<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Monday, June 09, 2003 By: Juan C. Nagel

VHeadline.com guest commentarist Juan C. Nagel writes: Wait until August. Be patient. For more than a year, the Venezuelan opposition has been hearing this self-righteous nonsense from President Hugo Chavez and from elements of the foreign media charmed by his revolutionary rhetoric and horrified at the opposition's haste in calling for the resignation of a "democratically-elected" leader. After all, the Venezuelan Constitution allows for a Recall Referendum on the President to take place after the mid-point of his or her term (in Mr. Chavez' case, August 19). All the opposition needs to do is collect the signatures and make sure more people vote to recall Chavez than those that put him in power in the first place.

Simple, right?

Not quite. The opposition has agreed to go down this route, only to see a myriad of booby traps in the road ahead. These tricks (to paraphrase Jimmy Carter) make it very difficult for the referendum to take place under fair conditions. First of all, the Chavez government decided that the current Electoral Council was no good, so no elections could be held. Fine, they weren't geniuses, but they were good enough for Chavez when he named them in his typical, autocratic fashion. The opposition agreed to help name a new electoral body that everyone can trust, and who is the main chavista candidate? The only member of the current disqualified Electoral Council who still votes with Chavez. Congress is now indefinitely deadlocked on the election of a new electoral body.

Next up are the signatures.

The opposition, in a remarkable show of force, organized a petition drive that compiled more signatures than those needed to petition the referendum to take place. Now the government is saying these signatures are false, are insufficient, were collected extemporarily, and were cloned. Never mind that no one in the government has seen them; never mind that the Constitution does not limit the periods during which one can collect signatures; never mind that a respected NGO is guarding, counting and verifying the signatures. The new "thug-with-oil" has decided they are no good.

Other tricks include the government's failure to provide funds needed to hold the referendum, the use of government moneys for campaigning, and whether Chavez can participate in an election that will follow once his mandate is recalled (the Constitutional Court, under Chavez' control, will surely say he can). However, one of the most appalling ones is the strategy announced by this great democrat and his party: that they will actively campaign for their followers to abstain from voting.

The desired effect of this is clear. If the only people going to vote are opposed to Mr. Chavez, people in poorer districts, where the rule of law is a mirage and armed, pro-government gangs (modeled on Saddam Hussein's fedayeen) roam unchallenged, will be too scared to go vote. If turnout is low, the opposition will lose the referendum.

The picture this paints is a clear one: it is nearly impossible for a majority of Venezuelans to exercise their constitutional right to choose their own leader, and to do so in a safe and fair environment. Institutions are practically non-existent, and the government ... with its enormous oil wealth and its legal and illegal weaponry ... is bent on intimidating and breaking the opposition using any means necessary. The international community can help keep the government in check, but so far they have achieved next to nothing, in spite of the moral obligation they have towards a country that supported the region's democratic struggles when it was under military rule.

These "tricks" are not democratic.

It is shameful for a political party that exercises power thanks to the will of the people to make those same voters afraid to go cast their vote now that the tides have clearly turned against them. Chavez' tricks are preventing Venezuelans from exercising their constitutional rights. Venezuelans and the international community cannot stand for these shenanigans. Chavez is clearly in Mugabe territory now, which shouldn't be surprising. After all, Mugabe is still in power, so his tricks are worth a try.

Juan C Nagel is an economist with a degree from UCAB, and a Ph.D. Candidate in Economics at the University of Michigan. He is also a Senior Economist at ApplEcon, LLC, a small economics consulting firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.  You may email him at jnagel@umich.edu

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, June 08, 2003 By: James Feltus

Date: Sat, 7 Jun 2003 00:15:37 -0400 From: James Feltus jfeltus@seneca24.net To: Editor@vheadline.com Subject: Venezuela should adopt War on Drugs

Dear Editor: It is unbelievable what I just read from Luis Zuleta.  He claims that the only way an American can lose the right to vote is to become a citizen of another country

Under New York State law, one permanently loses the right to vote if convicted of possession (not selling or growing) 8 ounces or more of cannabis (less than 1/4 kilo), and this is counting leaves and stems. One also permanently loses the right to possess a firearm, thus, essentially, losing the right to self defense.

Some "rights."  Some "free country."

The US now has more drug prisoners than it had total prisoners in 1970. The total prison population has quadrupled in 20 years. The US has 5% of the world's population and 25% of its prisoners.

