Venezuela anti-Chavez lockout impact "patchy"; gov't may reopen skies to U.S."antidrug" overflights

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The failure of the general lockout registers the fact that the struggle of
millions of Venezuela workers and peasants is forcing sections of the
business community and officer caste to pull back from the drive to topple
Chavez.  Now he is attempting to mend some fences with Washington, which is
having to face the reality that THIS Latin American nationalist regime will
not be a pushover.
The two news itsme that follow appeared on he CubaNews list.
Fred Feldman

First Item
Venezuela anti-Chavez strike impact seen patchy
Reuters, 10.16.02, 2:45 PM ET
By Patrick Markey

CARACAS, Venezuela, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Foes of Venezuela's
President Hugo Chavez scrambled Wednesday to shore up
support for an anti-government strike planned for Monday,
but its economic impact seemed limited as key state
industries, including the oil and steel sectors, were
expected to keep working.

Five days before the 12-hour strike, billed by opposition
leaders as another blow in their political battle against
the left-wing president, the government was confidently
predicting its failure.

Chavez, an outspoken ex-paratrooper who survived a brief
coup by rebel military officers in April, has dismissed the
strike as a part of a new attempt to oust him from the
presidency of world's fifth largest oil exporter.

Six months after a short-lived Apr. 11-14 coup, the shutdown
is the latest test of strength between opponents and foes of
Chavez, who was elected by a landslide vote in 1998 with
promises to tackle poverty and corruption.

"The coup plotters have lost. Monday's strike will not
achieve anything," Planning Minister Felipe Perez told
reporters.

Opposition leaders, who blame his interventionist reforms
for damaging the economy, called the stoppage after giving
Chavez an ultimatum to resign or hold early elections. The
president, who returns Saturday from a visit to Europe, has
refused to step down before his mandate ends in 2007.

"The strike is one more step against the government," Hugo
Fonseca, a member of the opposition coalition Coordinadora
Democratica, told Reuters.

"Cassius Clay was a great heavyweight but he didn't have a
knock-out punch. He'd dance and jab. He'd win by points or
his opponent would collapse. This strike is another jab," he
said.

Since April, political tensions and discontent in the
military have stoked fears of fresh coup attempts. A
national strike, spearheaded by dissident managers from
the PDVSA state oil firm, helped trigger April's rebellion.
Loyal troops restored Chavez to power, but not before
more than 60 people died in street violence.

OIL WORKERS RELUCTANT, BUT SCHOOLS OUT

Strike organizers, the Venezuelan Workers Confederation
(CTV) and the nation's largest private sector business
association, Fedecamaras, insist that they have widespread
support and have urged Venezuela's 40,000 state oil workers
to stay at home.

But officials said on Wednesday that even if they do walk
out it would not impact production.

"There's not going to be any impact on exports or
production. There are definitely some people in PDVSA who
will join the strike, some of the executive staff probably,
but not the majority," said a Ministry of Energy spokesman.

The previous strike by dissident PDVSA managers, which badly
damaged the country's oil production, was a key element in
the mounting pressure on Chavez before April's coup. Oil
sales account for up to 50 percent of government revenues
and 80 percent of its export revenues.

Blue collar oil labor unions recently signed a new two-year
collective agreement with the government and have
previously said they will not allow oil flows to be
interrupted.

But their collective position remained unclear. Fedepetrol,
the nation's largest oil workers trades union, said it would
decide Thursday whether to join the shutdown.

A spokeswoman for Venezuela's state holding firm CVG,
which runs the nation's basic aluminum and steel industries,
said their operations would not be affected because
pro-government unions mostly controlled the local labor
branches.

Strong doubts also remained whether transport workers would
join the shutdown.

Strike organizers said most private banks would be closed to
the public and health workers, merchant marine and education
unions plan to join in the walkout. Many shops and
commercial businesses in Caracas were also expected to
participate. (Additional reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez,
Silene Ramirez and Matthew Robinson)

Copyright 2002, Reuters News Service

Second Item
Miami Herald
Posted on Sun, Oct. 13, 2002

Chávez may reopen the skies to U.S. patrols
BY PHIL GUNSON AND JUAN O. TAMAYO
jtamayo@xxxxxxxxxx

CARACAS - President Hugo Chávez is negotiating a partial
renewal of the U.S. drug monitoring flights that he banned
three years ago, apparently trying to mend fences with
Washington as he battles domestic opponents bent on ousting
him from power.

