8A
February 6, 2003
WORLD
THE BATTAL1
Chavez vows to punish strikers
with strict exchange controls
N. Korea reactivates
nuclear facilities
By Jae-Suk Yoo
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
By Fabiola Sanchez
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Strike aftermath in Venezuela
CARACAS, Venezuela — Smarting from a failed strike to oust
President Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan businessmen warned
Wednesday that plans to restrict access to foreign currency will
bury the reeling economy.
Chavez’s leftist government plans to announce the restrictions
on Thursday, to try to stop a devaluation of the bolivar and protect
Venezuela’s foreign reserves, which shrank $2 billion during the
two-month strike.
Details have not been released. But Chavez vowed Tuesday to
punish strike leaders by restricting their ability to purchase U.S.
dollars, an essential in a nation heavily dependent on imports.
He accused those he calls “coup plotters” of stashing billions of
dollars abroad — “our international reserves, belonging to the
nation, to the Republic.”
That could force thousands of businesses to close for lack of sup
plies and leave tens of thousands jobless, business leaders warned.
Already, analysts say the failed two-month strike to oust
Chavez will close more than 20,000 businesses and leave 200,000
people jobless.
Strike leader Carlos Fernandez, head of the Fedecamaras busi
ness federation, said Chavez was trying to impose control over the
struggling private sector, which relies on imports for 60 percent of
its supplies and raw materials.
Lope Mendoza, president of the Conindustria business chamber,
urged citizens in the import-crazy nation to buy Venezuelan prod
ucts to keep the economy afloat. “The industrial sector isn’t going
to please the president, who wants to see a cemetery of business
es,” Mendoza said.
Chavez’s threat on Tuesday to provide “not one more dollar for
the coup plotters” showed he will devise a discretionary system
that will “hand out prizes and punishments,” said analyst Luis
Vicente Leon.
“He is going to control his enemies’ income. Venezuela is too
dependent on imports,” Leon said.
Chavez’s government suspended dollar purchases on Jan. 22
after the bolivar lost more than 30 percent of its worth during the
President Hugo Chavez announced currency controls Wednesday
that he says will punish those who led a 10-week strike seeking
his ouster.
Dec. 2, 2002:
Strike begins.
More than 80
percent of
businesses
close their
doors.
Dec. 5:
Captains of
the PD VS A.
tanker fleet
join strike
by refusing
to enter
port.
Jan. 17, 2003:
Venezuelan
troops raid
bottling plants,
seizing drinks
to stave off
shortages.
Feb. 1: Under
international
pressure,
opposition
agrees to ease
the 2-month-old
strike but not in
the oil industry.
Feb. 5:
Venezuelans
brace for
currency
controls that
Chavez says
will punish
strikers.
2003
Hill
Dec. 4:
Workers at the state-
run oil monopoly
Petroleos de
Venezuela S.A., or
PDVSA, join the strike.
Dec. 6:
Jan. 28: More
Feb. 3: Banks,
A lone gunman than 5,000 shopping malls,
kills three striking workers factories and
are sacked schools opened
from PDVSA by as opponents of
Chavez. Chavez eased a
64-day-old strike.
people at an
opposition
rallying point.
SOURCE: Associated Press
AP
strike, which began Dec. 2 and ended in all sectors but oil this week.
Foreign reserves dropped $2 billion in part because the govern
ment was spending $60 million a day to prop up the bolivar.
The bolivar last traded at 1,830 to the dollar. On the black mar
ket, it’s 2,500 per dollar. Devaluation, in turn, sent inflation past
30 percent, and many economists forecast a 25 percent recession
this year.
Finance Minister Tobias Noriega said a fixed rate — between
1,600 and 1,850 bolivars per dollar — will be adopted for imports
of food, medicines and government transactions.
It wasn’t known how many dollars the government will make
available to citizens and businesses, what conditions they must
meet to buy dollars, and how many dollars they can buy.
Some newspapers speculated Wednesday that citizens will face
restrictions on the amount of dollars they can buy for business
travel abroad.
