www.austin360.com By STEPHEN IXER Associated Press Writer

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP)--A strike that has almost paralyzed Venezuela's crucial oil industry is an act of ``terrorism'' that has cost the country $4 billion, the energy and mines minister said.

Strikers have tried to cause chaos and violence in our urban areas by impeding the supply of gasoline, diesel and domestic gas,'' Rafael Ramirez said in a televised address Monday. All these acts of terrorism have brought tremendous consequences for the nation.''

Once the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, Venezuela has had to pay $105 million to import more than 2 million barrels of gasoline since a general strike began Dec 2, Ramirez said. It's the first time Venezuela has imported gasoline in almost a century, he noted.

Venezuela's opposition parties and the largest labor union and business chamber called the general strike to pressure Chavez into calling early elections. The walkout is strongest in state oil monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., where 30,000 of 40,000 workers are off the job.

Oil provides half of government revenue and 80 percent of export earnings.

Venezuela's strike has contributed to an increase in U.S. gasoline prices by 5 cents per gallon in the past three weeks to an average $1.50 a gallon, according to the Lundberg Survey of 8,000 U.S. service stations.

Citing scarce gasoline imports from Venezuela, the U.S. Energy Department said American motorists could pay up to $1.54 per gallon of gasoline this spring even if war is averted in Iraq.

The market underestimated the tenacity of the Venezuelan strikers,'' said Phil Flynn, head of the energy trading desk at Alaron Trading Corp. on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. People are finally starting to wake up not just to the strike but also to Venezuela's importance as a U.S. supplier.''

Chavez has fought back by firing at least 1,000 white-collar workers at PDVSA.

Ramirez said daily oil production now surpasses 800,000 barrels. Striking oil executives fired by Chavez say output is just over 400,000 barrels a day. Before the strike, production was up to 3 million barrels a day.

Some strike leaders were considering asking small businesses _ who say they cannot sustain losses much longer--to resume work, together with medical workers and teachers, hoping to avoid a popular backlash.

But the strike will continue in the oil industry, said Enrique Naime, a leader of the opposition Democratic Coordinator movement.

Most private schools and some public schools have been closed since the strike started. Hospital workers supporting the strike are only attending emergencies. Many supermarkets have run out of milk and are running low on staples such as flour and drinking water. Many medicines no longer are available at pharmacies.

``At this moment, the doctors' strike could be counterproductive, just like the educational strike could be counterproductive,'' Naime said.

William Davila, another Democratic Coordinator leader, said the food industry also should be given the freedom to ensure basic supplies.

But Davila said any easing of the strike should depend on a forthcoming Supreme Court ruling on the legality of a nonbinding referendum on Chavez's rule. The National Elections Council scheduled the vote for Feb. 2 after accepting an opposition petition signed by 2 million people.

Chavez says the nonbinding vote would be unconstitutional. His presidency runs until January 2007, and Venezuela's constitution says a binding referendum may be held halfway into his six-year term, or August.

During Monday's round of negotiations, which are sponsored by the Organization of American States, the two sides discussed the possibility of amending the constitution to allow early presidential elections, said OAS Secretary-General Cesar Gaviria.

washingtontimes.com By Mike Ceaser THE WASHINGTON TIMES

     CARACAS, Venezuela — From the central Caracas offices of the Afro-Venezuelan cultural organization Grupo Madera, Carlos Cremer has two contrasting views.

     To the north rise the shiny glass-and-concrete skyscrapers from where much of Venezuela's government, including its $40 billion state-owned petroleum industry, is managed. To the south slouches a hillside shantytown where many dark-skinned residents lack title to the land their shacks occupy and water taps flow only on weekends.

     Somehow, while Venezuelan crude oil fuels economies on distant continents, its benefits don't extend a half-mile south to the hillside slum.

     "There's the reality," said Mr. Cremer, pointing to the shacks. "And that's the unreality," he added, gesturing to the towers.

     The drawn-out conflict between President Hugo Chavez and a coalition of business, union and middle-class elements determined to force him from power by shutting down the country's oil industry has focused attention on the two Venezuelas — one comprising about a third of the population that is middle-class or wealthy and generally light-skinned, and the other made up of the two-thirds, who are poor and darker-skinned.

     It was the frustration of the poor Venezuelan majority that swept Mr. Chavez and his "revolution for the poor" to a landslide victory in the 1998 presidential elections.

     Though racial labels are nearly meaningless in this nation, in which most people are of mixed African, Native American and European descent, Mr. Chavez's supporters tend to be mostly poorer and darker, while those trying to oust him are mainly descendents of European immigrants, many drawn by Venezuela's post-1930s oil boom.

     The country is the world's fifth-largest commercial supplier of oil, and the only Latin American member of the 11-nation Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

     Mr. Chavez has made ethnic references in recent speeches, referring to himself as "a black man" and noting that some participants in the opposition movement have European surnames or are foreign-born. In one speech to the nation, he evoked specters from the racist past of the United States.

