www.nytimes.com By JUAN FORERO

CARACAS, Venezuela — The story line is usually simple: poor girl meets rich man, falls in love and is in for madcap high jinks as parallel worlds collide. Or it is about a fiercely independent, successful woman who, following years of loneliness, finds love, loses love, then finds it again.

This is the world of Venezuelan soap operas — the sappy, drippy daily dramas that captivate millions by sticking to a proven formula. For more than 40 years, it has worked — soap operas are as much an symbol of Venezuela as oil and beauty queens. The telenovelas, as they are known, dominate nightly programming and rival their Mexican and Brazilian counterparts for their popularity overseas. Advertisement

However, with Venezuela in political tumult, coming off an economically devastating two-month antigovernment strike, the scriptwriters of such soaps as "My Fat Beauty" and "Intimate Underwear" are asking themselves whether they should not inject something new into the fables.

It is not that love is going by the wayside. "Every telenovela is a story of love," a prominent program director said emphatically.

But several leading scriptwriters are convinced that soaps need to reflect the reality of Venezuela, and that reality is a country roiled by protests and the daily rants of a pugnacious left-leaning president, Hugo Chávez, and his determined opponents. It is a society so polarized that government backers refer to the upper classes as the Squalid Ones, and the president's adversaries see his supporters as uncouth riff-raff.

Leonardo Padrón, a scriptwriter with the huge Venevisión television station, sees delicious possibilities. He plans to be the first to infuse a soap — his next one, "Sweet Thing" — with a bit of today's crumbling Venezuela.

"As a writer, I am absolutely seduced by the idea of making a chronicle about what is happening," said Mr. Padrón, who has made a string of successful soaps over 10 years.

"I'm going to tell a story of love, but in the context of what we are living," he said. "I am going to try to create a cocktail that will have a dose of escapism, a dose of humor, but also a dose of reality."

His work, though, does not promise to be easy in a world where television executives flinch at untested experiments. That is especially true now because Mr. Chávez, angry about antigovernment news programs, is proposing restrictions on the media.

So instead of Mr. Padrón's initial idea — a poor girl from a pro-Chávez barrio falls in love with a Squalid One — his tale will be largely metaphorical. The antagonist, he said, will be the president of a company who becomes intoxicated with power, a clear reference to Mr. Chávez.

"Perhaps by the 15th show, people will say, `That guy is just like Chávez,' but this will be without my saying that I am telling the story of the president," Mr. Padrón said with a wry smile.

Not everyone is convinced a new formula will work. Scripts must speak to the largely poor masses, many of them Chávez supporters who might reject telenovelas with a political bent. Indeed, scriptwriters say the big question they face as they embark on writing 150-hour stories is whether viewers really want more politics in a country where everything is infused with politics.

"The conventional telenovela where the story is about love — that is what the people want to see, romance," said Arquimedes Rivero, a Venevisión producer who has done as much as anyone to create the Venezuelan telenovela. "The people do not want discussion and conflict."

Still, as the two main telenovela studios here prepare to film a new string of soaps this year, scriptwriters and producers are discussing ways of carefully incorporating the everyday into scripts that will remain heavy on love and betrayal, intrigue and jealousy.

"It is inevitable," said José Simón Escalona, who overseas dramatic programming for Radio Caracas Television. "The telenovela looks to appeal to the masses, and to do that it has to explore the intimacies, how the people feel. We look to do telenovelas that talk to Venezuelans, that understand Venezuelans."

It's not that political or social commentary has never made it into soaps. "Along These Streets," a telenovela of the early 1990's written by Ibsen Martínez, used street-smart characters and compelling dialogue to tell stories about poverty, corruption and killings. The program was such a hit that it lasted years, while most telenovelas have eight-month spans.

Scriptwriters like Monica Montañés point to "Along These Streets" as a model for what a political soap could be — and as an expample of how ignoring political realities could lead to a telenovela's downfall.

Ms. Montañés said the telenovela she wrote last year, "La González," sank in the ratings because it avoided mentioning the short-lived coup against Mr. Chávez last April and the turmoil that followed. "It was stupid not to have the characters participating in protests and marches, and I think people resented it," Ms. Montañés said.

