www.washingtonpost.com News from Venezuela By Scott Wilson Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, February 21, 2003; Page A16

BOGOTA, Colombia, Feb. 20 -- Venezuela's secret police have arrested a key opposition leader and are searching for two others in an apparent crackdown by President Hugo Chavez against leaders of a recent general strike designed to force him from office.

Carlos Fernandez, head of Venezuela's largest business federation, was arrested late Wednesday by about eight government agents outside an upscale restaurant in eastern Caracas. Fernandez was taken to the headquarters of Venezuela's secret police agency, the Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services. Opposition leaders say he is being held on charges of treason, "civil rebellion" and illegal assembly.

Government authorities are now searching for Carlos Ortega, the head of Venezuela's largest labor federation, who with Fernandez was prominent in the two-month strike that ended this month. Ortega called Fernandez's arrest a "terrorist act" and said he would not turn himself in.

Government officials said a third arrest warrant had been issued for Juan Fernandez, the former financial planning director at the state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, who led the strike at the company. He was fired by Chavez, along with about 13,000 other employees.

The new action appears to be part of a calculated retaliation by Chavez against the opposition movement just as the oil-rich country is showing signs of recovering from the crippling general strike. It also has complicated negotiations to end a political crisis that has shaken Venezuela for more than a year and raised the specter of fresh violence.

"These people should have been jailed a long time ago," Chavez said today at a ceremony at the Foreign Ministry.

Authorities this week discovered the bodies of three dissident Venezuelan army soldiers and an opposition activist in a killing characterized by international human rights groups as politically motivated.

The arrest of Carlos Fernandez came a day after government and opposition negotiators agreed to an eight-point declaration renouncing violence and inflammatory rhetoric as they seek a deal on new elections. The document was the first accord to emerge in three months of talks mediated by Cesar Gaviria, secretary general of the Organization of American States, who called on the government today to ensure that Fernandez receives an "independent, impartial" trial.

Thousands of Chavez opponents demonstrated today in response to Fernandez's arrest, many in front of the headquarters of Petroleos de Venezuela, where thousands of employees continue their walkout.

Chavez, a populist firebrand elected in 1998 on a pledge to help Venezuela's poor, survived a military-led coup last April that began with a strike in the oil sector. But an opposition movement made up of labor and business groups, leftist political parties, and middle- and upper-class civilians continued the effort to drive him from office.

Opposition leaders called a general strike on Dec. 2 to force Chavez to resign or move up presidential elections, scheduled for 2006, to this year. Chavez weathered the strike by creating a system that maintained food and gasoline supplies, but depleted the public treasury. The financially damaged private sector lifted the protest on Feb. 3.

Although workers at the state oil company remain on strike, the government says production has returned to more than half its pre-strike level of 3 million barrels a day. The company accounts for half the government's revenue and 15 percent of U.S. oil imports.

Jose Miguel Vivanco, head of the Americas division of Human Rights Watch, said Fernandez's arrest left him "extremely concerned by these retaliatory operations." Opposition members said at least one of the charges against Fernandez, civil rebellion, does not even appear in the criminal code.

"The risk here is that the government has decided to criminalize political expression and the actions of the opposition," he said.

The OAS talks are scheduled to resume Wednesday, giving both sides time to plan their next steps. Rafael Alfonzo, an opposition negotiator who represents Fedecamaras, the business federation that Fernandez heads, said, "Obviously, we must do something about this."

"Some [opposition] people complained when we signed the [nonviolence] agreement, but we believed in it," Alfonzo said. "Now we have this demonstration on the government's part that shows clearly that we do not have a democracy and freedom."

www.guardian.co.uk Owain Johnson in Caracas Friday February 21, 2003 The Guardian

Venezuela's opposition has accused President Hugo Chavez of beginning a witch-hunt against his critics, after a leading opposition figure was arrested in a dramatic raid and another was forced into hiding.

