www.forbes.com Reuters, 01.19.03, 2:28 PM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, fighting a 7-week-old opposition strike, said the OPEC member country could restore oil output to 2 million barrels per day by the end of January.

The government estimates current output near 1 million bpd, while striking workers peg it at 650,000 bpd.

"We could reach 2 million barrels per day before the end of the month," Chavez said in his weekly television program.

abcnews.go.com — By Pascal Fletcher

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday named a new interior minister and head of the army, placing loyal generals in key posts as he fought to beat a 49-day-old opposition strike that has strangled vital oil exports.

Chavez, who has purged the armed forces of opponents since surviving a short-lived coup in April, said his government would use "everything we've got" to try to defeat the strike launched by opposition leaders, who are pressing him to resign and hold early elections.

"Those who are trying to get rid of me by force, through a military coup or an economic coup, or by creating chaos, are not going to succeed," Chavez declared during his weekly "Hello President" television and radio show.

He vowed that his government would use military raids against striking private businesses if necessary.

The strike, which enters its eighth week Monday, has crippled oil production and shipments in the world's No. 5 petroleum exporter. It has also caused serious shortages of gasoline, cooking gas and some food items, sparking looting in some provincial towns and villages.

Chavez named Gen. Lucas Rincon, a former defense minister and ex-armed forces chief, as interior minister and Gen. Jorge Garcia Carneiro, as the new chief of the army -- the most powerful branch of the armed forces -- replacing Gen. Julio Garcia, who had held the post since the April coup.

Both generals are close allies of Chavez, himself a former army officer, who has increasingly used the armed forces to counter the strike.

OUTRAGE AT RAIDS

In a move that drew howls of outrage from Chavez's foes, National Guard troops on Friday broke into two private drinks manufacturing facilities. One was a local bottling affiliate of Coca-Cola Co. and the other a storage plant belonging to Venezuela's biggest private firm, Empresas Polar.

The soldiers seized truckloads of soft drinks, water and beer and took them away for distribution to the population.

Chavez said some private manufacturers were breaking the law by hoarding products to support the strike and vowed he would not hesitate to act against them.

Opposition leaders said the military raids were an unlawful attack against private property and only confirmed accusations that Chavez was trying to introduce Cuba-style communism.

The president blasted his opponents as "oligarchic elites" opposed to his rule, which he says is aimed at helping Venezuela's poor majority and promoting social equality.

Chavez has also sent troops to take over and restart strike-hit state oil fields, refineries and export ports.

But Venezuela's oil production, refining and exports are still well below normal levels. The strike has jolted world oil markets and cut off exports to the United States, which normally imports over 13 percent of its oil from Venezuela.

Condemning opposition strike leaders as "terrorists and coup mongers," Chavez has refused to negotiate with them. He said on Saturday his government was considering withdrawing from ongoing talks with the opposition brokered by Organization of American States Secretary General Cesar Gaviria.

Chevez's threats have raised doubts about the future of the peace negotiations, which have been going on for two months without any sign of agreement on the key issue of elections.

www.ctv.ca Associated Press

CARACAS — President Hugo Chavez on Sunday threatened to order more raids on striking private food producers and warned that the government may abandon negotiations with opponents trying to force him from office.

Meanwhile, thousands of Venezuelans with roots in Italy, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Portugal and other countries marched for peace, waving the flags of their homelands and Venezuela. Some carried signs that read "liberty'' and "union'' in six languages.

"I've never seen the country so divided,'' said Jose Lopes, 60, a bookstore owner who immigrated to Venezuela from Portugal as a teenager. "We don't want to leave, but if Chavez doesn't leave it's a possibility.''

Opponents accuse the 48-year-old president of running roughshod over democratic institutions and wrecking the economy with leftist policies.

A combination of opposition parties, business leaders and labour unions called for a general strike on Dec. 2 to demand Chavez accept the results of a non-binding referendum on his rule.

Venezuela's National Elections Council scheduled the vote for Feb. 2 after accepting an opposition petition, but Chavez's supporters have challenged the referendum in court. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the issue soon.

Chavez, whose six-year term ends in 2007, insists his foes must wait until August -- or halfway through his six-year term -- when a recall referendum is permitted by the constitution.

The strike has brought Venezuela's economy to a standstill, causing shortages of gasoline, food and drink, including bottled water, milk, soft drinks and flour.

Local producers insist they are still making basic foodstuffs but that fuel shortages and lack of security for their transport workers have hampered deliveries.

"Some businessmen have reflected and have started to open their factories,'' Chavez said during his weekly television and radio show. "Those who refuse, who resist, well, be sure that today, tomorrow or after, we will raid your warehouses and stockpiles.''

