Thousands protest against Venezuelan president but fuel supply partly restored

Canadian Press Sunday, December 29, 2002

CARACAS (AP) - Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets demanding the resignation of President Hugo Chavez on Sunday, the 28th day of a national strike that has virtually halted oil exports and evaporated domestic gasoline supplies.

Protesters chanting "Elections now!" and "Chavez out!" converged on an avenue in the capital Caracas known as La Victoria, or victory. Politicians, businessmen and labour leaders listed their arguments of why Chavez should quit in a scene that has played many times during the strike - without success.

Chavez refuses to step down and insists the government is regaining control of the state oil monopoly, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., where most managers are on strike. He said he will use the protest to downsize the mammoth corporation and has already replaced many strikers.

"I feel so loved that I am never going to leave," Chavez said during his weekly television show.

"It's a treacherous oligarchy that wants to break the government and break the Venezuelan people."

The strike has slashed oil exports, forcing the world's fifth-largest oil supplier to barter with other countries for food and fuel.

Chavez said during his show two gasoline shipments were arriving from Venezuela's La Isla refinery on Curacao island, carrying 400,000 barrels of gasoline. Another 400,000 barrels are expected from Trinidad soon.

Venezuela received its first foreign shipments of gasoline Saturday when a Brazilian tanker delivered 525,000 barrels of gasoline, roughly a day's supply.

Ali Rodriguez, president of PDVSA, said Venezuela currently is producing between 600,000 and 700,000 barrels a day. Striking PDVSA executives deny the company is pumping that much oil, saying it is producing less than 200,000 barrels a day.

Production normally exceeds three million barrels a day.

At the Caracas rally, Chavez foes threatened more civil disobedience, including not paying taxes. The head of the Caracas fire department, Rodolfo Briceno, said the crowd numbered in the hundreds of thousands.

Many protesters wanted to march on the presidential palace but the last time that happened, 19 people were killed in a clash between Chavez foes and followers. The April 11 violence provoked a coup that ousted Chavez for two days.

Venezuela's largest labour confederation and business chamber called the strike Dec. 2 to demand Chavez accept a non-binding referendum on his rule. Many in the opposition now demand an early election - which constitutionally can occur only if Chavez resigns.

Chavez repeatedly has said the only constitutional means of removing him from office is a binding plebiscite halfway through his term, or August. He was elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000, and his term ends in 2007.

Opponents accuse Chavez of running roughshod over democratic institutions and wrecking the economy with leftist policies.