www.news-journal.com By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER Associated Press Writer

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP)--The bodies of three soldiers who had called for ``civic disobedience'' against President Hugo Chavez's government have been found with their hands tied and faces wrapped with tape, forensic police said Tuesday.

No arrests had been made and authorities were still trying to determine a motive behind the killings of the three soldiers, Erwin Arguello, Angel Salas and Felix Pinto.

The bodies were found in Guarenas, 18 miles from Caracas, said Cesar Hernandez, chief of forensics homicide division.

Hernandez said investigators have information linking the three soldiers to a group of over 100 dissident officers who seized a Caracas plaza on Oct. 23 and declared it ``liberated territory,'' Hernandez said.

``We know they visited the plaza. We also know they were missing since Thursday. We presume they were slain the same day in different locations,'' said Hernandez.

Dissident officers supported a nationwide strike called Dec. 2 to demand Chavez's resignation or early elections. But its leaders _ business groups, labor unions and leftist and conservative politicians--agreed to end the protest Feb. 3 in all areas but the crucial oil industry.

Some of the dissident officers participated in a mid-April coup last year that briefly ousted Chavez. Loyalists in the military returned Chavez to power two days after the uprising.

Chavez, a former paratrooper, accuses dissidents of attempting to provoke widespread lawlessness in an effort to spur another rebellion against his government.

Over 300 dissident officers were discharged, suspended from their posts or transferred to rural garrisons after the April coup.

Chavez was first elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000. He promised to wipe out the corruption of previous governments and redistribute the country's vast oil wealth to the poor majority.

His critics charge he has mismanaged the economy, tried to grab authoritarian powers and split the country along class lines with his fiery rhetoric.

www.csmonitor.com from the February 19, 2003 edition

By David Buchbinder | Special to The Christian Science Monitor CARACAS, VENEZUELA – With most of Venezuela back at work, President Hugo Chávez has emerged from a devastating 2-1/2-month strike with control of a key asset - the petroleum industry.

Mr. Chávez's opposition had taken control of the state-run oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), on Dec. 2 and slowed production to a trickle. But Chávez consolidated power by firing as many as 12,000 of the company's 38,000 workers and calling in retirees as replacements. Reporters on the Job The Monitor gives the story behind the story.

Related stories: 01/30/03 Chavez steers Venezuelan descent

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The company has raised production faster than many industry analysts had expected - up to 1.9 million barrels a day, according to the government. Ali Rodriguez, PDVSA's president, says that he expects production to rise to "near normal" levels by mid-March. Venezuela produced 2.8 million barrels a day before the strike.

But some analysts say it could be months, if not years, before Venezuela returns to the ranks of the world's oil elite. For a country that relies on oil revenue for 80 percent of government funds, this could be a blow to funding of social programs and even lead to oil-industry privatization.

"At the end of the day, PDVSA will not get back to where it was any time this year," says Larry Goldstein, President of the International Petroleum Research Foundation in New York.

Getting pumps and refineries going again is not as simple as throwing a switch. The oil behemoth's skeletal staff has to tussle with complex engineering tasks, from gauging oil flow in dormant pipes to reconfiguring computer systems to replacing a catalytic cracker module on a stalled refinery. Half of Venezuela's petroleum comes from particularly viscous oil deposits, and many wells became filled with sand after the oil pressure was cut.

"Some fields you should never shut down, and they were shut down," says Ramon Espinasa, a consultant at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington and a former PDVSA economist. "A large number [of wells] will have to be redrilled."

Mr. Goldstein says that some wells will have to be abandoned altogether. He estimates that 400,000 barrels per day have been permanently lost.

A crowded slate of technical challenges falls to a PDVSA workforce that is practically headless, as most of the firings occurred in the ranks of senior managers, scientists, and economists. PDVSA is severely short-staffed, and workers who have been brought out of retirement are scrambling to learn new computer systems.

