Posted on 01/20/2003 1:27:16 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez on Sunday threatened to order more raids on striking private food producers and warned the government may abandon negotiations with opponents trying to force him from office.
Meanwhile, thousands of Venezuelans with roots in Italy, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Portugal and other countries marched for peace, waving the flags of their homelands and Venezuela. Some carried signs that read "liberty" and "union" in six languages.
Immigrants to Venezuela and their descendants wave flags from all over the world as they march through Caracas to protest strike-related violence in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2003. The sign at left reads 'Ecuador is with Venezuela.'(AP Photo/Jaime Puebla)
"I've never seen the country so divided," said Jose Lopes, 60, a bookstore owner who immigrated to Venezuela from Portugal as a teenager. "We don't want to leave but if Chavez doesn't leave it's a possibility."
Opponents accuse the 48-year-old president of running roughshod over democratic institutions and wrecking the economy with leftist policies.
A combination of opposition parties, business leaders and labor unions called for a general strike on Dec. 2 to demand Chavez accept the results of a nonbinding referendum on his rule.
Venezuela's National Elections Council scheduled the vote for Feb. 2 after accepting an opposition petition, but Chavez's supporters have challenged the referendum in court. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the issue soon.
Chavez, whose six-year term ends in 2007, insists his foes must wait until August - or halfway through his six-year term - when a recall referendum is permitted by the constitution.
The strike has brought Venezuela's economy to a standstill, causing shortages of gasoline, food and drink, including bottled water, milk, soft drinks and flour.
Local producers insist they are still making basic foodstuffs but that fuel shortages and lack of security for their transport workers have hampered deliveries.
"Some businessmen have reflected and have started to open their factories," Chavez said during his weekly television and radio show. "Those who refuse, who resist, well, be sure that today, tomorrow, or after we will raid your warehouses and stockpiles."
On Friday, National Guard soldiers seized water and soft drinks from two bottling plants. One was an affiliate of Coca-Cola, the other belonged to Venezuela's largest food and drinks producer, Empresas Polar.
Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel on Sunday rejected U.S. Ambassador Charles Shapiro's criticism of the raids, which he said affected U.S. interests in Venezuela. Shapiro also questioned their legality.
"Ambassador, with all due respect, you are not an authority in this country," Rangel said Sunday while speaking to supporters in Venezuela's Margarita Island.
Bilateral "relations have to be on an equal plain of mutual respect. This is not a protectorate, it is not a colony," Rangel said.
Chavez also warned the government would walk away from negotiations sponsored by the Organization of American States if the opposition continued seeking his ouster through what he calls unconstitutional means.
"We are carefully evaluating the possibility that our representatives will leave the (negotiating) table," he said. "We don't talk with terrorists. We are willing to talk with any Venezuelan within the framework of the constitution."
The talks, which began in November, have yielded few results. Six countries - Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and the United States - have begun an initiative called "Friends of Venezuela" to support the negotiations.
The strike is strongest in Venezuela's oil industry, previously the world's fifth-largest exporter.
Oil production has dwindled to 800,000 barrels a day, compared with the 3 million barrels a day the country usually produces, according to the government. Strike leaders put the figure at 400,000 barrels a day.
Chavez, who has fired more than 1,000 strikers from the state oil monopoly, said Sunday that production could be restored to 2 million barrels a day by the end of the month.
But Chavez acknowledged that gasoline shortages have increased. He blamed the difficulties on "sabotage" by strikers and delayed gasoline imports. He also promised to reinforce troop presence at oil installations and said 60 gasoline trucks were on their way to Caracas, the capital, on Sunday.
"Keep rationing gasoline," Chavez urged listeners.
Besides the factory raid, troops have seized striking oil tankers and kept strikers out of oil installations. Five people have died in politically related violence since the strike began.
Also Sunday, Chavez appointed retired Gen. Lucas Rincon as his interior minister, replacing Diosdado Cabello, who was named infrastructure minister last week. Rincon's appointment comes despite his role in April's failed coup and his later resignation as defense minister.
