www.iht.com NYT NYT Saturday, February 22, 2003   Americans have a twofold interest in Venezuela's resolution of its current political problems peacefully and constitutionally. The country sits atop the largest petroleum fields outside the Middle East, with most of its oil exports going to the United States. A nationwide strike has sharply lowered those exports in recent months. Venezuela may also be the most fragile of Latin America's growing number of troubled democracies. A turn toward authoritarianism of the left or right could have damaging ripple effects across the region. Regrettably, President Hugo Chávez, instead of working to heal his badly divided country, seems determined to provoke new and dangerous tensions. Less than two days after government and opposition representatives promised to step back from their confrontation, two of the country's most visible opposition leaders face charges of rebellion, sabotage and a series of other crimes growing out of their leadership of a now faltering national strike. Carlos Fernández, who leads Venezuela's most important business federation, was arrested early Thursday. Carlos Ortega, the head of the country's main union alliance, has gone into hiding. The vindictive charges against them could undo the modest progress recently made toward a peaceful, constitutional resolution of Venezuela's long-running political crisis. The strike led by Fernández and Ortega aimed at forcing Chávez from power. The right way to determine Venezuela's political future is through democratic elections. The constitution devised by Chávez permits a recall vote this August. Between now and then, all sides should work to calm the inflamed political atmosphere. That seemed possible as recently as Tuesday, when government and opposition representatives issued a joint declaration pledging efforts to promote reconciliation and mutual understanding. Then came the two arrest orders. Chávez's opponents were already alarmed by the kidnapping and murder of four anti-Chávez demonstrators, whose bodies were found earlier this week. Police investigators now suggest that the killings were not politically motivated, but the victims' relatives disagree. It's easy to see why. This month Chávez proclaimed 2003 the "year of the revolutionary offensive." He vowed to take retribution against his many enemies, especially the strike leaders. Days later, he introduced currency controls, and ominously warned that they could be used as a financial weapon against opposition businessmen. The state oil company has permanently dismissed thousands of striking workers. These steps threaten to overwhelm the compromise proposals put forth by former President Jimmy Carter after a mediation mission last month. His ideas drew positive responses from both sides and encouragement from Washington. The centerpiece of the package was a recall vote or new elections after August. Preliminary steps called for the opposition to end its strike and for the government to refrain from reprisals. That remains good advice. Unfortunately, Chávez, having all but vanquished the strike, no longer seems to be listening.

reuters.com Fri February 21, 2003 06:19 PM ET By Patrick Markey

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez on Friday railed against international criticism over the arrest of one of his opponents who was detained for leading a strike against the leftist leader.

A squadron of plainclothes police on Friday hustled a grim-faced Carlos Fernandez into the attorney general's office, where he faces civil rebellion and treason charges for spearheading the two-month strike that battered the economy of the world's No. 5 oil exporter.

His arrest late Wednesday at gunpoint drew fire from international organizations and the United States, which said it feared the move would undermine negotiations to end the bitter political feud over the president's rule.

"We are nobody's colony," Chavez roared at a crowd of supporters in western Trujillo state. "We have our own institutions, our own constitution ... and we will not accept meddling in Venezuela's domestic affairs."

DISIP state security police on Friday were still holding Fernandez, a silver-haired trucking executive who leads the Fedecamaras business chamber. He was not formally charged.

Armed officers snatched Fernandez from outside a Caracas restaurant around midnight Wednesday after a judge ordered him and another strike leader, union boss Carlos Ortega, arrested. Ortega, a fierce Chavez critic, has gone into hiding.

Opponents of the populist president, who they accuse of trampling over democracy, have slammed the arrest as illegal and urged the international community to prevent what they fear will descend into a political witch hunt.

They say the judge's decision was politically motivated although the attorney general, a staunch Chavez ally, rejected their claims. The president has repeatedly demanded judges jail his critics.

"Carlos Fernandez is a political prisoner," said Fedecamaras vice president Albis Munoz.

OPPOSITION FEARS OF CRACKDOWN

His arrest, coming shortly after the murky deaths of three dissident soldiers and an anti-Chavez protester, stoked opposition fears of a government crackdown. Police say the four deaths are likely linked to a grudge though relatives blame political persecution.

Amnesty International on Friday joined a chorus of concern in expressing worry for Venezuela's human rights situation and calling for an independent investigation into the killings.

"The judiciary has a key role in preventing these events from triggering an escalation of the human rights crisis," the group said in a statement.

Chavez, who dismisses his critics as "terrorists" and "fascists," has hardened his position against his foes after their strike failed to topple his self-styled revolutionary government. He calls 2003 the "year of the offensive."

