reuters.com Wed January 29, 2003 11:18 AM ET By Patrick Markey

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan private banks decided Wednesday to restore normal working hours, opening another crack in a faltering eight-week-old opposition strike against President Hugo Chavez.

But striking oil workers were maintaining their shutdown, which has rattled global energy markets by slashing oil output in the world's No. 5 petroleum exporter.

Private banks, which make up nearly 90 percent of the Venezuelan financial sector, had been operating for limited daily hours since December in support of the strike launched on Dec. 2 to pressure leftist Chavez from office.

"The National Banking Council and the Venezuelan Banking Association decided at a meeting by a two-thirds vote to restart normal operating hours from Monday," association president Ignacio Salvatierra told reporters. The two associations represent most financial institutions.

As the strike nears the two month mark, backing for the protest in non-oil sectors has begun to fray as private businesses, restaurants and stores reopen to fend off bankruptcy.

Opposition leaders, who brand former paratrooper Chavez's rule as dictatorial and corrupt, offered on Tuesday to ease their strike by exempting food production and education.

But they say the protest will continue until Chavez accepts immediate elections. Chavez is due to step down at the start of 2007.

The shutdown has stoked tensions as it forced Venezuelans to line up for cash, dwindling supplies of gasoline and some basic foodstuffs. At least seven people have been killed in rival street protests and shootings since the strike began.

Bankers cited pressure from account holders for lifting the stoppage. "This is the result of demands from the public and deposit holders ... banks don't belong to their presidents but to their deposit holders," said Nelson Mezerhane, president of the Federal banking group.

The opposition strike has driven Venezuela's fragile economy deeper into recession and forced the government to suspend foreign currency trading while it prepares a fixed exchange rate to protect its reserves.

Battered by economic uncertainty, the local bolivar currency has plummeted more than 28 percent since the strike began. Venezuela's international reserves fell 7.3 percent to 11.05 billion as the Central Bank burned through as much as $60 million a day to shore up the currency.

Economists say exchange rate controls will help the government stem capital flight in the short-term. But restrictions could later squeeze the private sector and force the government to defend its fixed rate from black market exchange rates.

Chavez, who was elected in 1998 and survived a coup last year, has also dismissed opposition calls for him to resign. Though his popularity has fallen sharply this year, he maintains a solid base of support among poorer voters who believe his left-wing reforms are the key to a better life.

The Venezuelan leader, who led a botched coup himself six years before his ballot box victory, has fought back against the strikers by deploying troops and replacement crews to oil installations. But oil production still remains only at around a third of the usual 3.1 million barrels per day.

A fiery populist, whose rhetoric is filled with class warfare slogans, Chavez has also threatened to take over banks, schools and factories that joined the strike.

The international community will intensify its efforts to break Venezuela's political deadlock this week when representatives from six nations arrive in Caracas to lend their weight to peace talks. The negotiations chaired by the Organization of American States have so far failed to break their impasse.

Representatives from the six nations, led by the United States and Brazil, are scheduled to arrive on Thursday in Caracas. They will meet for talks Friday.

indymedia.ie Hands Off Venezuela Eyewitness Account by Chris Loughlin - sp Wed, Jan 29 2003, 3:36pm

interesting article i found on the web

Venezuela Opposition "strike" or bosses lock out? An eyewitness account If we were to believe the information we get from the mass media internationally, we would get the impression that in Venezuela there has been a general strike for the last one and a half months and that president Chavez is an extremely unpopular and authoritarian ruler who is about to be overthrown in a mass popular revolt. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, the "national civic strike" called by the opposition on December 2, demanding Chavez's resignation and early elections has been a complete failure since the beginning. When I arrived in Caracas on December 11, the airport was working normally, as well as public transport (buses, coaches and the Caracas Metro), shopping centres, restaurants and bars. The basic industries (iron, steel, aluminium, etc), which are state-owned, were working at 100% capacity because of the decision of the workers and their unions to oppose the 'strike'.

In the state of Carabobo, one of the most important centres of manufacturing industry, the 'Class Struggle' and 'Democratic Trade Union Block', which brings together workers from 52 different unions in the most important factories in the state (including Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, Pirelli, Good Year, Firestone, MAVESA, and others) declared its opposition to the 'strike'. Some of these factories remained open but in others the workers went to work and found themselves locked out by the bosses. They demanded to be paid their wages, since they had gone to work, and in most cases they were paid. The same was true in some sections of the food and beverages industry, which is controlled, almost in its entirety by Grupo Polar, which is owned by the powerful businessman and opposition leader Mendoza.

