Venezuelan labor boss goes underground

www.kansascity.com Posted on Mon, Feb. 24, 2003 By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela - Every night for two months, Venezuelans knew where to find Carlos Ortega. The labor leader was sure be standing before cameras in Caracas, predicting the imminent downfall of President Hugo Chavez.

"The dictator's days are numbered," Ortega would thunder at his news conferences, flanked by business leader Carlos Fernandez.

Now Ortega, the leader of the strike that failed to oust Chavez, is in hiding, charged with treason and rebellion. Fernandez, accused of similar crimes, was seized by federal agents last week and is under house arrest.

Chavez wants both men sentenced to at least 20 years in prison for inflicting pain and suffering on Venezuelans with a strike that crushed the economy.

"See how the others are running to hide," he mocked in a speech after Fernandez's arrest.

Hiding is uncharacteristic of Ortega, the most visible and pugnacious of Chavez's opponents. He is the only government opponent to claim a measure of victory against Chavez since the leftist president was elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000.

As president of Venezuela's biggest oil workers union, Fedepetrol, Ortega led a four-day strike in 2000 for back pay and a collective contract for 20,000 workers. Chavez ceded on both counts.

Ortega subsequently rose to the top of the Venezuelan Workers Confederation, or CTV, which boasts 1 million members. In a bid to grasp control of the labor movement, Chavez called a nationwide election for CTV leaders over the protests of the International Labor Organization, which argued union elections were a private matter.

Since then, though, Ortega hasn't been so successful against Chavez.

Last year, he joined his labor forces with Fedecamaras, the leading business chamber, and convoked a general strike in April 2002 to support striking oil workers. Workers were upset with Chavez's intervention in Venezuela's semiautonomous state oil monopoly.

Ortega urged thousands to march on Miraflores, the presidential palace. Nineteen people died during the march, which prompted a two-day coup.

Chavez returned to power when an interim government composed mostly of business executives abolished Venezuela's constitution. Ortega seethed on the sidelines.

Ortega was last seen in public Wednesday, a day after a warrant for his arrest was issued. Alfredo Ramos, executive secretary of the CTV, said Ortega is moving from safehouse to safehouse.

"He will stay underground because there is no guarantee for his physical safety. He's received numerous death threats," Ramos said.

Ortega's whereabouts have become a national obsession. Rumors have put him in Aruba, Colombia or in remote ranches on Venezuela's vast central plains.

"He probably left the country already, but that bandit could be anywhere," said Ramon Ramirez, a construction worker who supports Chavez.

The latest strike, which ended Feb. 4 in all but the oil industry, cost Venezuela more than $4 billion, created shortages of food and medicines, and forced the world's fifth-largest oil exporter to import gasoline.

The strike focused attention on Venezuela's simmering political crisis but failed to bring about either early elections or Chavez's ouster.

The future of talks mediated by Cesar Gaviria, secretary general of the Organization of American States, is in doubt.

Chavez responded angrily Sunday to foreign critics of the charges against the two strike leaders. He directed warnings at some members of a "Group of Friends" initiative created to bolster the negotiating process.

"Don't mess with our affairs!" Chavez said, singling out Gaviria, the United States, Spain and Colombia.

Opposition representatives on Monday sent a letter to Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, coordinator of the "Friends" group, calling for an urgent meeting to discuss "the worsening of the Venezuelan situation."