Henry Ramos Allup, the president of the opposition party Democratic Action, said he had reliable information that the government was planning to arrest a further 25 key opponents.

Mr Ramos Allup said the list included politicians, businesspeople, union leaders, representatives of striking oil workers and media bosses.

The claim came after the arrest of Carlos Fernandez, the leader of business association Fedecamaras, in a swoop on a Caracas restaurant by masked, armed police shortly after midnight on Wednesday.

Mr Fernandez was one of the leaders of a crippling two-month general strike which forced Venezuela to suspend crucial oil exports and severely damaged its fragile economy.

Witnesses said the heavily armed men did not show any identification or an arrest warrant. The business leader tried to escape in his car, but was quickly caught and taken to police headquarters. Diners who tried to prevent the arrest were driven off by the police, who fired into the air.

Mr Chavez spoke yesterday about Mr Fernandez's arrest. He told a trade forum that "I went to bed with a smile. "One of the coup plotters was arrested last night. It was about time, and see how the others are running to hide." A second leader of the general strike, Carlos Ortega, the president of the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV), was in hiding last night with a warrant out for his arrest.

He said he did not trust Venezuelan justice and warned that the government wanted "to kidnap me and eliminate me".

A pro-government deputy, Luis Velasquez, later confirmed that 100 people could expect to be questioned about their role in promoting the strike. "This shouldn't be a source of alarm," Mr Velasquez said. "They simply have to answer to the courts."

The government had requested the public prosecutor's office to charge Mr Fernandez and Mr Ortega with rebellion, treason, instigation to commit criminal acts, conspiracy and sabotage. Mr Fernandez's arrest took place just days after the discovery of the bodies of three dissident military soldiers and a young woman, who had disappeared over the weekend.

The four victims, who had been shot dead, were found bound and gagged. Their bodies showed injuries consistent with torture.

The three men were part of a group of rebel officers who have declared themselves in rebellion against president Chavez, and their families immediately condemned their murder as politically inspired.

The Venezuelan opposition was due to hold crisis talks late last night to discuss its response to these latest developments in the country's long-running political crisis. Last April dissident military officers launched a short-lived coup against the government.

Mr Chavez's opponents accuse him of authoritarianism and of seeking to install Cuban-style socialism in Venezuela. The president rejects these allegations and accuses his critics of seeking to prevent him from carrying out much-needed social reforms.

A senior opposition figure, Andres Velasquez, the leader of the Radical Cause party, has urged his colleagues to call a further one-day strike in protest at the arrest of Mr Fernandez.

Mr Velasquez said the arrest had "torn into pieces" the accord reached on Tuesday by the government and opposition to reduce tension in the oil-rich country.

The agreement was the first tangible sign of progress in three months of negotiations between the two sides under the auspices of the Organisation of American States, and Mr Velasquez said the opposition leader's arrest was "an insult" to the OAS secretary-general, Cesar Gaviria, who has been chairing the negotiations and left Caracas only hours earlier.

In a communique from Barcelona, Mr Gaviria urged the Venezuelan authorities to ensure that "judicial decisions are taken independently, impartially, in strict accordance with the law and with the rights enshrined in the constitution".

news.independent.co.uk By Phil Gunson in Caracas 21 February 2003

A leader of the opposition movement against President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela was being held at the secret police headquarters in Caracas yesterday after his arrest at gunpoint late on Wednesday on charges of treason and criminal conspiracy.

Secret police (Disip) and military intelligence officers detained Carlos Fernandez, president of the leading business association, Fedecamaras, when he left a Caracas restaurant, the organisation's vice-president, Albis Munoz, said. Gunshots were fired into the air as he was hauled off.

"We demand that the government guarantee his safety," Ms Munoz said, adding that Mr Fernandez had been "practically kidnapped".

Mr Fernandez was one of three main leaders of the two-month-long strike against the government of President Chavez, which began on 2 December. Mr Chavez has accused leaders of the strike – which is continuing in the oil industry, the heart of the economy – of sabotage and of seeking to overthrow his government by force.