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Wednesday it has
reactivated its nuclear facilities, a surprise announcement that
raised questions whether it was trying to take advantage of
Washington’s preoccupation with Iraq to ratchet up pressure in
its own standoff with the United States.
In Washington, the State Department said that if the
announcement was true, "this would be a very serious devel
opment.” It demanded the North “reverse this action ... North
Korea must visibly, verifiably and irreversibly dismantle its
nuclear weapons program.”
A North Korean spokesman announced the reactivation,
deepening the crisis over Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions, just
before Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke at the U.N.
Security Council, presenting the U.S. case against Iraq.
The North said the reactivated facilities would "for the pres
ent stage” be used only to produce electricity — but the United
States says the facilities can produce nuclear weapons within
months.
Even as it presses toward war with Iraq over alleged hidden
weapons of mass destruction, the United States has insisted it
wants a peaceful solution in its standoff with North Korea.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer discounted that
Pyongyang was timing the issue with Iraq developments.
“North Korea has a history of doing things like they didin
the 90s, outside of the context of Iraq,” he said.
The North’s announcement came hours after South Korea
took a new step in its policy of trying to ease tensions by pur
suing reconciliation with the isolated communist regime.
Earlier Wednesday, the South opened a road across the heavily
fortified border for the first time in more than half a century.
Pyongyang wants direct talks with Washington, something
U.S. officials have resisted. Analysts say North Korea, which
often accuses the United States of plotting to invade it, fears
Washington will turn up pressure on it if a war against Iraq is
successful.
The North may hope that heightening the stand-off at a time
when Washington is trying to concentrate on Iraq could prompt
the United States to make concessions.
NEWS
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Israeli troops, tanks
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By Mark Lavie
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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JERUSALEM — Israeli
tanks and troops entered a
Palestinian refugee camp in the
Gaza Strip early Wednesday,
exchanging fire with gunmen,
Palestinian security officials and
witnesses said.
A 62-year-old bystander was
wounded, apparently while
watching the incursion into the
Bureij refugee camp in central
Gaza from his window,
Palestinians said.
The Israeli military said a
routine operation was under
way in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian security officials
and residents said about 10
Israeli tanks entered the
refugee camp, and soldiers
searched houses.
The incursion came after a
settler was shot and seriously
wounded Tuesday by an infiltra
tor in the Kfar Darom settlement
in Gaza. The militant Islamic
Hammers took responsibility for
the shooting.
Also Tuesday, Israel said
the Shin Bet security service
captured all 10 members of a
cell of the militant Islamic
Jihad accused of attacks in the
Heron area on the West Bank.
Sixteen Israelis were killed in
those attacks.
The Syria-based leadership
of Islamic Jihad gave the cell its
orders, offering money for the
purchase of weapons and mate
rials for building bombs, said
different
treatmen
security officials, speaking on
condition of anonymity Tte
arrests of the 10 began in
December and the last one
caught early Tuesday in Heror|
the officials said.
Later, Israeli forces arre:
a militant from the Al A<]9 Women S
Martyrs Brigade in Tulkaren
The Israeli military said heft'
involved in planning an attaci
on the Israeli village of
on Nov. 10, in which five
were killed.
Salam Fayad, Palestinian
minster of finance, confirmed
Tuesday that Israel transfer^
to the Palestinian Authorit)
almost $60 million in tax®
collected from Palestinian
laborers and businesses
single largest payment sine!
fighting began more than
years ago.
Of the amount, about
million is from money owed I®
the Palestinians that Israel has
frozen during fighting, al
that it is used to finance attacks
Israel transfers tax money to ill!
Palestinian Authority accordini
to interim peace agreements.
Meanwhile, a three-daf
parade of political party leaden
to the official residence of
Israeli President Moshe Katsa'
was to end Wednesday, and
Katsav was to pick Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon to forma
new government.
The consultations were a
formality after Sharon’s Likud
Party and its hawkish allies
won a convincing victory in
Jan. 28 elections.
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