to remove Chavez in April of 2002. You were with Chavez at that time.

Archbishop Porras: At that moment there was an explicit recognition of the role of the Church. Cardinal Ignacio A. Velasco, archbishop of Caracas, and I were among those being attacked the most.

However, when he was about to go under, the president of the Republic himself called me to see if I was prepared to defend his life and to help him leave the country. I told him: "Of course. Let me see what I can do." As a priest, it is one of my first obligations. With the guarantee of my person, Chavez was prepared to confirm his resignation. But the military then did not accept this condition; they obliged him to stay in the country and then, as we know, he was able to return to his post.

What is interesting is that now, a year after the event, the president has tried to change the version. He has said: there were a few "little bishops" who were with the coup participants. He knows very well, as I told him on one occasion, that "I appeared on the scene because you called me." I think all this has to be seen in the context that any institution which can cast a shadow on him has to be erased, impaired, or divided.

Q: Has he succeeded?

Archbishop Porras: The government has always tried to divide. As with other institutions, Chavez has said: the leaders are at the top, and the top is divorced from the base.

I think that given the characteristics of the Church in Venezuela, its configuration and presence, his plan has failed. This does not mean that there are not a few elements, priests and a few groups calling themselves Christians, who hope to relive in Venezuela the history of Guatemala's Sandinismo. If there was to be in Venezuela a division between religious and the diocesan clergy, or between their presence in popular and other areas, it would have been different, but this situation does not exist.

Q: What is the situation in Venezuela?

Archbishop Porras: There is a populist, authoritarian, militarist government; it is no accident that a military coup leader is at the head. It is not accidental that the models proposed are Fidel Castro's regime in Cuba, Colonel Muammar Gadhafi's in Libya, and Saddam Hussein's in Iraq, although we don't know where he is now.

Q: Aren't you afraid to speak with such clarity?

Archbishop Porras: The best way to maintain the people's hope in face of this situation is to keep the truth before them.

Q: Have their been bomb attacks against the Churches?

Archbishop Porras: Of course there are limits to situations that some of us Bishops have to live in a particular way. But there is a characteristic of this process that is being seen in Venezuela: the people are not afraid. It is very interesting, because it also denotes a series of values.

In my diocese of Merida, in the two weeks preceding Holy Week, there were 12 robberies. But they weren't real robberies, because their objective was to destroy. Tabernacles were destroyed. If there had been sacred golden vessels, one might think it was robberies. But they were ordinary chalices of no value. In recent months, the Cathedral has been the object of robbery. They have stolen the chairs from the Presbytery and also pictures. The Cathedral always had normal police protection -- that of the Square. It was removed, because the authorities said it was a privilege that the Catholic Church should not enjoy. The houses of some priests have been looted, but the delinquents are never identified, no one ever knows what happened.

This creates an atmosphere of fear, which is not exclusive to the Church. I want to highlight this. It would not be right to say that there is a persecution against the Church. There is a persecution against the whole of Venezuelan society. Efforts are being made to create fear so that people will get paralyzed. One should hear some of the speeches which state that no one will stop this Revolution, and that if it cannot be carried out by fair means it will be carried out by foul means, with violence.

Q: Has the government not promised you greater well-being if you give in to its demands?

Archbishop Porras: Yes, there have been cases. When this government was newly elected, in one of the first meetings that President Chavez had with the presidency of the Episcopal Conference, he said: I propose that you give me the name of two or three priests, of two or three Bishops, so that they can be ministers. And tell me what ministry you want them to have. It was up to me to answer him and I explained that we are not seeking any posts; that it is not our role. "Think about it," he said. "We don't have to think about it," we replied.

Then he said: "as I am convoking a Constituent Assembly, I can create a Constituent Assembly with 60 military men and 40 priests. Give me the names of 40 priests and we will create the Constituent Assembly."

I answered: "President, you think that with the 60 best military men, luminaries in all orders, and with 40 of the best priests, a Constitution can be drawn up? Whose representatives are the military men and the priests? With what right can we represent journalists, homemakers, businessmen, workers?"

It is somewhat indicative of the totalitarian mentality.

Q: What effect does the crisis in Venezuela have on the American continent and on the world?

Archbishop Porras: It is important to realize that it is not just a problem of Venezuela. A plan is underway in Venezuela for which Venezuela is too small. It is a plan that in the first instance has continental projections and then world ones.

