osted: Thursday, March 13, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

Members of President Hugo Chavez Frias' Movimiento Quinta Republica (MVR) party are set to hold talks with US Ambassador to Venezuela Charles Shapiro tomorrow to discuss various domestic and international concerns.

The meeting was announced by former National Assembly president Willian Lara, who said that the MVR deputies plan to explain to the Ambassador that Venezuela's public powers are entirely autonomous and that they do not answer to the government.

Lara says that this has become necessary as members of his party have "noticed some confusion" on this issue in recent statements made by US State Department officials. "We are very concerned about the repeated statements made by Otto Reich, which are obviously biased and influenced by the interests of Venezuelan opposition groups."

www.vheadline.com Posted: Wednesday, March 12, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

Venezuelan Army General Jorge Garcia Carneiro has rejected claims from some Colombian officials that the Venezuelan Armed Forces (FAN) are letting Colombian guerilla groups onto Venezuelan territory, and insisted that the FAN would take any action necessary to remove guerillas found in the country.

"Neither the army nor the Armed Forces in general are going to let anyone use Venezuela as a hideout."

The General has now called for talks with his Colombian counterparts to straighten out the issue, which has become a major issue in bilateral relations.

However, Garcia warned that because of the length and nature of the border in is virtually impossible to patrol every bit of it.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Tuesday, March 11, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

Colombian foreign affairs committee vice president Jimmy Chamorro has called for an urgent meeting between Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and his Venezuelan counterpart President Hugo Chavez Frias following recent comments by Venezuelan Foreign (MRE) Minister Roy Chaderton Matos. 

The call comes after Chaderton's comments about Colombian Defense Minister Martha Lucia Ramirez at the weekend, during which he said "when she is in a good mood she sees Venezuela as a rival, but when she is in a bad mood she see Venezuela as an enemy."

Chaderton also refused to classify Colombian guerilla groups as terrorist as Colombia had called for, "because that would be interference in Colombia's domestic affairs.

Chamorro has called on the Colombian government to remain quiet on the comments until a presidential summit can be organized.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Tuesday, March 11, 2003 By: Charles Hardy

VHeadline.com commentarist Charles Hardy writes: While returning recently from a trip to Mexico, I started to think about Mexico's role as one of the "friends" that is meeting this week in Brazil to discuss Venezuela's inner workings.

In 1968, there was a massacre of university students in Mexico City that was neatly covered up by the government because the Olympics were going to be held there. During his campaign, President Fox promised that his government would finally investigate the matter. In 2001, a year after his election, he reneged.

44 years have now passed since the massacre, and Mexico still hasn't been able to confront what happened.

While in a small town, I visited some women who are working in one of Mexico's maquiladoras ... they work from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. with no breaks and only half-an-hour for lunch ... they earn less than $40 a week.  I've also been reading about women who are disappearing along the US-Mexico border, many who have been working in this type of factory.

My question: will Mexico advise Venezuela on human rights, labor rights and truth commissions?

I was also given a free newspaper on the airplane in which I read that the Spanish government had just closed a Basque newspaper, and that President Azner was walking hand in hand with the US toward a war in Iraq.

Will Spain give Venezuela advice on freedom of the press and reconciliation?

In the United States, the Supreme Court elected President Bush, while Al Gore had more votes from the people. The biggest problem centered on Florida where his own brother is Governor. Did Mr. Bush ever think of calling for new elections in Florida so as to clarify who really won in that state? Would the US have accepted help from some foreign governments to help solve the problem?

Will the United States recommend to Venezuela how it should conduct its elections?

Yesterday, I watched a Portuguese immigrant throw an empty beer bottle into an open field. I asked him if he would do the same in Portugal ... he just shrugged his shoulders. Many of his Venezuelan construction workers earn less than $150 a month ... he lives in a three-story house.

Will Portugal talk to Venezuela about the great contribution that foreigners are making to this country?

Chile tolerated the dictator Pinochet from 1973 to 1988 and then left him in charge of the military until 1998.

Will Chile try to give Venezuela some lessons on democracy?

With "friends" like these, who needs enemies?

And the last time I was in Rio de Janeiro, thugs tried to attack me two times. There were people sleeping on the streets at night and death squads were exterminating homeless children. The landless people of the Movimiento Sem Terra were struggling for a little bit of dignity and recognition of their rights to work and to live. Has the situation changed?

President Lula may be a nice person, but doesn't Brazil have sufficient problems of its own to confront?

If a group of "friends" would have come to my parents to tell them that they were going to help our family solve its internal difficulties, I know what their reaction would have been. My parents would have responded as most English-speaking people would: "They can go to hell before they are going to enter our house."

When they had calmed down, they would have said, "Why don't they take care of their own homes first?"

My parents were never involved in foreign diplomacy ... they were honest and forthright.

That probably would have disqualified them automatically in the world of international diplomacy, that wonderful imaginary world of "friends."

Charlie A native of Cheyenne, Wyoming (USA), VHeadline.com columnist Charles Hardy has many years experience  as an international correspondent in Venezuela. You may email him at: hardyce2@yahoo.com

washingtontimes.com James Morrison      U.S. ambassadors in South America are raising alarms about terrorism spreading throughout the continent.      Charles Shapiro, the ambassador to Venezuela, relayed his concerns last week to Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel.      "I don't want to accuse anybody, but we are on alert," Mr. Shapiro told reporters in Caracas. "We are ready to collaborate with the Venezuelan government to seek out terrorism that may exist in this country."      He said he also discussed "the possible and very probable war against Iraq" in his meeting with Mr. Rangel.      Earlier last week, Gen. James Hill, head of the U.S. Southern Command, said the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah is operating in border areas of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay and on Venezuela's Margarita Island. Colombia also has accused Venezuela of allowing Colombian guerrillas to use its territory, a charge Venezuela has strongly denied.      In Ecuador, Ambassador Kristie Kenney urged the government to control its 400-mile border with Colombia to stop drug trafficking and guerrilla activities.      She also urged Ecuador to denounce the rebels, known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), as terrorists.      The kidnappings of three American civilians and execution of one last month "demonstrates that they are terrorists," the ambassador told Ecuador's El Universal newspaper.      "Neighboring countries should help [Colombian President Alvaro] Uribe and Colombia label the FARC as what they are," she said, referring to the rebels by their Spanish initials.      The ambassador said Ecuador also can help by patrolling its border and "not leaving open escape routes for the guerrillas and drug traffickers," who often work together.