The Venezuelan leader, who was elected in 1998 and survived a coup in April, has vowed to defeat opponents he says tried to sabotage the oil industry. The strike briefly choked off oil exports that account for half of the state's revenues.

But opposition leaders say they seek only to press Chavez into elections. Three months of negotiations chaired by the Organization of American States have made little headway. Chavez has so far resisted opposition demands that he accept an early vote to defuse the nation's crisis.

(Additional reporting by Silene Ramirez)

straitstimes.asia1.com.sg

Chavez hails arrest of strike leader Carlos Fernandez as the opposition warns of a political witch-hunt

CARACAS - Venezuelan police on Thursday arrested a top industrialist for civil rebellion after he led a strike against President Hugo Chavez.

Carlos Fernandez's arrest has been condemned by the opposition as illegal. -- AP

The President's opponents feared the arrest was the start of a political witch-hunt.

Shots rang out as protesters and private bodyguards faced off with the state security officers who grabbed Mr Carlos Fernandez outside a Caracas steakhouse about midnight on Wednesday.

The white-haired executive was bundled into a waiting car, officials and witnesses said.

A judge ordered Mr Fernandez and union boss Carlos Ortega, who led a crippling two-month shutdown to oust Mr Chavez, detained for rebellion against the state, sabotage and other charges.

Mr Ortega told reporters by telephone that he had gone into hiding.

Opposition leaders, who accuse Mr Chavez of wielding power like a dictator, said they would step up their demonstrations to protest against an arrest they condemned as illegal. Their complaints were dismissed by the Attorney-General.

'This is not just aggression against these two people. It's aggression against Venezuela's freedoms,'' union leader Manual Cova said.

Mr Chavez hailed the arrest of Mr Fernandez, a prominent private sector leader, as belated justice for 'terrorists'.

The President, who was briefly ousted in a coup in April, has taken a tough stance against opponents since strike leaders called off their nationwide shutdown early this month.

He has declared 2003 as the 'year of the offensive'.

'These people should have been jailed a long time ago,'' he said, grinning widely as he recounted hearing about the arrest.

A few thousand frustrated demonstrators, some screaming 'Free Fernandez', blocked a major Caracas highway as motorists jammed other parts of the capital with their vehicles, honking horns and flashing headlights in a show of support.

The arrest rattled the opposition, already reeling from the killings of three dissident soldiers and an anti-Chavez protester.

Police say the deaths probably involved a personal grudge, but grieving relatives blamed political persecution.

'We've tried flags, we've tried with whistles,' said Mr Luis Alberto, as he took part in an opposition rally.

'The world has seen our frustration but nothing has changed.'

The government crackdown triggered concern from the international community.

The US State Department called the arrest a 'worrisome development' that could undermine talks between the government and opposition over elections.

Mr Chavez, elected in 1998, has vowed to crack down on foes he says are trying to topple him by sabotaging the oil industry of the world's No 5 petroleum exporter. He has clamoured for judges to jail strikers he calls coup-mongers. --Reuters

abcnews.go.com The Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela Feb. 21 —

President Hugo Chavez demanded 20-year prison terms Friday for two prominent opponents who directed a nationwide strike that devastated Venezuela's oil-based economy.

Carlos Fernandez, head of Venezuela's largest business chamber, and Carlos Ortega, leader of its biggest labor confederation, are charged with treason and other crimes for the two-month strike, which cost more than $4 billion.

Fernandez was arrested by secret police Wednesday and hauled into court Friday. Ortega went into hiding when a judge issued an arrest warrant.

"These oligarchs believed that they were untouchable. There are no untouchables in Venezuela. A criminal is a criminal," Chavez thundered during a ceremony handing land titles to peasants in Trujillo state.

He demanded a 20-year term for Fernandez, president of Fedecamaras, and for Ortega, of the Venezuelan Workers Confederation, for allegedly sabotaging the oil industry, inciting civil disobedience "and trampling the human rights of the Venezuelan people."

The treason charge carries a 20- to 26-year prison term.

Oil is Venezuela's strategic industry, and its exports were the fifth-largest in the world before the strike began Dec. 2. The strike ended Feb. 4, but Chavez's government is battling a continuing walkout in the oil industry.

Citing nationwide hardship caused by gasoline shortages, Chavez condemned Fernandez and Ortega as "terrorists" who failed to topple his government both during a brief April coup and this winter.

The tempestuous president also had a message for foreign critics. The United States, Organization of American States and other entities voiced concern that Venezuela's crisis is escalating.

"I want to remind all the governments of the world that Venezuela is a sovereign country! We are nobody's colony!" Chavez shouted.

