www.guardian.co.uk Agencies in Caracas Monday February 24, 2003 The Guardian

The Caracas central court has put a leading opponent of President Hugo Chavez under house arrest on charges of civil rebellion and criminal instigation.

Carlos Fernandez, president of the Fedecameras, the chamber of commerce, was seized by the state security police during a midnight raid on a restaurant in the capital, Caracas, on Wednesday.

The court dismissed a charge of treason, and two other charges, during a 13-hour preliminary hearing which ended yesterday morning, and confined him to his home in Valencia, in west Venezuela.

The president's opponents linked it to the issuing of a warrant for the arrest of Carlos Ortega, another leader of the political strike intended to bring down the regime, described it as the beginning of a political witch hunt.

Mr Ortega, a trade union leader and one of the president's fiercest critics, has gone into hiding.

Mr Fernandez, 52, told Globovision television: "They treated me very well, they respected all my rights."

Applauding the judge's decision during his weekly television address, Mr Chavez described Mr Fernandez as "a terrorist and a coup-plotter".

"Let the decision be obeyed; it is the court's order. If it were up to me he wouldn't be at home, he would be behind bars," he added.

Julio Borges, of the Justice First party, said: This is like someone giving you a huge blow to the head and then handing out sweets, when they drop some of the charges and put you under house arrest. But the whole incident makes no legal sense; this is about politics."

The strike, which fizzled out in the first week of February, severely disrupted oil exports, which account for half Venezuela's state revenues.

But the state oil monopoly's headquarters is picketed by supporters of the president, some of them armed, and on Saturday night a group of policemen passing by on their way from a colleague's funeral came under fire. One was killed and five wounded, the head of the police motorcycle brigade, Miguel Pinto, said.

After a series of attacks on the police by Chavez supporters, the chief of police, Henry Vivas, ordered officers to stay away from the oil company offices to avoid clashes. But the funeral home is only a few hundred metres away.

"We never thought it would come to this," Mr Pinto said.

Mr Fernandez's arrest came a few days after the killing of three dissident soldiers and an anti-Chavez protester. The police are investigating the deaths, which relatives say were acts of political persecution.

lookbackinanger.blogspot.com

Anyone out there who has been giving the Chavez regime the benefit of the doubt - would you please explain this for me?

A leader of Venezuela's general strike was snatched out of a restaurant by secret police and faces charges of treason and instigating violence for his role in mass, anti-government protests that crippled the nation's economy...

Strike co-leader Carlos Ortega, of the Venezuelan Workers Confederation, was ordered to surrender, also on treason and instigating violence charges, said magistrate Maikel Jose Moreno.

And if that doesn't disturb your confidence in the honorable "democratic leader" - then explain this:

Venezuela was still reeling today after the weekend killings of three dissident soldiers and a protester opposed to President Hugo Chávez, and the police and grieving relatives split over whether the killings were politically motivated.

According to police investigations, about 12 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 last two bodies, badly decomposed and showing signs of torture, were found on Tuesday on the outskirts of Caracas.

I'm finding it very difficult to keep level-headed with this post. This situation has gone far beyond intolerable. People ask me: "What is it with you and Venezuela?" And I say: "Have you ever noticed the disturbing historical frequency of Left-wing 'revolutions' led by charismatic, narcissistic leaders going very, very bad?" Things have been getting bad in Venezuela for a long time now. Hugo Chavez has promised a "revolutionary offensive" in the coming year. So far he has: purged the military and police forces, quashed popular referendums, had his security forces torture opposition protesters, had his security forces seize private property from opposition businesses, stacked the court system with friendly judges, threatened closure of opposition media outlets, begun enacting "content" laws that would make it illegal for the press to criticize the government...the list goes on and on and on. Now his secret police have seized and detained opposition leaders on the specious court order of a handpicked judge, formerly a lawyer who defended the accused Chavista gunmen responsible for a massacre of opposition protesters last April. And then there are the bodies: the dead opposition protesters found bound and gagged, tortured and shot to death on the outskirts of Caracas. Human Rights Watch is demanding an investigation - the police say "Nothing to see here, folks, move along."

