www.vheadline.com Posted: Friday, March 07, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

Movimiento Quinta Republica (MVR) deputy Nicolas Maduro has criticized certain "foreign players" for their involvement in Venezuelan political issues. 

This follows a proposal made by Lincoln Diaz Balart, Republican representative for South Florida, to US Secretary of State Colin Powell to apply the Organization of American States (OAS) democratic charter to Venezuela's crisis. 

• This type of involvement, according to Maduro, signals the increased "Miamization" of certain sectors of the opposition that are funded and politically advised from Miami.

"This section of the opposition has failed poorly in its attempts to destroy and oust President Hugo Chavez Frias, and now they are looking to internationally to discredit" the government and the country.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Thursday, March 06, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

Lawyer Oscar Arnal has lodged a complaint with the Attorney General's Office accusing President Hugo Chavez Frias of inciting people to commit acts of violence such as state terrorism. 

Arnal alleges that it is the  "fiery, unacceptable, violent and aggressive rhetoric used by the government " that is the main cause of violence currently occurring in Venezuela. 

The lawyer claims that when the President slams the Venezuelan media his supporters then attack journalists and cameramen, and when he criticized the Friends of Venezuela group two bombs exploded. 

The allegation has also been forwarded to United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan and the Organization of American States (OAS) inter-American commission on human rights.

www.scoop.co.nz Thursday, 6 March 2003, 12:19 pm Press Release: US State Department

............Ma'am.

QUESTION: Can we move to the Western Hemisphere?

QUESTION: No, can we do Turkey?

MR. BOUCHER: I'm always happy to.

QUESTION: Okay. Yesterday Colombian officers from the Colombian government said that, or confirmed that the leader of the Colombia guerilla, FARC, Marulanda, was operating from Venezuela. My question is, Assistant Secretary Stroebel last week said that the U.S. Government had some doubts about the reliability of Venezuela as an oil supplier and that it doubted that the President Chavez would honor his word to hold elections in Venezuela. Do you believe that President Chavez could be a reliable partner to try to fight the Colombian guerillas in Venezuela?

MR. BOUCHER: I, the first think I need to say is every time somebody quotes what Acting Assistant Secretary Stroebel said in testimony to me, we look it up and we find out if that's not exactly what he said. I haven't had a chance to look up this exact quote yet. But I would suggest that people check it carefully before they use it.

He certainly did talk about our concerns about the situation in Venezuela and stressjed that the situation is deteriorating, said we need to help Venezuela find a solution to avoid further harm, a viable solution that's peaceful, constitutional, democratic and electoral. And that's what we've been saying all along. That needs to be agreed by the government and the opposition.

The effort the United States has made is to try to help Venezuela solve its political problems and get back to a situation of democratic representation and stability. That would certainly contribute to the stability of the region, and that's something that's important not only for us, but for others in the region. That's why we have the Friends Group.

As far as the operation of the FARC, of the Colombian guerillas from Venezuela, as you know, that's been reported from time to time. It's something we've kept in close touch with. We have made very, very clear our view that every government in the region should be doing whatever it can to prevent that sort of thing from happening and that's a view that we've often expressed here as well as to the Venezuela Government.

Yes..........

www.vheadline.com Posted: Wednesday, March 05, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

The verbal war between Colombia and Venezuela is heating up as Colombian authorities say they are going to do something about alleged incursions of Colombian guerrillas into Venezuela.

Colombian secret police (DAS) chief in La Guajira, Luz Marina Rodriguez says the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and National Liberation Army of Colombia (ELN) are entering Venezuela via the Perija mountain range. "We are investigating the allegations … we know the former group uses Venezuela as a resting place.”

Colombian government sources accuse the Venezuelan government of turning a blind eye to the incursions.

• DAS chief in Arauca, Hugo Hernan Jimenez complains that guerrillas cross over to Apure on a permanent basis.

Two days ago, Federation of Colombian Municipalities director, Gilberto Toro claimed that top FARC leaders are actually hiding out in the Venezuelan jungle and accuses President Chavez Frias of turning a blind eye and letting the guerrilla chiefs use Venezuela as a distention zone.

www.csmonitor.com from the March 05, 2003 edition By David Buchbinder | Special to The Christian Science Monitor

CARACAS, VENEZUELA – When bombs blasted the Spanish Embassy and the Colombian Consulate in Caracas last week, Venezuelan officials denounced the attacks. They issued a flurry of statements insisting that affairs between Venezuela and the two nations hadn't been damaged.