Reaching prestrike production levels will call for further exploration, and that requires cash - yet another problem. PDVSA announced it will tighten its belt by $2.7 billion this year, nearly one-third of its budget.

"To run this corporation they need capital and labor, and they have neither," says Mr. Espinasa.

With a battered credit rating making borrowing expensive, to raise money PDVSA may have to sell assets in Germany, Sweden, and the Caribbean, as well as portions of company-owned Citgo, which operates 13,400 gas stations in the US.

Some analysts say that, eventually, Chávez will have to have to increase privatization, turning to large multinational oil companies already operating in Venezuela. To lure foreign investors, a law which dictates that Venezuela maintain at least a 51 percent stake in all joint ventures may have to be revised.

"The international oil companies are all here," says one Caracas-based analyst. "They're not vultures, but we can say that they're waiting on the wire fence to pick up the pieces."

The political struggle for control of PDVSA shows no signs of abating. Some strikers are refusing to return to work until Chávez agrees to early elections. Opponents accuse him of trying to turn the country into a Cuba-like socialist state and decimating the economy, which may contract by as much as 25 percent this year.

In the meantime, PDVSA is being split into two units, one for eastern Venezuela and one for western Venezuela, in order to avoid Caracas, where antigovernment sentiment runs high.

Antonio Herrera, general manager of the US-Venezuela Chamber of Commerce, is confident that the US will find other sources of oil to make up for Venezuela's shortfall. But he suspects that the worst is yet to come for the Venezuelans. "We're really heading for a calamity in the economy," he says. "The oil industry is decimated. It's a major annoyance for the United States.... It's a tragedy for Venezuela."

www.vheadline.com Posted: Tuesday, February 18, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

President Chavez Frias has fulfilled another dream. The remains of Army General and President Cipriano Castro (1899-1902, 1902-1904, 1904-1908) are now in the National Pantheon, along with those of another of his heroes, General Guzman Blanco, whose remains he brought over from France.

Liberal Party opposition at the time had christened Castro “El Cabito” based on the satirical nickname of “Petit Caporal” that the French had bestowed on Luis Philip Napoleon’s attempt to emulate his famous uncle.

General Castro’s claim to fame lies in his victorious military campaign to take power, his humiliation of powerful “factor” bankers by marching them through Caracas, his oratory against the blockade of British and German frigates off Puerto Cabello and la Guaira, and the fight against provincial warlords.

In a cutting editorial, El Nacional makes comparisons between Castro and Chavez Frias, the first being their tongue and capacity to create enemies.

El Nacional says the irony is that the blockade, which started in December 2002 and ended on February 14 1903 ... 67 days to be exact, was by outside forces, whereas in 2003 the blockade was inside Venezuela itself.

The mainstream broadsheet admits that Venezuela’s debts had been contracted before Castro came to power (like Chavez Frias) but what Castro did was to shut out the Europeans and let the USA into Venezuela … for ever.

Incredible as it seems, Castro appointed US Ambassador to Caracas, Herbert Brown as Venezuela’s mediator or plenipotentiary to secure Theodore Roosevelt’s help in lifting the blockade, which the latter gleefully accepted confirming the Monroe Doctrine. Why should El Nacional be against that?

“El Cabito was polemic from day one in power … practically the whole country revolted against him and he was saved by internal conflict among the warlords.” The same has happened to Chavez Frias and the Coordinadora Democratica (CD), according to the editorial.

Defeated banker, Manuel Antonio Matos and his attempt to raise an army against Castro with foreign backing ended Venezuela’s last civil war.

Not so, say some historians. The last civil war was in the 1960s-70s, which El Nacional, the opposition and Chavez Frias conveniently ignore.

The newspaper also fails to point out that both personalities could be judged as bridges. Castro sealed Venezuela’s transformation out of the feudal age into the modern age, while Chavez Frias’ role as a bridge has still to be defined … he could be seen in the future as setting the stage to bring Venezuela into the global economy as a competitive force.

