www.miami.com Posted on Tue, Jan. 21, 2003 BY FRANCES ROBLES frobles@herald.com

CARACAS - Jimmy Carter arrived in Venezuela's capital Monday after enjoying a fishing trip with the president's archenemy to help referee a 50-day strike that has crippled industry and commerce.

Carter met with President Hugo Chávez one day after the Venezuelan leader criticized international negotiators who have been trying in vain to broker a negotiated solution to the strike that so far has cost $4 billion.

''I think there's always hope for a resolution,'' Carter said moments after his arrival. ``And I hope it will be soon.''

Opposition leaders refuse to lift the strike until the government agrees to early elections or at least a referendum on Chávez's rule.

Despite nearly three months of talks brokered by the Organization of American States, the opposition and the government have never been further apart. Carter entered a political arena so full of tension that some experts believe it is beyond the reach of the Nobel Prize-winning former U.S. president.

''Not even if Jesus Christ came to Caracas would it be enough to bring these sides together right now,'' said political analyst Miguel Diaz, with the Center for Strategic International Studies in Washington. ``I don't think many people expect much from Jimmy Carter. It's beyond him.''

Carter's visit was complicated by his choice of fishing partners. He arrived in the country Friday at the invitation of media magnate Gustavo Cisneros, who has publicly been accused of financing and plotting a coup that briefly ousted Chávez in April. Cisneros has denied any involvement.

Carter Center representatives said the former president would not make public statements about his visit until today, but opposition negotiators said he is widely expected to present a proposal today. In addition to Chávez, Carter met with OAS Secretary-General César Gaviria, opposition leaders Carlos Ortega and Carlos Fernández and representatives at the negotiation table.

''President Carter is coming at a very difficult time,'' said Gaviria, who has brokered talks here since November. ``Circumstances have changed a lot in the last few days. There's much more tension. But I think the table is the bridge between the government and the opposition. This is the place to find an accord.''

Six nations -- Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and the United States -- have formed an initiative called ''Friends of Venezuela'' to lend weight to the OAS-brokered talks. The first meeting will take place Friday in Washington to determine the structure of the group's talks.

The group was not days old before Chávez was publicly bashing it. He made a surprise trip to Brazil on Saturday to ask President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to expand the group to include more nations friendly to Chávez. Lula declined.

Days earlier, during a visit to the United Nations, Chávez publicly rebuked Gaviria, saying Gaviria was here only on the president's personal invitation. He later ordered a raid on Coca-Cola bottling plants here, saying that if private firms won't sell their goods, the military will.

www.miami.com Posted on Tue, Jan. 21, 2003 BY FRANCES ROBLES frobles@herald.com

CARACAS - Jimmy Carter arrived in Venezuela's capital Monday after enjoying a fishing trip with the president's archenemy to help referee a 50-day strike that has crippled industry and commerce.

Carter met with President Hugo Chávez one day after the Venezuelan leader criticized international negotiators who have been trying in vain to broker a negotiated solution to the strike that so far has cost $4 billion.

''I think there's always hope for a resolution,'' Carter said moments after his arrival. ``And I hope it will be soon.''

Opposition leaders refuse to lift the strike until the government agrees to early elections or at least a referendum on Chávez's rule.

Despite nearly three months of talks brokered by the Organization of American States, the opposition and the government have never been further apart. Carter entered a political arena so full of tension that some experts believe it is beyond the reach of the Nobel Prize-winning former U.S. president.

''Not even if Jesus Christ came to Caracas would it be enough to bring these sides together right now,'' said political analyst Miguel Diaz, with the Center for Strategic International Studies in Washington. ``I don't think many people expect much from Jimmy Carter. It's beyond him.''

Carter's visit was complicated by his choice of fishing partners. He arrived in the country Friday at the invitation of media magnate Gustavo Cisneros, who has publicly been accused of financing and plotting a coup that briefly ousted Chávez in April. Cisneros has denied any involvement.

