Business leaders agree to general strike to protest Chavez rule The Associated Press 9/30/02 7:30 PM
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuela's largest business association said Monday it would organize a general strike against the government of President Hugo Chavez, accusing the leader of refusing to change the direction of his self-proclaimed leftist revolution. Fedecamaras President Carlos Fernandez said the organization would decide on the date and duration of the strike within 30 days. The decision came after a two-hour assembly of business chambers whose members control 90 percent of Venezuela's non-oil production. Fedecamaras accuses Chavez of steering Venezuela into recession with poor economic planning and anti-business rhetoric. The strike would be the third against Chavez's government. The last one helped provoke the April 12-14 coup that briefly ousted the president. The Confederation of Venezuelan Workers, the country's largest trade union, is also threatening a strike. Opposition parties, labor unions and business leaders say they will only meet with Chavez to discuss him stepping down before his term ends in 2007. Chavez says his policies are designed to reform a socially unjust system that left 80 percent of Venezuelans in poverty -- even though the country sits on the largest oil reserves in the Western Hemisphere.
