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Explorer ban in Venezuela?
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May 29, 2001: 6:07 p.m. ET
Consumer protection agency asks attorney general to ban sales
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Ford Motor Co. would be prohibited from selling Ford Explorers in Venezuela, if that country's attorney general granted a request made by Venezuela's consumer protection agency Tuesday.
Agency president Samuel Ruh met Tuesday with prosecutors to offer what he says is evidence that failing parts in Explorers contributed to 50 rollover crashes that killed 37 people since August.
Ruh declined to comment after the meeting, saying he was legally prohibited from speaking about the case. A source at the attorney general's office, speaking on condition of anonymity, said an initial study indicates that prosecutors have no legal authority to act on Ruh's request.
Venezuelan Ombudsman Germain Mundarain publicly criticized Ruh's action, saying that "protecting consumers' rights does not have to involve prohibiting the sale of the vehicles."
The request comes within days of the latest salvos in the escalating feud between Ford (F: Research, Estimates) and Bridgestone-Firestone, maker of Wilderness AT and ATX tires. 6.5 million of the tires, which are used on Ford Explorer vehicles, were recalled last year.
Firestone said on May 21 it would no longer sell tires to Ford, the company whose vehicles were most affected by the recall. A day later, Ford said it was recalling 13 million more Firestone tires.
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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has identified more than 100 deaths in the U.S. involving vehicles that rolled over after the tread separated on one of the tires models identified by the recall.
Ford has insisted that problems with Firestone's tire design and manufacturing caused the failures, while Firestone has blamed the Explorer's design. 
- from staff and wire reports
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