www.fortwayne.com Posted on Fri, Jan. 24, 2003 By PASCAL FLETCHER Reuters

CARACAS, Venezuela - Foes of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, struggling to maintain the momentum of a 54-day-old strike, lobbied on Friday for international pressure to push the leftist leader to accept early elections.

As the strike moved toward its ninth week, opposition negotiators were in Washington, where a group of six nations formed to tackle the Venezuelan crisis was to hold its first meeting at the Organization of American States.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter was due to outline proposals to end the crisis at the Washington meeting.

The opposition shutdown has slashed oil output by the world's No. 5 petroleum exporter, pushing up world prices. It has also triggered a fiscal crisis for the Venezuelan government, forcing it to suspend foreign exchange trading and cut back budget spending by 10 percent.

But, in a sign that Chavez is making some headway in his efforts to break the strike, oil production and exports have been rising again. Still, oil exports, the country's economic lifeblood, were only a quarter of normal levels and striking state oil executives voted Friday to maintain the stoppage.

The six-nation "group of friends" comprises the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Spain and Portugal.

Venezuelan oil supplies to the United States, normally more than 13 percent of total U.S. oil imports, have been disrupted by the strike, just when the United States is preparing for a possible war on Iraq.

The "friends" group was created last week to back ongoing efforts by OAS Secretary General Cesar Gaviria to broker a peace deal between Chavez and his opponents, who are pressing the populist president to resign and hold early elections.

OIL REBELS HOLD FIRM

Opposition negotiators said they hoped the group could exert pressure on Chavez to accept the idea of a negotiated electoral solution to end the crisis, which has raised fears of a violent, uncontrollable internal conflict in Venezuela.

"We must be optimistic ... The group can be very important to strengthen the civilized, peaceful option (of elections) to solve our problems," Alejandro Armas of the Coordinadora Democratica opposition coalition told local radio in Caracas, speaking by telephone from Washington.

The opposition negotiators were planning to meet with foreign ministers from the "friends group," which included Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Chavez, a former paratrooper who survived a brief coup last year, is resisting calls for early elections and has vowed to beat the strike. He accuses his opponents of trying to topple him from power by wrecking the economy.

"We do not negotiate with terrorists," he told tens of thousands of supporters who rallied in Caracas Thursday.

Chavez said he had sacked more than 3,000 employees of the state oil giant PDVSA who were the backbone of the strike.

In a tough response, the dissident PDVSA executives voted at an assembly in Caracas Friday to maintain the strike until the government accepted early elections and agreed to them returning to their jobs as part of any peace deal.

Chavez has also expressed objections to the six-nation "friends" group, saying he thinks it should be expanded to include other nations like Russia, China and Cuba, which he views as friendly to his government.

His opponents say the president, who Thursday threatened to close hostile private television channels and take over banks which joined the strike, is ruling like a dictator. They accuse him of trying to install Cuba-style communism in Venezuela.

The polarized positions and increasing outbreaks of violence have added urgency to international peace efforts.

CLASHES BETWEEN PROTESTERS

Police said a grenade exploded Thursday near the pro-Chavez rally in Caracas, killing one man and wounding 15. At least six people have died in shootings and clashes between rival protesters since the opposition strike began on Dec. 2.

Anger and frustration have also been stoked by shortages of gasoline and some food items caused by the shutdown, which has closed many private business, shopping malls and franchises.

Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, is proposing two options: one for an amendment to Venezuela's constitution to trigger early elections and the other for an Aug. 19 referendum.

Chavez has already said he is willing to abide by the result of the binding revocatory referendum on his rule which the constitution foresees after Aug. 19, half way through his current term due to end in early 2007.

He has also agreed to the constitutional amendment proposal provided that it follows the correct legal procedures.

But his foes say they do not trust him and that the crisis-hit country cannot wait until August for elections.

www.newsday.com

By KEN GUGGENHEIM Associated Press Writer January 24, 2003, 4:55 PM EST

WASHINGTON -- Officials from the United States and five other countries looked for ways on Friday to end a violent political strike in Venezuela that has crippled oil production in the world's fifth largest exporter.

The strike has lasted more than seven weeks to press opposition demands that President Hugo Chavez resign or call early elections. Opponents say Chavez's leftist policies have undermined business in Venezuela; Chavez's supporters say the opposition wants to bring down a democratically elected president who enjoys strong support among the nation's many poor.

In a sign of U.S. interest in a diplomatic resolution, Secretary of State Colin Powell attended the start of a meeting at the Organization of American States that included officials from Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Spain and Portugal -- members of a new "Friends of Venezuela" group.

"It's a meeting of friends, so I believe you should have positive expectations for the Venezuelan democracy," Venezuelan Foreign Minister Roy Chaderton told reporters in Spanish as he arrived for the meeting.

Among proposals to be considered were some offered by former President Jimmy Carter to end the strike in exchange for early elections.

