Protests sweep through Caracas

Dec 30 08:38 AFP

Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Caracas on Sunday as embattled President Hugo Chavez engaged in a bitter war of words with leaders of a 28-day-old strike.

To cheers from flag-waving, whistle-blowing demonstrators, strike leader Carlos Ortega claimed the former paratrooper was acting in a criminal manner by refusing to give in to a mounting clamour for his resignation.

"Mr Chavez, you are not a democrat, you are a failed soldier," the unionist told the crowd who thronged an avenue in southern Caracas.

"You have declared war on Venezuelans, you are preparing for confrontation," said Mr Ortega, who was followed on the podium by a young child yelling out anti-Chavez slogans.

As Mr Ortega spoke, Mr Chavez thundered against his foes and proclaimed victory in the battle to regain the vital oil sector that had been idled by the strike.

"We have defeated the anti-Venezuela conspiracy," he told a jubilant crowd who attended the live broadcast of his weekly "Hello President" show at a gasoline distribution center 100 kilometers west of the capital.

A former colonel who won at the ballot box in 1998 the power he failed to grab in a military coup six years earlier, Mr Chavez spoke in military terms of the crisis rocking the South American county.

"It is like a war for Venezuela, a war between patriots and ... traitors," Mr Chavez said. As he spoke, several gasoline-laden trucks headed out of the installations, raising a thunder of applause from the crowd. advertisement advertisement

As his supporters roared "firm hand, firm hand" the president said he would not use force against those he said were plotting against him, and would let justice take its course.

Mr Chavez, whose term ends in 2006, rejected demands that he resign or call snap elections and said the crippling strike was not only doomed but had already failed.

But the long lines at gasoline stations and plunging oil output and export figures provided by his own government belied that claim.

Even outside service stations that ran out of fuel, motorists lined up, some for days, hoping supplies would eventually arrive.

Ali Rodriguez, who heads the Petroleos de Venezuela state oil company, conceded he too was affected by the shortages. "I have had problems to fill up my car with gasoline," he told journalists.

By strangling the oil industry, government opponents have hit at the lifeline of the South American country.

Mr Chavez proudly announced that Venezuela had exported seven million barrels of oil in the first 24 days of the month, an amount it usually ships out in three days.

Authorities have also said production was down to less than 700,000 barrels a day, a figure which strikers say is exaggerated and which amounts to less than one fourth of November's daily output.

Government officials insist internal distribution should soon get back to normal, thanks notably to the arrival Saturday of a Brazilian tanker and the expected shipment from Trinidad of a further 400,000 barrels of gasoline.

The crisis has also affected international markets, particularly the United States, which is preparing for possible war with Iraq.

With no resolution in sight to the crisis and fears of violence mounting, several countries, including the United States and Britain have reduced staff at their embassies and warned their citizens not to travel to Venezuela.