Posted on 04/14/2002 4:01:40 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
LINKS to Hugo Chavez's "government" June 2001 - March 2002
I'm keeping track of Hugoland formally known as Venezuela. Please LINK any stories or add what you wish to this thread. The above LINK takes you to past articles posted before the new FR format. Below I'll add what I've catalogued since that LINK no longer could take posts.
(March 1, 2002)-- Venezuela's strongman faces widespread calls to step down
By Phil Gunson | Special to The Christian Science Monitor
[Full Text] CARACAS, VENEZUELA - The man who won Venezuelan hearts three years ago as a strongman who could deliver a better life to the masses is now facing them in the streets.
More than 20,000 people turned out this week calling for the resignation of President Hugo Chávez, while some 2,000 supporters marched in a rival demonstration of support. The demonstrations come after months of building discontent with a president who has managed to alienate the labor class, the media, business groups, the church, political parties, and the military.
Four military leaders have publicly called for his resignation.
In November, Chávez introduced 49 "revolutionary" decrees. The package of laws - affecting everything from land rights and fisheries to the oil industry - unified virtually the whole of organized society in a nationwide business and labor stoppage that paralyzed the country on Dec. 10.
The protests this week have a note of irony, because they started out as a commemoration called by President Chávez. In his eyes, Feb. 27 is a milestone of his so-called revolution - "the date on which the people awoke" in 1989. That is when thousands of rioters and looters took to the streets in protest of an IMF-backed austerity plan, in which the government hiked gas prices.
In what became known as the caracazo, or noisy protest, thousands of rioters and looters were met by Venezuelan military forces, and hundreds were killed. Three years later, Chávez and his military co-conspirators failed in an attempt to overthrow the government responsible for the massacre, that of President Carlos Andres Perez. Chávez was jailed for two years.
"But the elements that brought about the caracazo are still present in Venezuela," says lawyer Liliana Ortega, who for 13 years has led the fight for justice on behalf of the victims' relatives. "Poverty, corruption, impunity ... some of them are perhaps even more deeply ingrained than before."
Chávez's supporters consist of an inchoate mass of street traders, the unemployed, and those whom the old system had marginalized. This, to Chávez, is el pueblo - the people.
"But we are 'the people' too," protests teacher Luis Leonet. "We're not oligarchs like he says. The oligarchs are people like Chávez, people with power."
On Wednesday, Leonet joined a march led by the main labor confederation, the CTV, to protest what unions say is a series of antilabor measures, including one of the 49 decrees dealing with public-sector workers.
Chávez won't talk to the CTV, whose leaders, he says, are corrupt and illegitimate. So he refuses to negotiate the annual renewal of collective contracts with the confederation, holding up deals on pay and conditions for hundreds of thousands of union members like Leonet.
Across town on Wednesday, a progovernment march sought to demonstrate that the president's popularity was as high as ever.
"For the popular classes, Chávez is an idol," says marcher Pedro Gutierrez.
Pollster Luis Vicente Leon, of the Datanalisis organization, warns that marches are no measure of relative popularity. "There is a lot of discontent among ... the really poor," Leon says, adding that so far the protests are mainly among the middle class.
But the middle class can be a dangerous enemy. It includes the bulk of the armed forces, and the management of the state oil company, PDVSA.
This month, four uniformed officers, ranging from a National Guard captain to a rear-admiral and an Air Force general, called on the president to resign, while repudiating the idea of a military coup of Chávez, himself a former Army lieutenant-colonel.
But senior "institutionalist" officers "are under severe pressure from lower ranks frustrated at the lack of impact" that these acts have had, a source close to military dissidents says. In other words, a coup cannot be ruled out, although the United States publicly denounces the idea.
Meanwhile, the president's imposition of a new board of directors on PDVSA this week sparked a virtual uprising by the company's senior management. In an unprecedented public statement, managers said the government was pushing the company "to the verge of operational and financial collapse" by imposing political, rather than commercial, criteria.
