Strike fallout

last updated 8 January 2015

Caracas

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez this week threatened to jail the leaders of a two-month strike that has crippled the nation’s economy. Hordes of government opponents returned to work this month after failing to force Chavez to step down or call early elections. Only workers at the state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela have held out. Chavez has fired 9,000 oil workers in an effort to get fuel production—the country’s largest source of income—back to normal. “Fired is nothing!” Chavez said. “Many of them should go to prison for sabotaging the Venezuelan economy.” More than 100,000 people demonstrated in Caracas, the capital, in support of the fired employees.