Venezuela's neighbours seek solution as crisis causes international concern
01/29/2003 - Source: Latin American Newsletters The government may have broken the back of the oil strike, but Venezuela's crisis is starting to cause serious international concern. The United States wants to stabilise its third-largest oil supplier before unleashing war in the Middle East, while the newly-elected leftwing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva sees this as an opportunity to assert Brazil's rightful role as a powerbroker in South American affairs. At an impromptu summit on the sidelines of the Ecuadorean President's inauguration, these two rival impulses were meshed into a single diplomatic initiative.
A 'Group of Friends' comprising Brazil, the US, Chile, Mexico, Spain and Portugal has been established to find a negotiated end to the general strike in Venezuela, which has entered its ninth week. Colin Powell attended the first meeting of the group –an indication of how seriously the State Department is taking this. Chávez has also met the UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, and former US President Jimmy Carter has launched his own crisis-resolution bid.
All the international parties have agreed that the Organization of American States (OAS) should continue to mediate efforts, an outcome that has not pleased the Venezuelan opposition. The OAS is seeking a constitutional solution to the crisis and this rules out the opposition's demand for immediate elections. There are two proposed routes out of the crisis. The first is to allow the population to vote on a constitutional amendment that would allow for early elections and make it possible to cut short the President's statutory six-year term. The second suggestion is to wait until August –midway through Chávez's term of office– when the constitution allows for a binding referendum to be held on the President's mandate.
The Venezuelan government, in any case, has managed to get oil back on stream by sacking executives of the state owned oil company, PDVSA, moving the company headquarters out of Caracas and drafting in technicians from Algeria. Officials said output in the last week of January was 1.3m barrels a day, compared with the normal level of 3.2m bpd. The opposition claim it is lower –at 986,000 bpd– but accept that production has quadrupled since the start of the January.
The strike –or lockout as it may more accurately be described– is, however, hitting the financial sector. On 22 January, the central bank suspended currency trading for five days and said it would maintain capital controls until the end of the strike.