The political opposition remains relatively weak and divided. But in the view of many analysts, a president who offends both the military and the oil industry is asking for trouble. In the bars and restaurants of Caracas, the debate is no longer over whether Chávez will finish his term, which has nearly five years to run. It is when and how he will go - and what comes next. [End]
Venezuelan policemen inspect the area in front of Spanish embassy after a blast in Caracas February 25, 2003. Explosions hit a Spanish Embassy building and the Colombian consulate just a day after President Hugo Chavez, whose self-styled 'Bolivarian Revolution' aims to help the poor, accused the United States and Spain of siding with his enemies and warned Colombia he might break off diplomatic relations. There were no immediate reports of casualties. REUTERS/Jorge Silva***
Fragments from the explosion at the Spanish embassy cooperation office, about 15 minutes earlier, hurt two people, officials said. Chavez, whose self-styled "Bolivarian Revolution" promises to ease poverty, accused Spain and the United States on Sunday of siding with his enemies and warned Colombia he might break off diplomatic ties.
Police were still investigating what caused the two explosions. But an official from the DISIP state security police told local radio that a powerful plastic explosive had been placed at the Colombian consulate. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blasts, but 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. "Our revolution will not be negotiated, only deepened," one leaflet read. ***
Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez and PdVSA President Ali Rodriguez want to make clear to the U.S. government that the oil sector is returning to normal and that the country can play a role if an oil supply shortage were to occur due to a war between the U.S. and Iraq, the spokesman added. A definite meeting with Abraham for Wednesday hasn't been set yet, the spokesman said. An official at the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington said the Venezuelan ambassador Bernardo Alvarez is still working on the final agenda.
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*** Gustavo Coronel, former PDVSA Board member, wrote the following in a January 28, 2003 article: "With the collapse of PDVSA, we are witnessing the collapse of the country . . . when the time comes, if I am still around, I hope to be a witness for the prosecution. Why? Because when I was building pipelines for a better PDVSA, Ali Rodriguez, the current President of the "revolutionary" PDVSA, was blowing them up, as the main dynamite expert of the Cuban-supported guerrillas which failed in Venezuela during the 1960s." (VHeadline.com)
It is Ali Rodriguez who now has complete control of PDVSA: financially and contractually. Ali Rodriguez Araque not only fires and hires, moves PDVSA funds around, but also can sign contracts like the one with Pepex.com (Herb Goodman, CEO) to take over PDVSA's oil trading. There is no longer any transparency. Those who work for PDVSA now work for Petroleos de Chavez, the fully credentialed People of Petroleum having been replaced by the mediocre, and now led by an "Oil Commander-in-Chief" (Chavez), with no auditing, or transparency.
Venezuelans are living in a war economy - in an internal war - a civil war, which could last a long time. Over 12,000 commercial establishments have closed, and 5,000 businesses are bankrupted. The Chavez government is now using currency controls and price controls to attack the only remaining productive sector remaining.***
They came just 36 hours after President Hugo Chávez bitterly criticized the Colombian and Spanish governments for expressing concern over the arrest of a leading member of the opposition whose detention was widely seen as part of a political crackdown by Chávez.
The president also denounced the United States and the Organization of American States' secretary-general, César Gaviria. The Bush administration linked this week's ''sharp verbal attacks'' by Chávez to the upsurge in violence, suggesting that the Venezuelan leader was reneging on a Feb. 18 pledge to curb fiery remarks likely to incite violence.***
"The sophisticated part of our business, refining, that's not our business," Mr. Mommer said. "Exploration and production, that is where the big money is." Such a sale would "dismember" the company, warned José Toro Hardy, an influential former board member, because Citgo refineries are specially outfitted to process Venezuela's particularly gummy brand of heavy crude. "There are few refineries in the world that can refine" this crude, Mr. Toro Hardy explained. "Without Citgo, Venezuela's heavy oil would lose value."
Oil analysts also warn that the company will be debilitated for years from the loss of experienced workers. Executives, office workers, engineers and highly trained technicians joined the walkout and, in some cases, damaged computers and software and stole files to hinder reactivation efforts. Mr. Chávez, who has referred to the employees as traitors and fascists, has promised that they will not be rehired. But already, oil analysts say, the shortage of experienced workers is being felt in every corner of the company. In the patents and technology department, which develops technology for exploration and refining, 800 were fired. The department that trains executives has lost hundreds, as has the crucial commercialization department, which contracts with oil purchasers.