Indeed, what OPEP has done in recent years follows along that line, or the contacts with the "Bloc of the 72." The fact that it is called a Bolivarian Revolutionary Plan, is not just simply to exalt Simon Bolivar, but because this allows for an enclave with the Colombian guerrilla groups, who also call themselves Bolivarian, with certain native groups of Ecuador, of Bolivia ... It is a plan designed as an alternative to the imperialism of the First World, of the United States and Europe.

It is a curious and explosive mixture, which includes populism, militarism, totalitarianism, outdated Marxism, and others "isms." This is why it is important, from the point of view of our faith and of our religious role, that we believers have very clearly in mind the values we work for and serve, so as not to fall prey through naivete.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Thursday, May 08, 2003 By: Gustavo Coronel

VHeadline.com commentarist Gustavo Coronel writes: A long letter by Daniel Burnett (May 1, 2003) starts with the question: How will we know what works ... if nothing is ever given a fair chance to succeed? He elaborates on this question only briefly and almost at the end of the letter.

In essence, he claims that we Venezuelans, who are seeing how the country has been destroyed by the inept group of people now in power, should be ... patient!

He claims we should not expect miracles in too short a period of time. And he quotes Gerver Torres who says that " any serious development program will take many years to be successfully carried out"...

Since he refers to me often in his letter, which is mostly about PDVSA, I will comment on it.  First of all, let me say that Mr. Burnett has no right to ask us to be patient ... we are living the Venezuelan tragedy day after day. We are not occasional visitors here, who can gloss over the myriad of small and big horrors of the so called "Bolivarian revolution". We suffer them.

This is not a social laboratory that can be revisited for years to come, just to see how the natives are doing. Four years is plenty of time, by any standards, to get a pretty clear idea of whether things are working or not working or whether they are going to work.

I say that things are not going to work for us Venezuelans while we have this bunch of clowns in charge of the government. All we have to do to think along these lines is to open our eyes and take a look around, inhale deeply and listen. What we see is poverty, unemployment, invasions of private property, crime, uncollected garbage, buhoneros galore, beggars, children living in the streets, food rationing, an universal lack of hope among the people, social resentment.

As we see this, we refuse to be patient. Iraqis were patient with Hussein, Cubans have been very patient with Castro, Haitians very patient with Duvalier, Argentineans extremely patient with their military gorillas and political demagogues....

We do not want to be patient in that manner....

As we inhale in our cities we smell the urine, the filth, the rotten foods in the sidewalks and we refuse to be patient. We want to be civilized and not live like a tribe of savages. Chavez said something last Sunday that Mr. Burnett will be interested to hear: "Caracas is a pigsty....it revolts me."

Well, Chavez, welcome to the club.  But it is like listening to the pilot of the plane, where we are passengers, complain over the loud speakers about the dismal mechanical conditions of the machine.  And, as we listen we do not hear about development programs of the type Gerver Torres talks about. We hear about our importing Brazilian chickens, Cuban blackbeans, Algerian oilmen, Cuban medical staff and medicines, Colombian flour and cattle...

We do not hear about incentives to investment, but about new red tape against investors.

We do not hear about competent ministers but about nitwits like Giordani and Lucas Rincon being the "stars" of the cabinet.

We do not hear about how important it is for the nation to become united behind a clear political or economic vision but all we hear is "us" and "them", about we the good guys and you the saboteurs, the criminals, the squalid....

And, after four years of this operetta, tragic as an opera but too bizarre to be taken seriously, we refuse to be patient and wait for better times, which would come, according to Mr. Burnett, if we just could wait to see what happens.

Let me add this: When we came aboard the bus (or plane, to be consistent), as passengers our ticket read Democracy, Transparency, Social progress, First World.  This was our destination. Four years later we look out the window and we can clearly see that the route the driver or pilot is taking, from the very beginning of the journey, is not leading where we want to go. He is taking us to Authoritarianland, to Corruptionland, to Socialhateville.

We are going to Cuba or to Zimbabwe or to North Korea.

But, you see, we do not want to go there. Do we wait to get there to tell the pilot to go and fly a kite? No, thanks, Mr. Burnett. By then it will be too late and you know it. Being democratic and idealistic, you will then say "I do not agree with this turn of events. Coronel was right. I do not want to visit that place anymore." But we will left, as a society, slowly twisting in the wind.

