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Supporters of Chavez surround the Petroleos de Venezuela SA main offices in support of the president, as the opposition continued their general strike
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CARACAS,
December 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A crippling strike by
opposition business and union leaders aimed at forcing Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez from power extended into a fifth day Friday,
December 6, as the government took drastic measures to ensure crude
oil deliveries.
Chavez
on Thursday, December 5, ordered the navy to seize an oil tanker from
a rebellious crew, and told army troops to protect Venezuelan oil
installations, as he condemned the organizers of the general strike,
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
"I
am guaranteeing the protection (of oil installations) with the armed
forces," Chavez said in a radio and television broadcast.
The
embattled leader said the strike would not hold up deliveries from
Venezuela, which is the world's fifth-biggest exporter of crude oil.
"The
navy has taken control of the tanker," General Alberto Gutierrez
told the state-owned press agency following the seizure of the Pilin
Leon, loaded with 280,000 barrels of oil.
The
president ordered the navy and air force to take control of two other
tankers held by strikers as they lay at anchor in the Maracaibo inlet,
but they had no crude oil on board.
The
strike, called by business and labor leaders fed up with Chavez's
populist leadership, began Monday, December 2, and has been marked by
violent clashes in Caracas and other cities.
Demonstrators
have ratcheted up the protests daily, since Wednesday, December 4, homing in on the oil industry.
Venezuelan
Workers Confederation chief Carlos Ortega, said the strike would
continue Friday, along with weekend street protests.
"The
people, exercising their sovereignty, are continuing with the national
civil strike," Ortega said.
He
said the move was in anticipation of a "terrorist
escalation" in "persecution and intimidation" that he
predicted would be aimed at the opposition to Chavez in the next few
hours.
Pro-Chavez
activists countered, calling supporters to march Saturday, December 7.
Both
sides late Thursday, December 5, held pot-banging demonstrations
across the city -- anti-Chavez protesters in residential areas, Chavez
supporters in the poorer districts of eastern Caracas.
On
Thursday, a march to the main headquarters of state oil producing
giant Petroleos de Venezuela was stopped by opposition leaders saying
they feared clashes with presidential supporters.
Ortega
said that the day had been a "success," and complimented the
decision not to go ahead with the march, saying it had avoided a
"massacre" at the hands of the government.
Business
leader Carlos Fernandez, president of Fedecameras, said "snipers
and armed personnel" had been positioned in front of the
company's offices.
Organization
of American States Secretary General Cesar Gaviria, who was mediating
between the government and opposition before talks broke down, said
negotiations interrupted by the strike would soon resume.
The
threat of supply disruption initially caused crude oil prices to rise,
but Chavez's measures later boosted trader confidence, causing a late
rally.
Venezuela
is a key supplier to the United States, the world's largest oil
consumer.
A
former paratrooper who once tried to take the country in a failed coup
and was elected to the presidency in 1998, Chavez has ruled with an
autocratic pro-worker style that has infuriated many.
His
authoritarian tone erupted into a heated confrontation with the
opposition a year ago when he pushed through 49 new laws, including
controversial land reform, oil sector and banking legislation that
angered the business class.
