VENEZUELA: OPPOSITION LEADERS CALL FOR A NATIONAL STRIKE AGAINST PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ WHILE OAU SECRETARY GENERAL CESAR GAVIRIA STRUGGLES TO SAVE RECONCILLIATION TALKS

Record ID: 645573

  • Title: VENEZUELA: OPPOSITION LEADERS CALL FOR A NATIONAL STRIKE AGAINST PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ WHILE OAU SECRETARY GENERAL CESAR GAVIRIA STRUGGLES TO SAVE RECONCILLIATION TALKS
  • Date: 23rd November 2002
  • Summary: (W1) CARACAS, VENEZUELA (NOVEMBER 21, 2002) (REUTERS) MV SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE ORGANISATION OF AMERICAN STATES CESAR GAVIRIA ENTERING NEWS CONFERENCE; MV MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE ORGANISATION OF AMERICAN STATES CESAR GAVIRIA SAYING "We are putting enormous pressure on the negotiations. I am begging both sides to look for a solution that will be compatible with the great effort that we are making to resolve the problem of the referendum. I would also like to ask the government and all its officials that they do not continue challenging the opposition to strike. I believe that this doesn't serve anyone. I believe that in the hot and confrontational environment that we have in this country this challenge to the opposition to strike is not appropriate and does not help the negotiators at the table." MV MEDIA
  • Embargoed: 8th December 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CARACAS, VENEZUELA
  • Country: Venezuela
  • Topics: General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAAMRCQEEX5GTRMKWD34MT9OB9R
  • Story Text: Venezuela's opposition leaders have called for a national strike against President Hugo Chavez, while Organisation of American States Secretary-General Cesar Gaviria struggles to save reconciliation talks.
    Labour and business opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Thursday (November 21, 2002) announced a nationwide general strike for Dec 2 to press the leftist leader to hold an early referendum on his rule.
    Meanwhile, Secretary-General of the Organisation of American States Cesar Gaviria pleaded for the government and the opposition to rethink their positions.
    "I am begging both sides to look for a solution that will be compatible with the great effort that we are making to resolve the problem of the referendum," he said.
    He specifically asked the Chavez administration to stop goading the opposition into their planned strike.
    "I would also like to ask the government and all its officials that they do not continue challenging the opposition to strike. I believe that this doesn't serve anyone," he said.
    But his words did little to calm the vocal anti-Chavez leaders, who went ahead with their strike announcement.
    "On December 2 at 6 in the morning, a national civil strike will begin. But if the circumstances oblige us to begin the strike before December 2, the Democratic Coordination, CTV, Fedecamaras and the Venezuelan people are going to execute this action with regards to the condition of any given moment," Carlos Ortega, the President of the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV), told reporters.
    He refused to specify how long the protest strike would last, saying this was a question of strategy.
    In a rare political alliance of bosses and workers, the strike action was coordinated by the private business group Fedecamaras, the anti-government labour union CTV and members of the Coordinadora Democratica opposition coalition.
    Chavez's government dismissed the planned stoppage as a desperate and irresponsible plan to overthrow the populist president in the world's No. 5 oil exporter, which has been hit by sometimes violent political instability for months.
    "They [the opposition] are deceptively offering the alternative of the referendum that is in agreement with the Constitution while on the other hand they threaten the country with a coup and terrorist-like strike which invites active sectors of the Armed Forces to take a position against the State," declared Venezuela's Labour Minister Maria Cristina Iglesia.
    Whether it lasts 24 hours or longer, the Dec 2 strike will be the fourth walkout in a year called against Chavez, a former paratrooper elected in 1998. He survived a brief coup in April this year after a general strike that disrupted oil exports.
    Caracas remained tense after the government's deployment of troops last weekend to seize control of the city police from anti-Chavez mayor Alfredo Pena. The crackdown followed clashes this month involving Chavez supporters and opponents and riot police that killed at least two people and injured dozens.
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