Regarding PDVSA, you make a long analysis to conclude that the managers of PDVSA had to be fired, that Chavez waited too long to fire them, that Chavez was too magnanimous, that employees can not run the companies but obey, that they should quit if they are not in agreement with the orders they get. Well, I have gone over this issue many times, but it seems that I can not put my case clear. Let me list once more my main arguments:

1. Managers did not rebel to gain control of the company. Managers rebelled to protect the integrity of the company against its systematic destruction at the hands of Chavez. The rebellion came after some very incompetent presidents and boards were imposed on the company. Of course you can make a mistake in judgment. But when one president is mentally unbalanced, when another is a sworn enemy of the company and still another has a terrorist record. When a president has sued the company he is presiding. When the directors do not have the qualifications to be at that level. When political commissars check the moves of the employees searching for counter-revolutionaries ... then we can see that this is no poor judgment but a plan to control politically and financially the only profitable State Company in Venezuela. And this was a crime that the managers refused to accept...

2. You assume as the gospel that the rebel managers sabotaged the oil installations. This is not true. It is not enough that a pathological liar makes this accusation on national TV for it to be true. Have any proofs been presented? When have the accidents and fires and explosions and oil spills taken place?  Well, after the company fell in the hands of the incompetent. It is not logical to assume that the people who built the installations were now destroying them. Have you seen "The Bridge over the river Kwai"?

3. I certainly would not advocate open rebellion as a recurrent manner to protest. But to fully understand what has gone on in PDVSA you have to see the whole picture. You walked into the theater in the last quarter hour of the film and all you saw was a group of "criminal managers in mutiny against the legitimate President." But you did not see the way this "legitimate" President had been trying to destroy the only company that provides revenues for the country. The managers have been educated not as "owners" of the company but as "trustees". They behaved as "trustees" which is the proper role. As such they were there to guarantee that the company would be well managed, profitable and free from politics.

In summary, What is going on in Venezuela right now is not a social experiment. It is an attempt, on the part of Chavez, to convert the country into a Cuban-type regime. And there are millions of Venezuelans who refuse being dragged in that direction, who will resist it in all legal ways, as long as the rules of the game are respected.

But the purposes of Chavez, by definition, can not be obtained by legal means.

In our Constitution, Venezuela is defined as a democratic country, not as a revolutionary country ... and democracy entails checks and balances, respect for dissidence, accountability by the government bureaucracy to the nation, transparent use of public funds, leadership for all and not for the few converted.

Mr. Burnett can not judge our actions against the framework of a theoretical democracy that does not exist in Venezuela.

But, of course, in the very last instance, when all is said and done, we will all be fully responsible for our actions: I, he, they ... I could have made mistakes and done some things in the wrong way. But I have not killed, I have not stolen and I do not want to see my country become another wretched fundamentalist, dictatorial society. And I will clearly oppose those who want to go that way...

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 gustavo@vheadline.com

<a href=search.ft.com>Search Financial Times By Andy Webb-Vidal

At the Mercal food store in Caricuao, a poor district on the dust-blown outskirts of Caracas, the range of goods is limited. Shelves are half- empty. An army sergeant loiters at the end of the checkout, ready to bag your ration of beans, flour and sugar.

Unpromising as it may seem, the government store in the capital is the model to be replicated across Venezuela under a plan fathered by populist President Hugo Chávez and overseen by the military. The plan's goal: to feed Venezuela's growing number of poor and to counter shortages from the private sector.

"Prices are cheaper than elsewhere, and for those of us with low incomes, any difference is important," says Viviana Trillo, a Caricuao housewife. "I thank President Chávez for this."

Paradoxically, the food security programme is being prioritised just as the Chávez government is blocking dollar sales to businesses, including soft commodity importers and food processors, curtailing supplies.

Currency trading was suspended in January during the strike at Petróleos de Venezuela, the state oil company that is the government's main source of export revenue. Four months later, international reserves have recovered and oil exports have resumed.

But Cadivi, the foreign exchange control agency, has yet to disburse any dollars and business leaders are convinced that Mr Chávez intends to bring the business sector - which fiercely opposes his government - to its knees.

