Venezuelan strike leader warns violence will go on

Ortega: 'We have acted with tolerance and patience' Tuesday, December 31, 2002 Posted: 1818 GMT

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Street violence in Venezuela is becoming increasingly unavoidable, a key leader in the strike to topple President Hugo Chavez warned Tuesday, as the monthlong protest continued choking gasoline supplies and polarizing residents.

Labor leader Carlos Ortega also renewed his call on Venezuelans to stop paying taxes, a move that would widen a strike that already has roiled world oil markets and paralyzed industry and caused food shortages throughout the country.

"The repudiation that Venezuelans have for the current regime can take us at any given moment to a violent situation and the sacrifice of human lives," Ortega, president of the country's largest labor confederation, told Globovision television. "We have acted with tolerance and patience to avoid being provoked."

On Monday, clashes erupted between Chavez opponents and supporters in several regions of Venezuela, while the strike helped push oil prices to two-year highs. The government acknowledged production at its wells won't return to normal for weeks.

Oil minister Rafael Ramirez insisted that Venezuela, the world's fifth largest oil exporter, could restore "all operations within a month." But striking executives at the state oil monopoly, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A, said Monday that would be impossible, even with replacements of field crews, executives, tanker crews and dockhands.

Ramirez claimed that oil production was up to 600,000 and 700,000 barrels a day and would reach 1.2 million barrels a day next week. Still, he acknowledged the strike had already cost $2 billion in lost oil revenue and damage to oil installations.

The oil industry represents 30 percent of Venezuela's $100 billion gross domestic product.

Venezuela's opposition called the strike to force Chavez to call a February 2 nonbinding referendum on his presidency, which runs to 2007. Strike leaders hope a poor showing will increase pressure on Chavez to resign.

Opponents blame the president for an economic downturn of 7 percent in 2002, annual inflation surpassing 30 percent, 17-percent unemployment and chronic political unrest. They charge that Chavez is trying to impose a leftist, authoritarian government.

Chavez counters his adversaries are trying to mount an "economic coup" and that Venezuela's constitution allows a binding referendum on his presidency next August.

To ease the oil shortage, Trinidad said it would soon begin shipping 300,000 barrels a day to Venezuela. The crisis, plus the threat of U.S. war in Iraq, sent crude futures soaring Monday, though they eventually settled lower on talk of an output increase from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. (Full story)

Oil prices reached a two-year high of $33.65 in New York before settling back to $31.37. The U.S. Energy Department reported Monday that the average retail price of unleaded gasoline rose 4 cents last week to $1.44 per gallon. The average price at the pump has gone up 8 cents in the past two weeks.

"It is pretty much as it has been for the past month -- the two driving factors being Iraq and Venezuela," said Orrin Middleton, an oil analyst at Barclays Capital.

Police used tear gas Monday to separate opposition protesters and Chavez supporters outside the state oil monopoly's headquarters in Maracaibo, the hub of the country's oil-producing West. No injuries were reported.

Secret police arrested National Guard Gen. Carlos Alfonso Martinez, among the dozens of soldiers who have occupied a Caracas city square for three months in rebellion against Chavez. The arrest sparked protests and a rock fight between demonstrators and civilian Chavez supporters that injured 10 people, said city Fire Chief Rodolfo Briceno.