"Even if you replace the bodies, you don't replace institutional memories," said Larry Goldstein, president of the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation, an industry-supported analysis group in ***
Named after the national hero, Liberator Simon Bolivar, about 70,000 of these community groups - which lobby the government directly for funds - have been set up across the country to fight for the rights of the marginalised and "defend the revolution". But critics argue that what they refer to as the "Circles of Terror" have become a sort of underground armed militia.***
…… Authorities were also seeking to arrest seven people who were fired from executive positions with the state-run oil company for participating in the work stoppage. A judge issued the warrants Wednesday night. Juan Echeverria, an attorney representing the executives, said he had reports that they would be charged with interrupting and "damaging the means used to supply" fuel, which carries a sentence of up to six years upon conviction.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy closed Wednesday after receiving "credible information of a threat to its security," a statement said. The closure came a day 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. ***
Angry opposition representatives accused the government of deliberately stalling the talks to thrash out an agreement on elections to end the feud between Chavez and his foes in the world's No. 5 oil exporter. "Once again we were left waiting for the government. ... You can see that there isn't much interest," negotiator and anti-Chavez union leader Manuel Cova told Reuters. Chavez, a populist former paratrooper who was first elected in 1998 and survived a coup last year, has been resisting pressure to step down. His opponents accuse him of ruling like a dictator and of trying to install Cuban-style communism in oil-rich Venezuela. ***
Leaders of Chavez's ruling party planned a march Thursday to commemorate the Feb. 27, 1989, riots that broke out after then-President Carlos Andres Perez passed an austere economic development plan and increased domestic gasoline prices. Soldiers brutally suppressed the riots. Official figures said more than 300 people died, but victims' families say more than 2,000 were killed in the violence.
"They used us. They used us soldiers as though we were an army invading our own country to massacre a poor, cheated population," Chavez said in a speech at a military parade Thursday. "During the whole of the twentieth century they stole from the people, they forgot about them, and then on top of that, in February 1989, they wanted to apply the IMF's recipe," Chavez said.
The Committee of Families and Victims of the "Caracazo," as the riots are known, said it "rejects any political sector trying to capitalize these events into a political banner." The human rights group called on Chavez's government to compensate victims of the riots and prosecute those responsible. Government allies say the discontent surrounding the 1989 unrest sparked Chavez's own failed coup attempt in 1992 and his subsequent rise to power. [End]
The explosions slightly injured four people and damaged nearby buildings. Spain, Colombia, the United States and other nations demanded a swift investigation and warned Venezuela's protracted political crisis may have entered a new, more violent phase. The U.S. Embassy reopened Friday after closing the previous day, citing "credible information of a threat to its security." The government sent more than a dozen federal agents, national guardsmen and municipal police to the mission after U.S. Ambassador Charles Shapiro requested increased security.
The bombings came a day after Chavez lashed out at Colombia and Spain for allegedly interfering in Venezuela's domestic affairs. Colombia and Spain had expressed concern over the arrest of Carlos Fernandez, head of Venezuela's largest business chamber. He faces rebellion and other charges for leading a 63-day general strike. Leaflets supporting Chavez were found near both blasts, prompting opposition leaders to accuse the government. Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel suggested radical Chavez opponents trying to destabilize the country may have been responsible. Federal investigators have not said what type of explosives were used. ***
Like other relatives of kidnap victims, Rivas feels for the families of the missing Americans, but wants the search to stop. Elkin Hernández is one of 72 Colombian soldiers, police officers and politicians now held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC. Since the three Americans literally fell from the sky and into the FARC's hands, the captives have become part of an international tug-of-war.
The rebels are seeking a broad prisoner exchange and are using the Americans as pawns, saying they will only release the Americans -- and the several dozen Colombian soldiers, police and politicians they are holding -- if the government frees about 3,000 of their jailed leftist allies. Both the United States and Colombia have refused the overture. The search in the mountain highlands continues.***
The bogus $100 bills equaled 10 percent of all the counterfeit currency seized last year in the United States. What's more, many were printed on Iraqi bank notes. Since that night, nearly $20 million of the same counterfeit bills have been seized in Colombia. And the U.S. Secret Service and other intelligence agencies are questioning why a counterfeiting ring protected by Marxist guerrillas had access to bank notes from Iraq……………………… The probe is so secret that the Secret Service routinely declines comment. The agency went as far as persuading the federal Government Accounting Office to delete portions of a 1996 report on counterfeiting that mentioned rumors of a Middle East country printing U.S. dollars to finance terrorism. Unlike the superdollar case, agents know where the Orlando bills were printed. On Feb. 11, Colombian police raided the printing plant on a farm near Cali. The $20 million worth of counterfeit bills was the largest seizure in the country's history, according to the Secret Service. Colombia is the world's largest producer of counterfeit U.S. currency, followed by Bulgaria.