If Venezuela wants to see government power expand to unprecedented levels, all she has to do is adopt Amerika's "war on drugs."

James Feltus jfeltus@seneca24.net

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Friday, June 06, 2003 By: Gustavo Coronel

VHeadline.com commentarist Gustavo Coronel writes: It is my opinion that President Chavez and most of his team of collaborators would be behind bars. As it is, however, the team is mostly and quietly sitting at bars...

The Law was passed in March of this year and seems written for a country which does not look at all like Venezuela 2003, where ethics in public function is practically non- existent. The almost proud disdain of this government for ethical rules of the game largely explains the immense crisis we are facing.

The Law was passed in characteristic fashion. Citizens had no previous access to the project and were served with a "fait accompli." Even after its passing the law stayed in the subsurface and known onlt to the very few ... it took me about one month to track it down at www.asambleanacional.gov.ve

Having said all this, I think the law is sufficiently stringent to produce the imprisonment of most of the government team if it was enforced. This is not going to happen because the officers in charge of enforcing the law are members of the team ... and these men do not commit political suicide. They'd rather be dishonest.

The Law contains many articles which are of very general nature, so that, although anybody can see that they are being violated, their subjective nature makes it impossible to measure the violation. Article 1, for example, calls for a behavior of public officers which "will protect the public patrimony, will guarantee the transparent and efficient use of public resources, based on the principles of honesty, transparency, participation, efficiency, efficacy, legality, accountability and responsibility..."

This sounds good ... but all we can say is that the reality of Venezuela is to this article as south is to north.  Chavez acts in a manner totally opposite to the letter of the article.

To prove my assertion I would have to write a book ... which I might do... In the meantime, however, I will offer some tidbits:

Article 7 reads: "The public officers will manage and protect the public patrimony with decency, decorum and honesty, in such a way that the utilization of assets and the expenditure of public resources be made in accordance with the Constitution..."

As I read this article. I could not help thinking of the 53,000 barrels per day we send to Cuba, under terms which are clearly unconstitutional, as the agreement was not approved by the National Assembly; and highly inefficient and damaging to the national treasury since it involves a huge subsidy of about $1 billion from the poor people of Venezuela to the poor people of Cuba. This is a crime that the Law defines as of lese fatherland ("lesa patria").

Article 8 stipulates that all information about the management of public funds will be made public.

Article 9 dictates that public administrators will keep citizens informed of the way they manage the assets and monies entrusted to them, information that should be published quarterly in a simple and understandable manner.

Article 10 says that all citizens have the right to request this information and receive it promptly. All of this is science fiction under this government and anyone going to a government agency asking for this will be lucky to leave in one piece.

Article 11 establishes that the project of national budget should be consulted with public opinion before going to the National Assembly. This has never been done, although the stipulation already existed in the Law of Public Administration.

Article 13 reads that "public officers are at the service of the State and not at the service of political or economic groups." But Chavez is also the president of MVR, the political party which supports him, while the Bolivarian Circles, the armed groups of the government have their headquarters at the Presidential Palace.

Article 41 says that the General Comptroller will investigate all public officers which contract with the State through companies in which they own shares. General Baduel, one of the military members of the team own or did own shares of a radio station which contracted government advertisement. Although he publicly admitted this, he was never bothered by his friend the Comptroller.

Article 46 defines as illicit enrichment any patrimonial size out of proportion with the income of the public officer. The burden of the proof is on the public employee. And yet the majority of these men and women are clearly living beyond their means, buying real state in Venezuela, Chile and the US that could not be bought on the basis of their salaries. Former Minister Rodriguez Chacin, who reported assets of Bs.70 million as he entered his job, bought a 2,000 acre ranch for Bs.400 million, although real estate experts say that the property is worth more than Bs.1 billion.

Articles 56 and 57 establish prison terms of 6 months to 4 years for any public officer who applies public funds to any other objective than that originally established by law. On the basis of these articles, President Chavez and his then Minister of Finance, Nelson Merentes, should be behind bars. They diverted, illegally and openly, some $4 billion from the Macroeconomic Stabilization Fund to other purposes, largely still unaccounted for.  This is the worst case of mismanagement of public funds I have ever seen. The employees Chavez and Merentes were duly denounced ... to no avail.