This is not a strike at all, but a bosses' lock out. The fact that this protest has the support of the executive committee of the CTV, the main trade union federation in the country, should not fool anyone, since this Executive Committee has never actually been elected. The people who sit on it appointed themselves before the end of the ballot in the extremely irregular elections of November 2001. This explains why it is not recognised by most of the federations and local union branches.

The only part of the economy that was seriously hit by the opposition protest was the oil industry. Here, a small group of managers, directors, supervisors and technicians organised the sabotage of production and brought the industry almost to a halt. Oil production is highly computerised and a few managers withdrawing their keys and passwords can cause a lot of damage. They also made sure they fixed the administrative procedures so that they would still receive their (very high) salaries while they were on 'strike'. Also a number of captains and crew of some of the oil tankers mutinied and prevented normal deliveries. It is important to note that the oil workers' union leaders, who in April had supported the opposition-led attempted coup, this time did not even dare make a public statement in favour of the 'national strike'. Slowly but surely, oil workers took over the refineries and oil fields and started to get the industry back to normal. By January 10, the state-owned oil company PDVSA was working at 50% of capacity.

The opposition protest has been accompanied by a campaign of lies, half-truths and the blatant manipulation of all the private media, particularly the TV stations, which are also controlled by the opposition. All TV stations suspended their normal programming to broadcast only 'news' about the success of the 'strike' and gave all their commercial breaks over to opposition propaganda. To give just one example of the level of hysteria which the opposition and the media are trying to whip up against the government, when the government finally got a court order to take over the oil tankers that had mutinied, the opposition claimed that the new crews were Cuban, and that this was a further sign that the country was rapidly moving towards "Castro-Communism". This lie was repeated by the media, until a couple of days later, having been directly challenged by the Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister, the opposition leaders were forced to retract their allegations and admit that there were no Cubans working in the oil tankers.

At the beginning of January, the opposition, faced with the failure of their actions to bring the country to a halt, decided to up the stakes by announcing the closure of the banks and that schools and universities would not re-open after the Christmas break. Again, both actions failed. Most banks remained open and those that did close only did so for 48 hours. In most schools around the country the alliance of parents, teachers and students guaranteed the opening of the schools and colleges, in some cases against the will of the headmasters.

As for Chavez being an unpopular dictator, nothing could be further from the truth. The opposition has been regularly calling demonstrations against the government demanding his resignation, and they can manage to mobilise 100,000, 200,000 or even 300,000 people onto the streets, mainly from the rich and middle class areas of Caracas. What is not generally reported is that the Bolivarians, as the supporters of the revolutionary process call themselves, can get far bigger crowds onto the streets. On December 7, right at the beginning of the opposition protest, a massive demonstration of more than 2 million people took to the streets of Caracas against the 'strike' to defend the democratically elected government.

In fact, the result of the opposition 'strike' has been to further polarise society and to push many people who had not taken sides to openly declare themselves against the opposition, which they rightly see as being responsible for the fuel and food shortages. There have been many instances in which people, queuing for hours to get petrol, have expelled opposition supporters from the petrol station queues for having the audacity to try to blame the government for the shortages.

Chavez is most definitely not a dictator. It is in fact his supporters who are demanding that the government take stronger action against the opposition, which is hell bent on overthrowing a democratically elected government. The only people who are currently in prison as a result of the opposition coup on April 11 of last year are actually government supporters who were defending the presidential palace against the coup! Pedro Carmona, who appointed himself president for a few hours following the coup, was put under house arrest for a few days and later escaped to Colombia. The opposition newspapers (all of them apart from two or three exceptions) carry numerous articles and editorials openly calling for a military coup to remove Chavez and appealing to the armed forces to overthrow the government, and no measures are taken against them! There is a group of military officers who have declared themselves in rebellion against the government and instead of being arrested they have been allowed to set up a permanent camp in Plaza Francia, a square in the centre of Caracas (mind you, these "courageous" individuals leave their "permanent" camp at night to go to sleep in luxury hotels!).

Chavez and his government have been put to the test in seven different elections since he was elected in 1998 and they have won every single one of them. Furthermore, the country's new Bolivarian Constitution allows for all elected public officials to be subject to a recall referendum half-way through their term of office. This includes the president who is up for such a referendum in August 2003. The problem is that the opposition is convinced they would lose such a referendum and that is why they are demanding Chavez's resignation. What they did not achieve in April by means of a military coup, they want to achieve now by a combination of economic sabotage, chaos, appeals to the armed forces and international pressure.

