Anti-Chavez leader held

www.news24.com 20/02/2003 18:05  - (SA)  

Caracas - Police have arrested business leader Carlos Fernandez, a top organiser of a 63-day strike to force President Hugo Chavez out of office, Venezuelan television reported early on Thursday.

Fernandez, from the Fedecamaras free trade body, was arrested as he was leaving a restaurant in the trendy commercial district of Las Mercedes, restaurant employees told Globovision television.

Police officers fired several shots, but the employees said no-one was injured during the arrest.

The Political Police (Disip) did not confirm Fernandez' arrest either publicly or to the Democratic Coordinator grouping political parties and civil rights groups opposed to the Chavez administration.

Fernandez and Venezuelan Workers' Confederation president Carlos Ortega were the two top leaders of a 63-day general strike by business and union groups against Chavez that ended February 2.

The strike reduced Venezuela's crude oil exports to a 150 000-barrel-per-day (bpd) trickle. Production now has increased to two million bpd - still well below its normal, pre-strike output of 2.8 million bpd.

Chavez and opposition forces on Tuesday signed a non-violence pact, under the mediation of Organization of American States Secretary-General Cesar Gaviria.

More of a confidence-building measure than a political deal, the pact calls for "a climate of peace and calm in the country," and for the legislature to form a "Peace Commission" to investigate 70 deaths during a failed April coup against Chavez.

Ortega told Globovision that Fernandez' arrest was part of the government's "terror" tactics against leading opposition members.

"We can't rule anything out," he added. "At the moment, our physical wellbeing and our families are in jeopardy."

Ortega said soon there would be "calls for street action both in the capital and the interior of the country".

Social democratic leader Timoteo Zambrano, who takes part in OAS-mediated talks with the Chavez administration to resolve the political crisis, said Fernadez' arrest "escalates the conflict further", and called on the international community to "intervene ugently".

Juan Fernandez, who leads a group of sacked employees of the state oil giant PDVSA, said the arrest showed the "desperation" of the government and called for popular action to demand Fernandez's release.

With no official word on the arrest, rumours were flying that Fernandez was on a government arrest list of 25 opposition leaders, or that he was kidnapped by either the secret police or pro-Chavez militants.

Weeks ago, Fernandez testified before the attorney-general's office in an investigation into the April 12 attempted coup that removed Chavez from office for 47 hours.

Pedro Carmona, Fernandez's boss in Fedecamaras at the time of the coup, took over the presidency during Chavez's arrest. - Sapa-AFP