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Former US president Jimmy Carter said in Caracas on Monday that he is looking forward to a "peaceful and democratic solution" to the political crisis in Venezuela.
Carter, who arrived in Caracas last Wednesday on his second visit to the country in less than six months, told reporters his meeting with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is "very positive."
US ambassador to Venezuela Charles Shapiro, who accompanied Carter to Melia Caracas Hotel, also stressed the need to help negotiate an end to the seven-week-old strike in the country.
Carter, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 2002, is scheduled to meet with Venezuela's opposition leaders -- Carlos Fernandez, head of the employers' organization Fedecamaras, and Carlos Ortega, president of the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV).
Carter will also participate in the negotiations between Chavez and the opposition, under the auspices of Cesar Gaviria, Secretary-General of Organization of American States (OAS).
Gaviria has been mediating since Nov. 8, 2002, in the peace talks in Venezuela together with the Atlanta-based Carter Center and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). But the talks came to a deadlock as Chavez threatened on Sunday to quit the negotiations.
Chavez said in his weekly radio speech that his government will not keep "negotiating with terrorists and supporters of a coup, who have carried out sabotage against the petroleum industry and want to sink the country so as to reach their political goals."
CLASHES BETWEEN RIVALS KILL ONE
One person was killed and 28 others injured during clashes between anti- and pro- Chavez demonstrators in Lander, Miranda state, 50 km south of Caracas.
Pro-government sympathizers early on Monday took control of an area, where the opposition planned to stage a demonstration.
The two sides threw stones and bottles at each other until police dispersed them with tear gas and rubber bullets.
Lander Mayor Manuel Garcia said firearms and clubs were used in the skirmish. One man was shot dead and 12 others were wounded by gunfire.
The incident occurred when the general strike launched by the opposition on Dec. 2 entered its eighth week. The opposition demands the resignation of President Chavez and a Feb. 2 referendum on his presidency so as to pave the way for an early election.
Chavez, who was re-elected in 2000 and survived a brief coup last April, rejected calls for any referendum before August this year, halfway through his six-year term.
The strike has crippled oil production and exports and caused fuel and food shortages in Venezuela, the world's fifth largest oil producer.
Venezuela's newly-appointed Army Commander, Jorge Garcia, said on Monday it would be difficult to get gasoline in the capital of Caracas.
The consumption of gasoline in Venezuela grew by some 5.5 million liters from 39 million liters in one month, according to the Energy and Mining Ministry.
Local daily El Universal said only one gas station in the city could sell fuel on Sunday.
In the states of Tachira, Merida and Trujillo, between 80 and 90 percent of the gas stations are "dry" and only 30 percent of the stations in Zulia still got supplies of gas, it said.
Officials said on Sunday that the government will continue withits plans to import gasoline to maintain supplies.
(Xinhua News Agency January 21, 2003)
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