www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, February 02, 2003 - 10:42:59 AM By: Roy S. Carson

Violently anti-government Globovision Channel 33 TV News, caught napping Saturday in a report that (thanks to an obvious typo) extended the opposition sabotage until Monday, December 3, has hastily removed the troublesome web page at: www.globovision.com and replaced it with an admonishment that a supposed story headlined "Venevision dealing with Chavez" was not edited or published on their site:

Queremos aclarar a toda nuestra audiencia televisiva y de internet, que la información que lleva por titulo "Venevision negocia con Chavez" no fue publicada en nuestra pagina ni ha sido redactada por el personal que labora en www.globovision.com.

But, Globovision is painfully aware that the original story on that page had nothing to do with Venevision or any supposed deal with President Chavez Frias.  The headline (and we have secured a copy) dealt exclusively with the opposition stoppage and claimed that operations, depending on the necessities of each sector, would continue with restricted hours until the next Monday, December 3:

El paro pasa a la fase de "horario restringido"

La Coordinadora Democratica sugiere a los sectores privados que se mantienen en el paro civico nacional desde el pasado dos de diciembre la aplicacion de un horario restringido de operaciones, dependiendo de las necesidades de cada sector, a partir del proximo lunes 3 de diciembre.

Alejandro Armas, representante de la CD en la Mesa de Negociacion senalo que esta nueva fase de la paralizacion tiene que estar "articulada" a la consigna de protesta publica y a "la actitud de rebelde ciudadana".

Armas, aunque prefiere no hablar de la "flexibilizacion el paro", dice que la medida obedece a un "gesto de buena voluntad" y tambien un reconocimiento a la presencia del Grupo de Amigos en Venezuela, a fin de crear un espacio de "distension" para acercar la posibilidad de un acuerdo.

Globovision/EFR 31/01/2003

The original webpage -- observe the directory hierarchy! -- www.globovision.com has now been replaced with the rather lame excuse of a supposedly emailed story relating to Venevision and President Chavez.

The obvious question remains ... can/will Globovision TV face up to the truth and admit they made a silly little faux-pas typo

... or will they continue to insist on broadcasting convenient lies?

Editor's note: shortly after we originally uploaded this story to VHeadline.com, Globovision suddenly reversed their cover-up and restored the original page, complete with faux-pas.  For how long guys? Isn't it about time you made your mind up if the stoppage continues until next December 3 or already tomorrow: February 3?

www.wilmingtonstar.com

CARACAS, VENEZUELA - Opponents of President Hugo Chavez began focusing on a petition drive to cut his term in power Saturday, after agreeing to ease a two-month strike that has crippled Venezuela’s economy.

Opposition leaders plan to hold what they call the "Great Sign-up" today, inviting citizens to sign various initiatives rejecting Mr. Chavez’s government and seeking his ouster.

The opposition hopes one petition in particular – a constitutional amendment to reduce Mr. Chavez’s term from six to four years – will succeed, paving the way for general elections later this year. Under the constitution, organizers need signatures from 15 percent, or about 1.8 million, of the country’s 12 million registered voters – a number they expect to easily surpass.

The amendment was one of two proposals made by Nobel Peace Prize winner and former President Jimmy Carter. The other is to hold a recall referendum on Mr. Chavez’s rule halfway through his six-year term, in August. The opposition will also collect signatures for this initiative Sunday.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, February 02, 2003 - 1:00:27 AM By: Michel Foster

Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 20:39:15 -0800 (PST) From: Michel Foster democraciapalapatria@yahoo.com To: editor@vheadline.com Subject: 'Pa Fuera

Dear Editor: You say Chavez was so-called "democratically" elected by the people of Venezuela. Nonsense! People cannot elect responsibly, without an education sufficient to view histories errors and past political scams.

Poverty and hunger gave the "majority" the "reasoning/reasons" to elect this person you call a President? Yes, the masses are uneducated and very poor. The previous governments made sure that this situation flourished ... it gave them the upper hand and allowed them to keep the masses under control, and Chavez is following in their footsteps.

Well tell us, how much food has Chavez put on the tables of the poor and impoverished people of Venezuela?

How much money has he put into their bank accounts?

Has he improved their quality of life?