Carter Center representatives said the former president would not make public statements about his visit until today, but opposition negotiators said he is widely expected to present a proposal today. In addition to Chávez, Carter met with OAS Secretary-General César Gaviria, opposition leaders Carlos Ortega and Carlos Fernández and representatives at the negotiation table.

''President Carter is coming at a very difficult time,'' said Gaviria, who has brokered talks here since November. ``Circumstances have changed a lot in the last few days. There's much more tension. But I think the table is the bridge between the government and the opposition. This is the place to find an accord.''

Six nations -- Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and the United States -- have formed an initiative called ''Friends of Venezuela'' to lend weight to the OAS-brokered talks. The first meeting will take place Friday in Washington to determine the structure of the group's talks.

The group was not days old before Chávez was publicly bashing it. He made a surprise trip to Brazil on Saturday to ask President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to expand the group to include more nations friendly to Chávez. Lula declined.

Days earlier, during a visit to the United Nations, Chávez publicly rebuked Gaviria, saying Gaviria was here only on the president's personal invitation. He later ordered a raid on Coca-Cola bottling plants here, saying that if private firms won't sell their goods, the military will.

www.forbes.com Reuters, 01.21.03, 8:50 AM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Oil tanker pilots have ended a seven-week-old strike in western Lake Maracaibo, a key oil export area, Venezuelan shipping agents said Tuesday.

The move should ease the export of crude oil from western Venezuela, which has dropped sharply due to the strike, but shippers said flows were unlikely to rise dramatically until foreign ship operators began using the ports again.

"We received a verbal assurance from the port captain that the pilots strike stopped yesterday," said one agent. It was confirmed by a second ship agent. Pilots are key to oil exports from the lake, both for docking tankers at loading berths and for navigating a long, narrow channel from the lake to the Caribbean.

In total there are some 24 channel pilots and 20 docking pilots in Maracaibo. Only five or six pilots, who broke the strike aimed at forcing President Hugo Chavez to resign, were available until now. Agents said the end of the pilots' strike meant that up to five tankers could leave the channel on one tide, versus two tankers now.

However, only tankers chartered by Venezuela's state-owned Citgo are currently exporting oil from Venezuela, and exports have dropped to one-sixth of normal levels.

Copyright 2003, Reuters News Service

www.heraldsun.news.com.au From a correspondent in Caracas 22jan03

BLOODY clashes between opponents and supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez yesterday overshadowed efforts by former US president Jimmy Carter to help resolve the general strike that has crippled the world's fifth largest oil exporter. On the 50th day of the civil action, one man was killed and 27 injured when gunfire erupted as the opposing forces clashed in Charallave, 30km south of the capital Caracas.

Both sides threw rocks, bottles and sticks at each other as police struggled to keep them apart, but it was not clear who fired the live ammunition.

Opposition leaders blamed the violence on the Government, saying Chavez sympathisers, primed by the President's fiery rhetoric, attacked their march. "The only one responsible is the Government," said Juan Fernandez, an executive fired from the state oil monopoly, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, for leading the strike.

Mr Carter, who won the Nobel peace prize in October, attended negotiations yesterday and met separately with Mr Chavez and strike leaders. His Atlanta-based Carter Centre, the Organisation of American States and the United Nations are sponsoring the talks.

Business leaders, unions and opposition parties launched the strike on December 2 to demand Mr Chavez resign or call early elections. After two months of negotiations, the two sides seem little closer to agreement.

Mr Chavez threatened yesterday to walk out of talks, accusing the Opposition of trying to topple him even as they negotiated and declaring the country was at war.

Strike leader Carlos Ortega said opponents would continue negotiating but called Mr Chavez undemocratic and said he would never accept a vote on his rule. Mr Ortega, president of the 1million-member Confederation of Venezuelan Workers, said OAS secretary general Cesar Gaviria and Mr Carter should "convince themselves once and for all that we are dealing with a regime that is not democratic, and that as long as Chavez stays in power there is no possibility of holding elections".

The National Elections Council, accepting an opposition petition, agreed to organise a February 2 non-binding referendum asking citizens whether Mr Chavez should step down.

