Venezuela oil rebels on their own as strike wanes

www.forbes.com Reuters, 02.03.03, 12:45 PM ET By Pascal Fletcher CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Mild-mannered, bespectacled and wearing a sober business suit, Luis Pacheco seems an unlikely "terrorist." The former Planning Director of Venezuela's strike-hit oil giant PDVSA is one of more than 5,000 employees summarily fired by President Hugo Chavez for staging a nine-week walkout in the world's No. 5 oil exporter. Since the strike began last Dec. 2, gripping Venezuela's oil industry, it has triggered an economic emergency for Chavez. The firebrand left-wing president is now noisily demanding trial and jail terms for the PDVSA strikers he vilifies daily as "terrorists," "saboteurs" and "subversives." After 21 years working for state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and one of the biggest oil companies in the world, this torrent of abuse is hard to swallow for Pacheco and his colleagues, whose strike aims to force Chavez to hold early elections. "We look in the mirror ... and I think we all have clear consciences," Pacheco told Reuters in an interview. "We haven't carried out sabotage operations, we're not terrorists, we're not on television insulting everyone, we've tried to carry this through with the same dignity with which we've lived the rest of our lives," he added. Already the target of a government campaign to seek revenge against the strikers, Pacheco and other PDVSA strikers now face the prospect of continuing the strike alone, after opposition leaders said Sunday they were lifting the stoppage in non-oil sectors. Outside of the oil sector, support for the strike had already crumbled as shops, businesses and restaurants reopened to avert the threat of bankruptcy after sacrificing Christmas sales. But there was no turning back for the PDVSA strikers, who have vowed to stick it out until Chavez agrees to call elections. "I can't say that I'm not worried about us all ending up as scapegoats," said Pacheco, who was informed of his firing by an official PDVSA advertisement published in newspapers. Opposition leaders have demanded that the sacked PDVSA employees be reinstated as part of any agreement.

"NO AMNESTY" But Chavez, a former paratrooper who survived a coup attempt in April backed by many of the current PDVSA dissidents, has repeatedly ruled out an amnesty and ordered a legal offensive against the oil strikers he blames for wrecking the economy. "PDVSA has got to carry on not just firing (the strikers) but also taking them to court ... and taking away their pensions," Chavez said on Sunday. Six years before winning a 1998 election, he himself staged a botched 1992 coup that landed him in jail for two years, an event that also launched his political career. "We can't show weakness," the outspoken populist leader said. Since the strike began nine weeks ago, he has taken to calling himself "Commander Oil," and now gives regular reports on official levels of production, refining and export operations. Chavez also insists he has defeated the strike. Underpinning the president's confidence are signs that oil output and exports are steadily creeping back up after the government used troops and personnel loyal to the government to restart wells, ports and refineries. The president said Sunday that production was fast approaching two million barrels per day (bpd), around two thirds of pre-strike levels. The PDVSA strikers put output at 1.2 million bpd, but they concede that it is on the rise. PDVSA President Ali Rodriguez, himself a former communist guerrilla, has said the strike gave the government the chance to regain control of the oil company, purge it of "unpatriotic" employees and turn it into a vehicle for state revenue collection as a pillar of Chavez's self-styled "Bolivarian revolution."

IDEOLOGICAL CLASH But Pacheco rejects this objective as ideologically obsolete and flawed in practice. "The ideological model which says that I must distribute the income that oil produces is a model that creates poverty," he said. He said this would reverse PDVSA's modern role as a market-orientated generator of wealth and economic activity. Pacheco also dismissed Chavez's assertion that he was strengthening national control over PDVSA by sacking the strikers he says are in cahoots with transnational oil firms. "You can't make the industry any more Venezuelan. It is already Venezuelan. The only thing Chavez is doing is saying 'This industry belongs to me, to my government,"' he added. Chavez also said over the weekend that foreign exchange restrictions to be introduced this week would give his government discretional control over the country's dollar revenues. "Instead of giving dollars to speculators, terrorists and saboteurs, we'll be giving them to state companies," he said in a stern warning to his opponents in the private sector. However, Pacheco and his fired PDVSA colleagues seem certain to remain at the center of ongoing negotiations, backed by the international community, to end the Venezuelan conflict. Proposals for a political deal on elections put forth by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter also include a clause which foresees "no reprisals" against the PDVSA strikers. But in an apparent concession to the government, Carter also suggested that strikers found guilty of "sabotage and other crimes" should be punished under the law. Distinguishing between legitimate strikers and "saboteurs" may prove a thorny issue for the government and opposition alike. While they know some of them may never return to their jobs at PDVSA, Pacheco and his colleagues are unrepentant. "Our position is painful and costly but worth it ... (Chavez) may be able to recover oil production, but he can't recover the confidence of the country," Pacheco said. (Reporting by Pascal Fletcher, edited by Gary Crosse; Reuters Messaging pascal.fletcher.reuters.com@reuters.net 58-212-277-2656, pascal.fletcher@reuters.com)