Strike struggles as banks end protest
www.nzherald.co.nz 31.01.2003
CARACAS - Venezuelan private banks have decided to restore normal working hours, delivering a fresh blow to a faltering eight-week-old opposition strike against leftist President Hugo Chavez.
But the striking oil workers at the heart of the opposition campaign stayed firm in their shutdown, which has battered Venezuela's fragile economy and rattled energy markets by slashing crude output in the world's No 5 petroleum exporter.
Commercial banks, which make up nearly 90 per cent of the Venezuelan financial sector, had been operating for limited daily hours and restricting transactions since last month in support of the strike to push Chavez from office.
"This is a result of demands from the public and deposit-holders ... banks don't belong to their presidents," federal banking group president Nelson Mezerhane said after banking associations decided to restore normal hours.
Chavez, a populist former paratrooper, had threatened to seize striking banks, schools and factories to break the strike.
As the shutdown nears the two-month mark, backing for the protest in non-oil sectors has begun to fray as private businesses and stores reopen to fend off bankruptcy.
Opposition leaders, who brand Chavez's rule as dictatorial, inept and corrupt, offered to ease their strike by exempting food production and education.
But they have vowed to stay out until Chavez accepts elections. The President, whose term ends in 2007, has so far shown no signs of accepting their proposals for an early vote.
But economic pressure is building on the Government.
With the strike disrupting oil exports that account for half of its revenues, it plans to slash its budget and has suspended foreign currency trading while it prepares a fixed exchange rate to protect its reserves.
Battered by economic uncertainty, the currency has plummeted more than 24 per cent. Venezuela's international reserves have dipped more than 7 per cent, to $11.05 billion, since the start of the year.
Chavez, who was elected in 1998 and survived a coup last year, has dismissed calls for him to resign.
Though his popularity has fallen sharply this year, he maintains a solid base of support among poorer voters, who believe his left-wing reforms are the key to a better life.
He has fought back against the strikers by firing oil workers and deploying troops and replacement crews to oil installations.
But attempts to restart the industry have had limited success. Crude production stands at about one third of the 3.1 million barrels a day the Opec member produced in