Before the meeting, a State Department official said its purpose was to lay out a work agenda, possibly to name a coordinator and to allow OAS Secretary General Cesar Gaviria to outline his view of the state of the negotiations.

Gaviria has been spending months almost full time in Venezuela trying with little success to bring the parties together.

Miguel Diaz, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the talks at the OAS were critical.

"If this doesn't pan out, I think Venezuela is left to its own devices," he said. "I'm not sure the Venezuelans themselves will be able to find their way through this crisis without major bloodshed."

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Thursday the United States considers the Venezuelan situation "to be very tense, to be very difficult, and that the urgency of reaching a peaceful resolution remains."

Boucher rejected a suggestion that U.S. interest in Venezuela is linked to the likelihood of war in Iraq and the turmoil it could cause in international oil markets.

The United States has approached the latest Venezuelan turmoil gingerly. The Bush administration has little regard for Chavez, who has visited Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and is a close friend of Cuban President Fidel Castro. But after stressing the importance of democracy to the region, it doesn't want to be seen as undermining a constitutionally elected government.

The administration received sharp criticism for appearing to support a coup attempt in April. It has said it opposes any change in Venezuela outside the constitution.

Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue research group said the April coup has caused the United States to take "more of a hands-off posture" to Venezuela.

"That's not an answer because the chaos is continuing," he said. "The United States is one of the few actors that could positively affect the outcome of this."

While the United States is seen as being able to influence Venezuela's opposition leaders, Brazil's new government, led by leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is seen as potentially influential with Chavez.

Chavez has said he welcomed international help but warned against outside intervention in Venezuela's affairs.

Violence continued in Venezuela on Thursday when a pipe bomb exploded in Caracas as 300,000 people were rallying to support Chavez. One person was killed an at least 14 wounded.

• __ On the Net: OAS: www.oas.org

www.vheadline.com Posted: Friday, January 24, 2003 - 2:27:35 PM By: Roy S. Carson

Disgraced former Venezuelan Drugs chief Thor Halvorssen claims in today's issue of the Moonie's Washington Times (note: not the Washington Post) that "Venezuelan is now an abyss where there is no rule of law."

The rogue former government official, now in exile in Philadelphia (USA) claims Chavez Frias to be leading "a rogue government (that) tortures innocent civilians with impunity while paying lip service to democracy and buying time at the negotiation table set up by the Organization of American States."

• If one is to venture to believe Halvorssen's hype, Venezuela's Foreign Minister (MRE) Roy Chaderton, "has funded an effective multi-million dollar public relations campaign to smear the opposition as coup-plotters and fascists intent on bringing about violence."

Without a shred of evidence, Halvorssen launches into a dubious history of a 24-year-old second-year law student described as a cheerful and happy young man who had volunteered as a member of a group that brings together moderates who support the government and opposition members seeking a peaceful resolution to the current crisis.

Halvorssen's warping of reality begins when, on December 6, Soriano is said to have witnessed a "massacre" during a "peaceful" protest in Plaza Altamira ... Halvorssen then attempts to connect the alleged killer of three persons (and 28 injured), identified as Joao De Gouveia, as having "an unusually close relationship" with Mayor Freddy Bernal.  The underlying theme is to allude to homosexual relationships which pervade Halvorssen's Washington Times tirade.

Soriano was captured by "the militia" during a subsequent demonstration at the Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV) ... "The militia identified Soriano and captured him ... they then tied his hands and feet, lifted him up, and paraded him through the street like a sacrificial lamb chanting Judas! Judas!" and was then beaten severely before being left at a hospital emergency room where he was detained by the DISIP, described by Halvorssen as Chavez's secret police ... despite the fact that as a renegade government official he had made constant use of the DISIP's services during the Caldera regime...

What happens later is still the subject of debate, but Halvorssen doesn't let the legal niceties stand in the way for his epistle from Philadelphia.  He claims that the DISIP interrogation Soriano, tore out the fingernails in his left hand, tortured and injected him with drugs ... and then sodomized him as well!

Halvorssen claims that killing suspect de Gouveia was one of the ones who allegedly committed buggery on the young man and that de Gouveia is allowed to roam freely around the DISIP HQ "with the only restriction is that he must sleep in the precinct, lest Chavez's police are revealed as allowing a confessed killer to roam free."

Ignore the fact if you will that any killer awaiting trial on as conclusive evidence as that as against de Gouveia would immediately make a beeline for the nearest border, but homophobic Halvorssen then alludes to the Foreign Minister's sexual preferences claiming that Chaderton Matos had advised Chavez that the case "could filter out of Venezuela and become a human-interest story with the potential to derail their PR campaign."

What PR campaign?

The democratically elected government of Venezuela has denied that Soriano has been mistreated by them. Admittedly, a medical examination has revealed that lacerations, severe bruising, and cracked ribs support Soriano's claims that he had been repeatedly raped while in custody.

