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Venezuela National Guard troops took control of the Coca-Cola plant in Valencia

CARACAS, January 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Venezuelan troops seized beer and soft drink plants belonging to supporters of the 47-day strike as President Hugo Chavez threatened a crackdown on opposition media.

National Guard troops took control of the country's largest brewery and a U.S.-owned Coca-Cola bottling plant, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Saturday, January 18.

U.S. Ambassador Charles Shapiro told Venevision he was "concerned and disappointed" at the move at the Coca-Cola plant in Valencia.

Troops also seized a warehouse full of soft drinks, accusing distributors of hoarding in order to worsen shortages brought on by the strike.

National Guardsmen said they would "liberate" the foodstuffs "for the people," in the populist style of 1960s guerrilla groups.

In a related development, Chavez said the government was preparing legal action against two television channels he accused of taking part in plotting "a coup." The authorities did not name the channels.

Prosecutors also vowed legal action against opposition ads run by some channels, charging them with fanning hatred and depicting violent strike activity to child viewers.

Chavez Warn Mediators Against Meddling Chavez warned international mediators seeking to broker a peaceful end to the bitter strike that they must first accept his leadership.

"They must begin by recognizing a legitimate government, that there is a democratic government that I head, elected by a free people," Chavez said during his annual address before the legislature.

The offer by the "Group of Friends of Venezuela" to mediate between Chavez and opposition leaders had buoyed hopes of ending the strike that has severely curtailed the flow of crude from the world's fifth-largest oil exporter.

The group which, includes the United States, was formed at the invitation of Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whom Chavez said he would meet in Brasilia Saturday.

"If any country or group of countries, in giving their take on the situation, tries to legitimize that bunch of subversives, fascists and terrorists ... that kind of help we do not need," Chavez said.

Organization of American States General Secretary Cesar Gaviria said that he would suspend his efforts at brokering talks because of the heightened tensions in the wake of Friday's seizures.

Gaviria has been attempting to bring the two sides together since Chavez was briefly ousted in an April coup.

Since the strike began on December 2, Chavez has said he would leave office only as the constitution allows.

The president may be recalled by referendum once he reaches the half-way point of his six-year term, which for Chavez comes in August.

However, opposition leaders want to remove him with a referendum February 2.

Initially, both sides welcomed the intervention of the six-country group, which groups beside the U.S., Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Chile and Brazil.

"Excellent. It proves that Venezuela has a lot of friends and few enemies," said Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel.

"The formation of the Group of Friends ... is a great success," opposition leader Jesus Torrealba said.

The opposition coalition of political parties, labor unions and business leaders claims Chavez is leading Venezuela toward a dictatorship.

Chavez has said he is determined to break the power of what he calls a "corrupt oligarchy" that has kept 80 percent of Venezuela's 24 million people in poverty.

www.nytimes.com January 16, 2003 By GINGER THOMPSON

ARACAS, Venezuela, Jan. 15 — The sign on the door says "closed." The lights are dim. The staff is not in uniform. Customers are only allowed in through the out door. But in the seventh week of a national strike aimed at shutting down the economy and toppling President Hugo Chávez, Blockbuster Video began covert operations in at least two popular stores in the capital.

The staff and managers refused to fully identify themselves, or to even respond to simple queries about store hours and movie releases coming soon. However, in one brief outburst, a store manager who identified herself only as Eugenia, strived to make clear that her decision to open for business weighed heavily on her conscience.

"It is hard to work," she said. "But it is harder not to work."

The strike that once left most commercial areas of the city dark and abandoned — at an economic cost of more than $50 million a day — is now a collage of contrasts: abandoned shopping malls and bustling street markets; long lines outside gas stations and traffic jams; shuttered McDonald's outlets and packed gourmet restaurants. Venezuelan beer has been replaced by Mexican and German brands. Movie theaters are closed, but neighborhoods are setting up screens in parks and plazas.

Since it began on Dec. 2, the strike has become the fault line that divides this society into rival camps, wreaking havoc on neighborhoods and families alike. It was organized by a coalition of business executives, union leaders and civic organizations to force Mr. Chávez to call new elections.

