Posted on 12/11/2001 11:14:55 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Talk of detente between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the country's biggest business association was barely evident Tuesday after a nationwide business strike visibly angered the leftist president.
``I will not negotiate with them. I'll never go where they invite me,'' Chavez said of the Fedecamaras business chamber, which called Monday's strike and which represents 90 percent of Venezuela's non-oil production.
In one sign of dialogue, representatives of Venezuela's goods and services sector in the petroleum industry planned to meet Wednesday with National Assembly President Willian Lara to discuss amending a new law regulating private investment in the oil industry, El Nacional newspaper reported.
But legislators with Chavez's Fifth Republic Movement political party, which holds a majority in Congress, suspended Tuesday's session of Congress when Deputy Andres Velasquez of the opposition Causa R party called for a debate on Monday's strike.
``Here, dialogue has practically ended,'' an upset Velasquez said. ``Each day, things become more radicalized.''
Presidents Fidel Castro (L) and Hugo Chavez board a military ship in Margarita, Venezuela, December 11, 2001. Venezuelan business and labor leaders said in the wake of a 12-hour nationwide strike, they planned a wave of further protests if President Chavez continued with his authoritarian and statist rule. REUTERS/Miraflores-Handout
The war of words erupted in November, when Chavez decreed 49 laws increasing the state's role in industries ranging from oil to agriculture to fishing. Claiming it wasn't consulted, Fedecamaras called for the laws' suspension and talks to amend them.
Chavez withdrew an offer to talk when Fedecamaras, joined by the 1 million-member Venezuelan Workers Confederation, virtually shut down the country with the 12-hour strike.
Fedecamaras head Pedro Carmona expressed his ``astonishment'' at Chavez's reaction, saying he had he hoped the strike - which organizers claimed cost Venezuela $480 million in lost production - would compel the government to bargain.
``If that is his definitive position, all roads would be closed, and we don't want that,'' Carmona said.
Chavez, who frequently accuses the news media of lying to discredit his government, blamed the press for promoting the strike and warned his government may pass a law regulating reporting content. Bloque de Prensa, Venezuela's largest media group, had joined Monday's strike.
Chavez also said his government will evaluate its ties with companies and banks that closed Monday.
Luis Vicente Leon, president of polling firm Datanalisis, said it remained to be seen whether Chavez and his opposition can get beyond the rhetoric and tackle issues such as the threat posed by low oil prices to petroleum-dependent Venezuela.
Venezuela based its 2002 budget on an average price of $18.50 per barrel of crude. As of Friday, it was selling at $15.30.
``Those who believe the strike's success will get the government to yield are wrong, just as Chavez is wrong to believe that he can govern without stimulating cooperation among all Venezuelans,'' Leon said.
CHRISTOPHER DODD FREE OTTO REICH ----[Excerpt] While the eyes of the world focus on the Middle East, the war on terror has its targets in this hemisphere, too. Unfortunately, President Bush's designated envoy to the Americas must fight this country's shadowy enemies with both hands tied behind his back. Otto Reich, Bush's nominee for assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, is being held hostage by Sen. Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.) who refuses to hold a confirmation hearing on Reich's candidacy. Dodd apparently would rather brood over Reich's performance in the Reagan administration than permit him to address these clear-and-present dangers today:
Venezuela. Hugo Chavez, the increasingly erratic president of this key U.S. oil supplier, has declared himself "a Maoist" and befriended pro-terrorist dictators. A Caracas-based, anti-Chavez group called the National Emergency Coalition published a veritable Chavez photo album in the September 25 Washington Times. In one picture, Chavez rides in Saddam Hussein's Mercedes with the Iraqi thug at the wheel. During an August 2000 visit, Chavez called Iraq "a model" for Venezuela.
In another snapshot, Chavez hugs Iranian President Mohammed Khatami and says, "We have sister revolutions with equal struggles and the same destiny." Elsewhere, Chavez embraces Muammar Qaddafi and calls Libya "a model of participatory democracy." Chavez greets Fidel Castro as well and says that Cuba and Venezuela are "swimming together toward the same sea of happiness."
Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez
Chavez also appears to be arming Colombia's Marxist FARC rebels. Colombian defense officials say that between January 1998 and July 2000, they captured 470 clandestine FAL rifles stamped with the insignias of Venezuela's military and its arms manufacturers.
