Venezuelan protesters camp out on highway

www.suntimes.com January 26, 2003 BY STEPHEN IXER

CARACAS, Venezuela--At least a hundred thousand Venezuelans--many equipped with tents, inflatable mattresses and foldout chairs--parked themselves on a Caracas highway Saturday in what they said would be their longest protest yet against President Hugo Chavez.

Shouting, ''Until he goes!'' the protesters blanketed a stretch of nearly three miles, prepared to spend the night.

Police estimated the crowd at 200,000 to 300,000 people. There were at least 100,000, Caracas Fire Chief Rodolfo Briceno said.

''Prepare yourself for the longest protest in history!'' screamed TV commercials and newspaper ads in the opposition-run media.

The opposition is trying to recover from a Supreme Court ruling Wednesday that postponed indefinitely a Feb. 2 referendum that would have asked citizens if Chavez should resign. Although the referendum wouldn't have been binding, opponents had hoped a negative outcome would persuade Chavez to quit.

''Although they stole the referendum from us, spirits are higher than ever,'' said Alexandra Suarez, a 19-year-old student carrying a sleeping bag on her shoulder.

Opponents had gathered 2 million signatures to petition for the vote. They backed up their demand by launching a devastating national strike Dec. 2 and staging daily street protests. Six people have been killed during protests since the strike began.

The 55-day strike has hurt the oil industry, which provides half of the government's income and a third of Venezuela's gross domestic product. But production in the world's fifth-largest oil exporter is slowly reviving.

The government says most of the 40,000 employees at the state oil monopoly, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., have abandoned the strike and that output has reached 1 million barrels a day. Striking executives put the figure at 855,000 and deny most employees are back to work. Output was 3 million barrels a day before the strike. It reached a low of less than 200,000 last month.

Justices ruled that no national vote--a referendum or election--can be held until they decide whether elections council member Leonardo Pizani is eligible to serve on the panel. Members of Chavez's ruling party filed a suit arguing that Pizani couldn't serve because he resigned from the council in 2000, only to rejoin last November. Pizani insisted he could rejoin because Congress had failed to formally accept his resignation.