More than 100,000 opponents of President Hugo Chavez marched through the streets of Caracas on Saturday in solidarity with oil workers staging a two-month strike against the beleaguered Venezuelan leader.
In a boisterous rally of national flags, whistles and beating drums, demonstrators joined strikers from the state oil firm PDVSA to show support for the shutdown aimed at forcing early elections in the world's No. 5 petroleum exporter.
The stoppage, which started on Dec. 2, has crumbled as private businesses reopened to stave off bankruptcy. But thousands of PDVSA employees are vowing to stay out until Mr Chavez quits and reinstates rebel oil workers fired during a government crackdown on their protest.
"PDVSA belongs to us, not to the government," strike leader Juan Fernandez shouted from a stage to the crowds jamming a major highway in the capital. "There can be no step back."
Mr Chavez, first elected in 1998, faces a determined alliance of political parties, unions and businesses who accuse him of dictatorial rule and mismanaging the economy. He has resisted opposition calls for elections.
Opponents, who demand that any political solution to the crisis must include the PDVSA strikers, said they had collected a petition of more than two million signatures in support of the oil workers.
Mr Chavez has fired 9,000 oil workers and restructured PDVSA to counter the stoppage, which has battered Venezuela's economy by slashing the crude exports that account for half of government revenues.