www.forbes.com Reuters, 01.21.03, 6:10 PM ET

NEW YORK, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Citgo Petroleum Corp. said on Tuesday it expects to receive crude oil deliveries this month from Venezuela's state oil firm PDVSA that will equal about 83 percent of the volume Citgo received in January 2002.

A general strike that started Dec. 2 has substantially curbed oil exports from Venezuela. Citgo Petroleum Co. is an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), the state oil company of Venezuela.

Citgo, making its comments in an 8K filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said in December the company received from PDVSA about 59 percent of the year-ago volume.

"To date...our refineries have continued to operate at normal levels and our deliveries to customers have not been disrupted," Citgo said in the filing.

The firm has refineries in Corpus Christi, Texas, Lake Charles, Louisiana, and Lemont, Illinois.

Citgo acknowledged that the reduction of crude oil supply from PDVSA has required buying alternate sources of crude oil that "may differ from the PDVSA-sourced crude oil in terms of cost, logistics and physical characteristics."

Lyondell Chemical Co. (nyse: LYO - news - people) said on Tuesday that production at its refinery in Houston, a joint venture with Citgo, is at 85 percent of its capacity of 270,000 barrels per day (bpd). Lyondell said

Lyondell also said availability of spot and Venezuelan contract crude has improved the refinery's ability to operate.

www.alertnet.org 21 Jan 2003 22:47

CARACAS, Venezuela, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Venezuelan opposition leaders on Tuesday extended for a 52nd day a protest strike aimed at forcing leftist President Hugo Chavez to quit and stage elections in the world's No. 5 oil exporter.

The opposition stoppage, which began Dec. 2, has cut deeply into Venezuela's vital petroleum production, slashed the government's economic lifeline and pushed world oil prices to two-year highs of more than $34 a barrel.

"It has been 51 days since this national protest began ... Not one step backwards," opposition leaders said in a statement.

Strikers, including rebel managers at state oil firm PDVSA, have vowed to keep up the shutdown until Chavez resigns. But in a signal the oil stoppage could be weakening, some tanker pilots in the key export hub of Lake Maracaibo have returned to work, officials and shipping agents said.

Chavez, who was elected in 1998 and survived a coup in April, has refused calls for immediate elections. He rejects charges from foes his government has been marred by corruption, economic mismanagement and authoritarian rule.

www.csmonitor.com By Francisco José Moreno

AGOURA, CALIF. – Those trying to end the rule of Hugo Chávez as president of Venezuela are having a very difficult - and protracted - time of it.

Coup and strike notwithstanding, the opposition has had no success because it has been unable to convince the world that the unwillingness to abide by Venezuela's laws and Constitution represent a defense of, not an attack on, democracy.

The opposition claims that Mr. Chávez is a dictator aiming for totalitarian control. But this jars with the complete political and journalistic freedom enjoyed in the country. The Chávez regime does not take political prisoners (unless they break the law, such as those who tried to oust him in April) and the local press is openly and militantly antigovernment.

The opposition also asserts that the struggle against Chávez is purely political, devoid of social or racial overtones. This is difficult to reconcile because the president's strongest support is among poor and mixed-race Venezuelans and the opposition is largely white and middle-to-upper class.

The arguments put forward by the anti-Chávez militants and their professed commitment to freedom and democracy don't tally with their willingness to disregard their Constitution and forgo traditional elections. They claim that if Chávez remains in power until the elections, in 2006, he'll either irreparably damage the economy or somehow make his rule permanent.

But this professed inability to defend their interests and forward their views in the regular give-and-take of politics rings hollow. Chávez's popularity has indeed diminished substantially since his election; the most reliable Venezuelan pollster Alfredo Keller puts it now at 36 percent. As the president's popularity decreases, and as long as he keeps operating within the legal and democratic framework, an equally legal and democratic opposition representing the majority of the population should have no difficulty making its preferences felt through the existing electoral system.

The Venezuelan opposition is no political orphan. Businesses, the privately owned-media, organized labor, and the traditional political parties are all solidly in its ranks. Even without waiting for 2006, the opposition has a multitude of legal and political means to make its power felt. No government can effectively function without the active collaboration of all the interests and institutions it represents.

