usinfo.state.gov 15 January 2003 State Department Noon Briefing Transcript

QUESTION: President Chavez said today that he's not particularly interested in having the US be a part of the -- of any Friends of Venezuela group. So now you've got him saying that and the Venezuelan opposition saying they don't want Brazil to be in it. So what are your thoughts on this sticky wicket?

MR. BOUCHER: Well, as you know, the goal of this group is to - I am sorry?

QUESTION: Do you have any comment on the archaism --

MR. BOUCHER: I am not going to comment on the bombast -- or the sticky wicket, either. (Laughter).

The goal of putting together some kind of 'friends group' has been to support the Secretary General and his efforts to have people on the ground that can help him. The United States has been very active, both with the government and the opposition and, indeed, civil society in general in Venezuela, to try to encourage people to reach a settlement, to reach a political solution. We would expect to continue to do that and therefore do believe that we should continue to do that with any grouping that is formed. The issue of support for the Secretary General is one I think that members of the OAS and any other interested parties would consider and decide amongst themselves.

QUESTION: So it sounds to me that if you're saying that the United States would insist on being part of such a grouping?

MR. BOUCHER: I think we would expect to be part of it, and others would expect us to be part of it.

QUESTION: Right. Okay. And would you also expect Brazil to be a part of it.

MR. BOUCHER: Again, with that -- I do not want to start today what I did yesterday; not start naming specific countries to be members.

QUESTION: Except for your own?

MR. BOUCHER: I suppose everybody could -- who wants to be on it -- could say that they want to be on it if they wish, yes.

QUESTION: Yes, but you do realize you carry a great deal of weight, the United States does in these kinds of things.

MR. BOUCHER: Yes?

QUESTION: So one would think that if the United States --

MR. BOUCHER: We would expect to be there to carry our weight.

QUESTION: -- support of Brazil, that they would be in.

MR. BOUCHER: That is why I have not started naming any particular country or not naming any particular other country.

QUESTION: Okay.

MR. BOUCHER: Terri?

QUESTION: On the matter of clubs, can you tell us whether you made any progress on keeping Libya off the human rights -- from heading the Human Rights Commission? Anything new on it?

MR. BOUCHER: There is really nothing new on that today. There is a I think the matter gets voted on next week of January 20th, so we have had our embassies approach people and we have made clear our view that there needs to be a vote, that people should vote their conscience and we would say not vote for a chairmanship by country that is a human rights violator and that is under UN sanctions.

QUESTION: But you were not very optimistic that people were going to view it that way. Have you heard anything about.

MR. BOUCHER: I try not to gauge our chances. Just say it is something we are working on and we have asked our embassies to follow up. As we have said, we think it is important for each country to consider carefully how it might vote and whether it can, in good conscience, vote for a human rights violator and a country under UN sanctions to be chairman of the UN Human Rights Committee.

QUESTION: On Venezuela. Does the need for this group called the Friends of Venezuela, does that imply that the OAS has failed?

MR. BOUCHER: No. It implies that the OAS needs and deserves every possible support it can get from the countries of the hemisphere, all of whom are pledged to support democracy, all except one who are pledged to support democracy. The members of the OAS, I think, do want to do what they can. There was an OAS meeting specifically on the subject where all the nations expressed their strong support for Secretary General Gaviria's efforts and this is another way that we think we can put people on the ground and work with the Secretary General to really support him in every possible way.

QUESTION: Will you welcome European countries to be part of this group?

MR. BOUCHER: I am not naming any regions or countries at this point. We will see what emerges from the discussions that we are having with others.

MR. BOUCHER: Okay, thank you.

(The briefing was concluded at 1:45 p.m.)

(end transcript)

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: usinfo.state.gov)

asia.reuters.com Wed January 15, 2003 05:04 PM ET By Phil Stewart and Patrick Markey

QUITO/CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sought backing from fellow Latin American leaders on Wednesday 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."

Former paratrooper Chavez said he would discuss Venezuela's conflict with the region's presidents later Wednesday.

Venezuela's opposition strike, which began Dec. 2, has threatened to engulf the world's No. 5 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 Chavez quits.

