VENEZUELA: Venezuelan government and opposition forces both claimed victory yesterday after a two-month general strike came to an end without resolving any of the issues which gave rise to the disruption.
Schools, banks and universities re-opened while shopping centres and factories will return to normal in the coming days.
President Hugo Chavez survived 60 days of economic warfare which left six people dead and hundreds more injured as daily protests ended in street battles and police repression. The opposition, led by business and media leaders, confidently expected to unseat Mr Chavez within days of beginning the strike. Loyal government supporters took to the streets and lifted opposition barricades while the armed forces rallied to the government, refusing to intervene.
"They have the 'F' of failure branded on their foreheads," said an exuberant Mr Chavez, celebrating four years in power. "Today we crown the victory and continue with an offensive strategy."
The strike will have long-term implications for the Chavez administration, with economic losses estimated at $4 billion, a fraction of the long-term damage which will become evident over the coming months. Unemployment is expected to top 20 per cent while the local currency has lost 30 per cent of its value, taking a sharp bite out of monthly salaries.
Venezuela's opposition has now turned its attention to a national drive to collect millions of signatures that would force President Chavez to hold a referendum on his rule. 'This government is illegitimate because the people no longer want him' said Ms Albis Munoz, vice-president of employers' federation Fedecámaras.
One of the proposed referendum initiatives is a constitutional amendment that would cut Mr Chavez's rule from six to four years. It needed the signatures of 1.8 million people, 15 per cent of the voting population, and if successful, would clear the way for general elections later this year.
A non-binding referendum on Mr Chavez's rule was originally scheduled for Sunday but the nation's Supreme Court suspended the vote on a technicality.
"The pen is our weapon," said Mr Julio Borges, spokesman for the opposition Primera Justicia party, claiming that 3.7 million citizens had signed up to the Firmazo or petition coup, which replaced the planned referendum.
The collected signatures, if authenticated by electoral authorities, amount to exactly the number of votes secured by President Chavez in the 2000 elections. Under Venezuelan law a recall referendum can only force a fresh presidential election if the votes cast against the president exceed the number of votes obtained in the original vote.
The referendum, scheduled for August, is likely to be extremely close, as both sides appear to have almost identical levels of support.
President Chavez gambled his presidential rule on the promise of creating jobs and improving living standards for the nation's majority poor, an aspiration which now looks impossible to deliver.
The state relies on oil revenues for half its social spending budget and 70 per cent of foreign exchange revenues, figures which have been revised drastically downwards in the wake of the strike.
In addition, President Chavez has firmly nailed his colours to an ideological mast which looks certain to result in a bitter clash with the Bush administration, if and when the Iraqi crisis is resolved.
President Chavez delivered a fiery speech at the World Social Forum in Brazil last month, quoting the pledge of Che Guevara, the guerilla leader and standard-bearer for Cuba's communist revolution, to create "two, three, many Vietnams" to combat corporate control over the world's resources.
Back home President Chavez declared this year to be a "year on the offensive", with plans for an "economic, legal, and international" assault on the enemies of the Bolivarian revolution, the social reform project named after independence hero Simon Bolivar.
President Chavez received a boost from the Friends of Venezuela, a mediation support group involving Brazil, the US and Spain, which yesterday advised government and opposition negotiators they would "respect the legitimate president of Venezuela".
The decision to end the strike was taken after small- and medium-size businesses warned their corporate counterparts that the indefinite strike was turning into a "suicide watch" which would bankrupt them for good.