Posted on 03/24/2002 11:37:18 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
CARACAS , Venezuela -- The conflict pitting managers at state oil giant Petroleos de Venezuela SA against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's government continued with PdVSA's president asking two top executives to resign.
Gaston Parra, president of PdVSA, asked two company managers to step down, according to Saturday's editions of daily El Universal.
Management began meetings to discuss possible actions after Oscar Murillo, a legal advisor at PdVSA, and Armando Izquierdo, a public affairs manager, were called on to resign.
Hundreds of managers at PdVSA, the largest oil company in Latin America, have been protesting Mr. Chavez's appointment of five board directors since Feb. 25 .
They argue that the appointments are based on political affiliations rather than on merit and have staged street protests during lunch hours.
Mr. Chavez insists that managers must accept his decision. He claims the corporation, which employs 40,000 people, needs to cut costs and eradicate corruption.
So far, the protests haven't affected oil production, and many executives oppose a full-scale work stoppage.
Mr. Chavez, a leftist former paratrooper, has threatened to fire managers and militarize the company if they strike.
Managers, who assume workers' duties when employees in the field walk off the job, argued that soldiers could occupy company facilities, but wouldn't know how to run the installations.
Oil provides 80% of Venezuela 's export revenue. Venezuela is the third-largest provider of crude oil to the U.S. Fedepetrol, the largest oil union, has said it would support a general strike.
Now, however, the behemoth, with $20 billion a year in oil sales and 40,000 employees, is in turmoil.
Its white-collar workers are locked in a bitter feud with the government of President Hugo Chávez, whose firing of the company president last month precipitated a rousing, public quarrel that has dominated the local headlines, caused a work slowdown and threatens to spill into a full- fledged strike. Such an event would be calamitous for a country where oil accounts for 80 percent of exports, most of it bound for the United States.
"This is a tragedy," said Luis Giusti, a former company president and now senior adviser for the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "It is inconceivable that in this company people would go out and protest. They would have been fired right away. But this is a crisis situation." [End Excerpt]
Oil and communism don't mix: Venezuela faces energy standoff at petroleum company-[Excerpt]Parra, is known for radical nationalist views on the oil industry.
"He believes that the oil industry should be completely and fully controlled by the state, with no participation by private companies," said a former PDVSA top executive who requested anonymity.
Meanwhile, Fitch Ratings announced last month it was lowering PDVSA's credit rating from A to BBB, while Standard & Poor's said it would likely downgrade the company. Both agencies cited "excessive sovereign interference" as the reason. [End Excerpt]
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