As more and more businesses shut their doors for good, still others technically remain open but are at a standstill. The strike froze imports, leaving food companies without packing supplies, construction companies without cement, and shoe factories without glue. If the strike is lifted tomorrow and the materials suddenly appeared, experts say, it would not matter: Most business contracts and projects have been canceled.
The squeeze has forced businesses to negotiate with workers, having them work part time or take unpaid leave. ''You have to be honest with yourself and save yourself a lot of headaches,'' said José Antonio Couto, a contractor who shut his business when every pending deal was canceled. ``I paid my workers for doing nothing in December, but I just couldn't do it in January. That's 18 more people on the street.''
According to political science professor Janet Kelly, not a single industry has been spared. Newspapers have published for nearly two months without running a single advertisement. The Venezuelan American Chamber of Commerce lost a deal to promote business in Florida, and had to make cutbacks. Kelly's own graduate school of business has its workers on ''voluntary'' leave -- in this climate, no firms are about to pay for executive business courses for managers. 'If you are honest and objective, you ask yourself, `Did you have to destroy $5 billion of the economy?' '' Kelly said. ``I think there was a cheaper way.''
As accountants calculate what the damage, strike leaders defend the decision and say it was the only way to avoid the imposition of a dictatorial, quasi-communist regime. ''The anguish and the patience has been worth it, because we want a free country,'' said Juan Fernández, a former manager of the state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, PDVSA, which has been at the forefront of the strike. ``Our democracy and our nation are at stake.''
According to independent pollsters, a solid 30 percent of the population remains fanatically devoted to Chávez. Government surveys show the opposite: Chávez enjoys 70 percent support. Strike leaders also insist that the economic collapse that has engulfed Venezuela is not so much product of the strike, but of Chávez's policies. To be sure, the economic decline began some time ago; many businesses started pulling back when the crisis bubbled a year ago, a situation that worsened after a short-lived coup in April.
DIFFERENT VIEWS
Despite the thousands whose names have been added to the unemployment rolls, many people outside the strike leadership also view the stoppage as the only means of ousting a leftist firebrand who threatens to shut down media and private business. Others say even the strike organizers know it was a big error, but have invested too much effort to abandon a strategy whose slogan is, ``Not one step back!'' ''The attitude of most workers is that this strike is worth it,'' said travel agent Morela Cifuentes, who lost her job when the agency she worked for shut down. ``Right now, my household has zero income, and I continue totally to support the strike.''***
As diplomats from six nations headed to Caracas on Thursday to push for early elections, opposition leaders were planning a petition drive to support several measures, including a proposed constitutional amendment that would: _Cut presidential terms from six years to four; _Hold new presidential and congressional elections this year; _Create a new elections council to organize any vote; _Get the Supreme Court to determine when, exactly, a recall vote on Chavez's presidency can be held; _Allow Chavez and legislators to seek re-election.
Similar ideas were floated by former President Jimmy Carter during a recent visit to Caracas. The government said it was studying the opposition's proposal but won't allow it to shorten Chavez's term. Diplomats from the United States, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Portugal and Spain - dubbed the "Group of Friends" of Venezuela - planned a private dinner meeting late Thursday with Cesar Gaviria, secretary general of the Organization of American States. Gaviria has mediated talks here since November. The envoys, including Curt Struble, acting U.S. assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, planned meetings with Chavez and the opposition on Friday. Gaviria said the diplomats can monitor compliance with any electoral pact and reduce tensions that have led to six deaths since the strike began Dec. 2. "The country can't sustain more tension," he said. Strike leader Manuel Cova of the Venezuelan Workers Confederation said Thursday a new presidential election could be held as early as March. "To do this we need the guarantees of the international community," Cova said. "If we don't do it this year, we'll be in prison, or in exile, there won't be press freedom. ... We must do it this year."
Chavez had welcomed Carter's ideas about early elections. But he also has threatened to abandon the OAS-mediated talks, saying he won't negotiate with "terrorists." Chavez failed to expand the "Friends" to include governments more sympathetic to his populist revolution. He has since warned the diplomats not to interfere in internal affairs. ***