On Friday, National Guard soldiers seized water and soft drinks from two bottling plants. One was an affiliate of Coca-Cola, the other belonged to Venezuela's largest food and drinks producer, Empresas Polar.

Vice-President Jose Vicente Rangel on Sunday rejected U.S. Ambassador Charles Shapiro's criticism of the raids, which he said affected U.S. interests in Venezuela. Shapiro also questioned their legality.

"Ambassador, with all due respect, you are not an authority in this country,'' Rangel said Sunday while speaking to supporters in Venezuela's Margarita Island.

Bilateral "relations have to be on an equal plain of mutual respect. This is not a protectorate, it is not a colony,'' Rangel said.

Chavez also warned the government would walk away from negotiations sponsored by the Organization of American States if the opposition continued seeking his ouster through what he calls unconstitutional means.

"We are carefully evaluating the possibility that our representatives will leave the (negotiating) table,'' he said. "We don't talk with terrorists. We are willing to talk with any Venezuelan within the framework of the constitution.''

The talks, which began in November, have yielded few results. Six countries -- Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and the United States -- have begun an initiative called "Friends of Venezuela'' to support the negotiations.

The strike is strongest in Venezuela's oil industry, previously the world's fifth-largest exporter.

Oil production has dwindled to 800,000 barrels a day, compared with the three million barrels a day the country usually produces, according to the government. Strike leaders put the figure at 400,000 barrels a day.

Chavez, who has fired more than 1,000 strikers from the state oil monopoly, said Sunday that production could be restored to two million barrels a day by the end of the month.

But Chavez acknowledged that gasoline shortages have increased. He blamed the difficulties on "sabotage'' by strikers and delayed gasoline imports. He also promised to reinforce troop presence at oil installations and said 60 gasoline trucks were on their way to Caracas, the capital, on Sunday.

"Keep rationing gasoline,'' Chavez urged listeners.

Besides the factory raid, troops have seized striking oil tankers and kept strikers out of oil installations. Five people have died in politically related violence since the strike began.

Also Sunday, Chavez appointed retired Gen. Lucas Rincon as his interior minister, replacing Diosdado Cabello, who was named infrastructure minister last week. Rincon's appointment comes despite his role in April's failed coup and his later resignation as defence minister.

Rincon announced to the world that Chavez resigned after 19 people died during an opposition march on the presidential palace. Loyal soldiers restored Chavez to power two days later after an interim government dissolved the constitution.

Chavez also appointed Gen. Jorge Garcia Carneiro as commander of Venezuela's army, replacing Gen. Julio Garcia Montoya.

www.sun-sentinel.com By Sandra Hernandez staff writer Posted January 19 2003

Miami · Carrying placards that read "Get Out Chávez" and "No Going Back," thousands of Venezuelans and Cuban nationals transformed Miami's Calle Ocho into Little Caracas on Saturday during a march calling for the ouster of President Hugo Chávez.

The rally was a mirror of the demonstrations that are a near daily event in Venezuela since opposition leaders launched a national strike in December calling for early elections.

And like those rallies, marchers banged pots and pans and waved flags signed by dissident military leaders who turned against the president and now enjoy celebrity status in their homeland.

The event also highlights the push by opposition leaders to draw attention to the crisis. At least three prominent labor and political leaders traveled from Caracas to speak to the crowd, estimated at 50,000.

"We want to tell the Venezuelan people they are not alone," said Carlos Ortega, the head of the country's largest labor group and one of the forces behind the 47-day-old strike. "Leave us alone, Chávez. We don't want you anymore."

Also speaking to the crowd was former Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledesma, who is now part of opposition coordinators. "I came because I think it's important to help get the message out and to let people know what is going on in Venezuela," he said. "Chávez wants to portray us as conspirators and coup plotters and we aren't."

Both men stressed the ties to Miami's Cuban community and repeated accusations that Chávez is pushing the South American nation of 24 million toward a communist style of government.

The accusation is getting more attention since Venezuelan troops took control of a Coca-Cola bottling plant and several beer plants Friday.

"I hope that being on the doorstep, the U.S. will take notice and realize they will be affected by everything that is happening," said Saritta Brittan, of All for Venezuela, an umbrella group of 25 organizations that helped coordinate the rally along with local Cuban groups.

Marchers dressed in red, yellow and blue shirts -- a tribute to the Venezuelan national flag -- braved the chilly weather and light rain to push for early elections.

"I'm here because I want the world to know that Venezuelans don't support the government of Chávez," said Luis Matos, who has been living in South Miami since Jan. 4. "This rally is unlike those in Venezuela because if you were there, it would have ended with tear gas and maybe even violence. Here, we can demonstrate peacefully."

Officials at the Venezuelan Consulate in Miami called the march an act of free expression.

