www.vheadline.com Posted: Tuesday, March 04, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

Opposition negotiator in the Organization of American States (OAS) facilitated peace negotiations Americo Martin has insisted that the opposition will continue to push for an electoral solution to Venezuela's ongoing political crisis, either a revocatory referendum or a constitutional amendment that would cut President Hugo Chavez Frias' term in office and allow early general elections. 

"The government knows our stance and we know the government's point of view. So we could reach an agreement. I am not optimistic or pessimistic, I am just working on the documents I have in hand. I think there is huge pressure in favor of an electoral solution."

Negotiations have made little progress over recent weeks following the signing of a non-violence agreement, a talks were suspended due to Organization of American States (OAS) secretary general Cesar Gaviria's unavailability and then the government's requests to postpone sessions.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Tuesday, March 04, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

According to Currency Administration Commission (Cadivi) president Edgar Hernandez, a list of goods for which will once again be able to be imported on the Commission's website tomorrow. This follows a six week ban on dollar sales, which has virtually halted all import activity.

President Hugo Chavez Frias has already said that dollars will not be made available for luxury goods such as 10-year-old malt whiskies, insisting that funds will only be made available for necessities.

Hernandez clarified this point saying "those with products not on the list need not apply."

In the initial stages $600 million will be made available each month, around half of normal demand, with fast food chains likely to suffer as Hernandez claims they will not be on the priority list and will have to wait before their dollar applications can be processed.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Tuesday, March 04, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

President Hugo Chavez Frias' Venezuelan opponents living in New York have called for a world demonstration on March 9 to urge President Hugo Chavez Frias to step down or accept an electoral solution to the current political crisis.

They are hoping for demonstrations in several European cities, as well as in the United States and across Latin America.

There will also be a demonstration outside the Whit House in Washington on the same day, organized by Lucha Democratica, SAVE Venezuela and Resistencia Civil de Venezolanos en el Exterior (Recivex).

Recivex claims to be active in over 100 cities worldwide and groups several other opposition organizations based outside Venezuela.

www.nytimes.com By DAVID GONZALEZ

MARACAIBO, Venezuela, Feb. 28 — In this sun-drenched city built on oil and agriculture, government workers complain of missed paydays and stalled projects. Beyond the high-rises and office towers, impoverished families live in dank, crumbling shanties along bumpy dirt streets.

These scenes in the western state of Zulia make the billboard outside the government-run oil company seem like a cruel taunt, particularly given that Venezuela's journey to becoming the world's fifth-largest oil exporter began here in 1914.

"Social Investment Fund," the sign proclaims. "Improving the Life of All Zulianos."

Complaints that the central government has exported not just oil from the region, but increasingly its attendant profits as well, have turned many residents against President Hugo Chávez, whom they have accused of withholding $500 million from their state budget over the years.

Only one of the state's 21 mayors supports Mr. Chávez, while the governor, Manuel Rosales, has easily rallied tens of thousands of people against him.

In Mr. Chávez's struggle to overcome the devastating effects of a two-month nationwide opposition strike, Zulia, the country's most populous state with 3.2 million residents, is a crucial battleground. Mr. Chávez must not only boost oil production, but also his support in this state whose people tend to vote as a bloc.

Two weeks ago, with the strike faltering, he set his sights on removing Mr. Rosales, urging people to demand the kind of recall referendum that his own critics have sought unsuccessfully against him.

Yet even among the poor, the very group that Mr. Chávez says benefits most from his Bolivarian Revolution, disenchantment has grown.

"The economy is fatal, and since Chávez came to power it has gotten worse, because there is no work," said Addis Atencia, who shares a compound of five shanties with nearly three dozen adults and children. "In a country that produces petroleum, how can you live like this?"

Zulianos consider themselves a breed apart, which is evident in their accent, culture and temperament. The differences are a result of having been cut off from the capital, Caracas, for years, and of frequent contact with foreigners through the port here. For years before the bridge spanning Lake Maracaibo was built in the 1960's, residents intent on going to Caracas had to get a visa, since the ferry stopped first on the Dutch island of Curaçao.

When Mr. Chavez introduced reforms, including one allowing squatters to occupy fallow farmland, Zulianos reacted with a strike in September 2001. For many the reforms were another insult after years of seeing no returns on the revenue Zulia produced for the country.

"Zulia paralyzed the state and lit the fuse that led to a national strike," said Tomás Guanipa Villalobos, the local leader of the Primero Justicia political party. "Zulia has suffered the most under Chávez. The money which was generated by oil was not invested into making Venezuela truly productive."

Roads on the outskirts of Maracaibo are potholed, while signs heralding a commuter rail station rise above empty lots where work has stopped. The public hospital in the Veritas neighborhood looks rundown, paint flaking from its walls and weeds blocking one entrance even as patients stream into the building. A state medical supply store is shuttered.

Mr. Guanipa said that rather than tackle problems like those, Mr. Chávez devoted most of a brief visit here last month to lambasting the governor and the opposition as coup plotters.

"He said nothing about any program of investment to elevate Zulia," Mr. Guanipa said. "He spent hours urging people to eliminate the enemy. It was the politics of revenge, and that is very dangerous. It will get worse unless we get out of this fast."

