[Cincinatus' Wife]

Chavez Says No Deal on Fired Oil Strikers - Supreme Court disqualifies Electoral Council*** Opponents of Chavez accuse him of ruling like a dictator and of trying to install Cuba-style communism. They say he is waging a political vendetta against the PDVSA strikers. "Sacking 10,000 people smacks of revenge," Teodoro Petkoff, editor of the daily newspaper TalCual, wrote in an editorial. Chavez, who was first elected in 1998 and survived a brief coup last year, has called the oil strikers "terrorists" and demanded that they be jailed for what he called their "sabotage" of the oil industry.

The opposition called on the government Monday to choose between two options proposed by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who is assisting the talks. One option is for a constitutional amendment to shorten Chavez's rule and call early elections. The other is for a binding referendum on Chavez's rule on Aug. 19, midway through his current term which is due to last until early 2007. The government did not reject the options outright but did say it had no interest in shortening Chavez's term.

Maduro said that before any elections could be held, the country's National Assembly must first appoint a new electoral body to oversee such a poll. The existing National Electoral Council has been disqualified after the Supreme Court upheld a government complaint accusing it of political bias. To trigger a binding recall referendum on Chavez, the opposition needs the signatures of 20 percent of Venezuela's nearly 12 million voters. The government says this process will have to be carried out under the supervision of the new electoral authority, which, along with the Supreme Court, will also have to rule on whether the referendum can in fact be held on Aug 19.***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Chavez's threat festers unnoticed***"Chavez believes that oil is the weapon that is going to bring down the capitalist system," he said. The fate of Chavez has major implications for both the United States and Cuba, which depend heavily on Venezuela for oil. The strike has slashed Venezuelan oil output to barely one-third of its normal levels. Some observers liken Venezuela's situation to two other former major oil producers: Libya and Iran. Both countries witnessed a dramatic cutback in oil production after revolutionary episodes in 1969 and 1979, respectively.

Throughout his presidency Chavez has battled PdVSA's management, trying to destroy the autonomy that many say was the secret to the company's much-vaunted efficiency. Before the strike Chavez's efforts to wrest control of PdVSA had failed. But when oil company executives threw their weight behind the opposition strike in December, they miscalculated badly. Two months later, thousands of PdVSA's top managers have been fired and Chavez is firmly in control. It remains to be seen if the new, inexperienced managers can bring back production to normal levels.

Either way, the United States faces a difficult choice. Does it place support for democracy above or below its need to secure oil supplies? While Washington may not like Chavez, he has pledged to continue to supply the United States with oil. It was in the name of democracy -- and to prevent what it feared was the spread of Cuban-inspired communism -- that the Reagan administration became deeply involved in Central America in the 1980s. But the world has moved on since the Cold War. Now the White House is fighting a new enemy: terrorism. Meanwhile, no one in Washington seems to be paying much attention to the spread of left-wing ideas -- not to mention anti-Americanism -- in its own back yard.***