The opposition's unwillingness to abide by the electoral timetable seems less than true concern for freedom and democracy. Given the global influence of US interests and the strategic importance of Venezuelan oil, there is little chance that Venezuela would be allowed to go the way of Cuba. So what's really at stake, what the opposition is trying to impede, isn't the "radicalization" of the country, or the emergence of a totalitarian dictatorship, but the threat that Venezuela will no longer be in the hands of those who controlled it during the past 30 years of corrupt politics and inept economic policies. And Chávez's electoral victories - winning the presidency, calling for a new Constitution, winning a congressional majority - came as direct reactions to that previous state of affairs. But many of those now leading the opposition were active participants in the misgoverning and ineptness that made Chávez possible, and they fear losing the sway they've long held.

The opposition has been totally silent about what it advocates for the future, how it plans to avoid repeating the past. It's silent because it can't speak with one voice. Its ranks range from the ultraconservative association of industrialists to Bandera Roja, a radical leftist group that opposes Chávez not because he is undemocratic, but because he is democratic.

If both government and opposition were truly committed to the rule of law, a compromise between their more moderate elements should not be hard to achieve. Chávez claims he wants to work within the legal structure; the opposition is doing itself, and Venezuela, no favor by refusing to follow suit.

• Francisco José Moreno, a political economist who has advised Latin American leaders - including two Venezuelan presidents prior to President Chavez - is president of the Strategic Assessments Institute, a think tank specializing in politics and economics.

www.duluthsuperior.com Posted on Tue, Jan. 21, 2003 BY PASCAL FLETCHER Reuters

CARACAS, Venezuela - Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter on Tuesday presented to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his foes a plan for elections to break the political deadlock gripping the world's fifth largest oil exporter.

The former U.S. president said after talks with the left-wing leader in Caracas his blueprint foresaw an end to the crippling seven-week-old opposition strike that has slashed supply from South America's biggest oil producer.

The strike, launched by opposition leaders to press Chavez to resign and hold early elections, has jolted oil markets and threatened to bankrupt Venezuela's oil-reliant economy.

The bolivar currency tumbled 5.1 percent against the U.S. dollar Tuesday. Moody's Investors Service cut Venezuela's foreign currency debt ratings, sinking the country deeper into junk bond territory because of uncertainty over the strike.

Chavez, who was elected in 1998 and survived a brief coup last year, says he is beating the strike, which is causing shortages of gasoline, cooking gas and some food items.

Carter, who has made a career of trying to solve world conflicts, traveled to Caracas to throw his weight behind international efforts to end the Venezuelan crisis.

"Both sides now want to reach an agreement to end the impasse," Carter told a news conference before flying home.

His plan comprises two independent alternatives.

One proposes an amendment to Venezuela's constitution that would allow early elections. The other is for the country to wait until Aug. 19 -- halfway through Chavez's term -- when the constitution allows for a binding referendum on the president's mandate, which is due to end in early 2007.

OPPOSITION CAUTIOUS

Chavez told reporters after meeting Carter he was willing to accept a constitutional amendment if it followed established legal procedures. An amendment, which must be proposed by 15 percent of the electorate and be approved in a national vote, could shorten his mandate to allow early elections or bring forward the August referendum on his rule.

"I don't reject any of these possibilities, but the opposition must comply with the constitution," Chavez said.

Opposition leaders reacted cautiously. "We are open to all formulas to bring forward elections," opposition negotiator Americo Martin told Reuters. But he added the nature of the constitutional amendment needed to be clearly defined.

Anti-Chavez union boss and strike leader Carlos Ortega said the opposition would carefully evaluate any proposal for the constitution to be altered.

More than two months of talks brokered by Organization of American States Secretary-General Cesar Gaviria have failed to produce a deal on elections. The negotiations Tuesday were expected to consider the Carter proposals.

Carter said both sides would have to agree on one of his proposed alternatives. "I think this is a step in a positive direction, but certainly not a definitive answer," he said.

The opposition has been demanding immediate elections, arguing the country cannot wait until the August referendum.

The president, who himself staged a botched coup bid in 1992, has accused his opponents of trying to overthrow him.

Chavez, who purged the armed forces of opponents after the April coup, has sent troops to take over strike-hit oil installations and also to raid private factories and warehouses the government alleges are hoarding food supplies.