During his regular Sunday TV and radio programme, the President urged judges and public prosecutors to take action against organisers of the stoppage, referring to them as "coup plotters".

The opposition claims that Mr Chavez, who was twice elected with large majorities, is turning the country into a dictatorship, ruining its economy and violating the new, 1999 constitution.

The other two strike leaders – Carlos Ortega of the main trade union confederation, the CTV, and Juan Fernandez, a former oil industry executive – have been warned to turn themselves in or face arrest.

Mr Ortega went into hiding after describing the arrest of Mr Fernandez as a "terrorist act", according to his fellow CTV leader Manuel Cova.

Speaking to a Venezuelan radio station, Mr Cova said Mr Ortega was in hiding because, "we cannot allow the government to humiliate him ... as of now the rule of law does not exist in Venezuela, and neither the life of Carlos Fernandez nor that of Carlos Ortega can be guaranteed".

Government spokesmen were slow to comment yesterday, and the human rights ombudsman, German Mundarain, did not return calls. But the judge who claims to have issued the arrest warrant for Carlos Fernandez, Maikel Jose Moreno, listed charges against him. These include treason, rebellion and criminal conspiracy.

Tarek William Saab, a congressman and former human rights activist, said he understood from "unofficial" sources the charges against Mr Fernandez related to "sabotage carried out in the oil industry and calls for a tax strike [among] a series of alleged offences the country is aware of [which took place] between December and January."

According to spokesmen for Fedecamaras, the armed men who detained the business leader presented neither identification nor an arrest warrant.

They fired into the air to disperse a small crowd before taking Mr Fernandez to the headquarters of Disip, the secret police. Sonia Fernandez, the business leader's wife, said she was able to speak to him, that he was physically unharmed and was in talks with his lawyers yesterday.

Leaders of the opposition umbrella group, the Democratic Co-ordinator, were quick to condemn the arrest as arbitrary and illegal. They announced a 15-minute stoppage at midday and a protest march called for yesterday afternoon.

The arrest of Mr Fernandez was made only days after the torture and murder, in circumstances that have yet to be clarified, of three soldiers and a young woman involved in a four-month anti-government protest by military officers in a Caracas square.

The New York-based organisation Human Rights Watch has called on the government to run a full and impartial investigation of the murders and to protect a teenage witness who was also seriously injured.

The four victims were found in the suburbs of Caracas with hands tied and faces wrapped with tape. Darwin Arguello, Angel Salas and Felix Pinto and Zaida Peraza, 25, an opposition activist, had multiple bullet wounds and showed signs of torture, police forensic scientists said.

The killings coincided with the signing of an anti-violence accord between government and opposition after three months of talks chaired by Cesar Gaviria, secretary general of the Organisation of American States.

www.examiner.ie IN Iraq there is a misguided bully with guided bombs.

This problem is not about oil because Saddam is probably as price competitive as any democratic successor. If the US wanted oil that badly they could take over Venezuela. The US and Britain will bring FDR’s four freedoms to the Iraqi people: freedom to elect a representative government, freedom of expression, freedom from fear and freedom from hunger. The same Allies did this for Germany, Italy and Japan after World War II.

Stephen Fallon, 16, Barrington St, Limerick.

