The latest development is a clear victory for Chavez

CARACAS, February 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Opposition leaders in Venezuela say they will ease the two-month-old strike against the country’s president, Hugo Chavez, from Monday, February 3, but the crucial oil sector will remain on strike.

An opposition spokesman, Jesus Torrealba, said Saturday, February 1, that the movement “will enter a new phase” late Sunday, with businesses, industries, schools and shopping centers resuming activity over the course of the next week, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Torrealba, executive secretary of the opposition coordinating committee, said it would continue the fight in the key oil industry, demanding that 5,000 oil workers sacked by the government be allowed to return to work.

The fight, Torrealba said, is not only over these workers but “also will be focused on derailing the government’s ambitions to use PDVSA to serve its political ends.”

Opposition members have been demanding Chavez step down as soon as possible. He has rejected the idea and said they can seek a recall referendum in August.

Far from easing up on pressure on Chavez, Torrealba insisted that starting Monday, the opposition “will sponsor with greater drive demonstrations with one goal: pushing Chavez out of office.”

He said strike leaders were pleased with mediation proposals from the Organization of American States, and the creation of a Group of Friends of Venezuela to try to help end the standoff that has crippled Venezuela’s economy.

Victory for Chavez

The decision, which opposition leaders said would be explained in detail in a news conference on Sunday night, was seen as a clear victory for Chavez, who has played down the walkout while calling its organizers fascists and coup plotters, reported British daily the Independent.

The government’s opponents characterized their action as a new phase in their efforts to unseat Chavez. They asserted that the strike led to international participation in Venezuela’s political crisis and pressed the government into negotiations that could lead to an electoral solution.

However, the fact is that for many days the strike has been one in name only, with Venezuelans tired of a walkout that had devastated their economy while bringing none of the results promised in December. The blow to the Venezuelan economy, Latin America’s fourth largest, is estimated at U.S.$4 billion in lost oil revenues alone.

“We share the opposition’s opinion, but we live by working,” said Maritza Rondَn, owner of a wholesale hardware store in Venezuela’s second-largest city, Maracaibo, that reopened weeks ago. “Our business has nothing to do with our politics.”

Alfredo Chirino, owner of an auto parts factory in Caracas that reopened this week, said he could not keep his business closed any longer. “We wanted to have some income, and we had to meet some commitments dating back to November,” he said. “We needed to bring in income to pay our workers.”

The reopening of businesses appears to give Chavez the upper hand in negotiations with the opposition that are being mediated by the Organization of American States. The government’s position could be further solidified as the state-owned oil company continues to reactivate oil production.

“The opposition has basically lost the strike,” said Gregory Wilpert, an American here who is finishing a book about the Chavez era. “They gambled that the strike would get rid of Chavez, and the strike failed. They now don't have many other options.”

The Group of Friends is made up of the United States, Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Spain and Portugal.

With that intervention, “the national strike has reached its objectives and the protest is entering a new phase,” Torrealba claimed.

The opposition to Chavez announced Friday it would “rethink” the general strike next week. It has been on since December 2, and its impact has been greatest due to the blow it has dealt to the key oil industry and the state oil giant PDVSA.

However, experts say the strike had begun to falter as many companies, faced with bankruptcy, re-opened for business, according to the BBC news online.

The National Banking Council and the Venezuelan Banking Association said they decided by a two-thirds vote to restart normal operating hours from Monday.

Management at shopping centers, restaurants and schools were also reportedly planning to return to work Monday.

The strikes have forced Venezuelans to queue for cash, food and gas, and sparked angry protests in which at least seven people have been killed.

Change of Tactics

The strikes have forced Venezuelans to queue for cash, food and gas

Having agreed to ease back on the strike, opposition leaders are now focusing their efforts on gathering signatures for a petition aimed at pressuring Chavez out of power.

Opposition leaders intend Sunday to hold what they have described as the “Great Sign-up” in which the people of Venezuela will be called upon to register their support for a number of demands for the government.

Chief amongst these would be a constitutional amendment which would change Chavez’s term of office from six years to just four.

Under the country’s constitution, opposition leaders would be permitted to make the request if they secured the signatures of 15% of Venezuela’s registered voters - approximately 1.8 million people.

“Our idea is to get 5 million signatures,” Carlos Ocariz, from the opposition party Justice First, said.

Chavez has repeatedly brushed aside calls for his resignation and seems determined to not surrender the leadership.