So far, the strike leaders have failed to accomplish that goal. In the lingering war of attrition between President Chávez and his opponents, Venezuelan society has begun to take stock of the consequences. The economy is in ruins. A country that already endures one of the highest violent crime rates in the hemisphere — dozens of people are killed on an average weekend in this metropolitan area — has now been pushed to the brink of civil conflict. Mr. Chávez shows no sign of leaving.

In some places the strike holds firm, particularly in the state-owned oil company, which pumps the black blood of Venezuela's economy and is a chief supplier to the United States. Thirty-thousand workers walked off the job soon after the strike started. The government has been unable to lure them back in significant numbers, causing oil shortages around the world.

Marches by flag-waving Chávez opponents, rolling through the city like red, blue and yellow tidal waves, continue almost every other day; the most vibrant display, some analysts say, of the politicization of a once comfortable middle class that considered politics a frivolous pursuit. In a nightly ritual called the "cacerolazo," or pot-banging, a cacophonous clatter echoes through the skyscrapers and condominium complexes across this valley city at 8 p.m. as opponents of Mr. Chávez — housewives and professionals, rich and working class — emerge from their homes and offices to blow whistles and bang on cooking pots.

In a local newspaper interview, the poet Rafael Arráiz Lucca described the atmosphere: "Venezuelans are living a collective hypnosis very close to hysteria."

Still, in the day-to-day life of the city, the strike comes more in fits and starts. Some private and public schools have not reopened. Others have opened with the help of neighborhood volunteers. Banks and supermarkets are open for limited hours. Subway and bus service continues as normal.

"This is not a strike that will be lifted," said Ibsen Martinez, a newspaper columnist. "This is a strike that will slowly languish."

The opposition's base of support among the Venezuelan middle class — especially the owners of small and medium-sized businesses — consider President Chávez a dictator in a democrat's clothes. They point to his control over the Congress and the justice system as signs of a grand plan to install a Cuba-style government. But their dwindling financial resources have them grappling over how much longer they can hold out.

Gonzalo García, owner of a Subway sandwich shop, has lost more than $30,000 since the strike began. He added that if the Chávez government survives the strike, he and his family would leave their homeland.

"I would love to recover my store and even open others," he said, but "I cannot let my children grow up in an atmosphere of violence."

Lawlessness is not limited to Caracas. Local news media reported that three people were shot and wounded today as looters ransacked the town of Guiria, 310 miles east of the capital. Looting also was reported in Ciudad Bolívar, 280 miles southeast of Caracas.

Supporters of President Chávez seem simply fed up. Behind the marches and cacerolazos, they see a plot orchestrated by a group of the wealthy elite who are determined to impose their will on a democratically elected president.

Nicolasa Veita, a nurse the Centro Médico de Caracas, said the privately owned hospital had closed all but its emergency services. Last Friday, supervisors notified the nursing staff that they would not be paid this month. But she and the 130 other nurses refused to walk off the job.

"The first right that all people have, no matter what their political views, is the right to life," she said. "The doctors are looking for an excuse to close the hospitals and blame it on the government. The nurses are not going to let that happen."

On Tuesday the political storm that has battered this country came crashing down on the Mater Salvatori girls' school. Two-thousand parents — almost all of them mothers — packed into the small assembly hall to vote on whether to break the strike by opening the sprawling, affluent campus for classes.

The meeting turned into a rally, with parents roused from their seats, chanting "Not one step back." By the end of the morning, there was no need to take a vote.

One daring father stood briefly against the furious female outpouring against Mr. Chávez to ask how long parents were willing to keep their children out of school, and how teachers planned to make up the classes that would be lost.

The assembly hall filled with hissing. Then another father spoke up.

"This is not about losing some classes, or even the whole semester if that is what is necessary," he said, his bespectacled face turning red with emotion. "This is about losing our country."