ipsnews.net Humberto Márquez

CARACAS, Feb 20 (IPS) - Venezuela's ongoing political crisis worsened Thursday following the court order for the arrest of two opposition leaders, Carlos Fernández, president of the Fedecámaras business association, and Carlos Ortega, president of the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV). Fernández was detained just before midnight Wednesday and Ortega decided to go into hiding -- just 30 hours after the Hugo Chávez government and the political opposition signed a pact on non-violence in an effort to defuse tensions still simmering after a nearly two-month strike. Thousands of people gathered in downtown Caracas Thursday afternoon to march in protest against the arrest. Penal judge Maikel Moreno issued arrest orders Wednesday for the two, who led the December-January strike that sought Chávez's ouster. The judge acted on a request from the Prosecutor General, which accuses Ortega and Fernández of ”rebellion, treason against the fatherland, incitement to crime, assembly for criminal ends, and destruction.” Opposition parties and trade unions are outraged by the judge's action and by the arrest of Fernández, which took place as he was leaving a Caracas restaurant. Government agents held Fernández for several hours before allowing him to contact his family and attorneys. César Gaviria, secretary-general of the Organisation of American States (OAS), who is mediating talks between the government and opposition, called on the Venezuelan judiciary to ensure that its decisions are taken with ”independence, impartiality and in strict compliance with the laws and rights guaranteed by the constitution.” Gaviria underscored the social and political stature of Fernández as leader of one of the two sides in the talks that began more than three months ago to resolve Venezuela's political crisis. Chávez commented Thursday, ”At last a prosecutor and a judge issued orders to arrest people who should have been imprisoned a long time ago.” A day earlier the president had condemned the fact that there are judges in Venezuela ”who sell their rulings for 3,000 to 30,000 dollars.” ”I was informed (of the arrest warrant) at midnight and I told the police to obey the order. And I went to bed with a smile. Later I sent for a papaya tart that my mother made so I could taste it. I don't have a grudge against anyone, I only want justice to be done,” Chávez said. According to the political opposition, there is a list of 25 people from among its ranks -- business, union or political leaders -- who the government has marked for arrest. Legislative deputy Luis Velásquez, of the ruling party, said ”justice authorities have been asked to take action against some 100 people considered responsible for the harm caused the country with the coup attempts and illegal labour strikes.” But Vice-President José Vicente Rangel said that figure ”seems disproportionate.” He added, however, ”If I were (CTV president) Ortega I'd turn myself into the court, because in Venezuela the right to due process, including the right to appeal, continues to reign.” CTV secretary-general Manuel Cova announced that Ortega had gone into hiding and that the union federation would bring the case to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) as evidence of the violation of labour rights in Venezuela. Before going underground, Ortega said in radio and television interviews that judge Moreno's arrest orders ”are just the beginning of an escalation organised by the upper government echelons to liquidate the opposition leaders.” Ortega pointed out that Moreno served last year as defence attorney to Richard Peñalver, a pro-Chávez Caracas city councillor who was among those accused of opening gunfire on an opposition march on Apr 11, killing 18 people. The incident was part of the social chaos in the days preceding the failed coup that removed Chávez from power for 48 hours. In issuing the arrest warrants, Moreno referred only to the Prosecutor General's request, which orders Ortega and Fernández to appear in court to hear the charges against them. The accusations of rebellion and treason reflect the government's stance that the two are involved in supporting the attempted coup of April 2002, and that they continued to seek his ouster, according to Chávez. The other charges are related to the two men's role in leading the strike that ended Feb 4. The work stoppage practically paralysed Venezuela's all-important oil industry and closed down factories and shops. ”We have not engaged in any actions that are not covered by the constitution,” said opposition leader Albis Muñoz, vice-president of Fedecámaras. Rafael Alfonso, a business executive in the food industry and an opposition delegate to the OAS-led talks, commented that Fernández's arrest ”is simply a provocation.” Criminal lawyer Alberto Arteaga told IPS that ”the arrest orders for Ortega and Fernández are mistaken not only in intent but in form, because the two should only be imprisoned if they are likely to flee, which prior to the arrest warrants was not the case, as day after day they appeared in public and on television.” Across the board, the opposition considers Fernández's arrest -- so soon after its representatives and government delegates signed a pact against violence and in favour of peace and democratic values -- proof that the Chávez administration lacks the political will to resolve the country's ongoing crisis. People's Defender Germán Mundaraín, who heads the so-called citizen's branch of the government created by the 1999 constitution, says ”there may have been excesses in apprehending Fernández, but above all else justice must be done. The people demand an end to impunity.” (END/2003)