Venezuela general lockout, business shutdown has failed

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(Note Fletcher's reference to a top labor bureaucrat and lockout supporter
as a "union boss."  Sounds like his "freedom fighter" status is being put on
ice for the moment.)

Venezuela Strike Presses Chavez but Deadlock Stays
Last Updated: October 21, 2002 04:18 PM ET
By Pascal Fletcher

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - An opposition strike calling
for the resignation of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez shut
many shops, schools, banks and businesses in the oil-rich
nation on Monday, but the government dismissed it as a
failure and ruled out holding early elections.

The 12-hour protest work stoppage reduced business activity
in Caracas and other cities but showed no sign of breaking
the political deadlock that has gripped the world's fifth
largest oil exporter since Chavez survived a brief coup in
April.

Key oil production and exports, the life blood of the
Venezuelan economy, were unaffected by the shutdown,
reducing its overall economic impact, energy officials said.

As government officials and strike organizers waged a bitter
war of words over the level of support for the protest,
opponents of the left-wing president vowed to intensify
their protest actions to try to force him to step down.

"The success of this strike has been demonstrated. ... We
are not going to abandon the streets," anti-Chavez union
boss Carlos Ortega told reporters.

Strike leaders said the work stoppage had obtained 80
percent support across the nation, but the government
disputed this. "The strike failed," Labor Minister Maria
Cristina Iglesias said in a national television and radio
broadcast.

"The country did not stop. It's on its feet and running,"
Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel told reporters. He
estimated support for the strike at no more than 10 percent.

But the effects of the shutdown were obvious in Caracas,
whose normally congested and bustling avenues were
remarkably free of traffic. Many supermarkets, businesses,
banks, schools, bars and restaurants in the city remained
closed.

This was especially true in the wealthier eastern section of
the city, where anti-Chavez feeling is strong.

But in downtown Caracas and poorer western neighborhoods and
slums, traditional strongholds of support for the populist
president, many shops, bars and businesses opened their
doors.

CHALLENGE TO CHAVEZ

"Everyone's open here. There are a lot of pro-Chavez people
and if you don't open, you'll draw attention," furniture
store owner Jorge Samaan told Reuters in western Catia
district.

Some 5,000 troops and National Guard patrolled the streets
of Caracas to prevent violence. Some owners of shops said
they had received threats from hard-line Chavez supporters
that their premises would be looted if they failed to open.

"We're in the jaws of the wolf," said Juan Tutunil, another
Catia store owner.

Chavez, a former paratrooper who was democratically elected
in 1998 but faces fierce domestic opposition to his
self-proclaimed "revolution," had condemned the strike as
illegal and part of opposition efforts to oust him by force.

While his foes say his left-leaning interventionist reforms
and confrontational leadership style are leading Venezuela
toward chaos or Cuban-style communism, Chavez insists he
maintains the support of the country's impoverished
majority.

Rangel dismissed the possibility that the strike organizers
could extend the stoppage beyond its initially scheduled
12-hour duration. "If it didn't work today, it's not going
to work tomorrow," he told reporters.

Labor Minister Iglesias said state-run steel and aluminum
factories, concentrated in the mineral-rich eastern state of
Bolivar, were also operating.

"Those who produce 81 percent of the nation's gross domestic
product are working," she said.

Strike organizers, acknowledging the stoppage by itself
would not force Chavez out, described it as just another
action in a continuing campaign of opposition pressure
against the president, who has refused to quit or call early
elections.

"This strike is a challenge to Chavez. Let's see if he takes
up the challenge," said Elias Santana, a leader of the
opposition coalition that brings together anti-Chavez
parties, labor and business chiefs and dissident military
officers.

Rangel said early elections were "completely ruled out."

Chavez, restored to power by loyal troops and supporters in
mid-April after being deposed for 48 hours, has told his
political enemies they must wait until August of next
year -- half way through his current term -- to hold a
constitutional referendum on his rule. (Additional reporting
by Patrick Markey)


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