President Chavez heads to Brazil while his country braces for another year of conflict

SUSANNAH A. NESMITH, Associated Press Writer Wednesday, January 1, 2003

(01-01) 11:17 PST (AP) -- CARACAS, Venezuela -- President Hugo Chavez left his strikebound and politically riven country Wednesday to attend the presidential inauguration in Brazil, and again refused to bow to opposition leaders who have crippled Venzuela in a month of massive protests.

"It's not a strike, it is a conspiracy," Chavez said after arriving in Brasilia for Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's swearing in. "Venezuelan workers are on the side of the government. ...The country hasn't stopped."

It wasn't immediately known when Chavez would return, though he was not expected to stay abroad for more than a day. He and Silva planned to have breakfast together Thursday morning. The strike, which began Dec. 2, has paralyzed Venezuela's all-important oil industry and caused gas lines and food shortages.

Venezuela is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, and the crisis has helped push international oil prices above $30 per barrel.

Opponents blame Chavez's leftist policies for a severe economic recession and accuse him of trying to accumulate too much power. Chavez says he is ridding the country of a corrupt political system that has disenfranchised the poor.

In his New Year's Eve address, Chavez said the country would face more difficulties in the coming months. On Wednesday, he said he didn't know how long the strike would last but said it was "destined to fail."

"I don't think it's a matter of time," Chavez said. "Whether it's a week, one month, six months, the important thing is that they are destined to fail because we are in the right and have the support of the majority of the country."

Since the strike began, Venezuela has been forced to import gasoline and food. Brazil has shipped 525,000 barrels of gasoline, and Trinidad and Tobago said 300,000 barrels would arrive Wednesday.

Chavez has also fired dozens of striking workers at the state-run oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. The oil industry produces one-third of the country's gross domestic product and 70 percent of its export revenue.

Thousands of people gathered in downtown Caracas on New Year's Eve at political rallies -- one to demand Chavez's ouster, another to show support for the beleaguered president. On Wednesday morning, the city was quiet as workers swept up the refuse of the previous evening.

Opposition leaders said they had nothing planned for Wednesday, but Chavez's trip to Brazil was daring given the upheaval shaking Venezuela. He already survived one brief coup in April.

Strike leaders said Tuesday that if Chavez does not bow to demands for a nonbinding referendum on his presidency on Feb. 2, they will lead a march on the heavily defended presidential palace.

A similar march in April left 19 dead and prompted the failed coup.

Chavez says Venezuela's constitution only allows a binding referendum in August 2003, or halfway into his six-year term.

Negotiations between the government and the opposition were to resume Thursday.

Also Wednesday, lawyers for dissident National Guard Gen. Carlos Alfonso Martinez complained their client was being kept under house arrest, violating a court order granting him complete freedom.

Ten people were injured when Martinez -- one of dozens of military officers who have occupied a Caracas square for three months in rebellion against Chavez -- was arrested Monday.