1999 Jul 30, A Venezuelan airliner with 16 people went missing. Rebels on Aug 8 promised to free 14 passengers and crewmen and they had not hijacked it. Colombian rebels freed 8 passengers Aug 9 and allowed the pilot and co-pilot to fly the plane back to Venezuela. (WSJ, 8/2/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 8/9/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 8/10/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul, A new penal code was implemented and led to the release of over 7,000 inmates from overcrowded jails. (SFC, 3/3/00, p.D4)
1999 Aug 12, The Constitutional Assembly assumed sweeping powers and declared a state of emergency for the courts. (SFC, 8/13/99, p.D3)
1999 Aug 19, The Constitutional Assembly declared a judicial emergency and gave itself new powers to overhaul the court system. (SFC, 8/20/99, p.D3)
1999 Aug 25, In Venezuela the constitutional assembly declared a legislative emergency and usurped most of the functions of Congress. (SFC, 8/26/99, p.A12)
1999 Aug 27, In Venezuela members of Congress clashed with police as they attempted to defy a government ban on conducting a legislative session. (SFC, 8/28/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 28, Congress members announced that they would refuse to authorize funds for the constitutional panel and would withhold legal permission for Pres. Chavez to leave the country. (SFEC, 8/29/99, p.A22)
1999 Aug 30, The constitutional assembly stripped the opposition-controlled Congress of its last remaining powers. (SFC, 8/31/99, p.A13)
1999 Sep 9, In Venezuela the Constitutional Assembly agreed to reverse its order for Congress to shut down and allowed Congress to resume normal activities in an accord mediated by the Catholic Church. (SFC, 9/10/99, p.A16)
1999 Sep 16, In Venezuela a Colombian delegation met with the largest guerrilla group to revive peace talks. (WSJ, 9/17/99, p.A1)
1999 Oct 4, It was reported that Venezuela had begun domestic sales of unleaded gasoline. (WSJ, 10/4/99, p.B13E)
1999 Oct 8, In Venezuela authorities suspended 122 judges for corruption and incompetence. (SFC, 10/9/99, p.A11)
1999 Oct 21, In Venezuela corruption cases against 2 former presidents, Carlos Andres Perez and Jaime Lusinchi, were reopened. (SFC, 10/22/99, p.B4)
1999 Nov 4, The Constitutional Assembly approved a 6 year presidential term and allowed reelection. (SFC, 11/5/99, p.A17)
1999 Dec 15, A vote for the approval of the new constitution was scheduled. The new document contained 368 articles. Voters approved the new constitution which included changing the name of the country to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. (WSJ, 11/26/99, p.A11)(SFC, 12/16/99, p.A16)
1999 Dec 16, In Venezuela torrential rains flooded 9 northern states and Caracas and forced some 120,000 people to flee their homes. Over 1000 people were killed in Vargas state and 25,000 were described missing. (SFC, 12/17/99, p.D6)(SFC, 12/18/99, p.A14)(SFC, 12/20/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/20/99, p.A1) - Source: Timeline - Venezuela
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July 26, 1999 Venezuelan president gets big win in assembly vote - From staff and wire reports. [Full Text] CARACAS, Venezuela (CNN) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's Patriotic Pole coalition was preparing Monday to reap the benefits of an overwhelming victory in a vote to name members of a constitutional assembly.
Chavez proposed the assembly to rewrite Venezuela's 1961 constitution, taking a risk that it could cast him out of office.
"My reply last night at 9 o'clock was that I would put my office at the assembly's disposal so that today, or tomorrow, when the new assembly in place, it can consider whether it is right that Hugo Chavez should continue as president or not," the president said.
But Chavez had nothing to worry about -- his coalition took all but eight of the assembly's 131 seats.
Chavez's critics, however, warned that a new constitution could give the former coup leader sweeping powers, creating essentially a dictatorship in what is South America's oldest democracy. And they called on Chavez to take note that more than half of Venezuela's eligible voters came out to the polls on Sunday.
"We call on the pro-Chavez sector not to misinterpret the signal that one-third of voters supported them today," said Alberto Franceschi, a former center-right congressman and one of the eight anti-Chavez candidates to win an assembly seat.
