www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, February 16, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Confederation of Trade Union (CTV) general secretary Manuel Cova has come out in support of Venezuela’s mainstream print & broadcast media and says, “we are ready to negotiate alternatives presented by former US President Jimmy Carter.”

Cova is one of the official opposition negotiators at talks with the government. “The last time negotiators met, we let it be known that we ratify a constitutional amendment as a possible solution but are ready to discuss a recall referendum or an alternative proposal that could arise during negotiations.”

Although Cova did not explain why the opposition would now accept a referendum in August after organizing a national stoppage against the proposal, he did confirm that the opposition is prepared to agree to a unilateral declaration of non-violence, adding that it is up to the government to make a formal reply.

Cova admits differences regarding the role of print & broadcast media … “we agree that they should participate in a campaign to promote tolerance to lower levels of confrontation but I feel that government harassment of the media should be addressed.”

www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, February 16, 2003 By: Chile Veloz

Venezuelan radio personality Chile Veloz writes: I have always thought that I am not the ideal person to counsel others ... or to call others to reason ... or to conciliate ... although many people might believe otherwise. However, this time, and only this time, I am going to give advise ... I am going to call to reason, I am going to conciliate. =

What is happening is a mystery to no one, on the contrary, waves of anguish, rage, sadness and anger, of all those feelings human beings are capable of showing when things corner us, overtake us and crush us, in other words, when the rules of the game are changed without any explanations.

Let's go back. Our first error was not having permitted Carlos Andres Perez to complete his second period. This allowed for the puppet, Ramon Velasquez, to be designated for a brief period, to be able to call for elections ... the same elections that served as tribune for the ominous Rafael Caldera to be glorified with his discourse before the Congress, after David Morales Bello had asked for the heads of the 'golpistas' (coup plotters).

Do you remember? With his discourse, Caldera, practically saved Chavez from a sure death, physically and politically ... and more so ... to pay him back for the immense favor of having helped him reach his second mandate.  Caldera liberated Chavez and restored all of his rights, which in turn helped him to rise up as 'savior' of the country ...then (Chavez) asking for the retreat of the one who had been his political benefactor, in other words, to Caldera.

Isn't it true that this is more or less how things happened?

I continue. When Chavez calls for the next elections and wins them ... where were we, those who now disagree with him? I'll give you an example to show where we were. Imagine that you live in a building where there are 24 apartments. On the bulletin board of your building, you are called to a meeting of the members of the condominium, which will take place, for instance, on Tuesday at 8:00 p.m., and you (for whatever reason) do not show up…

A few days later, there's another announcement, calling for another meeting because other people, as you yourself, did not show up at the first meeting.

The next meeting is scheduled for Friday at 8:00 p.m., and you, as many others, do not come ... or just forgets ... or goes to the movies ... or just does not give any importance to it…

This is how, as per the condominium statutes, a third meeting is called for Sunday at the same time, and, according to the statutes, with whatever number of people attending (which could be three or four) it is agreed to paint your building in a bright green color with purple dots…

Then, you go out to work on Monday and when you come back home at night, you find that your dear building has been painted in a bright green color with purple dots…

Your indignation and rage has no way to stop it ... you go up to ring the door bell of the president of the condominium board and complain: "what the heck is this? Do you think this is the Gasca Brothers' Circus?"

Without even allowing the condominium president to respond, you insult him, and push him around and you threaten to sue him, ruin him, with whatever we always threaten … but you have not taken the time to think that you had three opportunities to vote to oppose, to advise, to call to reason, to conciliate, and did not use those opportunities as your combat weapon, YOU WERE SIMPLY NOT THERE TO VOTE…

This, my dear friend, this is Venezuela ... the same Venezuela that called us the tenants, the apartment owners, its citizens, to three condominium meetings ... and we did not go, we did not answer its call, we did not come to its rescue when it asked for help ... and now my dear friends, dear fellow Venezuelans, Venezuela, my Venezuela, your Venezuela, our Venezuela is painted in a bright green color with purple dots ... and now, what do we do?

At this point, nobody misses a condominium meeting (a.k.a. marches) and meeting after meeting we wonder when would it be possible to repaint our country in yellow, blue and red and decorate it with stars?  This is the dilemma, the grand question.

We could say that, if we were absent from the condominium meetings for over 40 years, well, as punishment we will have to wait another 40 years or more for everything to get back to what once was … but that is definitely a very pessimistic way of thinking. I believe that, in order to see things more optimistically, we must tell ourselves that we have learned our lesson and we have learned it in the hardest possible way: with the loss of human lives, wounded people, with a country economically and industrially ruptured, with a country agonizing of itself, with the lowest self-esteem in the world, with an embarrassment that faces us every single day when we see less and less cars on the streets, less consumer goods in the markets, less smiles on the faces, more tears in the lives and more hatred in the hearts. Of course, with this scenario there are actors who prefer the EXIT stage right (we already have more than enough of the left) and pack up their belongings and leave.