U.S. oil futures on Wednesday settled up 84 cents at $33.21 as energy markets were rattled by Venezuela's strike and fears over a United States attack on Iraq. Venezuela usually supplies about one sixth of U.S. oil imports.

Venezuela's bolivar currency, battered by political and economic uncertainty, fell 6.1 percent on Wednesday against the dollar amid heavy demand for the U.S. greenback.

EYES ON LATIN AMERICAN LEFT

Latin American leaders including the presidents of Brazil, Peru and Chile planned a battery of sideline meetings on Venezuela after Gutierrez was sworn in.

They were 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 Organization 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," said Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

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 Gutierrez, the son of an Amazon river-boat salesman, has assured investors that he is far more financially and politically orthodox than 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 U.S. president Jimmy Carter arrived Wednesday 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 nonbinding Feb. 2 referendum on whether Chavez should quit, on Wednesday started to examine alternatives in their campaign for elections.

Venezuela's Supreme Court is still studying the legality of the referendum on whether Chavez should step down. The government has dismissed the poll plan as unconstitutional.

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 Chavez from power, the opposition hopes that a decisive rejection of his government would strengthen their legitimacy.

Chavez, whose reforms aim to ease poverty, accuses his opponents of trying to illegal topple him by destroying the oil sector.

www.jta.org By Julie Drucker Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 13 — These are sad days for the Jewish community in Venezuela as many begin to question whether this country, once so hospitable to Jewish life, can still be called home.

As the country faces nearly its sixth week of a devastating strike calling for early elections or the resignation of President Hugo Chávez, Venzuela’s economy, already set to shrink by 6 percent this year, has been hurled into utter chaos. Poverty levels are estimated at 80 percent— a tragedy for one of the wealthiest and most stable countries in Latin America.

The economic deterioration that began with the Latin America debt crisis of 1983 and has continued unabated is now coming to a head under the rule of Chávez. A former army officer and ex-coup leader, Chávez has initiated a self-styled “revolution” marked by fiery, anti-wealth rhetoric and little action. His close ties to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and leftist policies have deeply polarized the country, with twoentrenched camps on both sides of the strike — neither of which is showing any signs of backing down. After a month of paralysis, more people are armed, food and supplies are growing scarce, and oil production has ground to almost a halt. The nation is on the brink of chaos, and anything could happen.

Venezuela’s present predicament is particularly disappointing. Once viewed as a beacon of democracy in a region dominated by military dictatorships, Venezuela had enjoyed nearly a half-century of stability and economic growth — thanks largely to its great reserves of oil. The resulting opportunities drew substantial numbers of Jews to Venezuela. Although Jews began immigrating to Venezuela at the beginning of the 19th century, it was not until after World War II that most Jews arrived and formed a strong and vibrant community. The Jewish population received yet another boost after the Six-Day War in 1967, when a large influx of Sephardi Jews from Morocco arrived and settled mostly in the capital of Caracas.

At the peak of the boom years, the ’60s and ’70s, it was estimated that affiliated Jews numbered approximately 30,000, split evenly between Sephardim and Ashkenazim. Middle-to-upper-class professionals and business owners established associations, schools, synagogues and community centers. They developed deep ties to the country and a strong sense of patriotism. They acculturated and settled into a comfortable “live-and-let-live” rapport with the government — the government welcomed the community and the Jewish community kept a low profile.

A snapshot of the Jewish community at present shows a different picture. On the economic front, many Jews, just as the population at large, are slowly being squeezed out of the middle class. Once lucrative professions now barely pay enough to make ends meet. An experienced university professor, for example, now makes approximately $200-$300 a month. This forces professionals to become small entrepreneurs, or leave.

Dr. Marcko Glijenschi, founding member of the Confederation of Israeli-Venezuelan Associations, an umbrella organization that organizes the Ashkenazi and Sephardi communities in Venezuela, reports a notable increase in assistance recipients. An average caseload prior to Chávez was around 100 cases; it now is approximately 400. In addition, the requests are changing from items such as matzah and candles to staples, such as soap or toothpaste.