That is not to say that scriptwriters are planning hard-hitting real-life dramas about intrigue in the presidential palace.

Instead, there may be subtle references to the political stalemate that has paralyzed Venezuela or plots that incorporate such daily realities as the long gas lines in this oil-rich nation. Radio Caracas Television, in an experiment, is rerunning "Estefania," a 24-year-old telenovela that focused on the waning 1950's-era dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez — clearly drawing a parallel with the Chávez government.

Some scriptwriters said they would follow the old recipe, until Mr. Padrón or others succeed with telenovelas that deal with the political. Perla Farias, a scriptwriter who is sticking to the basics, said, "I do not have anything finished just now, but it is going to be about love, a very complex love story."

www.nzherald.co.nz 17.02.2003 5.05 pm

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela's embattled President Hugo Chavez is looking to further secure his grip on the private sector, threatening a military takeover of factories and new controls on the hobbled banking sector.

Tens of thousands of opposition Catholics marched in Caracas against the populist president, praying for peace and an end to his rule as firemen soaked them.

Chavez branded his foes fascists waging "economic and financial sabotage," and pledged to defend newly imposed currency and price controls which industry leaders say will drive them out of business.

"The revolutionary government (is) on the offensive," Chavez said.

"If anybody even thinks about closing their (food processing) factories ... we'll take them over. Nobody can threaten the people's food supplies," he said during the state-sponsored Sunday television program "Alo Presidente."

Chavez spooked Wall Street last month when he ordered troops to briefly take over a Coca-Cola affiliate's bottling plant, after accusing its owners of hoarding. His opponents seized on the episode as proof that Chavez's "peaceful revolution" was a mask for Cuban-style communism.

The former paratrooper, who narrowly survived a coup last year, is desperately trying to stem fallout from an oil strike meant to force him from power. The world's No. 5 oil exporter is gripped by its worst recession in at least two decades and the economy contracted nearly nine percent last year.

The economic turmoil and rising unemployment is underscored by violent street clashes between Chavez allies and enemies that have left seven dead and scores injured since December. After three months of fruitless negotiations, Chavez has refused to bend to opposition demands for early elections.

First elected in 1998, Chavez still has three more years left in his term, and jokes he'll stay in power until 2021.

Opposition marchers, many clad in their Sunday best, packed an enormous Caracas highway to pray before Venezuela's patron saint -- the virgin of Coromoto. A priest called for peace before a sea of Venezuelan flags, as a firetruck shot thousands of liters of water into the swelling crowd.

Chavez has already shuttered foreign exchange markets and forced retailers to sell everything from tomatoes to funeral services at government-set prices to shield his mostly poor supporters from spiralling inflation.

The currency controls have hurt the private sector, starving businesses of the much-needed U.S. greenback in a nation that imports more than 60 percent of its goods. The black market has bloomed, offering dollars at 25 percent below the government's official exchange rate.

As marchers gathered in Caracas, Chavez headed east to an oil field where he announced a proposal to introduce controls on commercial bank lending rates for the first time in seven years. He complained Venezuela's poor were not offered affordable credit.

"I want rates to be fixed. I want interest rates to be cut and I want the BCV (Venezuelan Central Bank) to fix interest rates," Chavez declared.

Commercial banks angered the president in December by slashing operating hours to support a damaging, but short-lived, general strike.

To revive the crippled petroleum sector, Chavez has fired more than 12,000 employees of the state oil firm PDVSA.

Still, the flow of oil from Venezuela to the United States, which had been about 13 percent of all U.S. oil imports, has slowed dramatically. The 11-week stoppage has further jolted world oil prices, already reeling from war worries in Iraq.

boston.com By Stephen Ixer, Associated Press, 2/16/2003 17:47

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) President Hugo Chavez said Sunday interest rates should be fixed to reverse Venezuela's deteriorating economic situation, just days after he imposed exchange controls and price controls for the same reason.

''I want interest rates to be lowered,'' Chavez said. ''I want the interest rates to be fixed ... and I call on the Central Bank of Venezuela to fix them.''

