news.bbc.co.uk Monday, 3 February, 2003, 03:17 GMT

Critics are now turning to an anti-government petition

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has proclaimed victory over the participants of a 63-day strike against the government which is being scaled back in the face of weakening support.

Mr Chavez refuses to step down

Mr Chavez has repeatedly brushed aside calls for his resignation. Opponents accuse the president of authoritarian rule and of ruining the economy.

"Today is a victorious day," Chavez said in his weekly broadcast on Sunday, following the announcement by opposition leaders that they were allowing some businesses to begin opening for restricted hours.

But the opposition stressed that its struggle against the president was simply "entering a new phase".

National petition

"We have beaten once and for all a new destabilising attempt, a new malevolent and criminal attempt to sink Venezuela," Mr Chavez said.

But in a new offensive against the president, hundreds of thousands of his critics signed a petition on Sunday calling for early elections following the failure to oust him through the national strike.

Under the country's constitution, opposition leaders would be permitted to make the request if they secured the signatures of 15% of Venezuela's registered voters - approximately 1.8 million people.

It was not clear how many people had signed it so far.

Meanwhile, shops, businesses, banks and schools are all resuming normal operations, although the return to work will not include thousands of oil workers who have decided to continue their strike until Mr Chavez calls elections.

Oil prices

World crude oil prices have spiralled to two-year highs since the strike began in the world's fifth largest oil exporting country.

However Mr Chavez claimed oil production was rising to about two-thirds of pre-strike levels, and oil workers, though estimating output at lower than that, acknowledged it was rising.

Explaining what had brought about the change of tactics, Jesus Torrealba, executive secretary of the opposition co-ordinating committee has said: "The national strike has reached its objectives and the protest is entering a new phase."

But experts say the strike had begun to falter as many companies, faced with bankruptcy, re-opened for business.

The strikes, which began on 2 December, have forced Venezuelans to queue for cash, food and gas, and sparked angry protests in which at least seven people have been killed.

www.inq7.net Posted: 10:33 AM (Manila Time) | Feb. 03, 2003 Agence France-Presse

CARACAS - The Venezuelan opposition late Sunday officially declared an end to a 63-day general strike that has paralyzed the country's economy and reduced its oil exports to a trickle. But the opposition pointed out that its struggle against the government of populist President Hugo Chavez was just entering a "new phase." "The Democratic Coordinating Committee announced that tonight we are entering a long-expected and more trying new phase in our struggle," said opposition spokesman Timoteo Zambrano.

He said although the strike was ending, the protesters would not abandon thousands of employees of Petroleos de Venezuela, the state-run oil company, who have been dismissed by the Chavez government.

"Our struggle will now assume new forms, and we will pursue our goals at the negotiation table," Zambrano pointed out.

Opposition business, labor and political leaders launched the strike two months ago in criticism of what they say is Chavez's autocratic style.

The strike has caused Venezuela billions of dollars in losses, largely because it slashed oil shipments from the world's fifth largest oil exporter.

The Organization of American States and former US president Jimmy Carter have attempted to bring government and opposition together.

Last month, the United States, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Chile and Brazil formed the "Group of Friends of Venezuela" to broker a deal.

Opposition leaders planned to allow schools, shops, grocery stores and industry to resume operation during the coming week, while stepping up street demonstrations aimed at pushing Chavez out of office.

www.sfgate.com STEPHEN IXER, Associated Press Writer Sunday, February 2, 2003

(02-02) 18:23 PST CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) --

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez declared victory Sunday after his opponents eased a 2-month-old national strike, but hundreds of thousands of voters still signed petitions seeking his ouster.

"Today is a victorious day," the president said in his weekly television and radio program. "We have beaten once and for all a new destabilizing attempt, a new malevolent and criminal attempt to sink Venezuela."

Venezuela's opposition called the strike Dec. 2 to demand a nonbinding referendum on Chavez's presidency -- then upped the ante to demand Chavez's ouster.

Organizers delivered 2 million voter signatures in November to demand the referendum. But the Supreme Court indefinitely postponed it, citing a technicality.

Strike leaders said most businesses that joined the walkout would reopen on a limited or full-time basis this week to avoid bankruptcy. But they set up 4,000 tables nationwide Sunday to gather signatures for several petitions seeking Chavez's ouster.

Hundreds of thousands waited hours in the tropical sun to sign.

