POLITICS-VENEZUELA: Poll Numbers Devastating for Chávez *** CARACAS, Feb 5 (IPS) - Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez would be defeated by a wide margin in any election or any referendum on his mandate, according to two private polling firms that released their survey results here Wednesday. Polls conducted in 64 cities and in rural areas show ''consistently since late 2001 that, at a ratio of around 70-30, the electorate would vote against Chávez,'' Luis León, director of the Datanálisis firm, told the foreign press. In a potential referendum to revoke Chávez's mandate -- a vote that the opposition is seeking and which the Constitution allows as of August -- ''64 percent of the electorate would vote against Chávez and 34 percent in favor,'' said León. Saúl Cabrera, of Consultores 21 polling firm, told the press that ''in any election Chávez would lose.'' ***
Colombian ex-rebel says he saw Irish trio setting off explosives *** BOGOTA - In dramatic testimony, a former Colombian guerrilla, Edwin Giovanni Rodríguez, testified Friday in a packed courtroom that he witnessed three suspected members of the Irish Republican Army testing weapons in Colombia's former demilitarized zone. James Monaghan, Niall Connolly and Martin McCauley were arrested in August 2001 at Bogotá's El Dorado airport on charges of using false passports.
The three men were later found to have IRA links and are on trial for allegedly helping train the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the country's largest insurgent group. Surrounded by heavy security, Rodríguez, 25, testified wearing a bulletproof vest after being transported from prison in Villavicencio, where he is serving a four-year sentence. Rodríguez, the ex-chauffeur for FARC commander Jorge Briceño described three men whose names he could not confirm who he claimed to have seen in the former demilitarized zone starting on Feb. 5, 2001.***