Certainly, that's a solution ... a very comfortable one ... but a solution nonetheless, but (the “buts” of always) not all of us -- who are majority -- can do that; therefore, we have to stay ... moreover I would say must stay, and why?

Not to be too much of an advisor, I will share with you the reasons which as Segeant Hunter used to say (remember the police series on TV?) “WORK FOR ME”: One reason could be; I stay because it is here where I have everything that I have: my house, my son, my family, my friends, my job, my things, my roots … and all of these might sound quite sentimental … but … to continue…

Another one could be; that if in an epoch we: greens, whites, reds, blues and all other colors of the spectrum were capable of living together, but not mixed up, with a certain level of peace, in a very sus generis harmony, very tropical, then I do not see why we could not go back to that … and this way, I could make a long list of reasons -- some more credible than others -- to explain to you why I do stay, but in the end, I believe that only one reason is valid:

I stay just because! I stay here because this is my country, my nation, my land ... and it will be that of my son and of his sons, and that is how it should be.  This is why I am not willing to leave it to those who do not deserve it, those who have made of her (here is the joke) a building painted in bright green color with purple dots…

Think that this is the only country that we have, and, if compared with others, we are a country; beautiful like no other, with richness like no other, with a territory to be developed like very few, with good people (because Yes, there are) with its own, unique and intimate, dearly and beautiful flavors, colors and scents.

If what I write here can help you think of whether to stay or to leave, then it was worth writing. Lastly, if your decision is to leave, please, I don't want to hear you complain, about anything, or anybody ... do not talk about Cuba because you are doing what Cubans did : they left their country alone. The resistance is here, now and forever. How long is it going to take? I do not know ... I wish I knew ... but whatever the length, it would make more pleasant the flavor of the triumph for those of us who were here when a condominium meeting was called.

I will finish here with one of those phrases that one would have liked to have thought of, but you see, in the world there are people who have lived situations like these and worse and are still capable of saying: “Victory is to those who believe in it the longest!"

Chile Veloz chveloz@927fmtotal.com

Note: If you know someone who has not attended the condominium meetings, copy this and give it to him/her, and tell them to remember that it is his/her fault if the building is painted in a bright green color with purple dots.  To never again fail to vote ... that this is not the time to complain, and that each time s/he is called again to vote ... to go and vote; that because by not voting, this is why we are now all painted bright green color with horrible purple dots.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, February 16, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

US Congressmen belonging to the so-called Boston Group have arrived to push for dialogue in Venezuela's National Assembly (AN).  Congressman Cass Ballenger, whose voice had been noticeably absent during the critical months leading up to the national stoppage, has given his blessing to the efforts of Organization of American States (OAS) general secretary Cesar Gaviria … “we support any imitative that allows dialogue and stops people from shouting at each other.”

Proyecto Venezuela (PV) Assemblyman Pedro Diaz and Movimiento Quinta Republica (MVR) Assemblyman Calixto Ortega agree to make the National Assembly (AN) a hub of democratic discussion and consensus.

• Both Assemblymen forecast early elections and have announced that members of the Boston Group are committed to promoting national reconciliation.

US Congress Venezuelan Caucus members, William Delahunt and Gregory Meeks say they hope to meet President Hugo Chavez Frias, even though a formal meeting is not part of the visitor’s agenda.