Albis Munoz, vice president of Venezuela's largest business chamber, claimed as many as 4 million people signed Sunday. The figure could not be verified. Organizers said they would collect more signatures Monday.

Under the constitution, 15 percent, or about 1.8 million, of the country's 12 million registered voters are needed to call for a referendum shortening the president's term.

Chavez said Sunday he never would give in to his opponents, whom he labeled "coup plotters, fascists and terrorists." He vowed to hold strike leaders accountable in the courts and again threatened private media outlets, which he accuses of supporting opposition efforts.

The strike continued in the vital oil industry, where production was cut from 3 million barrels a day to 150,000 at the height of the strike. Chavez said Sunday the government has boosted production to 1.8 million barrels a day, but striking workers put the number at 1 million.

Oil makes up a third of Venezuela's economy and provides half of government income. Before the strike, Venezuela was the world's fifth-largest oil exporter and a major supplier to the United States.

Four people were injured, including two police officers, when pro-Chavez protesters threw stones, fireworks and tear gas canisters near two petition tables in downtown Caracas, police chief Henry Vivas said.

The strike has cost the nation at least $4 billion. The Santander Central Hispano investment bank has warned that the economy could shrink by as much as 40 percent in the first quarter of this year.

One petition calls for a constitutional amendment reducing Chavez's term from six to four years, ending in 2004. Another would declare Chavez's presidential term over this year.

"We're looking for the fastest way to get out of this crisis," said Freddy Hurtado, 56, an advertising agent. "Given that the president is the cause of the crisis, we're going to get rid of him with our signatures."

The amendment route was one of two proposals made by Nobel Peace Prize winner and former President Jimmy Carter to end Venezuela's political deadlock. The other calls for a recall referendum on Chavez's rule halfway through his six-year term, in August.

Most small businesses never joined the strike, and many companies that closed because of security concerns have reopened their doors in recent days.

www.kansascity.com Posted on Mon, Feb. 03, 2003 ALEXANDRA OLSON Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela - Workers in all sectors but the vital oil industry returned to their jobs Monday - abandoning a two-month general strike that devastated Venezuela's economy but failed to oust President Hugo Chavez.

As life began returning to normal in stores, factories and banks, the government made gains toward restoring oil production to pre-strike levels in a nation that is a major supplier of crude to the United States and the world's fifth-largest petroleum exporter.

The fear of bankruptcy and shortages of gasoline and other essentials prompted leaders to end the strike, which began Dec. 2, said Albis Munoz, vice president of the country's biggest business chamber, Fedecamaras.

Chavez, elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000, vows to defeat his opponents in the streets and at the ballot box. He said Sunday he will prosecute strike leaders for sabotaging the economy.

Venezuela's opposition still hopes to generate international pressure for new elections.

The United States, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Spain and Portugal joined the Organization of American States in mediating 3-month-old talks. Over Chavez's objections, they endorsed an early election.

After meetings here Friday, diplomats from the six nations said early elections were the best way to restore stability.

Seeking to capitalize on the strike's momentum, the opposition organized a massive signature drive Sunday for early elections - the strike's original goal. Organizers claimed 4 million people signed the petitions, a claim that could not be verified.

Strike leaders are a mix of conservatives, leftists, business associations, labor unions and civic groups. Their often conflicting petitions reflected their various agendas.

One called for a constitutional amendment declaring Chavez's term over. Another would cut his term from six years to four, allowing elections this year. A third would create a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution and call general elections.

Yet another option: A binding referendum halfway into Chavez's term, or in August, as permitted by the constitution. That idea was supported recently by former President Carter.

Chavez says he prefers the August option - a referendum he could win because the opposition, while condemning political and economic unrest, has yet to present an alternative to his populist "revolution" for the poor.

While Manuel Cova, secretary general of the Venezuela Workers Confederation, claimed some sort of vote could be held as early as March, Venezuela has no one to organize a vote.

The Supreme Court ruled last month that the Chavez-dominated Congress must appoint a new board of directors for the National Elections Council. Without a council, no one can verify the signatures collected Sunday.

The strike reflected "the disorganization of the opposition," said Riordan Roett, director of Western Hemisphere studies at Johns Hopkins University.

"It was anti-Chavez but never pro-anything. What were they going to replace Chavez with?"

Lines disappeared at banks, traffic jams reappeared, and janitors swept the halls at Caracas' multistory Sambil shopping mall Monday in anticipation of a Tuesday opening.

The strike "lasted too long and now we are paying the consequences," said Luis Lange, 24, manager of an electronics store.