     "This is similar to that terrifying organization which existed in the United States named the Ku Klux Klan," the president said of his foes — "those men who put on hoods and killed blacks and burned their houses and churches."

     But Venezuela's history does not parallel that of the United States. While slavery existed here until the mid-1800s, Venezuela does not have a legacy of state-mandated segregation. And Mr. Chavez, who is of mixed African, European and Native American descent, is not his country's first dark-skinned president.

     Venezuela's single dominant religion helped negate social barriers between the races, creating a different social history than in the United States, as a glance at the many shades of any Venezuelan crowd makes clear. Venezuelans speak with pride of their nation's racial mix, referring to their varied skin tones as "caffe con leche" — literally "coffee with milk."

     Caracas sociologist Mercedes Pulido points out that many of the nation's Supreme Court justices and other officials have been of mixed race. "It's all caffe con leche," she said — "sometimes with a little more coffee, sometimes with a little more milk."

     During Venezuela's long oil boom that began in the 1930s, waves of southern Europeans migrated to this country and often flourished as professionals or business owners, leapfrogging other groups that had lived here for centuries.

     Caracas political scientist Anibal Romero said Mr. Chavez seeks to foment racial tensions. The president "has said many times that he is the son of Indians and black people, trying to convey the message that those are the only legitimate Venezuelans," Mr. Romero said.

     That message has not struck a chord, he added.

     Still, Mr. Chavez, re-elected in 2000 on a mandate to help the poor, enjoys his strongest support among poorer and darker Venezuelans, despite economic turmoil that has hit the poor hardest. Part of the reason is Mr. Chavez's social programs for them. Another part is the attitudes of the virulent anti-Chavez opposition.

     Carlos Cremer's brother, Nelson, who manages the Grupo Madera center, points out that one of Mr. Chavez's ministers, a black man, has been referred to as "the monkey" by anti-Chavez media.

     And about two years ago, Nelson Cremer recalls, police shut down a Caracas nightclub for illegally refusing to admit blacks. Under previous governments, he added, the club's policy would have been "left as it was."

     Some of the faces in the news also reinforce the ethnic divide.

     In the ongoing face-off over Mr. Chavez's performance in office, several of the president's most ardent defenders are dark-skinned Venezuelans.

     One such is Freddy Bernal, mayor of part of Caracas, and another is Lina Ron, an activist for the homeless during previous administrations, who is now leader of the most radical of Mr. Chavez's popular-support organizations.

     Meanwhile, Mr. Chavez's most prominent business, union and political foes are all white, as were the military officers who ousted Mr. Chavez in a brief coup last April. It is this anti-Chavez coalition — urged on by the media — that has nearly shut down Venezuela's petroleum industry in a 7-week-old attempt to force Mr. Chavez to resign or accept yet another early election.

     In his weekly radio and television broadcast Jan. 12, Mr. Chavez dismissed his opponents as "fascists" manipulated by the media.

     Venezuela's main television stations are not broadcasting any commercials except opposition advertisements promoting the strike. Media owners say they have been pushed into this stance because Mr. Chavez incites his followers to attack reporters.

     Mr. Chavez threatened to revoke the broadcasting licenses of television and radio stations if they "continue with their irrational insistence on destabilizing the country by supporting this fascist subversion."

     The president's opponents blame him for the nation's depressed economy and accuse him of ruling in an authoritarian style.

     The petroleum strike has forced up world crude prices and left the United States, which ordinarily imports about 15 percent of its oil from Venezuela, scrambling to find other sources.

     But the activities of Mr. Bernal and Mr. Ron have been controversial. Both are accused by Chavez opponents of supporting and even arming the militant pro-government Bolivarian Circles, which are said to have carried out violent attacks on opposition targets.

     Carlos Correa, general coordinator of the human rights organization Provea, said that while some in the opposition have referred to black members of Mr. Chavez's government using racial slurs, Mr. Correa does not consider that a sign of a racist society.

     "They are an expression of [political] intolerance," he said, "a result of the political debate."

     Rosaura Zan, a black woman from a poor Caracas neighborhood, is a regular at a Caracas plaza where a group of dissident military officers puts on a nonstop protest demanding Mr. Chavez's resignation.

     Mrs. Zan said she wants the president out because of what she called his administration's corruption and unfulfilled promises to aid the poor.

     "Color has nothing to do with it," she said. "If [Mr. Chavez] had done things well, then I wouldn't have cared what color he was, either. But he's done things badly from the start."

washingtontimes.com By Tom Carter THE WASHINGTON TIMES

     Venezuela announced plans yesterday for President Hugo Chavez to travel to New York to meet with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan amid international efforts to end a crippling nationwide strike.

