Posted on 01/28/2003 1:25:25 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
CARACAS, Venezuela - Several business leaders said that schools, restaurants and malls may reopen amid fears that a 57-day-old strike called to force President Hugo Chavez's ouster could backfire.
Strike leaders said the work stoppage in the oil industry, which provides half of government revenue, would continue.
"The protest by oil workers will continue because this is the path we are taking to find a solution to the crisis," dissident oil executive Juan Fernandez told a press conference.
Crude output reached 966,000 barrels a day on Monday, according to striking executives at state oil monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., or PDVSA. Oil production dropped as low as 150,000 barrels per day in December compared to pre-strike levels of 3.2 million barrels per day.
Business representatives expressed concern that discontent with food and fuel shortages caused by the strike could undermine its objective: removing Chavez from office.
Julio Brazon, president of the Concecomercio business chamber, which represents about 450,000 stores and retailers, said businesses need "to recover earnings and avoid labor problems." He said shopping malls and franchises may be permitted to open part-time next week.
Carlos Avila, executive president of Subway de Venezuela, said fast food franchises were considering opening four days a week for limited hours. Each of Subway's 76 branches in Venezuela have lost an average of $30,000 during the strike.
The National Association of Private Education, which represents 911 private schools, convoked assemblies this week to decide whether schools should open Feb. 3.
Strike organizers, who accuse Chavez of dragging this South American country into political and economic chaos, warned that easing the work stoppage would be counterproductive.
"If some sectors of the opposition, business sectors or political sectors, think they can save themselves from this regime by easing the strike, they are totally mistaken," said labor boss Carlos Ortega.
The government claims most of PDVSA's 40,000 employees have returned to work, a claim strike leaders deny. In an effort to regain control of the oil industry, Chavez has fired close to 3,000 PDVSA employees.
A waning strike could give Chavez the upper hand in negotiations with the opposition. Negotiations, mediated by the Organization of American States, have focused on whether to hold early presidential elections.
Chavez, a firebrand former paratrooper, was elected in 1998 and re-elected two years later. His term in office ends in 2007.
Government adversaries are now pinning hopes on amending the constitution to allow early elections. They must gather signatures from at least 15 percent of Venezuela's 12 million registered voters to call a referendum to cut the presidential term to four years.
Another option is waiting until August, when the constitution allows for a legally binding referendum on the president's rule.
Opposition parties are organizing a massive signature collection campaign on Feb. 2, the same day a nonbinding referendum on Chavez's presidency was supposed to be held. Citing a technicality, Venezuela's Supreme Court ruled last week balloting must be postponed indefinitely.
While the political impasse continues, Venezuela is slowly turning into an economic wasteland.
The strike has cost Venezuela at least $4 billion so far. The economy could shrink by as much as 40 percent in the first quarter of 2003, the Santander Central Hispano investment bank has warned.
Chavez is preparing to impose currency exchange controls this week to limit the amount of foreign currencies Venezuelans can buy. The measure is aimed at stemming a run on Venezuela's bolivar currency, which has lost a quarter of its value this year.
Jesus Soriano has never met Roy Chaderton or Hugo Chavez. Soriano supported President Hugo Chavez's meteoric rise, volunteered during the election campaign, and is now a second-year law student in Caracas. His law-school peers describe the 24-year-old as a cheerful and happy young man.
Soriano, a member of the Chavez party, is part of a national student group called "Ousia," a group that brings together moderates who support the government and opposition members seeking a peaceful resolution to the current crisis.
On December 6, Soriano witnessed the massacre that occurred during a peaceful protest in Altamira, a neighborhood in Caracas where the opposition has a strong presence. The killer was Joao De Gouveia, an outspoken supporter of Chavez who has an unusually close relationship with mayor Freddy Bernal, a Chavez crony. Gouveia randomly began shooting at the crowd. He killed three--including a teenage girl he shot in the head--and injured 28 people. As Gouveia kept shooting, several men raced toward him to stop the killing. Soriano was one of the men who wrestled Gouveia to the ground and prevented further killing. Soriano also protected Gouveia from a potential lynch mob that swarmed around the killer.