The return of Castro’s remains to the Capitolio must be seen as justice to someone, who was important to Venezuelan history. Ironically, it was Carlos Andres Perez, who brought his “paisano,” Castro’s remains from Puerto Rico to a mausoleum in Capacho (Tachira) in 1975.

• It completes part of Venezuela’s domestic jigsaw puzzle.

The more complex part of the jigsaw puzzle is trickier 1960s-70s civil war. It is tricky because the guerrilla war was against the very Venezuelan army that Chavez Frias believes is the vanguard of a truly Venezuelan Revolution.

It will take more than the Pantheon to solve that painful era in Venezuela’s history ... reconciliation is impossible without tackling and dealing with that traumatic period of Venezuela’s history.

news.ft.com By Andy Webb-Vidal in Caracas Published: February 18 2003 19:28 | Last Updated: February 18 2003 19:28

Venezuelan government and opposition representatives on Tuesday signed a pact condemning political violence - the first breakthrough in three months of internationally backed talks aimed at finding an electoral solution to the country's political deadlock.

The agreement, brokered by César Gaviria, secretary-general of the Organisation of American States (OAS), should ease tensions between the government of President Hugo Chávez and the alliance of opposition interest groups ranged against him, analysts said.

Venezuela has been marked by rising levels of street violence, including several deaths in recent months, as timid efforts at dialogue collapsed between Mr Chávez and his foes in the wake of last April's coup attempt prompting the involvement of the OAS.

Opponents say Mr Chávez, although democratically elected four years ago, is bent on abolishing democracy in favour of an autocratic leftist government modelled on that of Cuba's Fidel Castro.

In turn, the populist Mr Chávez, who led a failed military coup in 1992, brands the opponents of his self-styled "Bolivarian revolution" as "coup-plotters".

Among his opponents are more than 12,000 workers who have been fired from Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the state oil company, following an ongoing strike that began in December and has slashed output in what was the world's fifth-largest oil producer with crippling results for the economy.

Analysts said the non-violence agreement suggested some kind of election could be in the offing in the months ahead. "The pact demonstrates that it is possible to reach agreements, and if that is possible, then anything is," said Alfredo Keller, a political consultant.

"However, the impression I have is that Chávez is not interested in an election in which he participates. He is not going to permit that the only visible head of the 'revolution' runs the risk of an electoral defeat," said Mr Keller.

Mr Chávez has in the past two weeks stepped up measures apparently aimed at shoring up his base support among the poor, a move designed to prepare for polls in which regional governors and mayors participate.

But, within the opposition camp, hopes of an early ballot, this year are being pinned on a presidential election with conspicuous signs that Manuel Cova, secretary-general of the Venezuelan Workers Confederation, is being groomed by some groups as a potential single candidate.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Tuesday, February 18, 2003 By: Gustavo Coronel

VHeadline.com commentarist Gustavo Coronel writes: Dark ages can come to a society at any time. They came to Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire and lasted several centuries. It was a time of economic and political disarray, in which life became bleak and miserable. The continent was invaded by barbarians: Huns, Goths and Vandals. Normal social life largely disappeared. Families depended on neighbors more than in a government. Money was replaced by barter.

In Venezuela we are entering our "mini" Dark Ages. Only in 1975, Venezuela still had one of the largest per capita GNP's of all middle to upper income countries in the rankings of the United Nations. The population in poverty was 5%, yes, you read right... The projections of poverty for year 2000 were no bigger than 3%. ("The Economics of Developing Countries", E.W. Nafzinger, 1984). Today the state of poverty includes almost 80% of the Venezuelan population.  Some has gone very wrong in the last 20 years, especially in the last 4 years.

Today our credit cards are no longer valid for most transactions. Venezuelan-issued credit cards will not be valid abroad beyond $1,000. Food market shelves are half empty. Basic products such as milk, margarines, ice creams, cheeses, breads, are getting difficult to obtain.