The reason why the local oligarchy and US imperialism are opposed to Chavez is that even his limited programme of bourgeois democratic reforms (land reform, maintenance of PDVSA as a state-owned company and the extension of political democracy amongst others) and the process of mass mobilisation and organisation which they have generated, directly clash with the class interests of the capitalists. But the very actions of the reactionary forces are pushing the masses to take direct action and push forward their revolutionary cause. On January 10, for instance, 400 workers at COVENCAUCHO (a tyre company in the state of Lara) decided to take over the factory and declared themselves on "strike against the strike", when they were told that the company had decided to join the opposition protest. The oil workers in one of the oil refineries had been running the installations under workers' control throughout Christmas and New Year. When a new manager was appointed by the government to replace the old one who had joined the opposition protest, he was told by the workers that he was welcome to join them, but that the refinery was now under workers' management. Also, on January 17, the National Guard with the support of the workers and the local population took over a Panamco beverages warehouse in Carabobo belonging to the powerful businessman and oppositionist Cisneros, and the general in charge of this operation justified his actions by saying that collective rights came before private rights. All these are some indications of the deepening of the process of the Venezuelan revolution.

The main discussions that are taking place in the trade union and popular movement at the present time are about popular control of the mass media, workers' control and management of the state-owned companies, occupation of privately owned factories, popular management of schools, nationalisation of the banks, etc. Through their own experience, the workers, the poor peasants and the students are drawing the conclusion that the revolutionary process, in order to be defended, must be strengthened and deepened.

The most urgent task for revolutionaries in Venezuela is the building of a conscious Marxist leadership that can help the movement draw the necessary conclusions and that is that the revolutionary process must adopt a clear socialist and international approach as the only way to guarantee its final victory.

Jorge Martin

(secretary, Hands Off Venezuela Campaign,

add your comments

COMMENTS

The article is available on the web by Ray Wed, Jan 29 2003, 3:50pm

If you think its interesting, post a summary explaining why its interesting, and a link. Not the entire article.

related link: www.marxist.com/Latinam/venezuela_eyewitness0103.html

Ray Get A Life by CWIer Wed, Jan 29 2003, 5:36pm

Ever since you left the WSM you act like a petty dictator.

seattlepi.nwsource.com Wednesday, January 29, 2003 · Last updated 8:10 a.m. PT THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

HOUSTON -- ConocoPhillips on Wednesday swung to a fourth-quarter loss of $410 million, hindered by a $1.2 billion charge stemming from the disposition of service stations and the consolidation of refining and marketing operations between Conoco and Phillips Petroleum, whose merger was completed in August.

The loss of 60 cents per share at the nation's third-largest oil company compared with net income of $162 million, or 42 cents per share, reported by Phillips Petroleum Co. in October-December 2001.

The fourth quarter of 2002 produced the first results of ConocoPhillips as a combined company. The combined company, which completed the merger in August, compared results for the quarter to those of Phillips Petroleum in 2001. Results for 2002 included eight months of activity for Phillips and four months of activity for the combined company.

Excluding the one-time charge, the company said it earned $747 million, or $1.10 per share. On that basis, analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call expected ConocoPhillips to earn $1.11 per share.

Fourth quarter revenue was $23.6 billion, compared with $8.7 billion at Phillips in the year-ago period.

Net income for 2002 was $1.5 billion on revenue of $57.2 billion, compared with Phillips' $1.67 billion on $24.8 billion in revenue in 2001.

Jim Mulva, ConocoPhillips' president and chief executive officer, said daily petroleum production was in line with the company's target volume of 1.62 barrels-of-oil-equivalent even though production operations were shut down without incident in Venezuela because of an ongoing labor strike.

The company reduced its debt to $19.8 billion from $20.5 billion as planned.

Mulva also said first-quarter 2003 earnings likely will be down $50 million because of after-tax costs for planned maintenance at refineries, and the company could lose $30 million to $50 million per month as long as the shutdown of Venezuelan operations continues.

Shares of ConocoPhillips were up $1.29 cents to $47.20 in Wednesday morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

www.conocophillips.com

abcnews.go.com The Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela Jan. 29 —

In Another Sign Venezuela Strike May Be Weaking, Private Banks Agree to Restore Normal Hours

President Hugo Chavez appeared to be winning the battle for control of Venezuela's oil industry, overcoming efforts by workers at the state oil company to strangle it with a 58-day-old strike.