Article 58 states that "any officer who claims an emergency situation to eliminate the bidding process to acquire public goods and services will be sent to prison for 6 months to 3 years."  Yet, a recent Presidential decree collides head on with this law, allowing all government agencies to dispense with bidding procedures due to reasons of exception or emergency. This conflict borders on insanity since the man who guided the law and the man who produced the decree are one and the same. I am reminded of the man who tells a friend: "I thought I had a problem of split personalities, but now I think we are OK"....

Article 66 deals with the utilization of confidential official information for personal gain, a crime punished with prison of 1-6 years and a fine of up to 50% of the benefits obtained (why only 50%?). Economist Orlando Ochoa, highly respected in our economic sector, has just denounced Minister of Finance Tobias Nobrega for this kind of manipulation in connection with external debt bonds. Ochoa also mentioned in a TV program ("Primera Pagina") that the money that should flow from the Ministry of Finance to the regional governments falls in the hands of intermediaries who give less than the amount to financially starved regional entities and pocket the rest. This is a dirty trick used in Venezuela by all dictators since the Monagas brothers were in power in the 1850s. If you wanted to collect a government debt you had to talk to Mrs. Monagas who charged a modest 10% commission.

Articles 70-75 deal with extortion while article 79 deals with influence peddling. Plenty of examples of that among the lesser revolutionaries.

Article 81 establishes prison terms of 1-5 years for anyone opening a personal bank account with public monies. This was standard practice among the military during the brief but intense disaster of the Bolivar 2000 program (see the book of Agustin Beroes: "Corruption in the times of Chavez").

These are only a few examples of the ethical collapse of this regime. This is twice as painful, as this government came to power on the wings of a very strong anti-corruption stance. They came to clean the house but now the house is filthier than ever before.

A final comment: Most of the provisions of this law existed already in previous instruments, such as the Law of Protection of Public Patrimony, in force since 1982.

So, not one of the dedicated defenders of the regime can come now and say that the new rules of the game could not apply retroactively.

This would be such an impudent and cynical defense that I doubt that anyone would dare to use it.

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=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Friday, June 06, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

The battle for the world famous environmental research institution (among other things) La Salle Foundation rages on.  90 year-old Brother Gines' legal adviser, Beatriz Di Totto accuses the religious congregation of falsifying the minutes of a general assembly held on April 30, proclaiming Brother Pereda as the new president. "On April 30 the assembly voted out the proposal ... I was assembly secretary and counted 62 votes against the proposal."

• Brother Gines, who founded the organization and been its president for 50 years, maintains that the appointment of a new president is illegal. 

Speaking on behalf of Brother Gines,  Di Totto says she collected the authentic signatures of those that attended the assembly before going to register the minutes but was surprised to discover that somebody had already introduced a similar minute report at the Registry Office  containing falsifications." 

On learning about the allegedly "falsified" acts, Brother Gines has reacted lodging a formal complaint at the Attorney General's Office and has called an extraordinary assembly for June 11 to resolve the crisis.

Tue June 3, 2003 11:24 PM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela (<a href=reuters.com>Reuters) - A baby girl was killed and several dozen people were reported missing in western Venezuela on Tuesday after mudslides and rockfalls caused by torrential rain destroyed several homes and blocked a main highway, civil defense officials said.

The heavy rains brought down torrents of mud and boulders, hitting hamlets and isolated homes in the mountainous Andean state of Merida and the neighboring state of Barinas.

"There were several mudslides," the director of Venezuela's Civil Protection Service, Antonio Rivero, told Reuters. He said at least 15 homes had been destroyed or damaged.

One rockslide cut the main trans-Andean highway between the state capitals of Merida and Barinas. Merida state governor Florencio Porras had declared a state of emergency, local television said.

Rivero said rescue workers had recovered the body of a one-year-old baby girl and were searching for more victims.

But information about casualties was sketchy because of the remoteness of the area where the mudslides had occurred.

Rivero said he had received initial reports of 14 people missing in Merida state and 37 missing in Barinas but he stressed authorities were not counting these as victims yet.

Local television put the number of missing between 35 and 40 and showed footage of homes and vehicles crushed by mud and rocks.

In December, 1999, at least 10,000 people were killed in massive mudslides triggered by torrential rain that swept through coastal towns and villages in the central Venezuelan states of Vargas and Miranda.