June 7 (Bloomberg) -- Petroleos de Venezuela SA, the state oil company, said it kept back $750 million from oil sales to start a development fund, a plan that analysts such as Ricardo Amorim of IDEAglobal said is designed to boost President Hugo Chavez's popularity before a recall election in two months.
Petroleos de Venezuela President Ali Rodriguez said in an interview with the Venpres state news agency that the decision to keep the funds back and not sell the dollars to the central bank complies with the law, after local newspapers such as El Nacional said the plan may be illegal. Petroleos de Venezuela plans to put as much as $2 billion in the fund, which would bypass congress and the central bank, Rodriguez said.
``The government is trying to hold onto and spend as much of the oil windfall as possible to boost President Chavez's popularity before the referendum,'' said Amorim, head of Latin American research at the New York company. ``The creation of this fund is something like they tried to do earlier, tapping into the central bank's international reserves.''
Venezuelans go to the polls in August to vote on a recall of Chavez. A poll in March by Datanalisis showed 59 percent of the 1,291 people surveyed saying they would vote to recall the former paratrooper.
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http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&sid=azPWZ0Z.jOnI&refer=latin_americaBolivarian Republic of Venezuela
Monday June 7, 12:48 pm ET
CARACAS, Venezuela, June 7 /PRNewswire/ -- The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ("Venezuela") announced today an offer (the "Offer") to purchase for cash its 1.15% Notes due September 30, 2004 (the "Notes"), on the terms and subject to the conditions set forth in the offer to purchase dated June 7, 2004 (the "Offer to Purchase") and the related letter of transmittal (the "Letter of Transmittal"), at the price per U.S.$500 original principal amount of Notes tendered of U.S.$500, plus accrued and unpaid interest up to, but not including, the settlement date.
Holders wishing to tender their Notes pursuant to the Offer must deliver to the Depositary, Deutsche Bank AG, at or prior to 12:00 P.M., New York City time, on June 18, 2004 (the "Expiration Date"), or such other time and date as specified by Venezuela if it chooses to extend the submission period, a properly completed Letter of Transmittal by facsimile, courier or hand delivery. Letters of Transmittal must be submitted during the submission period. Holders must also arrange to deliver bond instructions with respect to the Notes they wish to tender in the form and in accordance with the deadlines described in the Offer to Purchase. Bond instructions must be delivered by a direct participant in Euroclear or Clearstream, Luxembourg. Holders who hold Notes through a custodian, such as a broker, bank or other financial advisor, should contact that custodian to request that the custodian submit a Letter of Transmittal on their behalf. Venezuela further reserves the right, in its sole discretion, not to accept any tenders pursuant to the Offer.
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http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040607/nym191_1.htmlVenezuela: Bolivarian masses anger at referendum decision
Hands Off Venezuela Campaign Jorge Martin writes: On Thursday, June 3, the Venezuelan National Electoral Commission (CNE), basing itself on preliminary data, announced that the opposition had collected enough signatures to force a presidential recall referendum. The opposition needed the support of 2,436,083 voters, in order to trigger a recall referendum, and according to the CNE they have collected 2,451,821 signatures ... which is barely 15,738 signatures above the required amount.
The last part of the process by which the opposition was trying to force the recall referendum was the so-called "repair" process in which doubtful signatures were being ratified or denied by the people and this took place over the weekend of May 28 to 30. This process was fraught with irregularities.
Large numbers of forged ID cards were found by the police at different locations. A computer, scanner, printer, repair forms, and forged IDs were found at the local headquarters of the opposition party Accion Democratica (AD) in El Valle (Caracas), where people who were being pursued by the authorities sought refuge, and 600 ID cards were also found in the AD headquarters in the Caracas district of El Paraiso.
In these police raids they also found leaflets inciting violence and calling for a repeat of the riots that took place in February. There were also instances of workers sacked by their bosses for refusing to re-verify their signatures, as was the case at the Coca-Cola plant in Antimano, where 50 workers were threatened with the closure of the plant. The Venezuelan Coca-Cola subsidiary is owned by media magnate and opposition leader Gustavo Cisneros
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http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=21524
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