Soriano's heroic accomplishments did not cease that day. He became a national figure in Venezuela when he brought a small soccer ball (known in Venezuela as a "futbolito") to a sizable protest march organized against the rule of Lt. Col. Chavez. Soriano and other pro-Chavez partisans made their way towards the march intending to engage the opposition members in dialogue.
That hot afternoon, Soriano kicked the futbolito across the divide at the members of the opposition. They kicked it back. The magical realism of the event is evident in the extraordinary television footage of what occurred next. By the end of the match the anti-Chavez protestors and pro-Chavez partisans were hugging and chanting "Peace! Unity! We are Venezuela! Politicians go away! We are the real Venezuela!" In one particularly moving part of the footage, Soriano and a member of the opposing team trade a baseball hat for a Chavez-party red beret.
In one hour this sharply divided group of strangers accomplished more than the high-level negotiation team that seeks to defuse a potential civil war. Chavez was reportedly furious with the televised soccer match and even angrier that the reconciliation was a product of the efforts of one of his supporters. Soriano was declared an enemy of the revolution.
Last week Soriano organized another soccer match. On Wednesday he visited the Universidad Central de Venezuela, the main university in the capital, to attend a meeting of the student government. Violent clashes erupted as members of the Circulos Bolivarianos, an armed militia sworn to protect the revolution, began throwing rocks and tear gas grenades at the students. The militia identified Soriano and captured him. They then tied his hands and feet, lifted him up, and paraded him through the street like a sacrificial lamb chanting "Judas! Judas!" The entire spectacle was recorded by a cameraman who works for the official government television entity. Soriano was beaten so severely that he was left at the hospital emergency room. At the hospital he was detained by the DISIP, Chavez's secret police, and taken to their headquarters for questioning.
During his interrogation, fingernails in his left hand were torn out. After being further tortured and injected with drugs, the secret police took him into the bowels of the building and placed him in a cell. His cellmate: Joao de Gouveia.
Gouveia has the keys to the cell and comes in and out of the secret police headquarters at will. His only restriction is that he must sleep in the precinct, lest Chavez's police are revealed as allowing a confessed killer to roam free. Soriano's mother (who is also a Chavez supporter) tearfully claimed that Gouveia sodomized Soriano and beat him with such force that Soriano cannot open his eyes.
Soriano was released last Friday afternoon after Roy Chaderton advised Chavez that the case could filter out of Venezuela and could become a "human-interest story" with the potential to derail their PR campaign.
The government denied that Soriano had been mistreated. A thorough medical examination by a civil surgeon reveals that, beyond lacerations, severe bruising, and cracked ribs, Soriano had been repeatedly raped while in custody. His right arm shows that he has been injected. Nails are missing from his left hand. Soriano's internal organs have been crushed to the point that he urinates blood, and he cannot walk without assistance.
Once the medical report was made public, the secret police immediately began saying that Soriano was a member of a "right-wing paramilitary organization." This tactic, engineered by Chaderton, is used frequently to disqualify and discount opponents of the regime. All enemies of the "revolution" are coup plotters and fascists. The government now circulates a photo of Soriano in military fatigues. Carlos Roa, Soriano's attorney, showed me that the picture is a yearbook photo from when he was a schoolboy in military academy.
Although it was obvious that Soriano had been tortured, Iris Varela, a Chavez congressional representative, offered no apologies: "I am glad they did this to him. He deserved it." That such savage treatment is what greets government supporters who seek a peaceful resolution to the current crisis speaks volumes about Chavez's ultimate intentions. Soriano, now recuperating at home, must wonder why he ever supported the Chavez regime. [End]
Thor L. Halvorssen is a human rights and civil liberties activist who grew up in Venezuela. He now lives in Philadelphia.
Hugo Chavez doesn't want a peaceful resolution, he wants his revolution.
This is NOT getting the attention it will be getting once Latin America is safely in Marxist hands.
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