VENEZUELA: VENEZUELANS RUSH TO WITHDRAW MONEY FROM BANKS FEARING FOOD AND GASOLINE SHORTAGES AS A NINE-DAY-OLD STIKE BY THE OPPOSITION CONTINUES

Record ID: 645705

  • Title: VENEZUELA: VENEZUELANS RUSH TO WITHDRAW MONEY FROM BANKS FEARING FOOD AND GASOLINE SHORTAGES AS A NINE-DAY-OLD STIKE BY THE OPPOSITION CONTINUES
  • Date: 10th December 2002
  • Summary: 46 (W2)CARACAS, VENEZUELA (DECEMBER 10, 2002) (REUTERS) SV/SLV OF CHAVEZ SUPPORTERS OUTSIDE TELEVISION STATION (3 SHOTS) (U7)CARACAS, VENEZUELA (DECEMBER 10, 2002) (REUTERS) SLV/SV OF PEOPLE STANDING ON LONG LINES OUTSIDE BANKS (2 SHOTS) SV OF PEOPLE WAITING INSIDE BANKS SLV/SV OF INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR OF SUPERMARKETS (3 SHOTS) SLV EXTERIOR OF GAS STATION SV/CU/SLV CARS AT GAS STATION (3 SHOTS) Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 25th December 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CARACAS, VENEZUELA
  • Country: Venezuela
  • Topics: Finance,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVABDNEKBUWCK0OR2XJ9LLE513FC
  • Story Text: Venezuelans rushed to withdraw money from banks on Tuesday fearing food and gasoline shortages as a nine-day-old strike by the opposition cut the country's oil output to less than a third of normal.
    Hardening previous demands, foes of leftist President Hugo Chavez have called for his immediate resignation or elections in the world's No. 5 oil exporter, while long lines grew around major banks in Caracas, snarling traffic in some streets.
    Thousands of opposition protesters, many waving flags and anti-government banners, marched around a Caracas military air base to back the resignation demand.
    The shutdown has crippled the oil industry, the lifeblood of the Venezuelan economy. The state oil firm PDVSA said crude production crashed below 1 million barrels per day, less than a third of daily output before the strike began last week.
    It was also starting to hit other major industries and stirred fears among the population of food and gasoline shortages and possible street violence.
    Opposition leaders accuse Chavez of trying to install Cuban-style communism in the oil-rich nation.
    The outspoken president says he enjoys the support of most poor Venezuelans and dismisses the opposition as "fascists and coup-plotters." Chavez, who survived a brief coup in April, has used troops to keep gasoline deliveries running.
    Staff at major Caracas banks struggled to cope Tuesday with a flood of withdrawals by customers worried that food and gasoline supplies could dry up if the stoppage continued.
    Shoppers were also stocking up on canned goods in supermarkets where supplies were thinning out on some shelves.
    At one bank branch, managers restricted the size of withdrawals.
    In a sign the strike was affecting non-oil industries as well, Venezuela's biggest aluminium smelter, Venalum, said it would have to cut output and the country's largest steel maker was running at 60-percent capacity because their gas supplies were being hit by the shutdown.
    Opposition leaders, who had previously pressed Chavez to agree to a nonbinding referendum on his rule in February, said on Tuesday they were demanding the president quit immediately.
    Fresh talks Tuesday between government and opposition negotiators, chaired by Organization of American States Secretary General Cesar Gaviria, made little progress on the key issue of the timing of elections, Gaviria said.
    Fears of street violence, already high after the fatal shooting of three anti-government protesters on Friday, swept the capital again on Tuesday after angry crowds of pro-Chavez supporters besieged private TV stations in Caracas overnight to protest against what they said was biased coverage.
    At least one provincial TV station was ransacked by pro-government militants.
    For the second consecutive night, rowdy Chavez supporters staged noisy protests at Caracas stations Tuesday.
    Chavez has accused his foes of wrecking the oil industry to set the stage for a repeat of the April coup, when he was briefly toppled by rebel generals and admirals amid a national strike. He was later restored by loyal troops and supporters.
    International concern over the Venezuelan crisis was increasing, especially in the United States which has seen one of its biggest external sources of oil cut off as U.S.
    President George W. Bush contemplates war on Iraq. Venezuela supplies 15 percent of U.S. oil imports.
    Foreign diplomats said the international community would increase pressure on Chavez to accept early elections.
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