Chavez suggested a maximum rate of 30 percent for commercial banks' lending rates, compared with well over 40 percent at present. This would give small companies and farmers better access to credit, he said. The central bank's current lending rate is 37 percent.

Chavez, speaking on his weekly TV and radio program, also threatened to send troops to seize food-processing plants that have threatened to stop producing because of newly imposed price controls.

To slow rising prices, the government last week slapped price controls on more than 220 goods ranging from powdered milk to beef and rice. Some producers say their businesses will not be profitable if they sell at the new prices. Opposition leaders predict shortages of many goods.

''If they close the plants I'll take them away from them again,'' Chavez roared. ''Here and now I order the armed forces and the defense minister ... to start drawing up plans to seize the plants.''

Last month, troops raided two bottling plants that had closed in support of a national strike against Chavez, seizing drinks to distribute among the population. Chavez accused the companies a local bottler of Coca-Cola and Venezuela's largest food and drink producer, Empresas Polar of hoarding basic necessities.

The two-month strike was called by a coalition of labor unions, business chambers and opposition political parties to force Chavez into resigning or accepting a vote on his rule. On Feb. 3, the strike was lifted in all areas, except the oil industry, to protect businesses from bankruptcy.

Inflation topped 30 percent last year, fueled by a rapid devaluation of the bolivar currency. The bolivar lost another 25 percent in January, prompting the government to introduce exchange controls which peg the currency at 1598 per dollar.

Chavez has fired over 10,000 workers from the state oil monopoly, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., since the strike began, and used only government sympathizers to bring oil production up to around half of pre-strike levels.

Chavez said Sunday production had exceeded 2 million barrels a day; fired oil executives say the figure is around 1.3 million barrels.

Venezuela's Central Bank is, by law, an autonomous institution but has worked closely with Chavez's government in drawing up the recent price and exchange controls.

Chavez, a former paratrooper, 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.forbes.com Reuters, 02.16.03, 5:46 PM ET CARACAS, Venezuela, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Venezuela will provide $40 million daily from February for importers, foreign debt holders and tourists under its new strict currency control regime, Planning Minister Felipe Perez said in a statement. The Central Bank will complete the transactions when businesses needing U.S. currency have complied with requirements established by CADIVI, the government's new currency control board, Perez said in a message on a government Website. The minister said the amount of currency available in March would be evaluated when the government had more details about the flow of dollars and the recuperation and finances of state oil firm PDVSA, which has been ravaged by a two-month strike against President Hugo Chavez. Perez said demand during the last two quarters had been around $90 million a day. But the minister said demand for dollars had fallen as the country's production slipped and less imports entered the country. In early February, the Venezuelan government established a fixed exchange rate, tightened access to foreign currency and introduced price controls to offset the economic impact of the opposition strike that cut into vital oil exports. The government has said that the buying and selling of dollars will resume at the start of next week. Businesses have had no official access to U.S. currency since Jan. 22 when the government closed foreign exchange trading to shore up its reserves and the Bolivar currency. Venezuela's economy, battered by recession and the grueling strike, contracted nearly 9 percent during 2002. Economists and opposition leaders have warned that the currency controls will create a huge black market, hike inflation and create shortages of imported goods.

www.forbes.com Reuters, 02.16.03, 3:50 PM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday proposed setting commercial bank lending rates for the first time in nearly a decade, following the creation of currency and price controls earlier this month. Chavez said commercial bank lending rates should not exceed 30 percent. He also asked the Central Bank to slash interest rates to help Venezuela's poor, who he said were not offered affordable credit. "I would fix lending rates at a maximum of 30 percent," Chavez said during his state-sponsored Sunday television program "Alo Presidente." "I want rates to be fixed. I want interest rates to be cut and I want the BCV (Venezuelan Central Bank) to fix interest rates," he said. Commercial banks angered the populist president in December by slashing operating hours to support an opposition strike meant to force Chavez from power. The strike continues in Venezuela's vital oil industry, strangling an economy reeling from a 8.9 percent contraction last year. Any decision on fixing rates would have to come from the Central Bank, which is in theory independent but has supported Chavez' recent initiatives -- including currency and price controls strongly opposed by the private sector.