Has the infrastructure of Venezuela improved in these last 3 years?

Their education system, has that become a model for the rest of Latin America to follow?

How about their hospitals/medical care?

And of course we all know how far the Bolivar goes nowadays since his "election"; try over 30% annual inflation. Yes, sir, that sure has improved the "quality of life" for the poor folks.

The past rulers were corrupt, this is true ... but, so is the current ruler, Chavez ... he is corrupt because he has perverted the meaning of democracy.

• He does not represent democracy; he represents an autocratic, authoritarian rule. He, who wrote his own constitution, his words only, thank you.
• He who disbanded the entire Supreme Court and replaced them with his own hand picked cronies.
• He, who disbanded the entire Congress and again replaced them with his "buddies".
• He, who has set up a system where neighbors spy and report on neighbors, do I hear shades of Hitler and the Nazis?

Oh that's right; Chavez calls this his "Circulo Boliviriano." And let's not forget his democratic ways of taking over privately owned businesses by force, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Polar, with no court orders. Dragging away executives at gunpoint, yes that certainly does sound very democratic to me. There is no such thing as group rights, group rights are merely a composition of individual rights. One of the foremost of these is property ownership, the ownership of your own labors.

Chavez cannot say he supports democracy and freedom out of one side of his mouth while advocating the confiscation of individual’s property out the other side of his mouth. It’s a short step from “I disagree with you, your property is confiscated” to “your labors belong to the government.” Yes, let's do have freedom ring a la Chavez style. Hell with that kind of democracy, I'm sure the next step will be to drag everyone that opposes him off to the ovens.

Chavez idolizes Castro and the workers paradise that he has created in Cuba. Odd isn't it, though Castro decries capitalism and the bourgeois elite, his net worth is estimated at over $300 million dollars!

Would you want to hazard a guess as to the net worth of Chavez since he was "democratically" elected, while his poor comrades have become poorer? We all know just how prosperous Cuba has become under the rule of Castro.

Venezuela for years has needed economic reform, a broader more diverse market and better use of its revenues for infrastructure and education. For the last century the benefits of Venezuela’s oil wealth have been squandered and stolen.

• Unfortunately, in an attempt to correct this situation, the Venezuelan people chose as their President a man willing to sacrifice individual freedom for his personal power.

The great majority of Venezuelan people may have only a 6th grade level of education, but they are NOT stupid ... they have realized that Chavez is not good for them or their 'patria' ... and with this awakening comes the realization that they do not have a democracy.

If Chavez truly loves his country and his countrymen, if all he wants is the best for them, then he has an obligation to listen to the masses and step down once and for all!

Let the people of Venezuela unite, stand tall and stand strong!

Let true freedom ring! 'Pa fuera Chavez!

Michel Foster democraciapalapatria@yahoo.com

www.islam-online.net

CARACAS, February 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Opposition leaders in Venezuela say they will ease the two-month-old strike against the country’s president, Hugo Chavez, from Monday, February 3, but the crucial oil sector will remain on strike.

An opposition spokesman, Jesus Torrealba, said Saturday, February 1, that the movement “will enter a new phase” late Sunday, with businesses, industries, schools and shopping centers resuming activity over the course of the next week, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Torrealba, executive secretary of the opposition coordinating committee, said it would continue the fight in the key oil industry, demanding that 5,000 oil workers sacked by the government be allowed to return to work.

The fight, Torrealba said, is not only over these workers but “also will be focused on derailing the government’s ambitions to use PDVSA to serve its political ends.”

Opposition members have been demanding Chavez step down as soon as possible. He has rejected the idea and said they can seek a recall referendum in August.

Far from easing up on pressure on Chavez, Torrealba insisted that starting Monday, the opposition “will sponsor with greater drive demonstrations with one goal: pushing Chavez out of office.”

He said strike leaders were pleased with mediation proposals from the Organization of American States, and the creation of a Group of Friendsof Venezuela to try to help end the standoff that has crippled Venezuela’s economy.

Victory for Chavez

The decision, which opposition leaders said would be explained in detail in a news conference on Sunday night, was seen as a clear victory for Chavez, who has played down the walkout while calling its organizers fascists and coup plotters, reported British daily the Independent.

