www.cnn.com Wednesday, February 26, 2003 Posted: 8:04 AM EST (1304 GMT)

A police officer gathers evidence near the entrance to the Colombian Consulate in Caracas on Tuesday.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuela tightened security at embassies Wednesday after two bombs ravaged Colombian and Spanish diplomatic missions, injuring four people and generating fears that the nation's political crisis was entering a more violent phase.

The United States, Colombia and other nations demanded a swift investigation into Tuesday's bombings, which came 15 minutes apart at the Spanish embassy and Colombian consulate.

Venezuela suggested the bombings were meant to destabilize the government of President Hugo Chavez, who on Sunday criticized Spain and Colombia for allegedly interfering in Venezuelan affairs.

"There are elements thinking of taking the route of terrorism" to oust Chavez, said Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel.

Chavez had just weathered a two-month strike seeking his ouster and has vowed that strike leaders, including prominent business and labor chiefs, will be prosecuted. Colombia and Spain expressed concern over the arrest of Carlos Fernandez, head of Venezuela's largest business chamber.

Rangel announced the creation of an anti-terrorism task force and played down the importance of pamphlets left at the bombing sites swearing allegiance to Chavez and his so-called "Bolivarian revolution."

The attackers, Rangel said, merely neglected "to leave Chavez's photo" to implicate the president. Rangel expressed Venezuela's solidarity with both Colombia and Spain.

Interior Minister Lucas Rincon said C-4 plastic explosive may have been used in the pre-dawn blasts, which also damaged stores and apartment buildings.

Chavez had criticized international interest

Spanish Ambassador Manuel Viturro de la Torre refused to speculate on a motive for the attacks. Colombia used the incident to request Venezuela's cooperation in its decades-old war against leftist Colombian rebels, whom Bogota said often seek haven in next-door Venezuela.

Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel condemned the bombings Tuesday.

On Sunday, Chavez criticized several nations for their concerns about Fernandez's arrest. He also singled out Cesar Gaviria, secretary general of the Organization of American States, who has spent three months trying to mediate a solution to Venezuela's conflict.

Gaviria was returning to Caracas to resume those talks Wednesday.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Philip T. Reeker condemned the bombings, saying they underscored the need for all sides to honor a February 18 nonviolence pledge, refrain from "confrontational rhetoric" and create a truth commission to investigate violent incidents.

"We note that those bombs follow some sharp verbal attacks by President Chavez on the international community, as well as individual Venezuelans and institutions," Reeker said.

The Atlanta-based Carter Center, co-sponsor of the peace talks, urged all sides -- including Venezuela's opposition news media -- to abandon hate-filled rhetoric that has stoked tension this South American nation.

"We call on the leadership of the country to hear the demand of the Venezuelan people for reconciliation and an end to violence in their country," the center said in a statement.

Former President Jimmy Carter has supported Gaviria's efforts to broker an electoral solution.

Chavez, elected to a six-year term in 2000, accuses Venezuela's traditional elite of seeking his ouster and foiling his efforts to distribute Venezuela's oil riches to the poor.

His opposition accuses the former army paratrooper of imposing an authoritarian regime and ruining the economy.

Fernandez, the business leader, faces rebellion and other charges for leading the 63-day general strike against Chavez. Police are searching for strike co-leader and labor boss Carlos Ortega.

The strike, which ended February 4, hobbled the world's fifth-largest petroleum exporting industry and robbed the feeble economy of billions of dollars.

english.pravda.ru 15:00 2003-02-26

Supposed President Hugo Chavez's supporters claimed for two explosions that Tuesday morning shook the city of Caracas. Both the Spanish Embassy and the Colombian Consulate suffered serious material damages while five people were reported injured after the blasts.

The explosions came shortly after Chavez addressed his usual radio speech to the population, in which accused the governments of the United States and Spain of siding with his foes and warned Colombia he may break off diplomatic ties. However, Chavez repudiated the actions and diplomats of Spain and Colombia said the Government of Venezuela was not behind the explosions.

A security guard and two people were injured at the Colombian consulate building, where shards of glass and concrete debris from the badly damaged facade lay scattered across the street, authorities said. Two others were also hurt by fragments at the Spanish embassy site. "If this had not been at two in the morning and instead at two in the afternoon we would have had a lot of dead from the impact," Chacao district mayor Leopoldo Lopez told reporters.

Pamphlets signed by Chavez's supporters were found next to both damaged buildings, but there is still no reason to think these groups are connected with the national Government. Many self-denominated "Bolivarian groups" had taken part recently on street clashes, no independent reports could determine whether they are connected with the local government.

The "Bolivarian Circles", named after the national hero Simon Bolivar, are groups of pro-Chavez activists, whose functions are related with social assistance and peaceful activities. However, the opposition usually accuses them of being a paramilitary organization similar to the German's freikorps in the 1920's.

The blasts came shortly after Chavez decided to cut off contacts with the opposition and the Government celebrated the arrest of two strike leaders in Caracas. Also, Chavez foes accused the Government of being behind the assassination of five dissident military officers in the Capital of Venezuela.

Hernan Etchaleco PRAVDA.Ru Argentina

www.nytimes.com By DAVID GONZALEZ

CARACAS, Venezuela, Feb. 25 — Powerful explosions outside two diplomatic offices shattered windows and nerves early today, leaving four people wounded and many others uncertain about the prospects for a peaceful solution to the political crisis here.

One blast ripped the glass and steel facade of the Colombian Consulate downtown, twisting a thick steel entry gate and ruining two of the building's four floors. A second blast, outside the foreign aid office of the Spanish Embassy in a residential area, knocked a gate off its hinges and punched a hole through a wall. In both cases, people were wounded by flying glass, authorities said.