     Mr. Chavez's trip on Thursday coincides with U.S. efforts to bring international pressure on him to accept early elections.

     A 43-day-old strike has crippled Venezuela's economy, shut down its oil exports and caused U.S. gasoline prices to jump.

     On Friday, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the administration was looking for ways to support mediation efforts currently under way by Organization of American States Secretary-General Cesar Gaviria, including through the creation of a "Friends of Venezuela" group of interested countries.

     U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela Charles Shapiro said yesterday in Caracas that presidents from the region would discuss the crisis when they meet in Quito tomorrow for the swearing-in of new Ecuador President Lucio Gutierrez.

     "They will hold conversations and I think that we will reach some agreement on the group of friends. This is very important," Mr. Shapiro said.

     Meanwhile, there were new clashes yesterday between Chavez supporters and opponents.

     At his Jan. 1 inauguration, Brazilian populist President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva proposed a "group of friends" initiative, in which outside nations would help mediate an end to the strike.

     Mr. Chavez hailed the Brazilian proposal and the United States rejected it, fearing the group could be stacked with supporters of Mr. Chavez.

     The U.S.-supported group would continue to be directed by Mr. Gaviria, who has been working for months to end the stalemate.

     The United States is proposing a timetable for new elections and an end to the strike by opponents of Mr. Chavez.

     "We have been working with people in the region, talking with people for several weeks now. There is an effort to try to energize things," said a State Department official yesterday, on the condition of anonymity.

     The official said that the United States would be a part of a "Friends of Venezuela" group that might include Brazil, Mexico, Chile and maybe Spain as well as the United Nations.

     "The value of a friends group is that you can demonstrate to the government and to the opposition that we are neutral," the official said.

     The United States imports about 15 percent of its oil from Venezuela. Before the strike, which began Dec. 2, reduced Venezuelan oil exports to a trickle, the United States received 1.5 million barrels of Venezuelan crude a day.

     Now, with possible war on Iraq looming and prices at the pump rising, the United States is hoping to help broker a resolution.

     Venezuela has been in crisis since a short-lived military coup last spring. Because the United States at the time gave tacit backing to Chavez opponents, it had been reluctant to become involved.

      But that has changed.

     "Chavez got a real boost from his visit to Brasilia [in early January for Lula da Silva's inauguration] and came back thinking that if he just dug his heels in he would win," the State Department official said. "Both sides have been unwilling to move. There is a potential for deepening violence if the strike goes on."

     •This story is based in part on wire service reports.

washingtontimes.com By Patrick Moser AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

     CARACAS, Venezuela — Divided by a crippling strike, this country is engaged in an uncivil war of words between supporters of President Hugo Chavez and those who want to force him from office, creating a protest-specific vocabulary. Top Stories • Bush hints at new aid for North Korea • Malvo linked to four sniper attacks • Democrats hang on to gavels • Democrats lack unity on tax-cut alternative • Mugabe denies plan to retire early, leave Zimbabwe • SUV risks drive up cost of insurance for owners • Snyder squeeze

     The following are some of the expressions that have been heard regularly since the strike began Dec. 2:      •Chavistas: Supporters of Mr. Chavez      •Squalid: Term used to describe opponents of Mr. Chavez, who once called his foes "a squalid minority." Opposition T-shirts proudly state: "Squalid for Venezuela."      •Talibans: Used by either side to describe hard-liners in the opposite camp.      •Dictator, murderer, terrorist: This is how strike leader Carlos Ortega describes the president.      •Putschists, fascists, oligarchs: Mr. Chavez's description of Mr. Ortega and other strike leaders.      •Bolivarian: A term Mr. Chavez uses frequently and adds to the formal name of the country. It refers to the intellectual legacy of Simon Bolivar, the 19th-century South American liberator from Spain, whom Mr. Chavez claims as his inspiration.      •Circles of terror: The opposition's term for Chavista groups called "Bolivarian Circles."      •National democratic cacerolazo: The opposition's description of daily pot- (or "cacerol"-)banging protests.      •National active strike: The work stoppage as described by the opposition.      •Discovery Chavez: Opposition nickname for state television.      •Coupvision: Chavista nickname for private, anti-Chavez TV.      •Democratic kit: Whistle, national flag, sneakers, jeans, shirt in the national colors and a bottle of water — essential gear for anti-Chavez demonstrations.      •"He's going, he's going.": Opposition slogan.      •"He's going he's going to stay.": Chavista slogan.      •"Chavez is driving them mad.": Chavista song and slogan.      •"The madman has little time left.": Opposition slogan.      •Scab: Opposition term for Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva after he sent a boatload of fuel to Venezuela.      •Liars: Term used by media on both sides to describe each other. Also shouted at foreign reporters during opposition marches.      •"Free the bear": Refers to the bear that adorns bottles of Polar, the local beer that is unavailable as a result of the strike.

www.timesdaily.com By FABIOLA SANCHEZ Associated Press Writer January 14. 2003 11:46PM

Soldiers loyal to President Hugo Chavez seized submachine guns and shotguns from Caracas' police department Tuesday in what the opposition mayor called a bid to undermine him.

