Chavez Threatens to Increase Military Role In Venezuela

www.voanews.com VOA News 11 Jan 2003, 07:05 UTC

Venezuela's embattled President Hugo Chavez is threatening to use the military to help run the country's economy in a bid to break a month-long opposition-led strike crippling the country.

In remarks directed at the business community, Mr. Chavez told a rally of supporters Friday he will do everything necessary to ending the strike, including sending in troops to seize privately-owned production plants idled by the protest.

Mr. Chavez already has ordered the military to take control of Venezuela's oil production facilities shut down by the strike and announced the firing of a thousand dissident oil workers.

The stern warning came, as fuel pumps again went dry at many service stations around the country and bank employees and supermarket employees completed a two-day walkout in support of striking petroleum workers and managers.

President Chavez's opponents began the general strike in December second to force him to resign and call early elections. He refuses to step down, saying the labor action amounts to a coup attempt.

The opposition says government policies are to blame for the shortages.

Venezuela is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter and a key U.S. supplier. The political crisis has paralyzed the petroleum industry, which accounts for about 80 percent of Venezuela's export revenues, and has helped push up world oil prices.