Cuba: Castro's worker's paradise seems to be a giant O'Hare Airport for suspected terrorists. As counterterrorism consultant Paul Crespo reported in the Nov. 5 issue of Insight, three Afghans detained in the Grand Caymans shortly after the September 11 attacks allegedly arrived there from Cuba. Two others, allegedly linked financially to al Qaeda, were stopped in Panama bound for Cuba.
…Snip…..
"I need Otto Reich in place," Secretary of State Colin Powell pleaded with senators on October 3. Eight weeks later, Reich's State Department office literally remains empty, its desk unoccupied and bookshelves bare. Even as an overworked career diplomat juggles crucial security and economic matters in Reich's absence, Dodd could care less.
"That nomination's not going anywhere. That's the end of it," Dodd recently snapped. He has hurled at Reich a number of easily refuted ethical charges pertaining to his 1980s service as director of State's Office of Public Diplomacy and as Ambassador to Venezuela. However Dodd will not let his subcommittee hear Reich defend himself. Perhaps Dodd fears looking foolish once Reich demonstrates his innocence. [End Excerpt]
Jiang Zemin and Hugo Chavez
Argentina: Senior U.S. officials also told Insight that "a lot of people made big bucks" selling bogus passports via the Federal Police under Carlos Menem, Argentina's previous president. U.S. immigration authorities are investigating whether terrorists used such records to enter America.
Brazil: According to the New York Post, several mosques in Foz do Iguauc may be tied to al Qaeda and other terror groups. Police arrested two associates of an accused, radical fundraiser from Paraguay for furnishing phony immigration documents. [End Excerpt]
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Please keep us updated on anything you find out.
Bush nominee deserves better than old grudges--If Dodd insists on opposing nominees because he doesn't like their politics, fine. But American foreign policy should not suffer because one senator is still upset the Sandanistas lost and is afraid to voice his opposition in a public hearing. If not a national crisis, at least the principle of fairness should compel Dodd to temporarily put aside partisan politics and let Reich have a hearing and a vote.
[Excerpt] "In our efforts to isolate the Castro regime, we've built walls that are hampering our goal of bringing democracy to the Cuban people," said Dodd, who has just assumed the Chairmanship of the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs, the Subcommittee with jurisdiction over Cuba legislation in the Senate. "As a measure that tears down those walls and replaces them with bridges, this legislation is a good starting point for a serious debate about how we can change U.S. policy in order to foster a peaceful transition to democracy on the island of Cuba while alleviating the hardship that our current policy has caused for the 11 million people who reside there. I hope to hold hearings in the near future and will be discussing with the committee leadership dates for the markup of this important legislation."
"While we cannot ignore the unfortunate political situation in Cuba, the United States should not enact laws that exacerbate the suffering of the Cuban people," Chafee said. "We must recognize that the thirty-seven year embargo against Cuba has failed to acheive its aims, while inadvertantly increasing the hardships endured by average Cubans. I believe that it is time to formulate a new approach to Cuba in which the United States reaches out directly to the Cuban people, while being careful not to reward the Cuban govenment for policies with which we strongly disagree."
"Cuba is no longer a national security threat to the United States," Roberts said. "Continuing our current policy only benefits our trade competitors at the expense of the American farmer and businessman. I believe that trade, travel, and cultural exchange between Cuba and the United States will benefit both Americans and Cubans. I am hopeful that this legislation can move forward to bring positive engagement between our two countries." [End Excerpt]
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Senator Dodd is not astute, he isn't a statesman, he isn't even right. His position is asinine.
The U.S. hasn't built walls, Castro has and he's built torture chambers too.
I wouldn't call Castro's bloody communism regime an "unfortunate political situation," it is a living hell.
And as for Cuba (Castro) "no longer being a national security threat to the U.S.," I guess that would depend on who you want to prevail.
In this case, I say Senator Dodd's calls for the appeasement of Castro and his "unfortunate form of government,"
and the misery of the Cuban people so acerbated and put upon by the mean old wall-building U.S.,
shows Dodd's stripes and they aren't red, white and blue. And BTW, I'd like to know how propping up a communist country
with subsidized trade helps us or how cultural exchanges with communists helps Americans. (I know U.S. educators like Casto's politics.)
A majority of Latin American leaders don't like Castro or his regime and the European Union doesn't like Castro.
They've all been burned by their associations with him. Why in the world would we throw Castro a lifeline?
The only people who like communists are the LIBERAL media, progressives and other communists, but then I repeat myself.
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