Venezuela Strikers Try To Recruit Military

Leaders of a strike that has crippled Venezuela's economy called on the military to join their cause, while President Hugo Chavez announced an international diplomatic effort to resolve the standoff.

The opposition prepared to protest Friday outside a Caracas military base in their bid for the military's support.

"Act! Join us!" said Carlos Ortega, a general strike leader and head of Venezuela's largest labor confederation.

Meanwhile, Chavez said he would support diplomatic efforts by a "Group of Nation Friends" to help resolve the crisis, which has contributed to a rise in global oil prices.

"This has to be the way out," Chavez said Thursday in Brasilia, Brazil, where he attended the inauguration of Brazil's new president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. "There is no other way."

He didn't elaborate on which nations would be asked to join, but said the group would include European and Latin American countries as well members of OPEC.

The idea drew support from opposition labor leader Manuel Cova, secretary general of the 1 million-member Venezuelan Workers Confederation. "Whatever international initiative leading to an electoral solution is welcome," he said.

Negotiations being mediated by the Organization of American States have made little progress. In Washington, the State Department urged both sides to show "maximum flexibility."

Opposition leaders blame Chavez's leftist policies for a deep recession and accuse him of trying to accumulate too much power. Chavez says his opponents want an "economic coup" with a strike that has paralyzed the nation's oil industry and caused a shortage of basic staples.

In response to the strike, troops have commandeered gasoline delivery trucks, and are guarding oil installations.

The United States has ordered non-essential embassy employees and diplomats' family members out of the country citing the "severe shortage of fuel and the deteriorating political and security situation."

In comments Thursday, State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher said the administration was still "very concerned about the possibility of violence and we think they really need to take advantage of this opportunity for dialogue and solve the underlying political issues peacefully."

So far, the military has backed Chavez in the 5-week-old general strike that has brought the country to a standstill. Only about 100 officers who were stripped of their commands after a brief April coup have joined the opposition.

Chavez was briefly ousted and then returned to power in that coup. A former paratrooper, Chavez himself led a failed coup in 1992 and was briefly jailed.

The 33-day-old strike, which has paralyzed Venezuela's oil industry, had also rippled around the globe — helping to push oil prices above $30 per barrel.

Venezuela is the world's fifth largest oil exporter. In 2001, the United States imported 471 million barrels of Venezuelan oil, making it the fourth-largest supplier, behind Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Canada.

Chavez said Thursday that Venezuela's oil industry is recovering and will reach full capacity in 45 days. Oil executives scoffed at the claim.

Chavez, meanwhile, was expected to propose cuts to the nation's $25 billion budget for 2003 — a move that analysts said could weaken his support among the poor, his base of power.

Francisco Vivancos, an economics professor at the Central University of Venezuela, said Chavez must slash spending by at least $5 billion — cutting social programs that are the rock of the president's "Bolivarian Revolution" to lift the masses from poverty.

"If (Chavez) has no resources to finance his social plans, then it will be difficult to maintain a lot of his loyalty," said Vivancos, who estimates the strike has cost the economy $5.6 billion.