www.heraldsun.news.com.au From correspondents in Caracas 03mar03

A CAR bomb has exploded just blocks away from a Chevron office in a Venezuelan oil field, officials said. Local firefighter chief Ali Gil said nine people, among them a local strike leader, were injured in the blast at the Maracaibo field.

The car, which was said to be "full of explosives", was parked outside the home of Antonio Melian.

He participated in the crippling oil workers' strike designed to oust President Hugo Chavez, and police described him as "a very controversial figure" in the area.

The two-month strike ended in February after slowing oil production and exports to a trickle. Production has since revived.

Wreckage from the car was thrown about 150 metres, hitting neighbouring houses, local media reported.

The attack came five days after a double blast rocked the capital, injuring four and causing damage to surrounding buildings. The bombs exploded within a 15-minute interval, first near the Spanish Embassy and then in the vicinity of the Colombian consulate.

Maracaibo is the capital of Zulia state, located about 500km north-west of the capital on the border with Colombia.

reuters.com Sun March 2, 2003 04:00 PM ET By Pascal Fletcher

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - A car bomb exploded early on Sunday in the western Venezuelan oil city of Maracaibo, destroying three cars and damaging homes and a local office of the U.S. oil company Chevron Texaco, police said.

Hours after the blast, President Hugo Chavez said his country's security forces were on an anti-terrorist alert.

It was the third bomb attack in less than a week in Venezuela, where a long-running political feud between left-wing populist Chavez and his opponents has raised fears of violent upheaval in the world's No. 5 oil exporter.

Chavez, who is resisting opposition calls for early elections, Sunday blamed political foes for bomb blasts in the Venezuelan capital Caracas Tuesday which badly damaged Spanish and Colombian diplomatic buildings, injuring five people.

"We're on the alert in the whole country," the former army paratrooper said on his weekly "Hello President" television and radio show.

He did not mention Sunday's blast, which blew bits of masonry from the fronts of several private houses in the Richmond residential estate of Maracaibo's San Francisco district. Debris was scattered over a wide area.

The explosion also shattered windows of a nearby administrative office of the U.S. oil giant Chevron, one of several major foreign oil companies operating in oil-rich Venezuela. Police said Chevron did not appear to be the target.

They were working on the theory that the attack was part of a personal feud against a well-known local family, the Melians, whose house suffered the most damage. A car reported stolen by police and containing the bomb had been parked outside.

CHAVEZ SLAMS "DESPERATE" FOES

There was no apparent connection between Sunday's blast and Tuesday's bomb attacks against the Spanish embassy cooperation office and the Colombian consulate in Caracas. No one has claimed responsibility for these attacks, although leaflets signed by a radical pro-Chavez group were found at the scene.

But Chavez laid the blame Sunday on opponents he said had already unsuccessfully tried to oust him through a brief coup last year and in a two-month anti-government strike in December and January that disrupted Venezuela's strategic oil sector.

"Some desperate sectors, since they failed in the coup and failed in the oil sabotage, have now opted for terrorism and are going around setting off bombs," he said.

Opposition leaders have linked Tuesday's attacks to a speech by Chavez a week ago in which he sharply criticized Spain, Colombia and the United States, warning them not to meddle in his country's crisis.

The president, who condemns his opponents as rich "oligarchs," said Sunday privately-owned gas stations that took part in the stoppage could have their concessions withdrawn. He said his government would encourage the setting up of cooperatives jointly run by managers and workers.

Chavez is accused by opponents of ruling like a dictator and of trying to install Cuban-style communism in Venezuela. He portrays his foes as a rich, resentful elite opposed to his self-styled "revolution" he says is aimed at helping the poor.

The recent bomb blasts are unusual in Venezuela. Although it has suffered an increase in political violence caused by feuding between supporters and foes of Chavez, bomb attacks of the kind experienced in neighboring Colombia are rare.

Colombia said Saturday its security forces, in a joint operation with Venezuelan armed forces, had foiled an attempt by leftist Colombian guerrillas to blow up a border crossing bridge using a tanker truck packed with explosives. (Additional reporting by Magdalena Morales)

www.cnn.com Sunday, March 2, 2003 Posted: 12:43 PM EST (1743 GMT)

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- A suspected car bomb exploded early Sunday in the western Venezuelan oil city of Maracaibo, destroying three cars and damaging buildings including a local office of the U.S. oil company Chevron Texaco, police said.

