<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Thursday, March 27, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

President Hugo Chavez Frias continues to attack the war on Iraq, warning that the world is returning to jungle law by breaking the international order and bypassing the United Nations (UN) to attack and invade other countries. 

Speaking at the commencement of "Businessmen for Venezuela" assembly in Caracas, Chavez Frias has questioned the right of the Anglo-American forces to bomb the cities of Iraq.  "We want peace and the UN to intervene!" 

The President told his audience that he agrees with Brazilian President Lula da Silva's comment that no country and in this case, the USA has the power to define what is good and what is bad in the world. 

Turning to the domestic scene, Chavez Frias tackled opponents who he says seem delighted with the idea of the USA attacking Venezuela for a regime change. 

"How far are people ready to go? How is it possible that political leaders have gone so far as to say that they would prefer a General of an invasion force to Chavez Frias as President? Are they that crazy?"

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, March 25, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Consorcio Justicia general director, Carlos Ponce  has called on World Bank projects manager for Latin America, Waleed H. Malik not to "give a bolivar more to the Venezuelan Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ)." He claims that funds to reform the Judiciary are being wasted away. 

"Only 10.3% of Venezuela's judges are titular ... the rest 87.7% are supply judges ... it shows that TSJ  magistrates can't keep their promise to reduce the provisional character of Venezuelan justice to 20%." 

The National Assembly (AN) decreed a judiciary emergency  in 1999 and set up a Restructure Committee whose first task was to review the situation of the country's judges and ended up suspending a good number. 

Ponce says he has been studying the system starting from 1907 thru to the current period, and has reached the conclusion that in Venezuela there is no such thing as independent or autonomous courts when judges are relieved of their posts for simply passing sentences that a determined economic or political group does not agree with. 

"Three years have passed and the Judiciary still lacks a basic structure, a strategic vision and more important, stability of judges ... as long as we have provisional judges, there cannot be any stability." 

In a letter to TSJ president Ivan Rincon, Ponce has criticized the fact that the TSJ has administered 2.4% of the national budget over a three-year period and have little to show for it. 

"The crisis continues, few changes can be observed and there is still limited access for ordinary citizens." 

Commenting on the TSJ's  call yesterday for a national consultation process, Ponce wryly contends that any consultation will lack transparency ... "the bottom line is the TSJ's need to present the World Bank with a program asking for more debt."

www.vheadline.com Posted: Friday, March 21, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

The Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) Electoral Chamber has supported the Venezuelan child protection system Foro Propio’s (civil sector forum) interpretation of electoral proceedings for children’s rights councils.

According to the Child Protection Law (Lopna), the forum is a legal organization of child advocacy and non-government groups (NGOs) that has the power to propose and elect civil sector representatives on municipal, State and national children rights and protection councils respectively.

The National Children’s Rights Council (CNDN) consisting of 50/50 government appointees and civil sector elected officials issued guidelines in December to elect civil sector members.

• Regional forums contested the unilateral decision, arguing that Article 141 gives them the right to choose their representatives.

The TSJ rule confirms that the forum is a citizen assembly of organizations, associations, non-State foundations and persons that have a social vocation in the best interests of children and teenagers and it is up to them to establish electoral mechanisms.

www.boston.com By Alexandra Olson, Associated Press, 3/21/2003

CARACAS - An appeals court yesterday ordered the release of a businessman who has spent nearly a month under house arrest for leading an unsuccessful strike to oust President Hugo Chavez.

The Caracas court ruled that prosecutors have not presented enough evidence to keep Carlos Fernandez in custody on charges of rebellion and instigation, Judge Luis Lecuna told Globovision television.

Fernandez, 52, was arrested by secret police on Feb. 20. He was placed under house arrest three days later in the city of Valencia, about 70 miles from Caracas.

Fernandez helped organize a two-month strike to demand Chavez's resignation or early elections. The strike paralyzed the world's fifth-largest oil exporting industry and cost Venezuela $6 billion. But it fizzled last month with Chavez firmly in power.

The United States and other countries have criticized Chavez for cracking down on opponents after the strike. Chavez told the United States not to meddle in Venezuela's affairs and insisted that independent judges had ordered the arrests.

Chavez has demanded 20-year prison sentences for strike leaders, accusing them of subjecting the population to shortages of gasoline and food. The government had no immediate comment on the court ruling.

Albiz Munoz, vice president of the Fedecamaras business chamber, said Fernandez and other opposition leaders were victims of political persecution and have received death threats from armed civilian groups allied with the government.

Another strike leader, Carlos Ortega, slipped into the Costa Rican Embassy last week after weeks of hiding from charges of rebellion, treason, and instigation. Costa Rica granted him asylum, and Ortega is waiting for Venezuelan authorities to give him safe passage to the Central American nation. Venezuela's government has indicated it would grant the safe passage. Ortega heads Venezuela's biggest labor union.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Thursday, March 20, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

The Ombudsman’s Office has collected evidence that torture is still being practiced in Venezuelan prisons. According to an El Universal report, Ombudsman German Mundarain handed a report to the UN Anti-Torture Committee in November 2002.

Among the incidents highlighted was a complaint by the mothers of 5 inmates at the la Planta prison protesting the scarcity of food supplies.

A medical review confirmed torture procedures such as electricity shocks on the genitals, burnings on parts of the body and physical beatings.

The report criticizes the prison system but insists that many of the problems trace back to earlier administrations.

It concludes that current administrative efforts have not been sufficient despite backing from the 1999 Constitution. Mundarain says the report is the result of 150 prison visitations.