Chavez, who led a failed coup in 1992, has made no secret that he wants the new assembly to dissolve both Congress and Venezuela's Supreme Court. But he said Sunday that he would not object if the assembly decided to retain the legislative body.
"We're building a true democracy here, and a true democracy is built through consensus and respect for others," said Chavez, who was elected by a landslide last December on an anti-establishment, anti-corruption platform after spending two years in jail for the coup attempt.
Chavez' wife, Marisabel, and former Chief of Staff Alfredo Pena were the top vote-getters in Sunday's election, along with his brother, 20 former military officers, a horse-racing announcer, a folk musician and five former government ministers.
Despite concerns from the opposition and the loss of 600,000 jobs since he took office, Chavez maintains popularity ratings of about 75 percent. It's the rest of the government Venezuelans want changed "so that all this political corruption that we have had up until now ends," said voter Gloria Zambrano.
"I think that they have finished this country off," she said. "We want a change and I think that this president will usher in many changes."
"The guy is nuts," said electrical engineer Daniel Sternbach, "but people here like him." [End]
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November 25, 1999 - Venezuelans march against new charter - By the BBC's Stephen Cviic - 
[Full Text] Thousands of people have marched through the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, to protest against a new constitution drawn up by supporters of President Hugo Chavez.
The demonstrators say the proposed changes will centralise power in the president's hands and reduce the power of local government.
The new constitution is to be voted on in a referendum next month.
Since he was elected president last December, Hugo Chavez has basically got his own way.
The strong support he enjoys from poor Venezuelans, tired of the corruption of the old political elite, means that the former paratrooper is still riding high in the opinion polls. But now, his opponents think it's time their voices were heard.
According to police, Wednesday's protest attracted about 7,000 people and passed off peacefully, with demonstrators carrying banners bearing patriotic slogans and messages urging people to vote "no" in next month's referendum.
The process was led by some state governors and mayors who say the new constitution will deprive them of their autonomy and set a dangerously authoritarian trend.
The governor of Merida state, William Davila, described the document as militarist and stateist.
But President Chavez's supporters say the protesters are merely old-style politicians, afraid of losing power when new elections are held.
Divided opinion
Like everything else surrounding Hugo Chavez, the proposed new constitution is intensely controversial, both at home and abroad. It will allow the president to stay in office for an extra year and then to seek re-election.
It would also abolish the senate and set up a new single chamber congress.
Local and international opinion is divided about whether it really is authoritarian, but many senior businessmen are unhappy with its economic clauses, fearing that Venezuela could be about to repeat the Brazilian mistake of entrenching expensive social entitlement.
However, there seems to be little doubt that President Chavez will win the "yes" vote he is seeking next month, driving another nail of the coffin of Venezuela's old political establishment. [End]
January 23, 2003 Horror in Venezuela Jesus Soriano and the price of dissent in Hugo Chavez's Venezuela by Thor L. Halvorssen - [Full Text] VENEZUELA IS NOW an abyss where there is no rule of law. A rogue government tortures innocent civilians with impunity while paying lip service to democracy and buying time at the "negotiation" table set up by the Organization of American States. Venezuela's foreign minister, Roy Chaderton, has funded an effective multi-million dollar public relations campaign to smear the opposition as coup-plotters and fascists intent on bringing about violence.
Jesus Soriano has never met Roy Chaderton or Hugo Chavez. Soriano supported President Hugo Chavez's meteoric rise, volunteered during the election campaign, and is now a second-year law student in Caracas. His law-school peers describe the 24-year-old as a cheerful and happy young man.
Soriano, a member of the Chavez party, is part of a national student group called "Ousia," a group that brings together moderates who support the government and opposition members seeking a peaceful resolution to the current crisis.