"This a specific retaliation against all those seen as not being in favour of the regime," says Rafael Alfonzo, president of Cavidea, the food industry chamber.

The non-functional currency controls are not only affecting domestic companies, many of which are closing and laying off employees. Multinationals with subsidiaries in Venezuela, such as Cargill, the US agricultural conglomerate, say they will be forced to shut down operations within the next few weeks unless hard currency is made available.

"A lot of US companies thought that this would be a temporary situation and they got money from their home offices to maintain market share," says Antonio Herrera, vice-president of the Venezuelan-American Chamber of Commerce.

"But now they are being told: 'no longer', so they are exhausting inventories," Mr Herrera says. "This is an economic atrocity against the Venezuelan people."

Venezuela's economy appears to be spiralling downwards. Central bank figures due this week are expected to show that the economy shrank 15-25 per cent in the first quarter after a9per cent contraction last year. Inflation is forecast to top 50 per cent this year.

The official unemployment rate has surged to 21 per cent - 5 percentage points higher than at the end of 2002 - and many of the jobless are elbowing into the precarious informal sector, itself dependent on imports and contraband.

Meanwhile, formal trade links are being severed because of the exchange controls. The US Export-Import Bank last month stopped offering credit to buyers in Venezuela, and the Andean Community could impose punitive tariffs on the country. Venezuela's ports are at a standstill.

Mr Chávez's strict enforcement of currency controls and the introduction of military-run food distribution is fuelling renewed fears among some opposition groups that he is bent on emulating a Cuban-style command economy. Dozens of Cuban officials are advising Venezuela's agriculture ministry, and the government is using Cuban trading companies to import food for the network of Mercal stores.

Officials insist that food imports are not being subsidised and that the price of foodstuffs at private sector outlets is inflated because of excessive profit margins and hoarding.

The government's food plan is hugely ambitious. Colonel Gerardo Liscano, head of Mercal, says Mr Chávez has ordered him to guarantee that 4m people are supplied with food by the end of the year, and 8m by the end of 2004 - a third of the population.

"The idea is to deliver food at prices that are in solidarity with the common people," says Col Liscano.

But opposition critics suspect that Mr Chávez, through Cadivi, is funneling dollars at a discount to government frontmen, who import basic foods and thus can shore up the political loyalty of the poor ahead of a possible referendum this year.

Either way, economists warn that unless the government begins releasing dollars soon, its nascent but inefficient distribution system will not be able to fill the yawning food supply gap that will result from a crippled private sector.

"The government cannot substitute all of the most efficient traditional producers," says Francisco Vivancos, economics professor at the Central University of Venezuela. "But the implicit logic is to cater for that section of the population that is politically most important to Chávez."

Traducción

En la tienda Mercal de Caricuao, una urbanización pobre de Caracas, la seleccion de bienes es limitada. Los estantes están medio vacios. Un sargento del ejército se pasea en la salida, listo para empacar su ración de caraotas, harina y azúcar.

Aunque el modelo parezca poco prometedor, esta tienda guberamental es un modelo a ser replicado en toda Venezuela bajo un plan concebido por el Presidente populista Hugo Chávez y supervisado por los militares. El objetivo del plan: alimentar al creciente número de pobres en Venezuela y contrarestar la escasez de alimentos del sector privado.

"Los precios son más económicos y para los que tenemos pocos ingresos, cualquier diferencia es importante," dice Viviana Trillo, un ama de casa de Caricuao. "Doy gracias al Presidente Chávez por ésto."

Paradójicamente, se le está dando prioridad al programa alimenticio a la vez que el gobierno de Chávez bloquea la venta de divisas al empresariado, incluyendo importadores de productos genéricos y procesadoras de alimentos, limitando de esta forma el abastecimiento.

El cambio de divisas fue suspendido en enero durante el paro de Petróleos de Venezuela...cuatro meses más tarde, se han recuperado las reservas internacionalesy se han reiniciado las exportaciones de crudo.

Pero Cadivi, la agencia de control cambiario, todavía no ha desembolsado dólares y ls empresarios están convencidos de que Chávez intenta someter al sector que lo opone.

