<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Friday, May 09, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

In an unprecedented move, Cuban Ambassador German Sanchez Otero has sent a letter to Venezuelan Generals to explain what is happening in Cuba. 

The Ambassador pursues the line that Cuba has been under US economic and trade blockade for 44 years and complains against an international smear campaign against his country's government for complying with laws defending national interests and against terrorism. 

• He warns that the latest USA attack on Cuba if successful would have dire effects on the rest of Latin America. 

Hitting out at critics, Sanchez Otero asks why don't the people complaining about the Cuban death penalty for terrorist acts condemn the death penalty in the United States of America (USA)  as applicable to teenagers and mentally ill persons.  "The only place in the world that supported the US genocide against Iraq was in Miami where the slogan was: Iraq first, then Cuba!"

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, May 04, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

National Lands Institute (INTI) president, Adan Chavez says the government will set up the first rural security brigades  (BSR) within the next  couple of days and they will consist of State Political & Security (DISIP) Police, Police Detective Branch (CICPC) and the National Guard (GN) in their task to protect groups of small farmers and peasants that have requested agrarian certificates to occupy idle lands in areas where rural leaders have been murdered. 

Chavez says the BSRs will also monitor conflict zones. 

The President's brother made the announcement at a National Assembly (AN) grilling when called upon to explain alleged illegal takeovers of private land. 

"The government will restore land if it can be shown that a mistake has been made but we will continue to implement a plan that ends on August 16." 

By that time the INTI, Chavez insists, hopes to have handed over at least 1.5 million hectares that will benefit 200,000 families of small farmers and peasants.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, April 27, 2003 By: David Coleman

Under a preliminary contract signed between Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and Brazilian Petrobras, Venezuela and its southeastern neighbor Brazil are to study the joint construction of an oil refinery to supply a chain of filling stations throughout northeastern Brazil.

Announcing the news today, President Hugo Chavez Frias said that meetings held in Recife (Brazil) with President Luiz Ignacio a Silva and leading Brazilian business executives and government officials have begun to take concrete form as part of a regional integration strategy.

"We will construct a refinery in Recife with investments from both Venezuela and Brazil ... it will be a perfectly mixed joint venture with other world investors who are in accord with our plans," the Venezuelan President said.  "We have signed a Letter of Intent for direct collaboration on this goal between PDVSA and Petrobras ... we will bring heavy crude oil by river right to Recife.

Meanwhile, back home in Venezuela, oil technicians have been forced to shut down an 80,000 barrels-per-day gasoil processing unit at the 940,000 bpd Amuay-Cardon refinery in northwestern Falcon State after a fire which broke out close to midnight Saturday.  The blaze was quenched by onsite PDVSA employees who discovered some damage sustained by the gasoil unit.

PDVSA public affairs spokesman Humberto Reyes has told reporters that although the refinery will be out of service for a week, the effects will only be limited ... "production and dispatch of gasoline will not be affected because the other three units will compensate for the outage on No.4."

Reyes was also at pains to deny political opposition rumors that there had been an explosion at the refinery and said that an investigation committee had already begun to probe why the fire broke out ... against the possibility that sabotage was involved he said "we are not excluding anything at this stage!"

PDVSA has been working to normalize operations at the 1.3 million bpd refinery after an opposition-led 2-month lockout aimed at strangling the nation's economy to force democratically-elected President Hugo Chavez Frias out of office.  The misnomered "strike" failed in early February this year and as a direct result more than 17,000 oil workers have been fired for security reasons.

Reuters, 04.27.03, 12:35 PM ET  By Denise Luna

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, April 27 (Reuters) - Some Latin American countries are modestly upgrading their armed forces despite a shortage of funds and some are looking for more equipment standardization in the region, participants at a defense fair said in the last week.

Participation at this year's Latin American Defense fair in Rio, which doubled since the event was last held in 2001, indicate the region's governments do worry about the huge technological gap between them and leading military powers.

"What is being done is that there are some (arms) purchases and the development of centers of excellence so that the technological distance to the United States, Europe and Russia does not become so large it can't be reversed," said Nelson Francisco During, the editor of a specialist defense Web site.

Most armed forces in Latin America are aging and underfunded. Severe budget constraints and the decline of regional border disputes led to falling military spending in the 1990s. Brazil's air force, for example, estimates that 50 percent of its fleet is in no condition to fly.

Venezuela is leading a modest regional move to upgrade its forces, perhaps motivated by border tensions with Colombia. Caracas and Bogota have accused each other of not doing enough to stop the cross-border activities of Colombia's Marxist rebels and their rightist paramilitary enemies.

"The path to modernization is intended to ensure that Venezuela has a representative armed force, we need to shape it so that we can defend ourselves if anybody attacks us," said Luis Alfredo Torcatti, head of Venezuela's armed forces.

Venezuela is upgrading its air force with 12 AMX-T light attack aircraft from Brazil's Embraer <EMBR4.SA> and Caracas has also bought $450 million worth of bombs for training from Brazilian firm Target. Venezuela's Italian navy frigate from the 1980s is being upgraded in the U.S.

"We just can't have the latest in technology because the speed of this evolution is out of reach with our resources," said Torcatti, adding that his country's recent purchases has left the armed forces "compact, but well equipped."

Torcatti played down tensions with Colombia, saying Venezuela's 15,000 soldiers on the border are there only to control the entry of guerrillas from the neighboring state.

Colombia, the region's biggest defense spender due to its decades-old conflict with rebels, was recently in the market for light attack aircraft but no purchase has been made.

Chile and Brazil are also buying, with Chile opting last year to buy F-16 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin Corp. (nyse: LMT - news - people). Chile's purchase has been delayed by several years.

Brazil is also due to buy up to 12 new supersonic fighter jets for $700 million although the new centre-left government that came into power in January suspended the purchase for a year.

Brazil's Defense Minister Jose Viegas said the best future for the region's armed forces may be increased standardization of equipment in order to boost cooperation to fight international crime, drugs and arms smuggling. He met with several of his counterparts during the fair in Rio.

He said cooperation between regional armies is viable because conflict in the region is "practically impossible."

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Monday, April 21, 2003 By: David Coleman

Smug-faced US Ambassador Charles Shapiro has admitted responsibility on accusations by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Roy Chaderton Matos that he's feeding false information about Venezuela to the US State Department in Washington.

Unashamedly Shapiro has told reporters "I am to blame since it corresponds to me to inform the US government and I am keeping them constantly informed."

MRE Chaderton Matos had earlier complained that US Secretary of State Colin Powell has been badly informed on prevailing realities in Venezuela...

Shapiro says he has just hosted a Monday meeting to exchange opinions between US Congressmen and their counterparts in the Venezuelan National Assembly (AN) ... "it was a courtesy visit!"

AN 1st vice president Ricardo Gutierrez, deputising on this occasion in the absence of AN president (speaker) Francisco Ameliach, told the US visitors that a new board of directors of the National Electoral College (CNE) is to be constituted shortly.

However, Shapiro didn't let up one second on his anti-Venezuelan stance ... asked by opposition Globovision reporters if  the US Congress delegation was worried about the situation in Venezuela, Shapiro quipped "we're permanently worried by the situation in Venezuela!"

Press hacks at the bunker on Colinas de Valle Arriba have been scrambling today to "damage control" Shapiro's incredibly stupid statement ... but the cat's already out of the bag!

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