Lines of cars stretched for blocks in Caracas as panic-buying at gas stations began. Troops stood by the pumps at some stations. "I went to seven gas stations and they were all closed," Johnny Mota, 26, said from his 1979 Ford Fairlane, one of 35 cars waiting at a Texaco station in eastern Caracas. An attendant wandered by with a sign reading, "No unleaded gasoline."
Outside Caracas, the national guard seized at least three gasoline distribution centers that had closed in the strike. The government hired civilians to drive tanker trucks commandeered from their private owners to gas stations. The Energy Ministry said the private property would be returned to its owners "as soon as activities are normalized." Horacio Medina, a leader of the striking oil workers, said more than 30 percent of gas stations in Venezuela's major cities had run out of fuel.***
Noose tightens- Stike in 'final stretch' - Oil workers, air traffic controllers, customs agents, banks..*** CARACAS, Venezuela -- The noose tightened on Venezuela's economy Monday as an eight-day general strike aimed at ousting President Hugo Chavez spread to banks, air travel and the capital city's subway system. Oil workers, air traffic controllers and customs agents joined the strikers. The banks announced that they were joining the strike and restricting services to three hours a day. "We are in the final stretch," union boss Carlos Ortega, one of the leaders of the opposition coalition, announced at a news conference, in which the strike was extended indefinitely. "Mr. Chavez understands that no one or nothing will stop the people."
Chavez sympathizers seized a pro-opposition television station in the city of Maracay, about 60 miles west of Caracas Monday afternoon. About 11 p.m., other demonstrators besieged four of the principal opposition stations in Caracas. Cesar Gaviria, secretary general of the Organization of American States who is in Caracas to broker talks between the two sides, went on television to denounce the actions and called on the Chavez government to call off the demonstators. Enraged Chavez supporters have blamed the privately owned media of inciting the uprising against the government and journalists have been the targets of violence in the past year. ***