The march also drew local Hispanic leaders including U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Miami), who accused Chávez of imposing a "totalitarian government." He added, "We must come out in solidarity," but declined to comment on whether the Bush administration should take a stronger role in the crisis. "This isn't about the Bush administration."

Chávez, a former paratrooper who helped lead a failed 1992 coup, was elected in 1998 with an overwhelming majority. But these days his base of support has narrowed while the country's economic and social woes have mushroomed, creating a powerful movement to oust him.

Opponents are pushing for February elections, but Chávez has refused, saying they must wait until August as permitted in the constitution. The two sides are deadlocked on the issue and international efforts, including those by the Organization of American States, have failed to produce any agreements.

Saturday's march also drew some famous faces, including Latin pop singer Jose Luis Rodriguez, known as "El Puma," and four former Venezuelan beauty queens who stood on stage and waved to the crowd. Rodriguez called on the military to "restore order."

Sandra Hernandez can be reached at 954-385-7923 or smhernandez@sun-sentinel.com.

www.abs-cbnnews.com

CARACAS, Venezuela - More than 100,000 opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez marched in Caracas on Saturday after the populist threatened to quit talks aimed at ending a crisis over his leadership of the world's No. 5 oil exporter.

Holding up flags and torches and banging drums, the huge nighttime rally snaked through eastern parts of the capital where protesters jammed a major highway clamoring for Chavez to step down and call elections.

"These torches light the way for the fall of this regime," Rafael Narvaez, representative of the Coordinadora Democratica opposition alliance, told reporters.

Chavez earlier warned the government could pull out of peace talks brokered by the Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary-General Cesar Gaviria even as the international community stepped up efforts to break the South American nation's political deadlock.

The negotiations are trying to end the conflict behind a 48-day-old opposition strike that has slashed Venezuela's vital oil output, rattling global energy markets already nervous over a U.S.-led war in Iraq.

The opposition strike, started on Dec. 2, has stoked tensions as Venezuelans deal with serious shortages of gasoline, cooking gas and some food items. The shutdown has pushed Venezuela's oil-reliant economy deeper into recession.

A tough-talking Chavez blasted his opponents as "terrorists and fascists" and said there could be no negotiations with those who are leading the strike against his government. Chavez refuses to quit or call early elections.

"We in the government ... are considering withdrawing our team from the negotiating table because those people are showing no sign that they really want to choose the democratic path," the president said.

Opposition leaders, who accuse the former paratrooper of ruling like a dictator and charge his populist government has created economic chaos, said the OAS-backed negotiations remained the only solution to the crisis. They have vowed to stay on strike until Chavez quits.

The opposition is also demanding a nonbinding referendum Feb. 2 on Chavez's government. But the president says they must wait until August when the constitution allows a binding referendum on his mandate.

"Chavez is trying to wriggle out of this; he's cornered. He's trying to block all the international initiatives to help Venezuela," opposition negotiator Manuel Cova told Reuters.

International help, but from where?

Chavez, who was elected in 1998 and survived a coup last year, said his government would consult with Gaviria and decide over the weekend whether to stay in the 2-month-old OAS-brokered talks, which have made little progress.

Gaviria left for the United States for the weekend. The talks he chairs are due to resume on Monday.

While ruling out negotiations with strike leaders, Chavez said his government could talk to moderate "democratic" opposition representatives who were "not coup mongers."

The Venezuelan leader, who led a botched coup himself six years before his election victory, traveled briefly to Brazil Saturday for talks with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on international efforts to back the OAS negotiations.

Regional leaders this week created a six-nation "group of friends" to support OAS efforts to broker a deal on the key issue of the timing of possible elections.

The group comprised the United States, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Spain and Portugal. But Chavez, who held talks this week with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in New York, said he wanted the "friends" group to be expanded to include other nations like China, Russia and France.

After meeting Lula, Chavez reiterated his calls for the group to include more nations. But he said the expansion could come later.

"We will give Lula and his government our vote of confidence to form this group to help Venezuela," Chavez told supporters during a speech in Caracas after his Brazil trip.

Chavez, whose leftwing reforms are aimed at easing poverty, has vowed to break the opposition strike by sending troops to take over oil fields, refineries and export terminals. But he has had only partial success in restoring oil operations.

Following Chavez's orders, troops Friday seized drink products from a bottling affiliate of Coca-Cola Co. and from a major local brewer.

The confiscation, carried out by a pro-Chavez National Guard general, was condemned as illegal by opposition leaders. U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela, Charles Shapiro, said the takeover could also strain ties with Washington and expressed concern over U.S. commercial interests.

But Chavez warned Saturday more raids could follow as his government tries to ensure food supplies. He has also threatened to take action against banks, schools and factories joining the stoppage.

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