Political scientist Christopher Garman writes: "President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva risks wasting his 'honeymoon' with public opinion and generating great frustration." And he continues: "The government made a big mistake by fanning expectations that some reform could be carried out during the first year" (Silvio Bressan, "Especialista não acredita em reformas ainda este ano," O Estado de S. Paulo, 3/2/2003).
Economist Paulo Rabello de Castro emphasizes: "The government's policy agenda is fraught with doubts and can end up by generating even greater frustration" (Rubeny Goulart, "Os caminhos do governo Lula," Forbes, 2/15/2003). With its image declining, the Lula government is under strong pressure from its own supporters to change its economic policy and strive for profound transformations in line with the PT's leftist ideology. This creates uncertainty. Others have warned President Lula not to fall into temptation.***
Court sources said similar cases against late Moroccan King Hassan II, Cuban President Fidel Castro and Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang had also been dropped in recent years. Lawyers filed the suit in Madrid because Spanish law allows for offenses such as genocide and crimes against humanity to be prosecuted in Spain even if they did not occur here. They argued they could not take the case in Venezuela, alleging Chavez controlled the judicial system. It was not immediately known whether the lawyers planned to appeal.
The suit argued that Chavez was responsible for deadly disturbances on April 11, 2002, lawyer Alfredo Romero said in January. The violence erupted when pro- and anti-Chavez demonstrators clashed in downtown Caracas - 19 Venezuelans died and hundreds more were wounded, Romero said. One Spaniard was killed and three were injured, he said. The plaintiffs argued that Chavez organized armed gangs to attack the opposition and keep him in power.
In 1998, National Court Judge Baltasar Garzon tried to bring former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to trial in Spain on charges of genocide. At the time, the court said it did have jurisdiction in the Pinochet case. In Britain, where Pinochet was arrested on a warrant from Garzon, officials released the aging leader on grounds that he was unfit to stand trial. [End]