The explosions, which the police said were extraordinarily large and which neighbors said felt like earthquakes, came two days after President Hugo Chávez publicly berated Spain and Colombia for interfering in Venezuela's internal affairs. Mr. Chávez, who has outlasted an attempted coup and an opposition strike, had been criticized for the arrest of an opposition leader as well as for not assisting Colombia in its fight against leftist guerrillas.

The government denied any involvement in the blasts and ordered tighter security for foreign missions and the diplomatic corps. The deputy foreign minister, Arévalo Méndez, said the bombs were the work of a "sick and confused mind that had nothing to do" with any criticisms Mr. Chávez might have voiced against other nations.

"We repudiate this act of terrorism," Vice President José Vicente Rangel said at an afternoon news conference. "The government rejects any terrorist act, whatever it is, wherever it is, whoever the author. We reject any form of terrorism, whether it is from the state or from individuals."

Diplomats from Colombia and Spain did not blame the government but did urge thorough investigations, as did the United States.

The blasts, which occurred around 2:30 a.m. local time, also came one day before the resumption of talks between the government and the opposition, which only last week had agreed to tone down their accusations and reject violence. But the arrest last week of Carlos Fernández, a business leader who spearheaded the strike, had already increased skepticism over Mr. Chávez's commitment to a peaceful resolution. "This defines a new stage in the political situation in Venezuela, one in which there is greater chaos and violence and a president who is becoming more entrenched," said Michael Shifter, vice president for policy at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington. "It makes it very hard to see negotiations, given this climate."

It is just as difficult to know who is responsible for the bombs. Leaflets were found at the sites of both explosions, signed by an obscure group, the Bolivarian Liberation Force, and the Simón Bolívar Coordinator, Urban Militia. Juan Contreras, director of the Simón Bolívar Coordinator, told a local newspaper that his group was a cultural association and said whoever used its name was fighting "a dirty war."

Only two days ago, during his weekly television broadcast, Mr. Chávez had lashed out at his critics, telling them to respect Venezuela's sovereignty. He said some of the nations that were faulting him for arresting the strike leader had supported the coup that failed to oust him last April.

"Where do Spain and Colombia want this to get to?" he said during the broadcast. "To break relations?"

A diplomat who is in close contact with the government and the opposition said the bombs were out of character for Venezuela, where previous explosions have been limited to grenades or pipe bombs left outside television stations.

The jangle of thousands of shards of glass being swept away echoed through the street outside the Colombian Consulate, where the entry gate was twisted. The concussion from the blast smashed countless windows inside an office building across the street, where dazed residents slowly picked their way through small rooms.

"The strike had already paralyzed the country," said Alberto Buroz, the president of an environmental engineering firm whose offices were the most damaged in the building. "Now with the few clients we have left, how can we attend to them? We have crossed the line. I don't know. I'd like to understand what will be the end of this story. But that has not been written yet."

Outside, Marta Lucía Varón stood by a banner held aloft by a group of her countrymen from Colombia. They had come to the street in solidarity, she said, as soon as they heard the news.

"This violence was created by the Chávez government," she said, despite protests from several Chávez supporters near her. "We fled violence in Colombia and chose Venezuela to make a living. And now we find this?"

www.channelnewsasia.com First created : 26 February 2003 1116 hrs (SST) 0316 hrs (GMT) Last modified : 26 February 2003 1116 hrs (SST) 0316 hrs (GMT)

Explosions outside the Spanish and Colombian diplomatic missions in Caracas have left five people injured less than two days after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez accused the two nations of meddling in his country's crisis.

Three people were slightly wounded when the blast near the Colombian consulate sprayed shards of debris and ripped off the building's steel and glass facade.Advertisement Fragments from a smaller explosion minutes earlier at the nearby Spanish embassy co-operation office hurt two people.

No one has claimed immediate responsibility for the attacks.

On Sunday, Chavez accused Spain and the US of siding with his enemies and warned Colombia he might break off diplomatic ties over accusations that he met with that country's Marxist rebels.

Leaflets scattered at both sites were signed by the "Bolivarian Liberation Force - the Coordinadora Simon Bolivar urban militias."

The Coordinadora Simon Bolivar is a known radical Pro-Chavez group.

Venezuela's government quickly denied its sympathisers were behind the blasts.

www.sfgate.com Tuesday, February 25, 2003

(02-25) 13:37 PST CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) --

In another sign that Venezuela's oil industry is recovering from a strike, the oil minister said Venezuela was lifting a suspension on some production and export contracts.

Petroleos de Venezuela SA invoked a contract provision three days after an oil workers strike began Dec. 2 that temporarily released it and its clients from contractual obligations.

The provision has been lifted on production and export of three types of Venezuelan crude as well as liquified petroleum gas, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said Tuesday.

Some 35,000 of 40,000 PDVSA workers joined a general strike intended to oust President Hugo Chavez. The strike failed and was called off Feb. 4, though oil workers stayed off the job. The government has fired more than 15,000 strikers at PDVSA.

PDVSA President Ali Rodriguez says production now stands at 2.02 million barrels per day, compared to a pre-strike figure of 3.2 million barrels per day. Dissident staff say output is closer to 1.5 million barrels per day.

Before the strike, Venezuela was the globe's fifth-largest oil exporter and a top supplier to the United States.

Ramirez and Rodriguez were traveling to Washington to convince U.S. officials that oil company operations are almost back to normal.