Like Lange, hundreds of thousands of businessmen had counted on holiday sales to make up for last year's poor sales.

According to the Fedeindustria business chamber, the fallout from the strike and continuing recession will cost 200,000 jobs and close more than 20,000 small- and medium-sized businesses by August.

Chavez also fired more than 5,000 striking oil workers.

Lack of oil and tax income forced Chavez to cut 10 percent from Venezuela's $25 billion budget for 2003. Economists forecast the economy will shrink 25 percent this year after an 8 percent contraction in 2002.

Venezuela's crude oil output rose to 1.2 million barrels per day Monday, compared with 1.1 million barrels over the weekend, according to dissident staff at the state owned monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A.

That is about a third of normal production, but Venezuela is expected to add 200,000 more barrels per day in the coming weeks, the staff's daily report said.

reuters.com Sun February 2, 2003 08:48 PM ET By Pascal Fletcher

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of foes of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez cast a symbolic vote against him Sunday, signing a petition calling for early elections.

Ignoring the initiative, the leftist leader claimed victory over an opposition strike that has lasted nine weeks but was scaled back Sunday to continue only in the vital oil sector.

The signing campaign, billed as an unofficial plebiscite, was the latest opposition challenge to the populist president.

The strike has failed to oust Chavez, elected in 1998 and due to rule until early 2007, but has crippled the economy of the world's No. 5 oil exporter.

Opposition leaders said more than 4 million people had signed the petition seeking a constitutional amendment to shorten Chavez's rule and trigger elections. There was no independent confirmation of the results of the poll organized by foes of the president.

"Our civic protest is evolving, closing the democratic circle around the government and leaving it only one way out -- elections," opposition leader Timoteo Zambrano said.

Zambrano said state oil firm employees, whose walkout has slashed output and exports in South America's biggest oil producer, would maintain their damaging stoppage.

But in non-oil sectors, where support for the shutdown had already crumbled, the strike call was lifted and replaced with plans for limited stoppages and go-slows as required.

Brushing aside the opposition challenge, a confident Chavez announced oil production was fast approaching 2 million barrels per day (bpd), around two thirds of pre-strike levels.

"There is no strike here. We faced a terrorist coup plan and we've already defeated it," the brash former paratrooper said in a broadcast on state radio and television.

He called on opposition leaders to abandon their efforts to oust him. "You've been defeated, recognize it," he said.

Oil strikers have put current oil output lower, just over a million bpd, but they have acknowledged it is rising again.

ECONOMY REELING

Venezuela's oil-reliant economy is reeling from the impact of the strike and the government has announced stringent budget cuts and foreign exchange controls to be introduced next week.

Leaders of the stoppage in the oil industry vowed no let up. "We will continue with the strike until our objectives are achieved," sacked state oil executive Juan Fernandez said.

To trigger the constitutional mechanism for an early poll, the opposition needed to collect the signatures of at least 15 percent of the nation's nearly 12 million voters -- around 1.8 million signatures. Chavez rejects early elections, saying the opposition must wait until August when the constitution would allow a binding referendum on his rule.

In what could be a tortuous and controversial process, the signatures have to be verified by the National Electoral Council. A Supreme Court ruling last month ordered the council to refrain from organizing elections and recommended that the National Assembly appoint a new electoral body.

In his six-hour broadcast, Chavez angrily demanded that the organizers of the opposition strike be tried and punished.

"I demand in the name of the people the application of implacable justice against the traitors of the nation," he said in his weekly radio and television show, "Hello President."

His call for punishment could complicate international efforts to broker a solution to the crisis, which has rocked oil markets already nervous over a possible U.S. war on Iraq.

A potential obstacle to an agreement on elections is the fate of striking employees of the state oil giant PDVSA, more than 5,000 of whom have been fired. Opposition leaders demand that they be reinstated as part of any negotiated deal.

But Chavez, who has replaced the oil strikers with troops and loyal personnel, has refused an amnesty for them.

A "group of friends" appealed Friday for an end to the conflict through elections. Envoys from the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Spain and Portugal urged Chavez and his opponents to settle their differences in ongoing negotiations brokered by the Organization of American States.

Near one opposition polling point in Caracas, police fired tear gas and shotgun pellets Sunday to disperse Chavez supporters who pelted petition signers with stones and fireworks. Two policemen and two other people were hurt. (Additional reporting by Silene Ramirez, Fabian Cambero)