Venezuelan opposition agrees to ease strike

www.globeandmail.com, February 1 Associated Press

Caracas — Under international pressure, opponents of President Hugo Chavez agreed Friday to ease a 2-month-old strike — but not in the crucial oil industry, the world's fifth-largest exporter.

Strike organizers said factories, schools, malls and franchise restaurants would be urged to open next week, at least on a restricted schedule.

The decision came after many of those participants were already considering abandoning the strike, fearing bankruptcy.

Most small businesses never joined the stoppage, which began Dec. 2 under the organization of a combination of labor unions, business leaders and opposition political parties.

But Chavez opponents insisted the walkout would continue in the oil industry, which provides half of government income and 70 per cent of export revenue. The strike has slashed production by two-thirds.

Carlos Fernandez, president of Venezuela's largest business chamber, said the decision to ease the strike came at the request of diplomats from six countries — the United States, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Spain and Portugal. The diplomats were in Caracas seeking a deal on early elections and an end to the strike.

Mr. Fernandez suggested that continuing the strike could weaken the opposition, allowing the government to "destroy the business sector and increase unemployment, then build the totalitarian model over the ashes."

With the strike dying down, opposition leaders — who accuse Mr. Chavez of ruining the economy with leftist policies and trying to accumulate too much power — are hoping international pressure on the embattled President to negotiate will help revive their drive for early balloting.

But Foreign Minister Roy Chaderton said the government had no intention of pledging to end Mr. Chavez's term early.

"The government has no interest in doing away with itself," Mr. Chaderton said Friday.

Diplomats urged both sides to make concessions during negotiations mediated by Cesar Gaviria, the Secretary-General of the Organization of American States.

"Reconciliation and healthy coexistence require mutual concessions," said Gilberto Saboia, Brazil's undersecretary for bilateral political affairs, reading a brief statement late Friday. "We reiterate the need for both sides to reach an constitutional, democratic, peaceful and electoral agreement."

The diplomatic group is urging both sides to accept one of two proposals made by former U.S. president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter.

One is to hold a recall referendum on Mr. Chavez's rule halfway through his six-year term, or August. Venezuela's constitution allows opponents to petition for such a vote by gathering signatures from 20 per cent, or 2.4 million, of the country's 12 million registered voters.

The other — favored by Chavez opponents — calls for ending the strike in exchange for a government pledge to push through quickly a constitutional amendment cutting Mr. Chavez's six-year term to four years, clearing the way for early elections.

Tens of thousands of Chavez opponents marched through Caracas on Friday to protest government investigations into three television stations accused of supporting the strike.

The government has managed to raise oil production beyond 1 million barrels a day — a third of normal, signaling that Mr. Chavez was regaining control of the state oil monopoly, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., or PDVSA.

Strike leaders insist production will never return to normal unless the walkout ends.

In another sign the strike was weakening, private banks announced they would restore normal working hours next week after two months of opening just three hours a day.

The Bush administration has promoted early elections as a solution to the crisis.

Mr. Chavez has irritated Washington by cozying up to Cuba and criticizing civilian deaths in the U.S.-led bombing campaign against Afghanistan. Mr. Chavez tried unsuccessfully to widen the negotiating group to include governments more friendly to him.

The government estimates the country has lost $4-billion (U.S.) in the strike. Private economists warn the economy could shrink 25 percent in the first three months of the year after contracting an estimated 8 percent last year.