Re: (Partial) response to Michael's plea

[Sabri Oncu <soncu@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Put Venezuela on the list, where now some labor
> leaders seem to be taking their turn in following
> a script out of CIA headquarters.
>
> Gene Coyle

You are right. Chavez is in serious trouble. So is Venezuela.
Below is a recent article and there are more at yahoo.

Sabri

+++++++

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020408/ap_wo_
en_ge/venezuela_oil_protest_64

Venezuela's president fires seven state oil execs; businesses and
unions gear for second general strike
Sun Apr 7, 7:33 PM ET
By ALEXANDRA OLSON, Associated Press Writer

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez has moved to crush a
monthlong revolt against government-appointed directors at the
state-owned oil monopoly by announcing the dismissal of seven
executives and the forced retirement of 12 other employees.


Chavez warned Sunday there would be more firings if protests
continued, but dissident workers ignored his threats, staging a
rowdy protest at the Caracas headquarters of Petroleos de
Venezuela.

The conflict is threatening production at South America's largest
state-owned oil company and handing Chavez one of the biggest
challenges of his three-year-old presidency.

Unionized workers and business leaders plan to support PDVSA
dissidents with a 24-hour nationwide strike Tuesday. It will be
the second time since Chavez took office in 1999 that unions and
business leaders join forces to paralyze the country.

A five-week long labor slowdown has forced operators to scale
back production at the Paraguana refinery complex in western
Venezuela, sources said Sunday, speaking on condition of
anonymity.

The Paraguana complex produces 70 percent of Venezuela's refined
products. The production slowdown was part of a plan to prevent
accidents because of the reduction in the flow of gas and oil.

Chavez, however, insisted that operations were normal in most of
the industry. He vowed not to cave in to PDVSA's "elite," whom he
accused of trying to preserve corporate privileges by
"sabotaging" the oil industry.

Chavez angered PDVSA careerists by naming five loyalists to the
board of directors and leftist Gaston Parra as company president.
Chavez insisted Sunday that he needs loyalists to trim corporate
spending and increase PDVSA contributions to government coffers ?
a goal he considers key to his promises to combat poverty and
corruption.

PDVSA "has always been managed by a political elite," Chavez said
during his weekly radio address. "The plan is to return the oil
industry to Venezuelans."

In a separate news conference Sunday, Parra said the board of
directors will ensure PDVSA complies Venezuela's policy of strict
adherence to production quotas set by the Organization of
Petroleum Exporting Countries. Parra accused longtime employees
of resisting the policy, which he said has been proven successful
by a recent rise in international oil prices.

Last week, thousands of PDVSA workers stayed home, closed gates
to facilities and slowed gasoline and tanker deliveries. On
Sunday, they answered Chavez's threats by banging pots and pans
and chanting "not one step backward" at PDVSA's Caracas offices

At least a dozen vessels were waiting for operations to resume at
two of five main export terminals for crude oil and refined
products ? El Palito in central Venezuela and Puerto La Cruz in
the east.

Dismissing this week's labor strike as a political maneuver,
Chavez announced a 20 percent increase in the public sector
minimum wage, to take effect in May. About 40 percent of
Venezuelan workers earn the current minimum wage of dlrs 180
(158,000 bolivars) per month.

Created in 1976 and admired for its efficiency in a nation
riddled with corruption, the multinational has grown to become
one of the United States' largest suppliers of oil.

PDVSA oversees Venezuela's greatest resource ? crude oil reserves
that are the largest outside the Middle East. Oil provides a
third of the nation's dlrs 110 billion gross domestic product, 80
percent of export earnings and half of government income.