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Venezuala coup

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   http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020415/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/venezuela_oil_protest_245

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020415/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/venezuela_oil_protest_245

Reuters
Venezuela

Nine Die in Venezuala Protest
Sun Apr 14,11:13 PM ET
By JORGE RUEDA, Associated Press Writer

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Police fought pitched battles with protesters Thursday after more than 150,000 people marched on the presidential palace demanding President Hugo Chavez's ouster as a general strike gripped the country. Nine people were killed and 88 wounded, an official said.

Chavez angrily accused the news media of inciting social unrest by exaggerating the size of a general strike this week, and ordered five private Caracas television stations shut down. The stations continued transmitting by satellite, however.

National Guard troops fired tear gas at the front ranks of stick-bearing, rock-throwing marchers to keep them about 100 yards away from the palace and from thousands of Chavez supporters. Tear gas drifted into the presidential compound.

Several shots were fired near the palace, and scuffles with police erupted in several downtown locations. A body lay in a pool of blood next to the presidential palace.

Greater Caracas Mayor Alfredo Pena, a Chavez opponent, said at least nine people were killed and 88 wounded. Pena accused government snipers of firing on crowds, especially upon opposition demonstrators.

"Chavez has shown his true face," Pena claimed.

The violence erupted on the third day of a general strike called to support oil executives who want Chavez to sack new management at the state oil monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA. The executives are conducting a work slowdown that has seriously cut production and exports in Venezuela, the No. 3 oil supplier to the United States and the No. 4 oil exporter in the world.

PDVSA management charged the board appointments were based on political considerations and not merit. After six weeks of protests, Chavez fired seven more executives Sunday and sent 12 others into early retirement.

The 950,000-barrel-per-day Paraguana refinery, one of the world's largest, ran at less than 50 percent capacity, and loading of tankers proceeded slowly, with at least 20 vessels anchored at main ports. The 130,000-barrel-per-day El Palito refinery will not reach full capacity until the weekend.

Industry officials said gasoline supplies to major Venezuelan cities could be threatened if the slowdown continues.

The International Energy Agency warned that Venezuela's crisis and political uncertainties in the Middle East could upset the oil market. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has said it has no plans to pump more oil to replace supplies being withheld by Iraq to protest Israel's offensive against Palestinians.

The general strike was called Tuesday by the 1 million-member Venezuelan Workers Confederation, or CTV, and Fedecamaras, Venezuela's largest business group. On Thursday, the groups demanded that Chavez resign.

"There is no accommodation possible. What we're seeking is Chavez's resignation," said Gregorio Rojas, Fedecamaras' treasurer.

He said the opposition was trying to persuade the armed forces to force Chavez to step down and establish a "transition government" that would call new elections.

In a highly unusual announcement, Venezuela's military high command went on national television to deny persistent rumors, spawned by this week's labor unrest, that Chavez was in military custody or had been asked by the army to resign.

Chavez has not been seen in public since a general strike began earlier this week. Strike leaders have openly appealed to the armed forces to join them in their campaign to oust the president, and two lower-ranking generals rebelled on Wednesday.

"The president is in his offices. ... I deny all rumors about the alleged resignation of the high command," said the armed forces commander in chief, Gen. Lucas Rincon. He was flanked by the military high command.

Rincon urged Venezuelans to "maintain calm" and to "dialogue for the well-being of the nation."

Defense Minister Jose Vicente Rangel insisted the military fully backs Chavez, a former army officer who staged a failed coup in 1992. The United States has said it opposes any coup against Chavez, a leftist who was democratically elected in 1998 and whose term ends in 2006.

Rojas said strike organizers responded to a government offer to meet with dissenting oil executives Thursday by first demanding that Chavez personally attend. Calls for Chavez's ouster followed, and talks were postponed.

A PDVSA source said that dissident staff stepped up demands and now want a public apology from Chavez and the resignations of the company board, Oil Minister Alvaro Silva and Deputy Minister Bernardo Alvarez.

Chavez was last seen in public Tuesday, when he condemned the strike as a brazen attempt to oust him.




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