Federal interference in the capital's police department is one reason Venezuela's opposition has staged a strike - now in its 44th day - demanding early elections. Tuesday's raids stoked already heated tensions in this polarized nation.

Greater Caracas Mayor Alfredo Pena said the weapons seizure stripped police of their ability to control street protests that have erupted almost daily since the strike began Dec. 2. Five people have died in strike-related demonstrations.

A smaller district police force used tear gas Tuesday to separate pro- and anti-Chavez protesters. Officials said two protesters were injured.

Strike leader Manuel Cova said opponents would "strengthen the struggle to topple" Chavez in response to the raids.

"This demonstrates the antidemocratic and authoritarian way in which this government acts," said Cova, leader of the Venezuelan Workers Confederation, the country's largest labor union.

Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel vowed there would be no early elections until a possible referendum in August, halfway into Chavez's six-year term. Opponents insist Venezuela is too unstable to wait that long.

"Chavez opponents must get it out of their heads that the way out is ... for Chavez to go," Rangel told foreign reporters. "That proposal is profoundly undemocratic."

Rangel said the weapons seizure was part of an effort to make police answer for alleged abuses against Chavez demonstrators. The government accuses police of killing two Chavez supporters during a melee two weeks ago that involved Chavez followers, opponents and security forces.

"The metropolitan police cannot be above the law, above the executive, above citizens," Rangel told foreign reporters. "We are trying to make them answer to the law. That's why we seized their equipment and weapons."

Troops searched several police stations at dawn, confiscating submachine guns and 12-gauge shotguns used to fire rubber bullets and tear gas, said Cmdr. Freddy Torres, the department's legal consultant. Officers were allowed to keep their standard-issue .38-caliber pistols. It was not clear how long the seizure would last.

Chavez ordered troops to take control of the force in November, but the Supreme Court ordered it restored to Pena last month. Chavez is trying to break a strike that has paralyzed Venezuela's crucial oil industry and cost the government an estimated $4 billion. He has warned he might send troops to seize food production plants that are participating in the strike.

Called to press Chavez into accepting a nonbinding referendum on his rule, the strike has depleted many Caracas supermarkets of basics like milk, flour and bottled water. People spend hours in lines at service stations and at banks open only three hours a day. Many medicines are no longer are available in pharmacies.

Rangel said the strike was weak outside of Caracas - one reason the government has been able to survive. "Is there a country on Earth that can withstand a strike for 44 days? I don't think so," the vice president said.

With hopes of helping resolve the dispute, former President Jimmy Carter plans to visit Caracas on Jan. 20 to observe the crisis, the Atlanta-based Carter Center announced.

Carter, who just won the Nobel Peace Prize, will consult with Cesar Gaviria, secretary general of the Organization of American States, who has been mediating talks between the two sides, the center said.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he plans to meet Chavez Thursday when he comes to the United Nations to hand over the chairmanship of the Group of 77, an organization of mainly developing nations. Annan said he will discuss with Chavez "how one can intensify the mediation efforts ... to calm the situation and return it to normalcy."

"He knows that I believe that one should use constitutional democratic means to resolve this issue and that is my message not only to him but to the opposition," the secretary-general said. Venezuela's oil industry provides half of government revenue and 80 percent of export revenue. With the strike, about 30,000 of 40,000 workers in the state oil monopoly, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., are off the job.

Venezuela was the world's fifth-largest oil exporter and a key supplier to the United States, and the U.S. Energy Department has said the crisis could cause American motorists to pay up to $1.54 per gallon of gasoline by spring.

Rangel said oil production will reach 1.5 million barrels a day next week - about half pre-strike output. Currently, production is 800,000 barrels a day according the government, 400,000 according to striking executives fired by Chavez.

The president has vowed to restructure the oil monopoly and reduce bureaucracy at its Caracas headquarters, a hotbed of dissent.

Mayor Pena said Tuesday's police raids would force officers to stop patrolling many dangerous neighborhoods. Venezuela's crime rate rose 44 percent last year, the government says, partly because of a sharp rise in robberies.

"There is an escalation here leading to a dictatorship," Pena said. "The lives of the 5 million citizens who inhabit this city are in danger."

Also Tuesday, seven people died and four were burned when improperly stored gasoline exploded in western Venezuela on Tuesday. Officials said they didn't know what caused three containers of gas to explode.

Fuel shortages caused by the strike have prompted many Venezuelans to stockpile gasoline using containers unfit for such purposes. Warnings by state authorities against inappropriate storage and transportation of gasoline have been largely ignored by the population.