The government’s opponents characterized their action as a new phase in their efforts to unseat Chavez. They asserted that the strike led to international participation in Venezuela’s political crisis and pressed the government into negotiations that could lead to an electoral solution.

However, the fact is that for many days the strike has been one in name only, with Venezuelans tired of a walkout that had devastated their economy while bringing none of the results promised in December. The blow to the Venezuelan economy, Latin America’s fourth largest, is estimated at U.S.$4 billion in lost oil revenues alone.

“We share the opposition’s opinion, but we live by working,” said Maritza RondÓn, owner of a wholesale hardware store in Venezuela’s second-largest city, Maracaibo, that reopened weeks ago. “Our business has nothing to do with our politics.”

Alfredo Chirino, owner of an auto parts factory in Caracas that reopened this week, said he could not keep his business closed any longer. “We wanted to have some income, and we had to meet some commitments dating back to November,” he said. “We needed to bring in income to pay our workers.”

The reopening of businesses appears to give Chavez the upper hand in negotiations with the opposition that are being mediated by the Organization of American States. The government’s position could be further solidified as the state-owned oil company continues to reactivate oil production.

“The opposition has basically lost the strike,” said Gregory Wilpert, an American here who is finishing a book about the Chavez era. “They gambled that the strike would get rid of Chavez, and the strike failed. They now don't have many other options.”

The Group of Friends is made up of the United States, Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Spain and Portugal.

With that intervention, “the national strike has reached its objectives and the protest is entering a new phase,” Torrealba claimed.

The opposition to Chavez announced Friday it would “rethink” the general strike next week. It has been on since December 2, and its impact has been greatest due to the blow it has dealt to the key oil industry and the state oil giant PDVSA.

However, experts say the strike had begun to falter as many companies, faced with bankruptcy, re-opened for business, according to the BBC news online.

The National Banking Council and the Venezuelan Banking Association said they decided by a two-thirds vote to restart normal operating hours from Monday.

Management at shopping centers, restaurants and schools were also reportedly planning to return to work Monday.

The strikes have forced Venezuelans to queue for cash, food and gas, and sparked angry protests in which at least seven people have been killed.

Change of Tactics The strikes have forced Venezuelans to queue for cash, food and gas

Having agreed to ease back on the strike, opposition leaders are now focusing their efforts on gathering signatures for a petition aimed at pressuring Chavez out of power.

Opposition leaders intend Sunday to hold what they have described as the “Great Sign-up” in which the people of Venezuela will be called upon to register their support for a number of demands for the government.

Chief amongst these would be a constitutional amendment which would change Chavez’s term of office from six years to just four.

Under the country’s constitution, opposition leaders would be permitted to make the request if they secured the signatures of 15% of Venezuela’s registered voters - approximately 1.8 million people.

“Our idea is to get 5 million signatures,” Carlos Ocariz, from the opposition party Justice First, said.

Chavez has repeatedly brushed aside calls for his resignation and seems determined to not surrender the leadership.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, February 02, 2003 - 7:11:57 AM By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

According to Higher Business Studies Institute (IESA), there are around 1 million persons in Venezuela living in a state of social exclusion. Researchers attending a forum titled, “Social Pact towards overcoming poverty and development,” describe such persons as people with no work, no education no social nucleus .. 38% are young people and 75% men.

Andres Bello Catholic University (UCAB) Social Studies Institute director, Luis Pedro Espana makes a distinction between poverty patterns before and after the current government … "in 20 years before Chavez Frias there was a progressive curve of 56% of families moving towards poverty but in the last four years the curve has shot up spectacularly."

The forum has published the following conclusions:

800,000 families live in extreme poverty (approximately 4.5 million nucleons) bringing the housing shortage to 1.8 million houses

600,000 low-income households live in shacks

Of every 10 workers, 5 belong to informal sector, 2 are unemployed, 1 works in the public sector and two are on private sector payrolls

22% of people over 55 yrs. old are illiterate 652,000 children between the ages of 3-6 do not attend pre-school 142,000 (7-12) do not go the primary school 208,00 miss out at secondary schools

Espana says we have become a "society of losers looking for scapegoats and in need of an avenging angel … the current government is repeating mistakes of the past but using the avenger discourse creating a series falsehoods based on confrontation.”