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Venezuela in Tumult Over Recall Vote
(Fabiola Sanchez, Associated Press, February 13, 2004)
Holding up petitions he claimed were signed by dead people, minors and foreigners, President Hugo Chavez said Friday he will appeal to Venezuela's Supreme Court if election officials accept them and hold a recall vote against him. . . . Chavez's comments fueled a growing dispute over the verification of 3.4 million signatures opposition leaders claim to have turned in to demand the recall. . . . He spoke hours after the Organization of American States and the Atlanta-based Carter Center cautioned Venezuelan election officials against using technicalities to reject the petitions. . . . Election officials have been deciding what to do with thousands of petition sheets in which staff workers at sign-up centers filled out basic personal information for citizens - and then had the citizens simply sign their names. Election officials are split over whether that procedure violated election rules. . . . Venezuela is deeply torn between those who accuse Chavez of trampling over democratic institutions and those who consider him a champion of the poor. . . . Chavez, whose six-year term ends in 2007, says opponents resorted to fraud to collect the signatures and claims the forms were filled out incorrectly. He said he would appeal to the Supreme Court if the elections council calls for a vote. . . . "This violates the regulations and the rules," Chavez said at a news conference Friday while holding up what he claimed were copies of petitions "signed" by dead people, minors and foreigners. . . . The dispute has delayed the verification process and added to tensions as the council deliberates. Two small protests against the delays turned violent Thursday, and 20 people were hurt. . . . Opponents were planning a Saturday march to the Caracas offices of the elections council, where Chavez sympathizers are camped out, ready for confrontation.

posted by LoZo 5:31 PM

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US Warns Americans of Possible Violence in Venezuela
(Voice of America, 12 Feb 2004)
The United States is warning Americans in Venezuela of possible violent protests as election officials there prepare to decide whether to hold a presidential referendum. . . . In a statement, the U.S. State Department says the announcement by election officials Friday may lead to political demonstrations during "this period of uncertainty." The statement urged U.S. citizens to avoid demonstrations and other gatherings. . . . Venezuela's Electoral Commission is due to rule on the validity of more than three million signatures collected by opposition groups calling for the removal of President Hugo Chavez. The country's constitution requires 2.4 million signatures to force a vote on ousting an elected president.

[COMMENT: I wonder if the US is involved in another coup attempt like they were in 2002].

posted by LoZo 5:07 PM

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Venezuela grants refugee status to Colombians
(Reuters, 09 February 2004)
Venezuela for the first time has granted official refugee status to Colombians fleeing the conflict in their country in a move that will allow them to be protected and resettled, a U.N. agency said on Monday. . . . Maria Virginia Trimarco, the regional representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said the policy shift by President Hugo Chavez's government would make it easier to help thousands of Colombian refugees in the border area. . . . In what U.N. officials have described as the most serious humanitarian crisis outside of Africa, tens of thousands of Colombians have spilled into neighboring nations like Venezuela to escape a 4-decade-old war waged between government troops, right-wing militias and rebel groups. . . . Venezuela, which has had several disputes with its Andean neighbor over border security, previously categorized Colombians who fled across the border as "displaced persons" without formal rights to protection and resettlement. . . . Trimarco said Venezuelan authorities had now granted formal refugee status to a first batch of 47 Colombian nationals. . . . The U.N. official said the main criteria for awarding refugee status were if the individual could demonstrate a risk of persecution. That could involve specific threats to his or her safety or cases in which war or combat meant families could not return to their homes. . . . Not everyone fitted into this category, she added, noting that up to 4 million Colombian migrants had moved to oil-rich Venezuela and settled there in recent decades.

posted by LoZo 4:27 PM

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Videotapes show secret CIA & Venezuelan terrorists conspiring another coup d'etat
(VHeadline.com, February 06, 2004)
Video-taped images filmed by Venezuelan intelligence agents are to be screened in Los Angeles (Calif., USA) later this month under the title: "Agenda Oculta" (Hidden Agenda) showing one of the most recent hidden conspiracy meetings between the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Venezuelan opposition terrorists in the act of planning another bloody coup d'etat against the democratically-elected government of Venezuela. . . . The Spanish-language presentation will be at the Echo Park Film Center at 1200 North Alvarado Echo Park, Los Angeles at 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. Thursday, February, 26, with English subtitles. . . . One of the most astonishing moments in the video is when someone says "we cannot walk around telling everyone we're with the CIA...” The video maps a series of references made to the US Embassy in Caracas and US Ambassador to Venezuela Charles S. Shapiro. It verified the attendance of a US Embassy staffer and a former US Army Colonel (identified only as a Col. Corry) speaking of operative modes, discretion, etc. . . . The video was sent to the US Congress by the Venezuelan National Assembly (AN) deputies Nicolas Maduro and Juan Barreto to prove what they alleged to be "a flagrant interference by the CIA in the Venezuelan domestic affairs," as well as to demand that "the most outrageous and vicious activities against Venezuelan sovereignty should immediately cease."