Rincon announced to the world that Chavez resigned after 19 people died during an opposition march on the presidential palace. Loyal soldiers restored Chavez to power two days later after an interim government dissolved the constitution.
Chavez also appointed Gen. Jorge Garcia Carneiro as commander of Venezuela's army, replacing Gen. Julio Garcia Montoya.
November 29, 2002 - Venezuela Court Halts Vote on Chavez *** CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuela's Supreme Court put the brakes on opposition efforts to force a non-binding referendum on President Hugo Chavez's presidency, quashing a decision hours earlier by the electoral council to conduct the vote.
The back-to-back decisions on Thursday threw Venezuela into political turmoil. Foes and supporters of Chavez held rival demonstrations, with police keeping them apart. Opposition leaders threatened a general strike on Monday to press for the non-binding vote on whether the president should resign.
The opposition began its push for a referendum on Nov. 4, delivering a petition with 2 million signatures to the electoral council demanding the plebiscite. Electoral officials have said they verified about 1.2 million signatures - the number needed to schedule the vote.
The council early Thursday approved holding a Feb. 2 referendum in a 3-1 vote with one member absent, citing a new law allowing approval by a simple majority. But the high court said the council is still bound by an old electoral law requiring approval by four council members. "The referendum still hasn't been called," said electoral council member Romulo Lares, who abstained. "That decision is null according to the Supreme Court's ruling."
Dissenting council member Romulo Rangel also said a more thorough check of the signatures on the petition referendum is needed.
Council members who backed the referendum stood by their action. "The decision is transparent and in keeping with the law," electoral council vice president Jose Manuel Zerpa said.***
Cuban President Fidel Castro delivers a speech after he voted Sunday Jan.19, 2003 in Santiago De Cuba, Cuba. Cubans vote Sunday to elect the 609 National Assembly members that make up the country's parliament. (AP Photo/Jose Goitia)
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CUBA'S CASTRO PRAISES CHAVEZ
Chavez on Sunday accused a U.S.-controlled technology company, Intesa, of joining what he called a campaign of sabotage by the opposition strikers in the state oil giant PDVSA. Intesa, 60 percent of which was owned by the U.S. company Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), had been responsible for running PDVSA's computer systems which Chavez said were deliberately blocked and disrupted in the strike.
"The Intesa executives didn't want to cooperate ... We'll have to rescind that contract ... We're nationalizing the brains of our oil industry," the president said. Opposition leaders said Friday's raids against the drinks firms were an attack on private property. They accuse Chavez of trying to introduce Cuba-style communism in Venezuela. Cuban President Fidel Castro on Sunday defended his friend and political ally Chavez, praising him as a "firm, good and intelligent man who is not going to abandon his people." Speaking in the eastern Cuban city of Santiago de Cuba, Castro said Chavez's striking opponents were being defeated. ***
Oops.
***"Narco-Terrorism fuels radical Islamic groups associated with Hamas, Hezbollah, Algamat, and, yes, Al Qaeda. These groups operating out of the tri-border area of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, and other locales, like Margarita Island off Venezuela, generate hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars through drugs and arms trafficking with Narco-Terrorists. Simply put, direct drug sales and money laundering fund world-wide terrorist operations.
That is not speculation, that is fact. These groups operate in and out of Southern Panama, Northern Ecuador, Northern Peru, Bolivia, portions of Venezuela and the tri-border area. They are involved in kidnappings in Venezuela, Ecuador and Paraguay." ...and... "There is a huge and growing market for forged and illicit immigration documents. Narco-Terrorists and radical Islamic groups are feeding this market."***--- General James T. Hill, Commander of United States Southern Command, on Thursday, January 9th, 2003 at 'The Americas Society' and 'Council of the Americas' in New York City.
Kinda like our last president (and her husband) ...:-(
Martin Sheen, tell that to your son Charlie and others of his ilk.
The problem begins with YOUR problem children.
Zimbabwe solution comes to Venezuela.
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