There is a lot going on in the world these days: a lot of important developments to monitor, a multitude of arguments to be made. It's quite possible that Venezuela is entirely off your radar screen - the issues too complex, information too hard to come by. I'm asking you: make an effort. If you believe in democracy for Iraq, support democracy in Venezuela. Read Francisco Toro, read Miguel Octavio, check out Daniel's Venezuela News and Views, check the Americas section in the international news in the NY Times, or the Washington Post. If you have a blog - post about Venezuela; if you don't, talk about it with your friends. The defense and promotion of democracy and its institutions can't be arbitrary. It takes work, but it's worth it. Always.

UPDATE: Miguel Octavio reports: A Deputy from Chavez MVR party just said that the list of those that may be detained for their responsability in the General Strike has approximately 100 names in it (www.globovision.com). If there is any doubt where we are headed, this simply confirms it.

Octavio is keeping up to the minute on this story - you should check out his blog regularly if you're interested. posted by Robert Griffin at 8:34 AM

caracaschronicles.blogspot.com By Francisco Toro Thursday, February 20  

What do you call a political leader jailed for his political views? A political prisoner, right?

Just wanted to settle that up front – President Chávez’s endlessly repeated claim that there are no political prisoners in this country is now dead. Last night, the government “arrested” Carlos Fernández, one of the most visible opposition leaders, in a secret police operation that looked more like a kidnapping – a dozen heavily armed men suddenly jumped on him and commandeered his car, as he was leaving a restaurant. There was no district attorney present (as required by Venezuelan law), these guys showed no arrest warrant, they are keeping him incommunicado and they won’t even confirm his whereabouts. So where, exactly, is the borderline between an arrest and a state-sponsored kidnapping?

Carlos Fernández is far from my favorite opposition leader – he’s crass, often radical without a purpose, he’s a terrible public speaker and he played a major role in leading the opposition up the garden path known as the General Strike – a fantastically dumb adventure that did nothing but consolidate Chávez in power. Yet seeing him arrested in this way seems to back up everything he always said about the government: that they haven’t the slightest clue what democracy is all about, that they’ll stop at nothing to consolidate themselves in power, and that they treat the constitution the way your cat treats his litter box.

Watch for the foreign lefties to start justifying his arrest on the grounds that, christ, he’s the leader of the business association, he must be some sort of evil blood-sucking plutocrat, and it’s ok if they go to jail, right? Don’t laugh, it’s the precise corollary to Naomi Klein’s argument on the press in The Guardian the other day.

But beyond that, Fernández is a genuine self-made man, a postwar immigrant from Spain who was penniless on arrival, built up a trucking firm from a single truck into a fairly large company, and rose through the ranks to preside the major business federation here, Fedecamaras. It’s the Venezuelan dream, the dream of tolerance and social mobility Chávez can’t stand because it lays bare the bankruptcy of his vision of Venezuela as an ossified, near-colonial society.

For decades, Venezuela had been well past the political cultural of responding to dissent with jail. Under Chávez, we seem to be regressing.

asia.reuters.com Sun February 23, 2003 05:47 PM ET By Phil Stewart

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned the world to stop meddling in the affairs of his troubled South American nation on Sunday, as police locked up a prominent strike leader on "civil rebellion" charges.

The populist president accused the United States and Spain of siding with his enemies, warned Colombia he might break off diplomatic relations, and reprimanded the chief mediator in tortuous peace talks for stepping "out of line."

"I ask all of the countries of this continent and of the world ... are you going (to) stop this meddling?" Chavez asked angrily, during his state-sponsored television show 'Alo Presidente.' "This is a sovereign nation."

The tongue-lashing followed a recent flurry of diplomatic communiques expressing concern over Carlos Fernandez, a strike leader and prominent businessman who was yanked out of a Caracas steakhouse on Thursday at gunpoint by police.