Regrettably, Venezuela's prison system is deplorable and rapes do occur, almost daily, in correction facilities across the country (as they also do across the United States) ... but to claim the personal participation of the Foreign Minister or the President in any such acts is going even further than the usual Moonie's suppositions and into the wildest fantasies of extraterrestial visitations...

While we have every sympathy for the young man who was brutally and painfully buggered against a wall in a prison cell, Halvorssen's blatantly homophobic mud-slinging is more than simply incredible ... it is part of the corrupt opposition-led PR offensive against the government that Halvorssen would wish to claim is government-sponsored while nothing other than his own.

www.cnn.com Friday, January 24, 2003 Posted: 12:45 PM EST (1745 GMT)

CARACAS, Venezuela (CNN) -- A day after hundreds of thousands of people from across Venezuela crammed into a plaza in the capital in a massive show of support for the country's embattled president, opposition groups announced plans to hold their own demonstration over the weekend.

The counter-demonstration will start at 11 a.m. (10 a.m. EST) Saturday in the Los Ruices neighborhood of Caracas and end 24 hours later in the neighborhood of Chacaito, organizers said.

Thursday's turnout had a festive air that was marred late in the afternoon when a homeless man was killed by a pipe bomb that exploded inside a trash can through which he was rummaging.

The explosion happened next to the square packed with demonstrators who had gathered to hear a speech by President Hugo Chavez.

Fifteen bystanders were slightly wounded and reports that a second man died in a hospital of wounds from the blast proved false, police said.

At the podium, Chavez made no reference to the violence. He gazed at the crowd through binoculars and appeared elated at the turnout. "I have seen a lot of marches," he said. "But this is not a march. No, it's a flood of the people from all parts of the country. Long live the people! Long live the popular conscience!"

"Fascists and terrorists cannot hide!" read one of the signs held by the demonstrators; "The homeland is not for sale!" read another.

Some 5 million people participated in the demonstration, said one congressman. Independent estimates of the size of the crowd were not available.

Only government TV covers Thursday demonstration

The demonstration was intended to show support for Chavez, whose leftist regime has been the target of vehement, vocal, largely middle-class opponents. A general strike that began December 2, aimed at forcing him to step down or call for early elections, has crippled the country's economy.

Supporters of the president march through Caracas on Thursday before Chavez addresses the crowd.

Demonstrators waved aloft banners lambasting the news media, accusing them of not presenting both sides of the story. Owners of the nation's commercial television stations, who have supported the strike and opposed Chavez, stuck with regular programming Thursday. Only the government-owned television station covered the rally.

Thursday's demonstrations also marked the anniversary of the fall of Gen. Marcos Perez Jimenez, who was deposed on January 23, 1958.

Though his rule was followed by democratic governments, many Chavez supporters say the twice-elected president is the only one who has fought for the rights of the country's poor.

Thursday's demonstrations came a day after Venezuela's Supreme Court dealt a setback to the opposition by rejecting its motion to hold a non-binding referendum February 2 on Chavez's presidency.

Opposition groups had put forward a petition signed by 2 million people for the referendum. Chavez's government opposed the move, sending it to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the referendum would not be legal.

Oil refinery visit planned

Chavez was planning Friday to visit the oil refinery at El Palito, one of the nation's four largest, which Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said is back on line.

The general strike has set off a flight of capital from the country and crippled the country's ability to export oil. Before the strike, Venezuela was the world's fifth-largest exporter of oil, and supplied 12 percent of U.S. oil imports. That has been reduced to a fraction -- resulting in long lines at gas stations in Venezuela and reduced foreign reserves.

In an effort to stem the outflow of money, Venezuela's central bank Wednesday closed the foreign exchange market for five trading days.

The bolivar is down 24 percent since the strike began.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who won last year's Nobel Peace Prize, was to speak Friday with the Group of Friends of Venezuela in Washington. The group, which includes the United States, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Chile and Brazil, was created in Quito last week at the suggestion of Brazil's newly elected president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Carter has also met in Caracas this week with leaders of the Organization of American States, which has been brokering talks.

CNN Producer Penny Mannis and Journalist Ligimat Perez contributed to this story.

www.alertnet.org 24 Jan 2003 17:39

CARACAS, Venezuela, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Dissident Venezuelan oil workers said on Friday they would maintain a 54-day-old strike in the world's fifth largest oil exporter until the government agreed to early elections and a deal to return them to their jobs.

The strike has slashed oil exports to a quarter of pre-strike levels, threatening the OPEC member country with economic collapse.

"We agree to maintain the strike until we obtain guarantees of a solution to the country's crisis which includes elections and restoring (state oil giant) Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA)," strike leader Juan Fernandez told an assembly of PDVSA dissidents in Caracas.

Opposition leaders have insisted that any agreement on elections be tied to a decision to reincorporate thousands of striking employees who have been sacked by the government in its attempt to break the strike.