Venezuela Orders GM Director and Former Execs Arrested

CARACAS, Venezuela Oct 1, 2003; Reuters reported that a Venezuelan court has ordered the arrest of two former executives of General Motors Corp.'s domestic unit and one of its current directors for failing to obey a summons in a commercial dispute, officials said Wednesday.

State prosecutor Jose Benigno Rojas told Reuters the detention orders were issued last week for former president of General Motors Venezolana Michael Nylin, retired executive Hugo Wieland and a director, Luis Mejias Aleman.

"There is an arrest order out for them ... for contempt of court," said Rojas, who is handling the case.

The company is the biggest vehicle assembler in the South American country.

A request had also been passed on to the international police organization Interpol to detain the three men. Rojas said he did not know whether the three were still in the country.

General Motors Venezolana said the company's attorneys were contesting the decision, but representatives did not comment on the reason for the arrest order.

"This a legal action that was initiated by a concession holder a few years ago. We do not know the reasons for the detention order. Our legal team is working to neutralize this decision," GM Venezolana representative Rafael Ortega said.

GM officials said Nylin had left the company and Wieland had retired, although Mejias still worked at GM Venezolana as a director for human resources.

GM Venezolana legal affairs director Luis Manuel Kolster said the company had asked the court to reconsider its detention order stemming from the three-year-old case.

"This is a commercial case that should be resolved through commercial channels," he said.

Prosecutor Rojas said the three men had ignored repeated official summonses to appear in court to answer a case brought against the U.S.-owned company by two local GM dealerships, Automotriz Latino and El Central Mercantil, located in western Zulia state.

These dealers had obtained a Supreme Court injunction against an earlier move by General Motors Venezolana to end their concessions. They argued that the move infringed their economic rights under Venezuela's constitution, Rojas said.

"They (General Motors) did not obey the injunction," he said.