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The Venezuelan general strike of 2002-2003, also known as the oil strike or oil lockout, was an attempt by the Venezuelan opposition to President Hugo Chávez to force a new presidential election. It took place from December 2002 to February 2003, although within this period the effectiveness of the call to strike varied. The main impact of the strike derived from the stoppage of the oil industry, in particular the state-run PDVSA, which provides a majority of Venezuelan export revenue. The strike was preceded by the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt in April 2002, and a one-day strike in October 2002.

Buildup

After April's 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt conflict simmered throughout the rest of 2002. On 22 October 14 military officers who had been suspended for participating in the coup, led by General Enrique Medina Gómez, occupied the Francia de Altamira Plaza in a wealthy Eastern Caracas neighbourhood and declared it a "liberated territory". In early November, there was a major clash of government and opposition demonstrators in downtown Caracas; and, in the middle of the month, a shootout which resulted in three deaths occurred in Caracas' Bolivar Plaza between the Metropolitan Police and the National Guard.

Oil lockout/strike

Fedecámaras and the CTV called for a fourth paro cívico, which turned out to be the most serious, and is known as the 2002-2003 oil lockout/strike, to begin on 2 December 2002. The opposition also called a recall-referendum-petition-signature-gathering day for 4 December. The key element of the paro was the stoppage of production at Petróleos de Venezuela, which was effected by management's locking workers out of facilities. According to some sources, it also included changing computer passwords so as to disable equipment, and performing other acts of sabotage. Petroleum production soon fell to one-third normal; Venezuela had to begin importing oil to meet its foreign obligations; and domestically, gasoline for cars became virtually unobtainable, with many filling stations closed and long queues at others. Many privately-owned businesses closed or went on short time, some out of sympathy for the strike, others because of the fuel shortage and economic paralysis. The private media backed the strike: Eva Golinger writes that, "In support of the opposition's objectives, the private media symbolically joined the strike by suspending all regular programming and commercials and donating one hundred percent of air space to the opposition." Large pro- and anti-Chávez marches were held in the first weeks of the strike, which on 9 December the opposition had declared to be of indefinite duration. Before the strike began to dissolve in February 2003, it produced severe economic dislocation. Reportedly, millions of citizens, even in the middle of Caracas, reverted to using wood fires to cook their food. The country's GDP fell 25% during the first trimester of 2003; open unemployment, which was running about 15% before and after the shutdown, reached 20.3% in March 2003; the volume of crude oil produced was 5% less in 2003 than the previous year; and the volume of refined oil products was 17% less.

The strike began to dissolve in February, 2003, when "small- and medium-sized businesses reopened their doors, admitting that the strike now threatened to turn into a 'suicide watch' that could well bankrupt their businesses for good." The government gradually reestablished control over PDVSA; oil production reached pre-strike levels by April 2003. In the aftermath of the strike, the government fired 18,000 PDVSA employees, 40% of the company's workforce, for "dereliction of duty" during the strike.

Aftermath

References

1. López Maya, p 17; McCaughan, p 121.
2. López Maya, pp 17-18; McCaughan, p 120 has additional information on the conflict in and around the Metropolitain Police, who were controlled by the anti-Chávez mayor of Caracas, Alfredo Peña. Sometime in November, Chávez replaced the commissioner of the force, Henry Vivas, with Gonzalo Sánchez Delgado; whereupon the mayor ordered the police not to obey him.
3. McCaughan, p 123.
4. Venezuela: Technology and the Bolivarian Revolution
5. INTESA, the information and technology enterprise that was formed to run electronic operations at Petróleos de Venezuela, was at this time 60 per cent owned by a United States company, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), which is "closely linked to the U.S. government", with "former chiefs of staff, ex-CIA agents, and high-level government employees comprising its board of directors." (Golinger, "Machine", p 135.) During the work stoppage, INTESA refused requests by Petróleos de Venezuela president Ali Rodriguez to provide him the computer access codes so that Petróleos employees could operate the company's machinery. Eventually, Petróleos employees had to enter INTESA headquarters and seize equipment to reestablish opertations. Source: Golinger, "Machine", pp 135, 6, on INTESA; and Golinger, "Media", p 100, on the management's activities.
6. One third normal: McCaughan, p 126; gas shortages: López Maya, p 18. According to a previous version of this article, Venezuela's normal production of oil and oil derivatives before the strike was 2,800,000 barrells (450,000 m³) per day
7. Golinger, "Machine", p 133. She also writes, in "Media War Against the People," (p 101) that "The four primary stations suspended all regular programming throughout the duration of the 64-day strike: no product commercials, no soap operas, no movies, no cartoons, and no sitcoms. They broadcast an average of 700 pro-opposition advertisements each day, paid for by the stations themselves and by the opposition umbrella group, Democratic Coordinator."
8. Golinger, "Machine," p 135.
9. López Maya, p 19. Oil figures from OPEC, Annual Statistical Bulletin, 2004, tables 14, 19.
10. McCaughan, p 128.
11. McCaughan, p 128, says April, but I seem to recall that this is disputed.
12. McCaughan, p 128; López Maya, p 19.
13. Rodríguez, Francisco (March/April 2008). "An Empty Revolution: The Unfulfilled Promises of Hugo Chávez". Foreign Affairs. "... in fact, real GDP contracted by 4.4 percent and the currency had lost more than 40 percent of its value in the first quarter of 2002, before the start of the first PDVSA strike on April 9. As early as January of that year, the Central Bank had already lost more than $7 billion in a futile attempt to defend the currency ... the economic crisis had started well before the political crisis—a fact that would be forgotten in the aftermath of the political tumult that followed."

• Articles with minor POV problems from February 2010
• History of Venezuela
• Politics of Venezuela