VENEZUELA: ANTI-GOVERNMENT DEMONSTRATORS BATTLE WITH RIOT POLICE ON STREETS OF CARACAS AS THEY CONTINUE THEIR TWO-DAY GENERAL STRIKE

Record ID: 645665

  • Title: VENEZUELA: ANTI-GOVERNMENT DEMONSTRATORS BATTLE WITH RIOT POLICE ON STREETS OF CARACAS AS THEY CONTINUE THEIR TWO-DAY GENERAL STRIKE
  • Date: 3rd December 2002
  • Summary: (W1)CARACAS, VENEZUELA (DECEMBER 3, 2002) (REUTERS) (NIGHTSHOTS) VARIOUS OF PEOPLE BANGING POTS AND PANS IN STREETS AND FROM BUILDINGS IN SUPPORT OF STRIKE (6 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 18th December 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CARACAS, VENEZUELA
  • Country: Venezuela
  • Topics: Crime,General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA1BQRYB9K7S5J2AIYMT3N80IXT
  • Story Text: Foes of leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have taken to the streets of Caracas battling National Guard troops, beating pots and pans in noisy protest and extending a two-day-old general strike in the world's No. 5 oil exporter.
    The running battles in the east of the city on Tuesday (December 3, 2002) involved hundreds of anti-government demonstrators and scores of anti-riot troops riding armoured vehicles and firing tear gas and shotgun pellets. Several people were injured.
    The clashes stoked tensions on the second day of the strike, which drew mixed support but raised fears of oil supply disruption in the petroleum-rich South American nation.
    Chavez, who survived a brief military coup in April and is resisting fierce pressure to hold early elections, appealed for calm and accused his political foes of trying to destabilize his government and overthrow him.
    He said he would take steps to maintain order, including deploying more troops if necessary. But he ruled out declaring a state of emergency.
    "I, as head of state, cannot allow these desperate groups to start disturbances, we are not going to permit it. I call for prudence, reflection, and for them to return to dialogue,"
    he said.
    In eastern Caracas, National Guardsmen in trucks and armoured vehicles sped toward hundreds of demonstrators blocking a major highway, firing tear gas canisters as they went.
    Firing shotgun pellets and wielding batons, they earlier broke up a protest of striking oil workers and skirmished with protesters who threw stones and bottles.
    The strike that began on Monday (December 2) was the latest round of a determined opposition campaign to pressure former paratrooper Chavez to hold a referendum on his rule in February.
    Anti-Chavez union boss Carlos Ortega said the shutdown would continue.
    After he spoke, foes beat pans and honked car horns in a noisy protests in many parts of Caracas and other cities.
    Chavez, elected in 1998 six years after attempting a botched coup, has rejected his opponents' calls to resign. He says they must wait until August when the constitution permits a binding referendum on his rule.
    His current termin early 2007.
    Ortega did not specify how long the anti-government strike would last but called on people to demonstrate peacefully.
    Strike organizers called the stoppage a success, but the government said it had failed and that the important oil, aluminium and steel industries were still operating.
    Labour Minister Maria Cristina Iglesias said 84 percent of Venezuelan workers came to work on Tuesday. Strike organizers put support at 75 percent, down from 80 percent on Monday.
    Nervous motorists around the country, worried about possible shortages, rushed to top off their tanks.
    Tuesday saw more people and vehicles on the streets in Caracas than on Monday, although activity in the usually bustling capital was still below normal weekday levels.
    Attention was centred on the petroleum industry, the mainstay of the Venezuelan economy.
    Striking executives in the state oil giant PDVSA said Venezuela's oil output and exports would soon be hit if the walkout continued. But the government guaranteed domestic fuel supplies and oil exports, including to the United States, its biggest customer.
    Peace talks between the government and opposition, brokered by Organization of American States Secretary General Cesar Gaviria, are at a standstill.
    Critics say Chavez's revolutionary rhetoric and left-wing policies, like cheap credits and land grants, are dragging Venezuela toward ruin and Cuba-style communism. Chavez says his reforms are essential to helping the poor.
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