No one was injured in the blast, which shattered windows and hurled debris over a wide area, badly scarring the fronts of several private houses in the Richmond estate of Maracaibo's San Francisco district.

"Everything points to it being a car bomb," San Francisco police inspector Francis Gonzalez told Reuters.

The explosion in Venezuela's second city was the third in less than a week following bomb attacks early Tuesday against Spanish and Colombian diplomatic buildings in Caracas, in which five people were injured.

Police are still investigating these attacks.

Gonzalez said a local administrative office in San Francisco of the U.S. oil giant Chevron suffered damage to its windows and facade in Sunday's blast but did not appear to be the main target. Chevron is one of the major foreign oil companies operating in the oil-rich country.

Worst hit by the explosion was the home of a well-known local family, the Melians, and police were investigating the possibility that the attack might have been directed against them, Gonzalez said.

The Richmond neighborhood is home to many families involved in the local oil industry.

Venezuela's western oil and shipping hub of Maracaibo was one of the areas most affected by a recent two-month opposition strike against President Hugo Chavez in December and January which slashed oil production by the world's No. 5 oil exporter.

Chavez has sacked some 15,000 strikers in the state oil industry, calling them "terrorists" trying to overthrow him.

The recent bomb attacks are unusual in Venezuela. Although the country has suffered an increase in political violence caused by feuding between supporters and foes of left-wing populist Chavez, bomb attacks of the kind experienced in neighboring Colombia are rare.

Colombia said Saturday its security forces, in a joint operation with Venezuelan armed forces, had foiled an attempt by leftist Colombian guerrillas to blow up a border crossing bridge using a tanker truck packed with explosives.

In the operation, four suspected Colombian guerrillas were captured by Venezuelan troops and handed over to Colombian authorities.

Tuesday's bomb attacks against the Spanish embassy cooperation office and the Colombian consulate in Caracas followed a speech by Chavez in which he sharply criticized the governments of Spain, Colombia and the United States, warning them not to meddle in his country's political crisis.

Chavez, who was first elected in 1998 and survived a coup last year, is resisting fierce opposition pressure to resign.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, March 02, 2003 By: David Coleman

Venezuelan CICPC detectives are probing an early morning Sunday car bomb explosion outside the home of controversial cattle livestock producer Antonio Melian at Richamond in western Zulia State causing "considerable damage" in the vicinity.  There have been no reports of  injuries so far.

Explosive experts who have inspected the wreckage since just after daybreak, say that C-4 Semtex explosives were used, similar to the detonations at the Spanish Embassy and the Colombian Consulate last week.  Zulia CICPC director Idelfonso Urdaneta says the vehicles was a red-painted Celebrity which was listed as stolen in Maracaibo from February 17.

Melian is described as a leading activist in Zulia State but his home is also in close proximity with that of the environmental protection manager of US Chevron, who has also been the center of opposition-government debate in the wake of the 2-month nationwide labor-management stoppage which failed in its aim to bring down the Chavez Frias government.

Interviewed on opposition Globovision Channel-33 television news, a neighbor said |one sees this kind of thing all the time in the Middle East where they are in a state of permanent war, but to have the same situation here on our own doorsteps must make everyone stop and think what's happening."

www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, March 02, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

Following weeks of calls by the Colombian government for Venezuela to play a greater role in helping its neighbor to fight guerilla groups and terrorists using Venezuela as a base, Colombian officials have thanked Venezuela for its assistance in preventing a major terrorist attack. 

• Colombian intelligence discovered that a cargo of explosives was heading from Venezuelan territory to Colombia and called upon the Venezuelan National Armed Forces for assistance.

A Colombian government statement read "the Air Force and the army discovered 48 hours ago, through intelligence sources, that a vehicle carrying explosives was on Venezuelan territory."

When Venezuelan authorities were informed of the fact they quickly arrived at the location, near the Colombian border, and upon inspecting the car discovered 1,500 kilos of explosives.

Four Colombian men were arrested and handed over to the Colombian army.