Chavez Orders Crackdown On Opposition

www.washingtonpost.com Reuters Monday, January 13, 2003; Page A16

CARACAS, Venezuela, Jan. 12 -- Venezuelan troops fired tear gas today to disperse tens of thousands of protesters as President Hugo Chavez ordered a crackdown against a six-week-old opposition strike that is bleeding the economy.

Chavez warned opponents he would not let them disrupt schools, banks or food supplies with the strike, which has already crippled shipments by the world's No. 5 oil exporter.

"They want to break us economically. They are not going to do it. I swear it by God and my mother," Chavez said during his weekly television and radio show.

During his broadcast, Chavez signed a decree creating a special government commission to combat a tax rebellion announced by opposition leaders. By urging Venezuelans not to pay taxes, the strikers hope to cut government revenue already drained by the oil strike.

The president, elected in 1998, said the strike was costing the country tens of millions of dollars a day. Chavez, who has already fired 2,000 striking state oil employees, repeated threats to send troops to take over private factories and warehouses if they hoarded food supplies.

He also threatened to revoke the broadcasting licenses of private TV stations that criticize his rule. He described their hostile programming as "worse than an atomic bomb."