posted by LoZo 5:48 PM

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U.S. - Venezuela: From hostile rhetoric to the brink of confrontation
(Mathaba News, February 7, 2004)
The thorny relations between the United States and Venezuela are moving from the stage of rhetoric into the realm of open political confrontation, said analysts consulted by IPS in Caracas. . . . Recently, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has come in for harsh words from President George Bush and several members of his administration. . . . Pres. Bush took advantage of the Special Summit of the Americas recently held in Mexico to state that "support of democratic institutions... gives hope and strength to those struggling to preserve their God-given rights, whether in Venezuela, or Haiti, or Bolivia." . . . In a joint news briefing offered with his host, Mexican President Vicente Fox, Pres. Bush directly referred to the recall referendum with which the opposition movement in Venezuela is seeking to remove Pres. Chavez. . . . "That cannot be mere rhetoric...because the current U.S. government is made up of 'hawks'-people who act," political scientist Alberto Garrido told IPS. . . . Professor of International Studies Carlos Romero at the Central University, Venezuela's leading university, told IPS that the history of Latin America "demonstrates that the United States acts according to the circumstances, and in a scenario of confrontation, a U.S. military intervention cannot simply be ruled out." . . . Ranking high among those shared interests are the nearly 1.4 million barrels a day of oil that Caracas exports to the United States--nearly half of Venezuela's oil sales, which are the lifeblood of the local economy. . . . Nevertheless, for the first time since Pres. Chavez, a former lieutenant-colonel, took office in 1999, unconfirmed reports have come out that the military high command in Venezuela is studying the scenario of a U.S. invasion. . . . In Mr. Romero's view, Washington's relations with Caracas have entered a fourth stage confrontation. . . . In the first stage, from 1999 to 2001, the United States decided to "wait and see the real extent of Chavez's revolutionary rhetoric," he said. . . . The second, in 2001, was marked by "suspicion" regarding Chavez's commitment to democracy and whether he would stay in line with the market system prevailing in the Americas. The third stage, which began in May 2003, was one of "doing the right thing." . . . The analyst also pointed to the November elections in the United States, noting that Bush's bid for re-election means he "must attend to the anti-Castro voter, to whom he promised he would help bring about a quick democratic transition in Cuba, which is now seen as part of a fulcrum with Caracas." . . . In April 2002, Pres. Chavez survived a two-day failed coup staged by the opposition in conjunction with anti-Chavez officers. He also weathered a two-month general strike in December 2002 and January 2003. Both events had quiet U.S. support.

posted by LoZo 1:16 PM

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Don King praises Venezuela's Chavez
Boxing promoter Don King praised President Hugo Chavez and his "revolution" during the Venezuelan leader's weekly radio and television program on Sunday. . . . "To see what is happening here makes me feel good all over," said King of Chavez's government and his efforts to bring social justice to Venezuela's poor majority. . . . "You are a president of the people, for the people and by the people and your magic lies in your people ties. You are the one concerned about the poor," King said during Chavez's "Hello President" program. . . . After a brief conversation in which the two recalled past boxing matches, Chavez and King hugged and called each other "brothers" in English. . . . King was in Venezuela for an anti-drug boxing tournament in Caracas. Boxing is one of the most popular sports in this South American country of 24 million. . . . Two weeks ago, actor Danny Glover also joined Chavez during the show and applauded his programs for the poor. . . . Muhammad Ali, George Foreman and Sugar Ray Leonard were once clients of King, who has previously visited Venezuela to promote local bouts and boxers during his decades-long career. . . . On his program, Chavez also accused his opponents of committing widespread fraud in collecting signatures for the petition calling for a presidential recall referendum. . . . Adversaries accuse Chavez of becoming increasingly authoritarian and riding roughshod over the country's democratic institutions. . . . Chavez counters that his "coup-plotting, fascist" foes only want to regain privileges they lost with his rise to power five years ago.

posted by LoZo 11:01 AM