But that wasn't saying much. Venezuela's foreign relations weren't very good to begin with. The powerful explosive devices dramatically punctuated the discord that exists between Venezuela and other countries, both in South America and overseas.

Because of his autocratic leanings, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez fell out of favor with the international community long ago. More recently, the international community appears to have fallen out of favor with Mr. Chávez.

"Chávez is willing to sever ties to the international community," says Miguel Diaz, a senior analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

In recent weeks, diplomatic noises coming from foreign capitals rose a notch with the detention of Carlos Fernandez, head of Venezuela's largest business-owners organization and a key leader of the 2-1/2-month general strike aimed at ousting Chávez that fizzled in early February. Cesar Gaviria, secretary-general of the Organization of American States (OAS); Spain's Foreign Minister Ana Palacios; and US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher all protested the arrest.

Chávez, in turn, blasted the governments of Spain and the US for "meddling" in Venezuela's affairs. He was so incensed that he threatened to break off diplomatic ties with Colombia, whose foreign minister the week before accused Chávez of meeting with Colombian rebels.

Two days later, both Colombia and Spain saw their diplomatic compounds in Caracas shattered by bombs; five people were injured. The US Embassy, citing a credible threat of an attack, closed down for a day. Leaflets found at the crime scenes warned American Ambassador Charles Shapiro, the OAS, the CIA, and anyone else who would listen that "the revolution doesn't need your selfish intervention." The Venezuelan government denies that its sympathizers were behind the blasts, but the fliers echoed Chávez's position: other countries involved are not to interfere in Venezuela's internal affairs.

"The only pressure he really feels and responds to is that coming from Venezuelans themselves to remove him from power," says Mr. Diaz. "Once that disappeared, there was really little that could move him."

From the beginning of his administration in 1998, Chávez raised eyebrows in foreign capitals by paying official visits to Muammar Qaddafi in Libya and Saddam Hussein in Iraq. While Venezuela's president has remained formally within the law, his opponents see his rewriting of the Constitution, his reshuffling of the supreme court, his crackdown on the media and, most recently, his jailing of political enemies as antidemocratic measures. His opponents worry that Chávez's demonization of them is leading to greater violence. On Sunday, a car bomb went off in the western oil city of Maracaibo, where many who were involved in the strike work and live. No one has claimed responsibility for the blast.

According to Michael Shifter, senior analyst with InterAmerican Dialogue in Washington, Chávez's strong-arm style has unnerved a region that saw more than its share of authoritarian regimes in the '80s and '90s. "You talk about rule of law and institutions, and you have this guy who comes on the scene and shows disdain for that, and says, 'I was elected by the people, and that's enough,' " Mr. Shifter says. "It's a nightmare for people in the region, because they've seen this movie before, and it doesn't have a happy ending."

Venezuela's status as one of the world's largest petroleum producers has allowed Chávez to be recalcitrant when foreign diplomats call for concessions. The US, long accustomed to being the dominant player in the hemisphere, has had to tread lightly in Venezuela ever since it welcomed a coup that temporarily ousted Chávez last April.

But some analysts note that the thrust of collective mediation efforts, such as those sponsored by the OAS, are remarkably in line with the diplomatic will of the United States.

"The 'international community' is often a euphemism for the 'United States,' and it's not that much different in this case," says Mark Weisbrot, codirector of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. "Given the United States's hostility to Chávez, I think the [Venezuelan] government has been actually quite friendly and willing to work with everyone."

The government had been meeting with the opposition at talks mediated by the OAS, but last Wednesday government representatives presented a declaration rejecting international interference in Venezuela's crisis.

The statement read in part: "No foreign government or institution ... may pretend to guide the Venezuelan people, nor influence the functioning of national public power."

Citing security concerns, the government side was a no-show at meetings scheduled for the rest of the week. The messages coming from the Chávez administration are clear: Other countries may not like what they see in Venezuela, but there isn't much that they can do about it.

"There's really no arm-twisting going on behind the scenes," says a Western diplomat in Caracas. "The international community has no leverage - there's no foreign aid to cut, and people need the oil."