The government insists that production has improved among the oil rigs on Lake Maracaibo, where soldiers patrol the lake and shores to prevent sabotage. It estimates that production nationwide is now back up to 2.1 million barrels daily after being paralyzed by the strike. Venezuela produced 3.1 million barrels a day before the strike.

Alexis Arellano, the coordinator of the oil company's Tía Juana district, said he was now able to pump almost 800,000 barrels daily, despite having dismissed 60 percent of his work force during the strike.

Combined with joint ventures that were not affected by the strike, he said regional production hovered at a little more than one million barrels daily.

"They said it was impossible to increase production," he said. "The people who stayed with us see it as a personal challenge to keep on operating and make the company grow."

But former executives dispute the government's figures and insist that actual production is half of that claimed.

"If they are producing a million barrels a day with so many less people, then they should have fired us," joked Tarciso Guerrero, who used to manage the gas facilities. "They are only saying they reached a million to show the country that everything is normal."

Outside the oil company's Miranda Building, lines of job applicants file past a ragtag group of "Commando Reservists," Chávez supporters who have guarded the area since December, a battered bus their headquarters and dormitory.

The mood has been tense, especially after two people were injured this week when unknown assailants tossed a grenade and fired a dozen shots while the Chávez supporters slept by the sidewalk.

"We are defending these trenches because this institution is ours," said one of the group, Leonardo Sencial. "Without this we are nothing. If they try to take it away, we will take to the streets as the president said."

www.vheadline.com Posted: Monday, March 03, 2003 By: Gustavo Coronel

VHeadline.com commentarist Gustavo Coronel writes: Venezuela has no death penalty. Maximum penalty is 30 years, rarely applied. However in the National Venezuelan prisons more than one hundred inmates die violently every year. Many more spend more time in prison than the sentence they are finally given, due to the slow judicial processes.

The prisons are run by the Ministry of the Interior and Justice, which has had 6 incumbents in four years. One of the most infamous of these prisons is Tocuyito, some 8 miles from where I live. The prison normally would hold 600 inmates but it has about 1,800 today. For the last two months these prisoners are not being fed by the government. They make do with whatever foodstuffs are brought by families and friends, and according to judge Norma Ramirez, by eating rats, cats and dogs. 80 inmates are seriously undernourished and dehydrated according witness reports of February 28.

Finding out about this situation, the young Governor of Carabobo, the State where the prison is located, instructed his staff to prepare and deliver to the prison 23 tons of food. The five trucks containing rice, pasta, milk, canned food, sugar, cheese, flour and other basic products were brought to the prison by the president of FUNDASOL, a social organization of the State of Carabobo.

She was accompanied by three judges and a Prison Evaluation Officer who conducted a previous inspection of the prison and certified the lack of food in the storage areas. An Act was drawn up to this effect and the five trucks were ordered by the judges to drive into the prison. At this point in time, however, the military in charge refused to let them pass claiming that the Ministry of the Interior refused to accept food from the State of Carabobo. Judge Ramirez Padilla, however, insisted, claiming that the human rights of the inmates could not be violated.

Based on her decision, the doors to the prison were forced open under the passive eyes of the military. Once inside, the trucks were searched in a very slow motion fashion for about two hours before they were led to the storage area. The inmates protested the attitude of the military.

This incident illustrates the current tragedy of our country. The food was denied entrance by the National Government because the sender of the food was a political adversary.  To accept this delivery would constitute a "political defeat."

And what about the inmates? What about their right to be decently fed, according to the Laws of this country?. Are they animals or simple pawns in a political game? While the immense majority of the inmates and their families accepted the food with gratitude, the representative of the National Government and one inmate speaking on behalf of pro-government inmates insisted that the food should not be accepted, coming from the hands of "enemies."

In Venezuela we have a saying: "No lavan ni prestan la batea" (They do not wash but they do not let you use the wash tub).  The Ministry of the Interior, because of incompetence or corruption (or both), is not feeding the inmates but they refuse to let any other Venezuelan organization to help the inmates if they represent political adversaries. This is a crime and reflects unfavorably upon the moral qualities of the men in power.

I am sending a letter along these lines to the Organization of American States, denouncing this violation of human rights in Venezuela. Inmates also have human rights, especially since so many of them are in prison without being properly sentenced.

Last Sunday, March 2, I saw and heard the President violating human rights with total sadism.  He said that the coupsters and saboteurs of the petroleum industry were now planting bombs since they could not overthrow him in any other way. Coming from any citizen and especially from the President of our country this is an unacceptable violation of our Constitution which stipulates that anyone is innocent until proven guilty. The President was already passing sentence!

This shows he is unworthy of the position he holds. Furthermore, he said he "had proof and photographs of the criminals" and implied that the criminals were the opposition ... but he did not show the evidence. This constitutes a crime in our country. Chavez is at this moment an accomplice of the bombers because he is withholding information which could lead to their identification, while accusing others who might not be guilty.

This is revolutionary "justice." We seem to be more and more under a government which borders on the openly criminal. According to Article 350 of the Venezuelan Constitution this would be valid grounds for open civic rebellion.

I sincerely hope we can get to vote before we get to rebel.

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 ppcvicep@telcel.net.ve