Chavez Says Winning Oil War as Strikers March
Posted on Sun, Dec. 29, 2002 BY JASON WEBB - Reuters
CARACAS, Venezuela - As gasoline trucks rolled out behind him, a defiant Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday he was beating a month-old strike choking the oil industry but hundreds of thousands of protesters demanded he step down.
"I've got no plans to back down. My plans are for an offensive, an attack," said Chavez, applauding as strike-busting fuel trucks drove off from the Yaguas gasoline distribution center near Caracas.
But the opposition-backed general strike which has paralyzed much of the country for 28 days and has almost stopped shipments from the world's fifth-largest oil exporter showed no sign of easing as several hundred thousand flag-waving anti-Chavez protesters marched through Caracas.
"They're going to have to kill us to stop the people. Absolutely no one can stop this strike," one of the protest leaders, union boss Carlos Ortega, told the huge crowd.
The opposition strikers, organized by business and union leaders, demand Chavez call elections, accusing him of abuse of authority, corruption and economic incompetence in what they say is his quest to install a Cuban-style dictatorship.
Support for Chavez, whose term is due to run until 2007, has plunged, even among his poor powerbase which he has wooed with cheap loans and a folksy style spiced with the fiery rhetoric of class warfare.
But, while polls indicate majority support for the opposition, he is still more popular than any other single political figure in the country.
Chavez broadcast his weekly live television program -- a unique mixture of variety show and political evangelism called "Hello President" -- from Yaguas, which loyalist workers recently restarted after a strike-enforced closure.
Waving to cheering admirers, brandishing a small crucifix and at one stage breaking into a 1970s pop song, Chavez's tone hardened as he vowed to break the strike which has made lines for fuel hundreds of cars long a common sight in a country where people are used to gasoline as cheap as bottled water.
"We will move heaven and earth if necessary, but we will never leave the people in the hands of this savage and treacherous oligarchy," he bellowed, before accusing his "fascist" opponents of trying to bewitch him with voodoo.
"They're using the Devil. But the Devil isn't as strong as God, and he's on our side," he said, gripping his crucifix.
In an attempt to loosen the stoppage's grip, Venezuela has even done the unthinkable and imported some gasoline from Brazil, but fuel is still scarce in Caracas.
ECONOMY BATTERED BY STRIKE
Chavez, a former paratrooper jailed after a coup attempt in 1992 and elected in 1998, said the strike was backed by the upper classes he accuses of draining the nation's oil wealth. He also blames them for a failed coup against him in April.
Chavez has sacked dozens of striking executives from state oil giant PDVSA, sent troops aboard halted oil tankers and tried to restart complicated refineries and oil wells using lower-ranking personnel and retired managers.
The government says output and exports are restarting. But renegade PDVSA chiefs say crude production is 200,000 barrels a day, a trickle compared to the normal 3.1 million barrels.
Venezuela's economy was already badly battered by recession before the strike cut off oil sales, which usually bring in 80 percent of exports and 50 percent of government revenues.
Chavez points out that he has $15 billion in foreign reserves to help him withstand the strike while he cranks the oil industry back into operation. Ratings agencies have lowered Venezuela's already shaky credit standing as investors brace for economic mayhem in the deeply divided country.
The opposition is organizing a nonbinding referendum on Chavez's rule for early February. The president says he will pay no attention to the result, and insists that a referendum would not be constitutional until August at the earliest.
Talks between the government and the opposition have made little progress despite being brokered by the Organization of American States. The United States has also called for an electoral solution to Venezuela's stalemate.
Over 13 percent of U.S. crude oil imports usually come from Venezuela, and the conflict here is a major headache for Washington as it considers the possibility of disruptions to Middle Eastern oil supplies if it goes to war with Iraq.
In a touch of humor calculated to send shivers down millions of opposition spines, a chuckling Chavez said he had considered pretending to resign on television as a joke. But he added: "I don't think I'm going to step down ever."