A judge placed the silver-haired executive under house arrest on Sunday to await trial for charges of civil rebellion and criminal instigation, which could land him up to 26 years in prison. He spearheaded a two-month nationwide shutdown by oil workers and industry in a failed bid to force elections.

"I've committed no crime, of any kind," Fernandez said defiantly from his country home just outside Caracas.

Chavez carped that the same international worry by diplomats over Fernandez wasn't shown when he was briefly ousted in a 48-hour coup last year. He said some countries, including Spain and the United States, applauded the putsch.

"It's worth remembering that the Spanish ambassador was here, in this room, applauding the coup. So the Spanish government is going (to) keep commenting?" Chavez asked.

"We say the same thing to the government in Washington. Stop making mistakes ... A spokesman comes out there saying he's worried. No! This is a Venezuelan matter."

PEACE HOPES WANE

Venezuela's crisis has drawn the international spotlight with leaders afraid the world's No. 5 supplier of oil could slide into civil war as Chavez allies and enemies face off.

Hailed by supporters as a champion of the poor, the paratrooper-turned-president has pledged to crack down on enemies of his self-styled "revolution." Foes call him an ignorant dictator looking to impose Cuban-style communism.

Chavez crushed an oil walkout by firing 13,000 dissident workers, and laughed off the two-month-old strike which hurt the private sector and was meekly abandoned in early February.

He won an arrest warrant for another strike leader, union boss Carlos Ortega, and threatens to lock up a group of media moguls he dubs the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse."

The United States, Spain and four other countries have dispatched diplomats to the negotiating table in a bid to defuse tensions fueling the crisis. But the talks have so far proven fruitless, and Chavez on Sunday seemed to push away members of the six-nation group.

Chavez reserved his most severe criticism for Cesar Gaviria, who is the chief mediator in talks to end the political deadlock. Gaviria, a former Colombian president, is the head of the Organization of American States.

"Mr. Gaviria, this is a sovereign nation, sir. You were president of a country. Don't step out of line," Chavez said.

The maverick leader, whose fiery rhetoric inflames adversaries, also took time on Sunday to include Colombia in his tirade. The neighboring nation's foreign minister accused Chavez last week of meeting frequently with rebel leaders.

Chavez has always denied those allegations, and on Sunday criticized the country for providing asylum for Venezuela's brief president during the April coup -- Pedro Carmona.

"What do they want? For us to break off (diplomatic) relations? That we break off ties?" Chavez exclaimed.

"Over there in Colombia they had a party on the day of the coup ... They applauded Carmona and they have Carmona over there in Bogota. He lives over there, that fugitive."

Venezuela's internal standoff has left at least seven dead and scores injured in street violence since December. Police are also investigating last week's killings of three dissident soldiers and an anti-Chavez protester, which relatives of the victims blame on political persecution.

www.voanews.com VOA News 23 Feb 2003, 23:45 UTC

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has warned the world to stop interfering in his nation's affairs.

Speaking Sunday on state-sponsored television, Mr. Chavez criticized the United States, Spain and Colombia for siding with his opponents.

Last week, the U.S. State Department criticized Venezuelan authorities for arresting business leader Carlos Fernandez. He helped spearhead the two-month general strike aimed at forcing President Chavez from power.

Sunday, a Venezuelan judge placed Mr. Fernandez under house arrest. He faces charges of civil rebellion and criminal incitement for helping lead the strike.

The strike crippled Venezuela's vital oil industry but fizzled in early February. Another strike leader, Carlos Ortega, is in hiding after a warrant was issued for his arrest. The opposition says the charges against Mr. Fernandez and Mr. Ortega are politically motivated. Meanwhile, police say gunmen killed one police officer and wounded five others in an ambush Sunday in the capital, Caracas. Some police officials say they suspect supporters of President Chavez carried out the attack because of tensions between the police force and the central government.