On December 6, Soriano witnessed the massacre that occurred during a peaceful protest in Altamira, a neighborhood in Caracas where the opposition has a strong presence. The killer was Joao De Gouveia, an outspoken supporter of Chavez who has an unusually close relationship with mayor Freddy Bernal, a Chavez crony. Gouveia randomly began shooting at the crowd. He killed three--including a teenage girl he shot in the head--and injured 28 people. As Gouveia kept shooting, several men raced toward him to stop the killing. Soriano was one of the men who wrestled Gouveia to the ground and prevented further killing. Soriano also protected Gouveia from a potential lynch mob that swarmed around the killer.
Soriano's heroic accomplishments did not cease that day. He became a national figure in Venezuela when he brought a small soccer ball (known in Venezuela as a "futbolito") to a sizable protest march organized against the rule of Lt. Col. Chavez. Soriano and other pro-Chavez partisans made their way towards the march intending to engage the opposition members in dialogue.
That hot afternoon, Soriano kicked the futbolito across the divide at the members of the opposition. They kicked it back. The magical realism of the event is evident in the extraordinary television footage of what occurred next. By the end of the match the anti-Chavez protestors and pro-Chavez partisans were hugging and chanting "Peace! Unity! We are Venezuela! Politicians go away! We are the real Venezuela!" In one particularly moving part of the footage, Soriano and a member of the opposing team trade a baseball hat for a Chavez-party red beret.
In one hour this sharply divided group of strangers accomplished more than the high-level negotiation team that seeks to defuse a potential civil war. Chavez was reportedly furious with the televised soccer match and even angrier that the reconciliation was a product of the efforts of one of his supporters. Soriano was declared an enemy of the revolution.
Last week Soriano organized another soccer match. On Wednesday he visited the Universidad Central de Venezuela, the main university in the capital, to attend a meeting of the student government. Violent clashes erupted as members of the Circulos Bolivarianos, an armed militia sworn to protect the revolution, began throwing rocks and tear gas grenades at the students. The militia identified Soriano and captured him. They then tied his hands and feet, lifted him up, and paraded him through the street like a sacrificial lamb chanting "Judas! Judas!" The entire spectacle was recorded by a cameraman who works for the official government television entity. Soriano was beaten so severely that he was left at the hospital emergency room. At the hospital he was detained by the DISIP, Chavez's secret police, and taken to their headquarters for questioning.
During his interrogation, fingernails in his left hand were torn out. After being further tortured and injected with drugs, the secret police took him into the bowels of the building and placed him in a cell. His cellmate: Joao de Gouveia.
Gouveia has the keys to the cell and comes in and out of the secret police headquarters at will. His only restriction is that he must sleep in the precinct, lest Chavez's police are revealed as allowing a confessed killer to roam free. Soriano's mother (who is also a Chavez supporter) tearfully claimed that Gouveia sodomized Soriano and beat him with such force that Soriano cannot open his eyes.
Soriano was released last Friday afternoon after Roy Chaderton advised Chavez that the case could filter out of Venezuela and could become a "human-interest story" with the potential to derail their PR campaign.
The government denied that Soriano had been mistreated. A thorough medical examination by a civil surgeon reveals that, beyond lacerations, severe bruising, and cracked ribs, Soriano had been repeatedly raped while in custody. His right arm shows that he has been injected. Nails are missing from his left hand. Soriano's internal organs have been crushed to the point that he urinates blood, and he cannot walk without assistance.
Once the medical report was made public, the secret police immediately began saying that Soriano was a member of a "right-wing paramilitary organization." This tactic, engineered by Chaderton, is used frequently to disqualify and discount opponents of the regime. All enemies of the "revolution" are coup plotters and fascists. The government now circulates a photo of Soriano in military fatigues. Carlos Roa, Soriano's attorney, showed me that the picture is a yearbook photo from when he was a schoolboy in military academy.
Although it was obvious that Soriano had been tortured, Iris Varela, a Chavez congressional representative, offered no apologies: "I am glad they did this to him. He deserved it." That such savage treatment is what greets government supporters who seek a peaceful resolution to the current crisis speaks volumes about Chavez's ultimate intentions. Soriano, now recuperating at home, must wonder why he ever supported the Chavez regime. [End]
Thor L. Halvorssen is a human rights and civil liberties activist who grew up in Venezuela. He now lives in Philadelphia.