School meetings like that one have become flashpoints for the strike against Mr. Chávez. After a vote at a private elementary school in a neighborhood called California Norte, Elenitza Guevara, a lawyer and mother of two, left fed up. The parents, she said, were not interested in a real debate about closing the school, she said. People like her, who were opposed to closing, were shunned. "I told them, what kind of tolerance are we going to be able to teach our children if we cannot let everyone express their views?" she said, still riled from the meeting. "The truth is, there was no room for negotiation."

What made her even more angry, she said, was that the cost of the decision had been passed on to the parents. While school administrators encouraged parents not to reopen the school, they advised the parents that they would be expected to make this month's tuition payments.

"If some parents do not want to send their children to school, they should have that right," she said. "But why should they take away my right to send my child to school? Why should they take away my child's right to an education?"

U.S. to Join Mediation Group

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 (Agence France-Presse) — The United States said today that it would take part in a new group to assist regional mediation efforts to end the political crisis in Venezuela, whether President Hugo Chávez likes it or not.

"We would expect to be part of it and others would expect us to be part of it," said Richard Boucher, a State Department spokesman. After initial opposition, the United States now supports the creation of a "Friends of Venezuela" group to help mediation by the secretary general of the Organization of American States, César Gaviria.

Otto J. Reich, the United States special envoy to Latin America, discussed the plans on Tuesday with Mr. Gaviria in Quito, where they were attending the inauguration of the new Ecuadorean president, Lucio Gutierrez.

Earlier, Mr. Chávez, who also attended Mr. Gutierrez's inauguration, had signaled that he did not want Washington to take part in meetings to set up the group.

www.adn.com By GONZALO SOLANO, Associated Press

QUITO, Ecuador (January 15, 6:46 p.m. AST) - Several Latin American leaders agreed Wednesday to create a regional forum to seek solutions for a seven-week-old strike in Venezuela that has divided that nation and crippled its key oil industry.

The decision was warmly welcomed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who endorsed such a group two weeks ago.

"A group of friendly nations can help the world understand what is really happening in Venezuela and share ideas - like convincing the opposition of what a political opposition should do in keeping with the constitution and not through subversive acts," Chavez said.

Wednesday's meeting coincided with the inauguration of Ecuadorean President Lucio Gutierrez, which brought Latin American presidents together. It also augmented ongoing negotiations in Venezuela led by the Organization of American States.

"We are seeking a solution that is peaceful, constitutional, democratic and electoral," OAS Secretary General Cesar Gaviria said after the meeting.

Gaviria said the forum, informally known as the "Group of Friends of Venezuela," would include representatives from the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Spain and Portugal.

The U.S. State Department has voiced support for Gaviria's mission on an almost daily basis for weeks. U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher reaffirmed that support on Friday, but he also spoke of bringing Mexico into the "Group of Friends" to support the OAS efforts.

"We look forward to being a part of this group and to beginning its important work," U.S. State Department spokesman Lou Fintor said Wednesday.

Citing political and economic unrest, Venezuela's opposition launched a general strike Dec. 2 to demand that Chavez resign or call early elections if he loses a Feb. 2 nonbinding referendum on his rule.

Chavez, who was elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000, has said he will ignore the referendum.

Wednesday's meeting was attended by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Chilean President Ricardo Lagos, Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada.

Chavez, as well as Cuban President Fidel Castro and Ecuador's Gutierrez, who were in Quito, did not attend the meeting.

"It was prudent that Chavez was not present, because he cannot judge on his own behalf," Peru's Toledo told reporters after the meeting.

www.voanews.com James Donahower New York 16 Jan 2003, 01:39 UTC

Listen to James Donahower's report (RealAudio)   Donahower report - Download 274k (RealAudio)  

A team of business, labor and parliament representatives leading the opposition to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez came to New York to make its case for the president's ouster.

The message Mr. Chavez's opponents delivered here Wednesday is that the president has turned away from democratic principles, promoting policies that are destroying the nation's economy.

They told the private Americas Society the current oil strike, aimed at ousting Mr. Chavez, is causing economic upheaval and triggering violent protests in Caracas and elsewhere in the country.

