AP "curtain raiser" on Venezuela General Strike

["Jose G. Perez" <jg_perez@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Venzuela Faces General Strike
Sun Oct 20, 5:29 PM ET
By JORGE RUEDA, Associated Press Writer

Opponents of President Hugo Chavez hope to bring Venezuela to a standstill
Monday in a 12-hour general strike - their latest effort to push him out of
office.

The government planned to deploy 3,000 National Guardsmen throughout
Caracas - mindful of what happened the last time there was a general strike:
the April 12-14 coup that briefly toppled Chavez and left dozens dead in
rioting.

It will be the third general strike against Chavez in less than a year, a
product of the deepening divide between Venezuelans who despise him as an
autocrat and those who idolize him as a champion of the poor.

Strike organizers - including a business association that controls 70
percent of Venezuela's gross domestic product and the country's largest
trade union confederation - are threatening to extend the strike
indefinitely if Chavez refuses to resign or call early elections. The
president has rejected those demands. [snip]

[full article is here:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=589&ncid=734&e=5&u=/ap/2002
1020/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/venezuela_strike

[And lest we forget who is *really*  behind this, an instant replay of an
earlier dispatch:]

Venezuela Group Endorses Strike
Fri Oct 18, 8:33 AM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuela's largest foreign business association
threw its weight behind a general strike called to demand that President
Hugo Chavez call early elections.

The 1,200-member Venezuelan-American Chamber of Commerce (news - web sites)
and Industry, or VenAmCham, told its affiliates Wednesday that their
employees can join a strike called by domestic business and labor groups.

"The foreign and multinational companies in our institution take no
political positions in Venezuela. However [....]"

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=589&ncid=589&e=7&u=/ap/2002
1018/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/venezuela_strike_6


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