The oil shutdown showed signs of weakening on Tuesday when oil tanker pilots in western Lake Maracaibo went back to work.

Since the strike began Dec 2, at least six people have been killed and dozens wounded in shootings and street clashes involving followers and foes of Chavez, troops and police.

www.nytimes.com By GINGER THOMPSON

CARACAS, Venezuela, Jan. 21 — Former President Jimmy Carter dived into this country's tumultuous political crisis this week and offered two proposals today for ending seven weeks of bitter stalemate between President Hugo Chavez and a broad coalition of opponents that has left the country's economy in shambles and its people poised for violence.

In one proposal, Mr. Carter urged the government and its opponents to support a constitutional amendment that would cut the president's term from six years to four. Under such an amendment, President Chavez' term would end this year and new elections could be held soon afterward.

As an alternative to that plan, Mr. Carter suggested that the conflicting parties agree to hold a recall referendum in August that would allow the people to vote on whether President Chavez should remain in office.

"Our feeling is that both sides now want to reach an agreement to end the impasse that is destroying the economy of this country and the social order," Mr. Carter said during a press conference this morning. "I don't think anyone imagined that the strike would last 50 days. And no one wants to see it last for 70 days or 100 days.

"In my opinion," he added, referring to President Chavez and government opponents, "the proposals we have put forward encompass the basic demands of both sides."

Mr. Carter's proposals were drafted after four hours of private meetings with President Chavez on Monday, and numerous hours of meetings with important business people, union officials and political parties who lead the opposition movement against the government. The proposals are aimed at ending a national strike that has shut down most major businesses and crippled the state-owned oil industry. Oil is the lifeblood of the nation's economy, and Venezuela supplies some 14 percent of the oil that the United States imports.

An umbrella opposition group, called the Democratic Coordinator, has upheld the strike for nearly two months in an effort to force President Chavez from power. However, while Venezuela loses more than $50 million a day in oil sales, a determined President Chavez has defied the political pressure against him.

The former lieutenant colonel has kept the economy crawling. In response to the strike, President Chavez has announced the firings of more than 1,000 striking oil workers and begun sporadic imports of food and gasoline to ease critical shortages. Last week, he began seizing warehouses of soft drinks and bottled water that have been closed during the strike.

Mr. Carter said he was confident that his proposals would be well received by the opposition. And he added that there was a "positive reaction," from President Chavez. But he acknowledged that President Chavez also expressed reservations about agreeing to shortening his presidency and to rehiring oil workers who had gone out on strike.

Some 30,000 oil workers reportedly have joined the strike.

Mr. Carter said he urged President Chavez not to fire oil workers who joined the strike because of their political convictions. But he said President Chavez had told him that some workers had been accused of sabotaging refineries and tankers.

"That is a criminal act," Mr. Carter said. "But the decision about the punishment of those people would be made by the court, not the executive and based on evidence."

He added, "I hope there is going to be some backing down on both sides, which is always a crucial element in every dispute in which I have ever been involved."

Mr. Carter said the strike showed that both President Chavez, elected four years ago by an unprecedented majority of voters, and the opposition, whose demonstrations against the government draw hundreds of thousands of people, had seriously underestimated one another. Mr. Carter said, viewed the opposition as "a flash in the pan." And he said the opposition misjudged President Chavez political fortitude.

"I think now they both see the strength of the other side," Mr. Carter said, "and now is the time for them to accommodate those strengths."

President Carter said he presented a written version of the proposal to President Chavez this morning. The proposals were also presented today at negotiations between the government and opposition leaders that are being overseen by OAS Secretary General Cesar Gaviria.

Mr. Carter said the proposals would also be presented Friday in Washington at a meeting of the so-called "Group of Friends." The six-nation group — composed of the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Spain, and Portugal — is scheduled to discuss strategies for pressing both President Chavez and government opponents toward a peaceful settlement.

He flatly rejected President Chavez' recent calls to add more countries to the group, including Cuba, China, and Russia.

"This group will not be changed," Mr. Cater said. He said later, "Although President Chavez has made proposal for other countries to be members, in my opinion they will no longer be considered. The group is fixed."