| End of strike worries OPEC Yesterday, exactly two months after it began, the general strike in Venezuela ended. True, oil workers are still on strike. But shopkeepers, hairdressers, small entrepreneurs and bankers have already faltered - they were the ones who bore the main losses from the paralyzed business. This gives President Hugo Chavez reason to celebrate his victory.
The strikers failed to achieve their main demand: the resignation of Chavez. On Sunday, the oppositionists, however, still tried to hold an action under the loud name “signing”: 4 million signatures were collected under various demands - from amending the constitution in favor of reducing the presidential term from 6 to 4 years to the repeal of economic laws adopted by Chavez. It was possible to simply sign a document “not recognizing” Chavez as president.
On February 2, the head of state himself celebrated the 4th anniversary of his stay in power. He announced that “the revolution is on the offensive” and called for “irreversible punishment of traitors to the motherland.” The President was referring to the damage (more than $4 billion) caused to the country's economy by striking oil workers. Some of the staff of the state oil company PDVSA continues to strike. But even without them, the government managed to revive the oil industry. According to Chavez, oil production reached 1.8 million barrels per day. And by March it will reach the pre-strike level of 3 million barrels daily. This will allow the country to fully fulfill its export obligations.
These prospects are already worrying OPEC. The cartel's president, Abdallah Al-Attiyah, admitted on Saturday that there is a danger of oversaturation of the market. This will lead to a sharp drop in prices, which, due to the threat of war in Iraq and a strike in Venezuela, exceeded the $30 mark. Last month, OPEC members agreed to increase oil production by 1.5 million barrels per day to stabilize prices. New export quotas came into effect on February 1. But due to the stabilization of the situation in Venezuela, OPEC is already predicting a fall in prices in the second quarter of this year (due to warm weather, energy consumption during this period of the year is reduced). Indeed, yesterday, after the announcement of the end of the strike in Venezuela, oil prices on world markets began to decline.
Life in Caracas is returning to normal. As Russian diplomats told the Vremya Novostei newspaper, already on Monday the embassy's cars were able to refuel at the nearest gas station. For exactly two months, gasoline was not sold there, as in all rich areas in the east of Caracas. Meanwhile, gas stations in poor areas of the capital had plenty of fuel. Enterprising tramps took advantage of this: having filled the cans from the poor in the west, they sold gasoline to the rich in the east at a 10-fold inflated price.
The government has frozen foreign exchange transactions for now, and Russians are profitably using the services of the black exchange market. Products imported from neighboring Colombia, including beer and milk, appeared in stores. Private kindergartens and schools have reopened. In order not to return the paid fees to parents, teachers who went on strike will teach children on weekends and shorten school holidays.
Local dogs and cats have not been left out of the political turmoil. “Animals have become victims of social conflict,” writes the capital’s leading newspaper El Nacional. “Endless pan marches and the stress of the owners affected the health of their pets.” Andrey ZLOBIN |
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