Fernandez's arrest fueled speculation Chavez has begun a crackdown on his opponents.

Chavez won't allow strikers access to U.S. dollars under a new foreign exchange system, and he has threatened to shut down broadcast media for inciting rebellion. He also has warned he will seize private businesses and property to deliver gasoline, food and other basics.

Ruling party leader Willian Lara told the state Venpres news agency that the hundreds of strike organizers should be prosecuted "for crimes against the republic."

The labor confederation, meanwhile, said it wasn't planning another strike to protest Fernandez's arrest.

The OAS, the United Nations and the Carter Center, run by former President Jimmy Carter, have sponsored three months of talks to seek an electoral solution to Venezuela's crisis. The future of those talks was in doubt after Fernandez's arrest.

Venezuela's opposition wants early elections and collected more than 4 million signatures to back its demand. The government dismisses the petition drive; Venezuela's elections authority is in shambles.

Chavez is a former paratrooper who was elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000 to a six-year term. He vows to distribute Venezuela's oil riches to the poor. Critics accuse him of imposing an authoritarian state and driving the economy into the ground.

www.alertnet.org 21 Feb 2003 18:27

By Phil Stewart

CARACAS, Venezuela, Feb 21 (Reuters) - It's hard to recall the humbled Hugo Chavez of April, who spoke of God, peace and reconciliation with his foes after surviving a 48-hour coup.

These days, Venezuela's paratrooper-turned-president spits out words like "attack" and "battle" and says he is going on the offensive against the "terrorists" and "fascists" who have defied him.

"I sheathed my sword (after the coup) and I was wrong," Chavez told a cheering crowd of thousands at a pro-government rally this week. "I have been forced to draw it again, and I will never ever sheath it."

His offensive is off to a roaring start. He's fired more than 13,000 dissident oil workers, crushed an opposition oil walkout and outlasted a two-month nationwide strike meekly abandoned this month. He has also tightened his grip on private sector enemies with newly imposed price and currency controls.

In his most triumphant stroke so far, Chavez won the arrest of a dissident industrialist for committing treason on Thursday and threatens to do the same to a group of media moguls he's dubbed the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse."

"The Chavistas are now on a roll ... I think now he's going to begin moving to tighten his controls on civil society and see what the reaction is," said Riordan Roett at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Most troubling for his opponents -- and there are millions -- is that the populist president's crackdown has been carried out within the bounds of Venezuela's loosely written laws, observers say. That has left little room for protest by wary foreign diplomats, especially in the United States, where the Bush administration was stung for its hesitant condemnation of last year's putsch.

"His main game is playing the constitutional president. He plays it up to the brink, but all of the measures he takes always have some sort of legal base," said Caracas-based political analyst Janet Kelly.

CHAMPION OF THE POOR?

Hailed by supporters as a champion of the poor and reviled by critics as an ignorant dictator, the maverick president has become as well known as those two other world-famous Venezuelan products -- abundant oil and beauty queens.

The second of six sons of school teachers, Chavez has come a long way from his humble rural roots.

Voted into office in 1998, six years after trying to seize power at the point of a gun, Chavez launched his self-proclaimed "Bolivarian Revolution".

This combined left-wing socialist tenets of equality and wealth distribution with fervent nationalism inspired by Venezuela's 19th century independence hero Simon Bolivar.

But his honeymoon in power is long gone, as are his once soaring popularity ratings of 80 percent or more. Venezuela's economy contracted nearly 9 percent last year and unemployment and crime are rising.

His new currency controls are starving businesses of vital U.S. dollars and price controls on everything from tomatoes to funeral services threaten to bankrupt shopowners.

For the man who wants to united South America, as Bolivar tried to do, Chavez faces a deeply divided Venezuela.

His new offensive seems to be widening the rift between allies and enemies of his government, riding roughshod over negotiations on early elections and raising fears that the country's tense standoff will explode into class warfare.

"We've tried flags, we've tried whistles. The world has seen our frustration and nothing has changed," said middle class Luis Alberto, at an opposition rally this week. "The next step is forming self-defense groups and taking up arms."

The mostly poor pro-government "Chavistas," drawn from the country's sprawling urban slums, cheer the president's aggressive rhetoric against the Venezuelan elite and heed his calls to defend his revolution from coup-mongers.

As many Venezuelans arm themselves, there have been worrying outbreaks of violence -- far worse than the street clashes that left seven dead and scores injured since December. In a murky quadruple homicide police are still investigating, a dozen gunmen last week kidnapped, tortured and executed three military dissidents and female protester after a rally.

For analysts watching Venezuela unravel, the question isn't whether Chavez will again strike at his enemies -- but whether he might cross the line looking for revenge.