| Venezuelan general strike threatening oil flow | |
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CARACAS, Venezuela — Organizers say a nationwide strike aimed at ousting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will go into an eighth day Monday, further threatening the country's oil production. Army troops are guarding gas stations in the capital, Caracas, where long lines formed at gasoline pumps Sunday. Many gas stations in outlying areas have closed. The protest action has cut oil production by at least 40 percent. Speaking Sunday on radio and television, Chavez said that while the strike has severely curbed production, it has not yet started to affect oil exports. But industry analysts predict oil prices will rise on world markets Monday. Half of Venezuela's output, about 1.2 million barrels a day, goes to the United States and represents about 10 percent of U.S. crude oil supplies. Chavez is threatening to call a state of emergency if organizers do not end the strike. He has also called on oil workers to return to work and threatened to begin firing dissident oil executives. Chavez opponents, led by disgruntled military officers, are calling for the president's resignation, accusing the populist former paratrooper of economic sabotage since he won elections in 1998. Talks to end the crisis, mediated by the Organization of American States, ended without success Saturday. Sunday hundreds of mourners attended funerals of three protesters who were gunned down during a protest Friday. Police say a Portuguese taxi driver has confessed. On Saturday opponents and supporters of populist President Hugo Chavez staged rival marches through the capital city one day after deadly violence at an opposition rally in a Caracas plaza. The country was still in shock over the murders which, like everything else in the current crisis, have been politicized. Prayers were held at the Plaza Francia in the upscale neighborhood of Altamira Saturday where less than 24 hours earlier shots were fired into a crowd of opposition members. |
Huge bouquets of flowers rose from
roped off areas where the victims fell, including an elderly woman, and
a teenage girl. Beneath the flowers, pictures of Catholic saints, cards,
and other mementos were scattered on the pavement, still stained with blood.
Dressmaker Micheline Medina was among those standing before one of the bouquets, tears in her eyes as she stood next to her daughter. "It's a tragedy," she said, because it was a 17-year old girl who only came to demonstrate against the disaster that is happening in this country, and they kill her. As she spoke, she held her 11-year-old daughter tight in her arms. In addition to the Portuguese-born taxi driver, six other men are being held in connection with the incident, but their role is unclear. Opposition leaders accuse President Chavez of plotting the killings in an attempt to destabilize the anti-government movement. But Chavez and his top officials have denied these accusations, calling them irresponsible. Addressing his supporters Saturday, Chavez said the opposition did not even wait for the conclusion of the investigations before accusing him of the shootings. Earlier at the rally Saturday, which was called to celebrate his election as president in 1998, the mood was buoyant as tens of thousand of people marched through the streets of the president's palace. But Chavez supporter Elinor Cesile said for her, the celebrations are mixed with sadness over what happened Friday on the other side of the city. "You can see, you can see everybody is singing and dancing, everybody's really happy, but we are also in a big pain for the people [who were killed]. I mean it is our people too," she said. But other supporters of the populist president were quick to blame the opposition for the murders, saying it was a plot to smear the government. Gilberto Colambriez, a public sector worker, said the killings were carried to show that Venezuela is in state of crisis. "The opposition are the ones," he said, "who want to paint a situation of chaos in this country." |
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The first Villalobos investment customer to go to jail is Alvin Edwin Moss. He also is believed to hold the record for the most money invested with the suspended operation: some $13 million. Moss went to jail here not because of the investment operation but because
of the way U.S. officials claim he got the money in the
first place. He is a suspect in operating a mail and telephone scam that involved advance fee lottery promotions. The case is being heard in federal district court in Tennessee. Moss is a Canadian from Los Pozos. He is now in San Sebastian prison awaiting court action here to validate the request for extradition by the U.S. government. If the money he invested with Luis Enrique Villalobos Camacho is found to be a product of an illegal operation elsewhere, Costa Rican officials will have strong evidence of money laundering, an allegation that Villalobos steadfastly denied until he dropped from sight Oct. 14. Two other arrests last week became known over the weekend, but they involve the demise of Savings Unlimited, another investment firm that paid from 3 to 4 percent monthly interest on deposits Arrested was Mercedes López Blandón. She was believed to manage the Toby Brown hair salons owned by Louis Milanes, the same individual who was the principal in Savings Unlimited. She also appears to hold a number of offices in corporations set up by Milanes. The third person is believed to be her husband, identified as Edgar Ramírez. They are being held for investigation along with Michael Gonzalez, Savings Unlimited’s manager. Milanes fled the country. Meanwhile, a local lawyer, Gregory Kearney Lawson, said that he has been empowered by some clients to offer their interest in the Villalobos operation for 35 cents on the dollar. There have been rumors of such deals, but this is the first confimation. |
In other words, if an investor has
$100,000
placed with Villalobos, the individual would sell the rights to that money for $35,000. If Villalobos returned to business and paid off his customers, a purchaser would stand to make about a 180 percent return on the investment. If Villalobos continued to keep his business suspended, the purchaser would lose the $35,000. Although Moss is the first Villalobos customer arrested after the business was suspended, he is not the first Villalobos customer to face jail this year. That honor goes to a Chicago-area politician facing a bribery trial. The man wanted to keep himself on bail by pledging money he had posted with Savings Unlimited and Villalobos. The man, former state Rep. Roger "the Hog" Stanley loaned $330,000 to Villalobos and $25,000 to Savings Unlimited, as A.M. Costa Rica reported Nov. 5. Stanley had bad luck. Just as prosecutors and a judge were reviewing his financial holdings, Villalobos suspended his business. Stanley was counting on pledging the money invested here as bail. The money deposited by Stanley represents another case where foreigners are suspected of depositing money from illegal operations. The problem with such money is explaining where it originated. Both Moss and Stanley, if official charges are true, faced that problem, a great deal of so-called "dirty money." Yet by investing it, the subsequent money paid as interest would be "clean" money, that is cash from an established, recognized source. Such money laundering operations would not have to have the agreement of the person running the investment business, but in the case of Moss, Villalobos and his investment firm employees would find it difficult to ignore the source of $13 million, unless the money came with a plausable story. In an other development, Rogelio Ramos, the minister of Security, has been decorated with the Gran Cruz del Mérito Civil by Juan Carlos, the king of Spain. The award is for extraordinary service. Ramos is in charge of the ministry investigating both Villalobos and Savings Unlimited. |
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