Mr Chavez said the vote would be unconstitutional and his supporters have challenged it in the Supreme Court. But the President has welcomed a possible binding referendum halfway through his six-year-term - in August this year - as allowed by the constitution.

The strike has slashed Venezuela's oil production by more than two thirds and caused shortages of petrol, food and drinking water. It has cost Venezuela $US4billion ($6.77billion), according to the Government, and contributed to the fall of the bolivar.

Six countries - Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and the US - began an initiative called "Friends of Venezuela" to help end the crisis. Mr Chavez warned that his Government would not allow interference in domestic affairs.

Mr Chavez, 48, was elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000 on promises to redistribute the country's vast oil wealth among the poor majority.

His opponents accuse him of steering the economy into recession with leftist policies and running roughshod over democratic institutions.

www.morningstar.ca 21 Jan 03(6:51 AM) |  E-mail Article to a Friend By Richard Mably

LONDON (Reuters) - World oil prices surged to fresh two-year highs on Tuesday as the United States urged the U.N. Security Council not to shirk difficult choices on Iraq and a military build-up in the Gulf fuelled speculation that war is looming.

U.S. light crude in electronic trade set a high of $34.52 a barrel, its highest since December 2000, and by 1100 GMT was up 55 cents at $34.46. London Brent blend added 40 cents to $31.05 a barrel.

The strike in Venezuela that has sapped oil exports since early December and the killing in Kuwait of a Defense Department employee near a U.S. military base also helped pull prices higher.

Foes of President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday extended a nationwide strike into the 51st day, aiming to force the leftist leader to resign and call immediate elections.

With Venezuelan exports running at just 500,000 bpd, a fifth of normal flows, commercial crude stockpiles in the United States are close to 26-year lows.

"A lack of adequate commercial oil stocks in the U.S. and no nearby replacement for lost short-haul crude from Venezuela has left the oil supply chain stretched almost to breaking point," said London's Centre for Global Energy Studies.

"OPEC alone does not have sufficient readily available spare capacity to replace both Venezuela's and Iraq's oil exports, much less to cope with any supply disruptions from other Gulf producers that might result from any prolonged conflict in Iraq," the CGES said in a report to clients.

OPEC's biggest producer Saudi Arabia already is tapping into the world's only significant spare capacity. Industry sources told Reuters at the weekend that Riyadh could reach nine million bpd by February, up a million bpd from December flows.

If OPEC is unable to cover a dual outage from Iraq and Venezuela, the Paris-based International Energy Agency is expected to release some of its huge emergency strategic reserves for the first time since the Gulf War, in January 1991.

"Were an attack to be launched on Iraq, consuming country governments would have to utilize quickly their abundant strategic oil stocks to ensure adequate supplies," said the CGES.

U.S. officials show no sign of softening their line against Baghdad ahead of a major report on January 27 from U.N. weapons inspectors on whether Iraq has met disarmament commitments.

Secretary of State Colin Powell, addressing fellow Security Council members on Monday, said: "We must not shrink from our duties and our responsibilities when the material comes before us next week. We cannot be shocked into impotence because we are afraid of the difficult choices that are ahead of us."

Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix delivers his judgement to a full U.N. sitting next Monday and the 15-member Security Council evaluates the report on January 29.

Blix spoke to reporters in Athens after a two-day visit to Baghdad. "The Iraqis became aware that the world is disappointed with their declaration," he said of Iraq's 12,000 page dossier.

"We feel the declaration has not answered a great many questions."

Iraq said on Monday it would offer the inspectors more help and would form its own teams to search for any banned weapons.

Blix said that Baghdad had refused to allow U2 reconnaissance flights over its territory. "They put up a number of conditions that were not acceptable to us," he said.

Iraq wants to accompany the planes with its own aircraft, but would be prevented from doing so if the weapons inspectors flew to the north or south of the country because of no-fly zones patrolled by U.S. and British planes since 1991.

Britain said on Monday it was mobilising some 30,000 troops to join the tens of thousands of U.S. troops already in the Gulf.