Economic analysts predict, as a result of the strikes, the Venzuelan economy could contract by as much as 40 percent in the first quarter of this year.

Members of the opposition say the crisis will end only with new elections which, they say, would result in a Chavez defeat. Timiteo Zambrano, a member of Venezuela's National Assembly, says negotiations are under way to set up an election.

He says all aspects of the electoral process are currently under review, but the only aspect agreed on so far is the need for free and fair elections. A technically perfect election won't work, he says, if the parties involved do not trust each other.

Mr. Zambrano says he hopes the United Nations and the Organization of American States will oversee the elections.

Carlos Ortega, president of the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers, says Mr. Chavez's adamant opposition to new elections will only extend the strike and deepen the country's economic crisis.

Mr. Ortega says that if Chavez had the support of the people, he would be more than happy to enter into a referendum or an election, but he no longer has the support of the people.

Mr. Ortega says he hopes violent confrontation can be avoided.

President Chavez himself is scheduled to discuss the crisis with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan on Thursday.

abc.net.au Thursday, January  16, 2003. Posted: 13:11:18 (AEDT)

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has sought backing from fellow Latin American leaders to resolve a six-week-old opposition strike that has crippled his country's vital oil exports. Arriving in Ecuador's capital for the inauguration of President Lucio Gutierrez, the populist Venezuelan leader branded his opponents "fascists" and "terrorists" and said he was fighting the same campaign that Jesus Christ had. "The whole world is divided," the embattled leader told a reporter in Quito. "Why do you think that Christ came to the world 2,000 years ago to fight for the poor against the powerful? We are waging this battle." Mr Chavez said he would discuss Venezuela's conflict with the region's presidents later in the day. Venezuela's opposition strike, which began on December 2, has threatened to engulf the world's number five petroleum exporter in economic turmoil and pushed up global oil prices to two-year highs. Strikers, including rebel state oil firm managers, have vowed to keep up the stoppage until Mr Chavez quits. Venezuela usually supplies about one sixth of US oil imports. Latin American leaders, including the presidents of Brazil, Peru and Chile, plan a battery of sideline meetings on Venezuela after Mr Gutierrez is sworn in. They are expected to discuss an initiative to set up a so-called "friends of Venezuela" group of regional nations to help broker an end to the standoff. The diplomatic effort aims to complement so-far fruitless talks in Venezuela by the head of the Organisation of American States, former Colombian president Cesar Gaviria, who is also in Quito and will be attending some of the meetings. "The goal of the countries grouped as 'friends of Venezuela' is to find a calm, peaceful solution which would above all satisfy the people of Venezuela," Brazil's President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, said. Sympathy Mr Chavez can expect ideological sympathy from several of the presidents, including Lula - a former metalworker who is Brazil's first democratically elected leftist leader. Left-leaning Mr Gutierrez, the son of an Amazon riverboat salesman, has assured investors that he is far more financially and politically orthodox than Mr Chavez, whose foes accuse him of ruling like a dictator and of driving Venezuela into chaos. The Venezuelan opposition has cautiously accepted the "friendly nations" initiative as long as it supports the OAS negotiations. But it remains unclear which nations would be acceptable to both the Government and the Opposition. Nobel Peace Prize winner and former US president Jimmy Carter has arrived in Venezuela, where he plans to hold talks with both sides next week. Venezuela's opposition leaders, anticipating the Supreme Court will block their proposed non-binding February 2 referendum on whether Mr Chavez should quit, have started to examine alternatives in their campaign for elections. Venezuela's Supreme Court is still studying the legality of the referendum on whether Mr Chavez should step down. The Government has dismissed the poll plan as unconstitutional. Mr Chavez, who was elected in 1998 and survived a coup in April, has said he will ignore the referendum if it goes ahead. It was unclear when the court would hand down a ruling. While a consultative referendum could not force Mr Chavez from power, the Opposition hopes that a decisive rejection of his Government would strengthen their legitimacy. Mr Chavez, whose reforms aim to ease poverty, accuses his opponents of trying to illegal topple him by destroying the oil sector.