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yahoo.com | Mon Apr 8, 2002 - 3:01 PM ET | Pascal Fletcher,Reuters
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan troops tightened security
at oil facilities on Monday as stoppages by state oil workers
halted exports, jolting the world's No. 4 oil exporter and throttling
the economic lifeblood of President Hugo Chavez's government.
Armed Forces chief Gen. Lucas Rincon said that National Guard
soldiers who routinely protect oilfields, refineries and oil
export ports in Venezuela were being reinforced by other units
of the armed forces.
"What we want to do is guarantee peace and quiet," Rincon told
a news conference.
The military protection was stepped up as shipping and trade
sources said the escalating six-week-old dispute by executives
and employees of the state oil giant PDVSA had halted Venezuelan
oil shipments. Production was also being cut as storage facilities
were full to the brim, they added.
However, Energy Minister Alvaro Silva and PDVSA president Gaston
Parra insisted oil industry operations were "normal."
The revolt by the dissident PDVSA staff, who oppose management
changes made by Chavez, put intense pressure on the president
a day ahead of a 24-hour national strike called by opposition
labor and business chiefs.
The disruption of oil exports, which account for a third to a
half of Venezuelan government revenues, clamps a heavy economic
squeeze on the left-wing populist leader, who is battling a wave
of opposition to his three-year-old rule.
But Chavez, a pugnacious former paratrooper, has shown no sign
of backing down and Sunday used a live television broadcast to
sack seven dissident executives in PDVSA (Petroleos de Venezuela),
and to forcibly retire 12 more.
The government has promised to guarantee both international oil
deliveries and internal gasoline supplies. Most gas stations
appeared to be still operating normally Monday.
The president, who has threatened to send in troops if PDVSA,
Latin America's biggest oil company, is brought to a complete
halt, accused the protesters of "subversion bordering on terrorism"
and said security forces were on the alert.
"Chavez's words have thrown more fuel on the fire," one local
shipping agent, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.
The abrupt sackings, announced by Chavez on television as he
blew a soccer referee's whistle, infuriated the disgruntled state
oil company employees, who said they would intensify protests
and stoppages.
"Today, tomorrow and the next day, our actions are going to be
even more radical," Eddie Ramirez, one of the PDVSA staff sacked
Sunday, told reporters in Caracas, surrounded by a crowd of protesting
colleagues chanting, "We are not afraid."
Three years after he won elections with widespread support, Chavez
is confronting a storm of criticism from political foes, business
and labor chiefs, dissident military officers, and the opposition-
dominated media.
The president, who in 1992 tried unsuccessfully to seize power
in a botched military coup, defends his self-proclaimed "revolution"
as a noble campaign to help the poor. But critics accuse him
of trying to introduce a Cuban-style leftist regime in Venezuela.
OIL INDUSTRY IN TURMOIL
Chavez has repeatedly rejected demands that he revoke the appointment
of five new PDVSA board members named in late February. The dissidents
complain the appointments were based on political loyalty to
the president, not on merit.
Local shipping and trade sources said the revolt in PDVSA was
severely hitting production, refining and exports although there
were conflicting reports of the precise impact.
"Nothing is going out (in shipments)," one private trader told
Reuters, saying exports had been halted from the main loading
terminals at Puerto La Cruz, El Palito and Paraguana.
Other estimates said shipments had been reduced to around 15
percent to 20 percent of normal levels. "There isn't a complete
halt yet, although it looks as though it's headed that way,"
the Caracas-based shipping agent said.
Venezuela's oil production, which normally runs at 2.6 million
barrels per day (BPD), was also being cut back, the sources said.
"You can't produce for long if you're not exporting," the trader
said.
"Storage facilities are full to the brim," he added.
But PDVSA president Gaston Parra insisted oil output and exports
were being maintained. "There will be no stoppage in the country
and especially not in PDVSA," Parra said.
"He's lying," the shipping agent said.
PDVSA chief Parra told state television that the 960,000 bpd
Amuay Cardon refinery complex, Venezuela's largest and a key
supplier of gasoline and heating oil to the United States, was
"working normally".
But a PDVSA spokesman from the refinery in the Paraguana Peninsula
told Reuters the complex was reducing its throughput to minimum
levels and that oil shipments had been halted.
"What are we going to load up? There are no ships and no business,"
he added.
FEARS OF STREET VIOLENCE
On top of the worsening PDVSA conflict, Venezuela's largest trades
union, the Venezuela Workers' Confederation (CTV), has called
a 24-hour nationwide strike for Tuesday to protest what it calls
the president's inflexible, authoritarian response to opposition
criticism and workers' demands.
"He (Chavez) still thinks that he can run the country with threats,
repressive measures and bribery," CTV president Carlos Ortega,
a political enemy of Chavez, told reporters.
Venezuela's leading private business association, Fedecamaras,
is also supporting Tuesday's stoppage, which Chavez has defiantly
predicted will be a failure.
The confrontation has raised new fears of street clashes between
supporters and foes of Chavez, but Vice-President Diosdado Cabello
played down these worries, saying National Guard troops would
be on hand to guarantee law and order.
Chavez strikes back at protesting oil execs - tankers unable
to load
Chavistas: Venezuelan street toughs: Helping "revolution" or
crushing dissent?****CARACAS,
Venezuela - From her bed in a Caracas military hospital, the
wiry, chain-smoking prisoner vowed to continue a hunger strike
and risk becoming the first death in Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez's "revolution." "Comandante" Lina Ron, who considers herself
a modern version of "Tania," a woman who fought alongside Cuban
revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara, says she is a willing martyr
for Chavez's cause. She was arrested after leading a violent
pro-Chavez counter-protest against demonstrating university students.
Thousands follow her lead in Venezuela and they have increasingly
quashed dissent, breaking up anti-government protests, intimidating
journalists and alarming the president's critics.****
Colombia Paper Reports FARC Rebel Camp in Venezuela--LINK to
"12 civilians killed in two bombings blamed on FARC" **** A small
explosive device had gone off minutes earlier, attracting people
who were in bars and restaurants on a warm weekend night. Then
a bomb -- located underneath a car parked on the street -- blew
up, shredding bodies and causing damage in a four- block-wide
area. Four people were killed in the first explosion and eight
died in the second blast. More than 60 people were injured. ****
But Chavez, a pugnacious former paratrooper....
Hugo Chavez is Castro II
2 posted on 4/8/02 1:53 PM Pacific by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: *Energy_list;*latin_America_list
3 posted on 4/8/02 1:59 PM Pacific by Libertarianize the GOP
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