"Esta es una retaliación específica contra todos aquellos que son percibidos contrarios al régimen," dice Rafael Alfonzo, presidente de Cavidea. Los controles de cambio no sólo afectan a las compañías nacionales, muchas de las cuales están cerrando y despidiendo empleados. Las multinacionales con subsidiarias en Venezuela, como Cargill, dicen que se verán forzadas a cerrar sus operaciones en las próximas semanas a menos que haya disponibilidad de dólares.

"Muchas de las compañías norteamericanas pensaron que la medida sería temporal y recibieron dinero de sus oficinas principales para mantener su presencia en el mercado," dice Antonio Herrera, vice-presidente del Venezuelan-American Chamber of Commerce.

"Pero ya están agotando sus inventarios," dice Herrera. "Esta es una atrocidad económica contra el pueblo venezolano."

La economía de Venezuela parece estar decayendo a pasos agigantados. Las cifras del Banco Central de esta semana aparentemente anunciarán una caida del 15-25 en el primer trimestre después de una contracción del 9 por ciento el año pasado. Se espera que la inflación llegue a un 50 por ciento.

La tasa de desempleo extraoficial subió a 21 por ciento y muchos desempleados están girando al sector infomal que también depende de las importaciones y del contrabando.

Mientras tanto, las relaciones comrciales formales están desapareciendo debido al control de cambios. El Export-Import Bank norteamericano paró el credito a los compradores en Venezuela y la Comunidad Andina podría imponer tarifas punitivas al país. Los puertos están paralizados.

La estricta aplicación del control de cambios ha reforzado la creencia de los grupos de oposición de que Chavez está decidido a emular una economía estilo cubano. Decenas de oficiales cubanos asesoran al Ministerio de Agricultura y el gobierno utiliza compañías de comercio cubanas para importar alimentos para Mercal.

Los oficiales insisten en que las importaciones no son subsidiadas y que los precios de los alimentos en el sector privado están inflados debido a los margenes de ganancia y el acaparamiento. El plan es ambicioso. El Coronel Gerardo Liscano, director de Mercal, dice que Chávez ha ordenado que se garantize que 4 millones de personas reciban alimentos para final de año y 8 millones para el 2004 - un tercio de la población.

Pero la oposición sospecha que Chávez, a través de Cadivi, canaliza dólares a precios preferenciales a enviados del gobierno, quienes importan alimentos básicos para ganar la lealtad política de los pobres ante un posible referendum.

"El gobierno no puede sustituir a los productores nacionales más eficientes," dice Francisco Vivancos, profesor de economía en la UCV. "Pero la lógica implícita es satisfacer al sector económico que es políticamente más importante para Chávez."

28 Apr 2003 20:23:21 GMT

CARACAS, Venezuela, April 28 (Reuters-Alertnet) - More than 1,000 family members of inmates have shut themselves in three Venezuelan prisons to demand better conditions and speedier trials for their relatives, officials said on Monday.

The protest by wives and children of prisoners in the already overcrowded Tocuyito, El Rodeo and Coro penitentiaries, all located west of Caracas, followed several weeks of sometimes violent demonstrations over prison conditions.

The family members entered the three jails during normal visiting hours Sunday. They remained inside the prisons and are refusing to leave until prison authorities, magistrates and journalists came to the jails to hear their complaints.

Prison officials said most of the relatives appeared to be taking part in the protests voluntarily, but some were being kept inside against their will.

"Everything's calm for the moment," said Ramon Torres, director of the El Rodeo jail in Miranda State, where 286 women and 50 children were occupying part of the prison.

More than 600 relatives staged a similar protest in Tocuyito prison in Carabobo state and several dozen more were inside the Coro jail in western Falcon state.

"We are trying to make sure the children get food and water. Otherwise everything is normal," Torres told local television.

Venezuela's jails have a reputation for poor conditions and frequent violence. An inefficient justice system keeps many inmates behind bars in overcrowded facilities for months, and sometimes years, before they are brought to trial.

At least 18 inmates have been killed and dozens injured in prison riots in the last three weeks. These include 12 inmates hacked and shot to death in an April 18 clash between rival gangs in Yare prison, one of the country's biggest.

More than 240 inmates were killed and 1,249 injured in prison violence between October 2001 and September 2002, according to Ministry of Interior and Justice statistics.

A recent U.S. State Department human rights report found 48 percent of all prisoners in Venezuela were in pretrial detention. The report said prison conditions were harsh with 22 of the country's 30 jails suffering from overcrowding.