Chavez: We Will Not Give in to Opposition Demands

www.voanews.com VOA News 12 Jan 2003, 01:25 UTC

Venezuela's embattled President Hugo Chavez has again issued a stern warning to his opponents, vowing to break a six-week general strike that has crippled the nation's economy.

Speaking Saturday at a rally of thousands of cheering supporters at a Caracas sports arena, Mr. Chavez said his revolutionary government will not give in to opposition demands for him to resign.

Accusing strike organizers of closing many of the nation's schools, Mr. Chavez said teachers who do not show up for work will be fired.

The latest warnings came as the opposition called for an anti-government march Sunday to a military complex where a similar march January third ended in clashes with Chavez supporters. That skirmish left two people dead and more than a dozen injured.

Friday, the president threatened to deploy government 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.

Fuel pumps have gone dry at many service stations around the country. During the past week, bank workers and supermarket employees completed a two-day walkout in support of striking petroleum workers and managers.

President Chavez's opponents began the general strike 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 revenue, and has helped push up world oil prices.