Chávez also recently offered to guarantee oil sales to the
United States and vowed that his leftist regime, long viewed
as friendly to guerrillas fighting the U.S.-backed Colombian
military, would not allow any Colombian armed groups to
cross the border into Venezuela.

''Chávez looks to be on a charm offensive, calculating that
we will support him [out of fear that] a coup would threaten
Venezuelan oil shipments to the United States,'' said a
senior U.S. government official in Washington.

Relations between Washington and Venezuela, the United
States' third largest oil supplier, have been stormy since
the former army lieutenant colonel and leader of a failed
1992 coup attempt was elected by a landslide in 1998.

Chávez visited Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, called Cuban
President Fidel Castro his idol, criticized the U.S. war in
Afghanistan and opposed the U.S.-backed Free Trade Area of
the Americas project.

Bilateral relations hit bottom after Washington seemed to
welcome a short-lived military coup against Chávez in April.
But they have been slowly mending since then and now appear
ready to bear fruit.

Caracas and Washington are negotiating an agreement that
would allow U.S. radar planes to fly over Venezuela, said
senior officials in both capitals who asked for anonymity
because of the political sensitivity of the issue.

GREATER CONVENIENCE

The permission will shave 90 minutes off each flight from
the planes' bases in the Netherlands Antilles, just north of
the Venezuelan coast, to southern Colombia, home base for
the world's largest cocaine producers.

Venezuela also has asked Washington to pay for the
construction of a radar on its southwestern border with
Colombia to monitor drug-smuggling flights, the officials
added. The request is under consideration.

Both the Venezuelan government and U.S. Embassy in Caracas
declined to officially comment, although a leader of
Chávez's party, the Fifth Republic Movement, confirmed the
negotiations and said they had achieved some progress.

Still unclear is whether the Venezuelans would be willing to
allow a resumption of flights by the smaller U.S.
''tracker'' aircraft that chase suspect aircraft and take
down their tail numbers for later identification.

''Right now all they're talking about is allowing the
long-range radar planes to use an air corridor over
Venezuela,'' said one U.S. government official in
Washington.

``Obviously, we're interested in both operations.''

Chávez banned the flights in early 1999, saying they
amounted to a violation of Venezuelan sovereignty, even
though virtually every other country in the Andean region
allows them.

U.S. officials have since gone out of their way to praise
the anti-narcotics work of Venezuelan authorities on the
ground but have complained that the radar gap allows scores
of small aircraft to dash from Venezuela to Colombia to pick
up drugs and return unnoticed to their bases.

BLOW TO GUERRILLAS

Chávez has also recently toned down his perceived
friendliness toward the Colombian guerrillas, who often
cross the largely forested border and have reportedly
established rest camps on the Venezuelan side.

His comments during a nationwide radio address last Sunday
that no guerrillas or right-wing paramilitary forces would
be allowed to cross the border were considered a blow to the
Colombian guerrillas.

Chávez' government also recently offered to guarantee in
writing his commitment to maintain steady oil sales to the
United States, which annually imports 15-30 percent of its
crude oil from Venezuela.

Venezuelan analysts say Chávez's recent pro-U.S. moves are
clearly driven by a desire to win American support for his
government as it faces growing opposition calls for a new
coup or a recall referendum next summer.

But Chávez has not been above making thinly veiled threats
that Venezuelan oil fields could burn if his regime is
ousted.

''If the U.S. government is interested in Venezuelan oil,
the best way to keep on getting it would be to support our
government,'' he said recently. ``Can you imagine what would
happen if there was another coup against Chávez . . . If in
Colombia . . . there is [guerrilla] sabotage of the oil
pipelines, what would happen here, where a whole people . .
. see Chávez as the incarnation of hope?''

CHANGED VIEW OF U.S.

Some of Chávez's domestic opponents, who long have sought to
recruit Washington as an ally in the fight against Chavez's
''revolution,'' now perceive the United States as opposing
any attempt to oust the president.

But others see Chávez's rapprochement with Washington as
evidence of his political weakness at home.

''He's gaining time by signing deals, [but] each signature
is a concession,'' said Chávez biographer Alberto Garrído.






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