Oil strike unrest claims life

www.heraldsun.news.com.au From a correspondent in Caracas 22jan03

BLOODY clashes between opponents and supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez yesterday overshadowed efforts by former US president Jimmy Carter to help resolve the general strike that has crippled the world's fifth largest oil exporter. On the 50th day of the civil action, one man was killed and 27 injured when gunfire erupted as the opposing forces clashed in Charallave, 30km south of the capital Caracas.

Both sides threw rocks, bottles and sticks at each other as police struggled to keep them apart, but it was not clear who fired the live ammunition.

Opposition leaders blamed the violence on the Government, saying Chavez sympathisers, primed by the President's fiery rhetoric, attacked their march. "The only one responsible is the Government," said Juan Fernandez, an executive fired from the state oil monopoly, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, for leading the strike.

Mr Carter, who won the Nobel peace prize in October, attended negotiations yesterday and met separately with Mr Chavez and strike leaders. His Atlanta-based Carter Centre, the Organisation of American States and the United Nations are sponsoring the talks.

Business leaders, unions and opposition parties launched the strike on December 2 to demand Mr Chavez resign or call early elections. After two months of negotiations, the two sides seem little closer to agreement.

Mr Chavez threatened yesterday to walk out of talks, accusing the Opposition of trying to topple him even as they negotiated and declaring the country was at war.

Strike leader Carlos Ortega said opponents would continue negotiating but called Mr Chavez undemocratic and said he would never accept a vote on his rule. Mr Ortega, president of the 1million-member Confederation of Venezuelan Workers, said OAS secretary general Cesar Gaviria and Mr Carter should "convince themselves once and for all that we are dealing with a regime that is not democratic, and that as long as Chavez stays in power there is no possibility of holding elections".

The National Elections Council, accepting an opposition petition, agreed to organise a February 2 non-binding referendum asking citizens whether Mr Chavez should step down.

Mr Chavez said the vote would be unconstitutional and his supporters have challenged it in the Supreme Court. But the President has welcomed a possible binding referendum halfway through his six-year-term - in August this year - as allowed by the constitution.

The strike has slashed Venezuela's oil production by more than two thirds and caused shortages of petrol, food and drinking water. It has cost Venezuela $US4billion ($6.77billion), according to the Government, and contributed to the fall of the bolivar.

Six countries - Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and the US - began an initiative called "Friends of Venezuela" to help end the crisis. Mr Chavez warned that his Government would not allow interference in domestic affairs.

Mr Chavez, 48, was elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000 on promises to redistribute the country's vast oil wealth among the poor majority.

His opponents accuse him of steering the economy into recession with leftist policies and running roughshod over democratic institutions.