Another telling event is the recent closure of one of the campuses of the well-established day school in the old Jewish neighborhood of San Bernardino in Caracas. The 450-student school was under financial strain. Its capacity to provide aid to an increasing number of families requesting scholarships, or enrolling their children and not keeping up with payments, became impaired by the simultaneous reduction in donations.

All this may seem reminiscent of Argentina. But according to Venezuelan community leaders, the Jewish community’s present predicament is not the same. Argentina’s social structure was different, with a large Jewish

proletariat class. By contrast, Venezuela’s Jews are mostly middle to upper class. Argentina has seen a full quarter of its Jewish population slip into poverty, while in Venezuela, the Jewish community’s economic problems are, so far, small enough to be handled locally, within the community. Resources are strained, however, and time is running out. The red flags have been raised, prompting a visit from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee to instruct community leaders as to what to do if the situation deteriorates.

Although these events are alarming, the greatest current threat to the community is widespread emigration. Since the 1980s, Jews have been gradually emigrating due to worsening economic conditions. Under Chávez, the trend has become dramatic. Glijenschi comments that prior to Chávez’s election in 1998, the population of affiliated Jews numbered 20,000; now, it has shrunk to 14,000.

The custom of sending college-age children abroad — often to the United States — to get a university education and then return to settle in Caracas, is now turning into a slow emigration pattern. Children are no longer encouraged to return. In addition, many Venezuelans are physically leaving the country, but still keeping business ties.

Finally, young professionals facing an unpromising future are being forced to leave. Just recently, for example, 250 professional Jewish Venezuelans met in Miami to discuss prospects for immigration to the United States and a new life. Understandably, the mood has become bleak and pessimism prevails. Will the community survive?

Rabbi Pynchas Brener, head rabbi of La Unión Israelita, a large modern Orthodox temple that also runs a day school and community center for approximately 1,500 families, sees three potential scenarios, all linked to the outcome of the present conflict: If Chávez stays in office, and continues present policies, Jews will continue to emigrate at the rate of 2 percent to 3 percent a year, slowly but systematically shrinking the community; if Chávez succeeds in his Castro-style “Bolivarian Revolution” and implements extreme leftist policies, 50 percent of the community would leave rapidly; and, if Chávez loses the present conflict and resigns, the community would be invigorated by the return of 30 percent to 50 percent of the recent emigrants.

Ena Rotkopf, director of the Venezuelan Federation of Jewish Women,agreed: “If the situation changes, I have no doubt that those who emigrated will return because our community is very united, the country is beautiful, and the Jews who left have very deep ties. Our present leaders are all graduates of our day schools, they love their community, they love their country.”

Julie Drucker, a language and marketing consultant for the Latin market, grew up in Venezuela and lives in Los Angeles. She can be reached at JulieDrucker@yahoo.com.

usinfo.state.gov

Washington File 15 January 2003 White House Briefing Transcript

........... Q: Ari, on the Venezuelan crisis, is the President directly involved in the negotiations to form the so-called group Friends of Venezuela? And why is the United States opposed to the inclusion of Brazil in that group?

MR. FLEISCHER: This is being led by the Organization of American States and is being handled principally by, as you would expect, the diplomatic channels through the State Department. This is an issue which the administration continues to monitor and monitor closely, because of the delicacy of the situation involving Venezuela and our hopes that the difficulties and the violence there can be resolved through peaceful, democratic and constitutional means.

THE PRESS: Thank you.

(end transcript)

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: usinfo.state.gov)

www.forbes.com Reuters, 01.15.03, 1:35 PM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Venezuela's Central Bank bolivar reference rate closed down 6.1 percent on Wednesday against the U.S. dollar as the local currency fell sharply on the 45th day of an opposition strike against President Hugo Chavez.

The rate , the overall official average calculated at the end of the trading session, slipped to 1,718 bolivars to the dollar amid heavy nervous buying of the U.S. currency and despite intervention by the Central Bank.

The rate fell 3.2 percent against the dollar on Tuesday.

The strike by opponents of Chavez, who want him to resign and hold early elections, has severely disrupted oil production and shipments by the world's No. 5 petroleum exporter.