Posted on 12/08/2002 12:45:15 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, fighting back against an opposition strike that has choked off vital oil exports, announced on Saturday a shake-up in the state oil firm PDVSA, firing striking tanker captains and replacing executives.
Condemning what he called the "coup-plotting, bloodthirsty, irrational" opposition, Chavez told cheering supporters he would not allow PDVSA operations to be halted by the six-day-old strike in the world's fifth-biggest oil exporter.
His opponents launched the strike on Monday as part of a drive to pressure the leftist leader, who survived a coup in April, to hold an early referendum on his rule.
The strikers, backed by Venezuela's upper and middle classes, call Chavez a dictator and accuse him of trying to impose Cuban-style communism. Chavez says the constitution rules out a referendum before August.
Sat Dec 7, 4:47 PM ET Carrying a banner that reads 'Chavez assassin', thousands of members of the opposition march across a main road in Caracas, December 7, 2002. Leaders of the opposition, who blamed President Hugo Chavez for driving Venezuela into recession and social turmoil, called a nationwide strike, now in its sixth day, to press the former paratrooper into early elections. REUTERS/Enrique Marcarian
Chavez dismissed the strike as a failure and rejected opposition charges he was to blame for the fatal shootings of three anti-government protesters on Friday. The shootings in Caracas, which also injured 21, enraged opposition supporters who held a silent march to mourn the victims on Saturday.
Addressing a huge crowd outside the presidential palace, Chavez dismissed his foes as "saboteurs and conspirators" and accused them of trying to overthrow him by destroying the vital oil industry, which he called the "life of the nation."
"The time has come to fight the big oil battle in Venezuela," Chavez said. Supporters chanted "Chavez, Chavez," and "Get tough, get tough."
He said striking oil tanker captains and PDVSA staff, whose walkout had disrupted oil-well production, tanker loadings and refinery operations, were being replaced.
CONFRONTING OPPOSITION OFFENSIVE
Chavez added the PDVSA board of directors, many of whom had offered their resignations, would be restructured. He also ordered the military to step up protection of oil sites.
His no-surrender speech indicated he would confront head-on, with force if necessary, his opponents' latest offensive in their year-old campaign to force him from power. He called on his supporters across the country to take to the streets to defend the crackdown on the state oil company.
Hours earlier, enforcing the crackdown orders, troops swarmed aboard one of several state-owned oil tankers whose captains joined the opposition shutdown, triggering a port bottleneck. Chavez said the rebel captains could be jailed.
Dissident PDVSA executives said the country had been forced to cut back 50 percent of its oil production because of the strike. They said the rest would be shut down in three days.
Acknowledging the damage to the economy, Chavez described the situation in the state oil company as critical.
Before he spoke, government and opposition negotiators resumed struggling peace talks brokered by Organization of American States Secretary-General Cesar Gaviria.
The talks, started a month ago, have been deadlocked over the timing of elections in the oil-rich but socially divided nation, which is deeply split over Chavez's self-styled "revolution" that followed his election in 1998, six years after he was jailed for a coup attempt.
MILITARY CALL FOR CALM
The United States, worried about the disruption in one of its leading oil suppliers as it contemplates war with Iraq, expressed concern about the Venezuelan violence. Secretary of State Colin Powell called Gaviria on Saturday to back his peace efforts, the U.S. ambassador to Caracas, Charles Shapiro, said.
After Friday's shootings, dissident military officers called on the armed forces to rise up against the president.
It was a series of fatal shootings in April, also following a general strike hitting oil exports, that triggered a short-lived military coup against Chavez by rebel officers. He was later restored by loyal troops and supporters.
Moving to counter coup fears, Defense Minister Jose Luis Prieto and the nation's military high command said in a television broadcast on Saturday the armed forces were "more united than ever" in support of constitutional rule.
Thousands of government supporters rallied on Saturday outside the presidential palace in a show of support for the president. Patriotic music blared and firecrackers exploded in the sky.
Sat Dec 7, 1:35 PM ET Supporters of President Hugo Chavez wave a national flag during a rally in support of Chavez in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday Dec 7, 2002. Chavez appealed for calm and denied opposition claims that he was behind the attack Friday night, which occurred moments after the opposition said it would extend the strike. (AP Photo/Marcelo Hernandez)
"He's the best president, because he loves the poor," said Doris Rivas, taking part with her children and her mother.
In east Caracas, thousands of opposition supporters mourning the shooting victims marched in silence to demand Chavez quit. "Chavez, coward and killer" and "Chavez, out now," read some of the banners they carried with national flags.
As the strike hit the petroleum sector, world oil markets shuddered this week at Venezuela's sudden oil drought.
Oil provides 80 percent of exports and 50 percent of government revenues in a country already in steep recession.
Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said investigators would find the killer or killers involved in Friday's shootings. Seven people were being held, including a Portuguese national, who officials said confessed to opening fire with a handgun.
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