In another sign the strike is weakening, private banks agreed Wednesday to restore normal banking hours next week, said Central Bank president Diego Luis Castellanos. Banks and many exchange houses had opened only three hours a day to support the strike.

The decision came after Chavez had threatened to fine banks, suspend their directors and withdraw military deposits from striking institutions.

Even as the government boosted oil production beyond the million-barrel benchmark, the work stoppage has had devastating effects on the country's recession-ridden economy.

Production reached 1 million barrels a day Tuesday one-third of pre-strike levels, according to striking executives at state oil monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. It had slipped as low as 200,000 barrels per day in December.

Output is rising because the government is focusing on newer oil fields, where crude is easier to extract. But the recovery should slow when the government is forced to reactivate old wells that have sat idle for nearly two months, making their crude sticky and difficult to pump.

"They are going for the lowest hanging fruit on the tree, the easiest to grab," said Ed Silliere, vice president of risk management at Energy Merchant LLC in New York. "In a few weeks, it is going to be a struggle."

Silliere said he expects difficulties to begin when output reaches 1.2 million to 1.4 million barrels per day.

In an effort to regain control of the oil monopoly, Chavez has sacked more than 5,000 of its 40,000 workers. State oil company executives warn the firings will make it even more difficult to reach full production capacity.

"That's what happens when unprepared personnel are put to work," Juan Fernandez, the leading spokesmen for dissident state oil workers, told a press conference.

Opposition leaders insist the strike will continue. But a public backlash over food, gasoline and medicine shortages has prompted some workers to consider easing the stoppage in certain areas.

Concerns about a public backlash over food, gasoline and medicine shortages has prompted some strike leaders to consider easing the stoppage in certain areas.

Shopping malls, restaurants and schools may reopen next week, at least part-time, said Julio Brazon, president of the Consecomercio business chamber. Some small businesses have reopened, and others never closed.

"The lifting of the strike is not being proposed now," said Carlos Ortega, president of the nation's largest labor union. "What is being proposed are some strategies that correspond to sectors involved in the strike." He did not elaborate.

Venezuelans must wait for hours in miles-long lines outside service stations. To ease the inconvenience, the government will impose limits on daily gas sales, said Luis Vierma, director of hydrocarbons at the Energy and Mines Ministry.

Although Chavez has had some success in reviving oil production, which provides half of Venezuela's government revenue and 70 percent of export earnings, he faces a daunting task in recuperating the country's economy.

Capital flight, stalled investment and strike damage led Santander Central Hispano investment bank to forecast a 40 percent contraction in the first quarter of 2003. Unemployment stands at 17 percent.

A freeze on foreign currency sales to protect the bolivar, which has lost 25 percent of its value this year, was extended Tuesday. The bolivar traded at 2,300 to the dollar Tuesday in secondary markets between private parties, bankers said. It was 1,853 to the dollar before the suspension started last week.

Limits on the amount of foreign currency Venezuelans can buy go into effect next week. The measure has been severely criticized by executives who say it could hurt businesses that depend on U.S. dollars to import goods.

"Chavez many have the initial advantage, but over the long term, he's going to have a much more difficult path," said Steve Johnson, senior policy analyst for Latin America at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation.

sg.biz.yahoo.com Wednesday January 29, 10:37 PM

CARACAS -(Dow Jones)- Venezuelan bankers decided Wednesday they'll return to opening the normal seven hours a day as of Monday, instead of the three hours a day they'd been keeping in support of a 59-day-old general strike, central bank president Diego Castellanos said.

The move follows media reports the government threatened to suspend directors of banks that ignored a decree requiring them to abandon the restricted hours.

Banking officials couldn't be reached for further comment.

ADVERTISEMENTLocal banks include Citi Group Inc.'s (C) Citibank and subsidiaries of Spanish conglomerates Banco Santander Central Hispano (STD) and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (BBV).

The bankers' decision follows those of many other businesses that have reopened after being closed for about eight weeks.

The strike that began Dec. 2 called for President Hugo Chavez to agree to early elections.

Chavez's term runs through early 2007.

Opposition leaders have said the strike isn't officially over but they appear to be relying more on international efforts to bring about early elections.

Chavez's critics blame his left-leaning policies for country's deepening economic crisis with a likely 8% contraction in 2002 amid 17% unemployment and 31% annualized inflation sparked by a 46% devaluation of the bolivar ($1=VEB1853).

Chavez has said the problems are due to an "economic coup" led by his opponents.

-By Jehan Senaratna, Dow Jones Newswires; 58212 564 1339; jehan.senaratna@dowjones.com