Although exchange controls were announced almost a month ago, in open violation of a ruling by the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, the regime still has not put the mechanisms in place. As a result Venezuela has lived almost a month without legal foreign exchange. A black market has appeared in which the dollar sells for about Bs. 2,400, already 50% in excess of the official rate.

In parallel, the regime has established price controls for about 100 products such as rice, flour, cooking oils, milk, chicken, disposable diapers and the like. Producers are claiming that many of these prices are set below production costs and that no one can be obliged to sell below costs. The President has challenged them to close their plants so he can militarize them. Rationing is in the near future, as a consequence of this new conflict.

Gasoline imports are still insufficient to satisfy the local demand, although the arrival of two or three tankers at any given time has the effect of easing temporarily the long lines of cars waiting outside the gasoline stations.

The Venezuelan refineries are not yet in operation, in spite of the efforts made by the mercenary group of technicians brought in by the regime. Most available gasoline is being sent to "friendly" States while the "enemy" States such as Zulia, Carabobo and Anzoategui are not getting much.

Neighbors are closing ranks and sharing what they have. Car pools, bicycling and plain walking are now common. Suddenly we are all poor, some because they have no money, some because they have money but nothing to buy. Bartering is increasingly taking place.

As the economy collapses around us the President has gone into a frantic campaign on national TV.  Compulsory "hook ups" are now daily affairs, in which the President will talk about anything, including the attempts made by voodoo witches to "do a job on him."  The President firmly believes in witchcraft and has developed a personal religion which is a mixture of Catholicism, voodoo and Marxism.  In these daily shows he tries to provoke the opposition into violent action, since he feels that this is what he needs to justify an open dictatorship. Frankly, some of the things he is doing more than justify a violent outburst. He has brought to the National Pantheon, to rest with our heroes, the remains of Cipriano Castro, a mediocre Venezuelan dictator during the period 1899-1908. This is an insult to all Venezuelans as this man ... called "The Lewd Monkey" by his contemporaries ... spent most of his time drinking, dancing and engaged in sexual orgies. When his kidneys gave out he left to Europe to be operated and was never allowed to return by his "compadre" J. V. Gomez.

• Another act of provocation is the current attempt at passing a Law to regulate the freedom of expression. The Law itself is an insult to the intelligence and, if passed, will mean the death of free press in the country, at least while Chavez is in power.

Watching and listening to Chavez nowadays leaves very little doubt in our minds that the man is mentally deranged.  All pretenses at being a Statesman are gone, governing is no longer an objective. His words and body language are full of hate and desires for the destruction of his "enemies".

Europe endured an Attila and a Gunseric. We have our Chavez and our Rangel.  The former have already long disappeared into the dustbin of history ... in a few more months the rest will follow.

Gustavo Coronel is the founder and president of Agrupacion Pro Calidad de Vida (The Pro-Quality of Life Alliance), a Caracas-based organization devoted to fighting corruption and the promotion of civic education in Latin America, primarily Venezuela. A member of the first board of directors (1975-1979) of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), following nationalization of Venezuela's oil industry, Coronel has worked in the oil industry for 28 years in the United States, Holland, Indonesia, Algiers and in Venezuela. He is a Distinguished alumnus of the University of Tulsa (USA) where he was a Trustee from 1987 to 1999. Coronel led the Hydrocarbons Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in Washington DC for 5 years. The author of three books and many articles on Venezuela ("Curbing Corruption in Venezuela." Journal of Democracy, Vol. 7, No. 3, July, 1996, pp. 157-163), he is a fellow of Harvard University and a member of the Harvard faculty from 1981 to 1983.  In 1998, he was presidential election campaign manager for Henrique Salas Romer and now lives in retirement on the Caribbean island of Margarita where he runs a leading Hotel-Resort.  You may contact Gustavo Coronel at email ppcvicep@telcel.net.ve