www.newsday.com February 16, 2003 Caracas With President Hugo Chávez strengthened and plans to oust him frustrated in the wake of a failed national strike, the Venezuelan opposition is splintered and groping for a new direction. "All they can show for it [the strike] is that they managed to hold together," said Peter Hakim of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue, a nonpartisan think tank. "But Chávez has gained in the polls, and the opposition doesn't have any new proposals." The political landscape looked dramatically different in December, when state oil company workers walked out, crippling an industry responsible for 70 percent of Venezuela's foreign revenue. Opposition leaders expected to force Chávez to resign or agree to early elections. They also hoped to undermine Chávez by defeating him in a nonbinding Feb. 2 referendum on his rule. But Chávez withstood the strike, and the supreme court annulled the referendum on a technicality, destroying the opposition's two best weapons. The nationwide strike petered out two weeks ago when most businesses and restaurants reopened. The petroleum company managers, who formed the strike's core, have not returned to work, but they may not have a choice - the government has fired about 12,000 of them. Many of those same people also participated in a strike last April that set the stage for the military coup that ousted Chávez for two days. The opposition is now groping for a way to turn its remaining strength - the people of Venezuela, the majority of whom say Chávez is corrupt, authoritarian and too left-leaning - into a change of government. But the opposition faces a re-energized Chávez. He has gloated over the strike's collapse, saying the opposition has an "F" for failure branded on its forehead and that his "Bolivarian revolution for the poor" will now accelerate. Chávez has also gone on the offensive, threatening to prosecute strikers and proposing limits to the media, which are overwhelmingly against him. Amid the economic devastation left by the strike, Chávez has announced price and exchange controls, which he is expected to use as retaliation. He has said he won't provide "a single dollar for coup-mongers." In a nation that exports petroleum and imports nearly everything else, paying for the purchases with dollars, the government has broad discretion to target opponents. A committee appointed by Chávez will determine who gets to exchange Venezuelan currency for dollars and who doesn't. For example, during the gasoline shortages caused by the strike, Chávez foes protested with "bicycle marches" through the capital. "We [bicycle] importers expect retaliation," said Pablo Herrera, owner of a small wholesale bicycle shop. "We expect we won't be given dollars because we're not bolivarians." The lack of dollars to replenish inventories is "totally strangling the economy," said José Pineda, chief economist for the Venezuelan American Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Small businesses and the middle class have been severely debilitated. Businesses that voluntarily closed in December, confident of Chávez's ouster, are no longer in a position to protest. And without the strike and referendum to rally around, the opposition - a mix of private citizens groups, unions, businesses and political parties - has lost its solidarity. A rift has emerged between the most extreme Chávez foes and moderates willing to negotiate with the government. "Anyone who doesn't support a military coup ... is called a government sellout," said Henry Ramos, head of the opposition Democratic Action party. Opposition groups are now debating two strategies proposed by former President Jimmy Carter: a constitutional amendment to shorten the six-year presidential term and a recall referendum in August, which the constitution allows after the term's halfway point. But Chávez still has ways of blocking those options. For example, the supreme court, which the opposition calls a Chávez tool, could push back the referendum by reinterpreting the starting point of his term, which ends in 2007. "I believe that Chávez will do all he can to avoid elections," said Luis Vicente León, director of the Caracas polling firm Datanalisis. "He has a lot of mechanisms for blocking elections." Leon said polls had shown "since late 2001 that, at a ratio of around 70-30, the electorate would vote against Chávez." Still, Chávez might win if the diverse opposition fielded many candidates. "The opposition is divided amongst any number of candidates, and none of them have Chávez's proven leadership," said parliament member Tarik William Saab of Chávez's Fifth Republic Movement Party. William Dávila, a member of the Democratic Action party's executive committee, acknowledged the opposition dilemma: "If this turns into a debate of ideas, there can never be union." But the key to the crisis' outcome could lie in its economic impact. The state petroleum company is still producing only about half the crude it did before the strike, and analysts predict the gross national product will drop more than 15 percent this year. Unemployment - 16 percent last year - is expected to rise. Most Venezuelan political analysts, who generally support the opposition, predict the discontented will direct their anger at Chávez. "I think eventually it turns against the government," said Jonathan Coles, president of a Caracas business management school. "People here tend to blame the government for anything."

www.zwire.com February 16, 2003

Wire Report Usually, the economy in Venezuela isn’t of much interest to most people around here. Except now, it’s taking money out of your pocket by contributing to higher prices at the pump. A general strike and lingering recession have taken a heavy toll on the Venezuelan economy, which shrank nearly 17 percent in the final quarter of last year, according to figures released by the central bank on Friday. The nation’s oil sector, which accounts for about a third of gross domestic product, contracted by nearly 26 percent in the fourth quarter as thousands of workers walked off their jobs while the government of President Hugo Chavez worked to restore production. Most of the contraction in the economy was due to reduced oil production, a combination of Venezuela’s adherence to lower production quotas established by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, followed by the general strike, which began Dec. 2. Venezuela is the world’s fifth-leading oil exporter and is a leading supplier to the United States. The reduced production was one factor in higher U.S. gasoline and heating oil prices this winter. The general strike ended Feb. 4 in all areas except the oil industry. Chavez’s opponents -- a mix of unions, business interests and conservative and leftist political parties -- called for the nationwide work stoppage to press for early elections. The government has restored oil output up to about half of pre-strike levels of 3.2 million barrels per day. Production fell as low as 200,000 barrels per day in December. Meanwhile, Central Bank director Domingo Maza said the government would lift a ban on dollar sales at the end of the month. The freeze was imposed during the strike to protect Venezuela’s foreign reserves, which were reduced by panic dollar buying.