The ringleader, Hector Tabarez, told Colombian police that he had regularly paid the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Latin America's oldest revolutionary group known by its Spanish acronym as FARC, to protect the printing presses, agents said. The use of Iraqi bank notes didn't make sense to investigators. "It seems like an odd place to get their paper when they've got Venezuela right across the border," said Agent Kevin Billings, one of the Orlando supervisors. Counterfeiters typically use an inexpensive currency and bleach off the old ink before printing the fakes.
Venezuela's currency, the bolivar, is the usual choice of Colombian counterfeiters. It's almost as inexpensive as the Iraqi note -- worth less than a penny each -- and is printed on paper from the same company in Massachusetts that supplies the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Billings said. Currency-grade paper is essential to pass the touch test. Agents say cheap paper makes counterfeit bills feel slick while real ones are rough and durable. The printing plant in Colombia was discovered as the result of a tip to the U.S. Customs Service that about $1 million was about to be smuggled into Florida. The tip was passed to the Secret Service office in Bogota, from whichAgent Rafael Barros followed the ring's courier on a Jan. 25 flight to Miami.***
The 17,000-member Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, is Latin America's largest and most powerful insurgency. On Feb. 24, it announced the capture of three Americans seized after their plane went down in southern Colombia. The guerrillas say they shot down the plane and that the captives are CIA employees. U.S. officials insist the aircraft had mechanical trouble. The bodies of two other passengers, an American and a Colombian, were found near the wreckage of the aircraft, which was pocked with machine-gun and rocket fire. Both men had been shot. [End]
Hill spoke Monday at a two-day conference sponsored by the University of Miami's North South Center, the U.S. Army War College and the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees American military operations in Latin America. The conference, ''Building Regional Security in the Western Hemisphere,'' addressed how Colombia's conflict could wreak havoc region-wide. Colombia's nearly four-decade war pits illegal right-wing paramilitaries and the armed forces against two leftist insurgencies, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army. All three illegal groups are financed by the drug trade, making them major suppliers of the 500 tons of cocaine entering the U.S. each year.
The operation, which includes gun running and money laundering, Hill said, provides ''hundreds of millions'' of dollars to other terrorist groups around the world. The United States has provided $2 billion to help Colombia beat not just drugs but the rebels as well. Last month three American defense contractors surveying coca crops were kidnapped by the FARC, and a third was killed. The topic was notably unmentioned by Hill and most other conference participants, including Colombia's ambassador to Washington, Luis Moreno. ''Terrorist groups operating in Colombia are feeling the crunch,'' Moreno said, insisting that the Colombian military is making serious inroads against the groups. ''But we must keep it up,'' he said. ``We must step it up.'' [End]
Complaints that the central government has exported not just oil from the region, but increasingly its attendant profits as well, have turned many residents against President Hugo Chávez, whom they have accused of withholding $500 million from their state budget over the years. Only one of the state's 21 mayors supports Mr. Chávez, while the governor, Manuel Rosales, has easily rallied tens of thousands of people against him. In Mr. Chávez's struggle to overcome the devastating effects of a two-month nationwide opposition strike, Zulia, the country's most populous state with 3.2 million residents, is a crucial battleground. Mr. Chávez must not only boost oil production, but also his support in this state whose people tend to vote as a bloc.
Two weeks ago, with the strike faltering, he set his sights on removing Mr. Rosales, urging people to demand the kind of recall referendum that his own critics have sought unsuccessfully against him. Yet even among the poor, the very group that Mr. Chávez says benefits most from his Bolivarian Revolution, disenchantment has grown. "The economy is fatal, and since Chávez came to power it has gotten worse, because there is no work," said Addis Atencia, who shares a compound of five shanties with nearly three dozen adults and children. "In a country that produces petroleum, how can you live like this?"***
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