Protesters Shot Dead in Venezuela; Oil Deliveries Slowed
By JUAN FORERO
www.nytimes.com


CARACAS, Venezuela, Dec. 6 — Three demonstrators were shot dead tonight and nearly 30 were wounded when at least one gunman opened fire in a crowded plaza here that had become the epicenter for antigovernment protest. Opponents of President Hugo Chávez's government blamed his administration, throwing the possibility for a peaceful solution to Venezuela's turbulent political situation into turmoil.

Mayor Leopoldo López of the Chacao district of Caracas, of which the plaza is a part, said that a Portuguese-born man whom he identified as João Goveia was arrested and accused of the shooting. Witnesses said at least one other gunman also fired into the crowd. Investigators detained six men in an attempt to determine what transpired.

Diosdado Cabello, the Venezuelan justice and interior minister, told reporters that Mr. Goveia had confessed. "Now we have to find out why he did it," he said.

The shootings, at Altamira Plaza in the affluent eastern end of Caracas, came moments after a powerful opposition movement declared that it would continue a five-day-old nationwide strike against Mr. Chávez.

The strike brought the oil industry closer to a full-scale shutdown today, with the state-owned oil company announcing that it may not be able to ship oil to all its customers.

Although government officials stressed that the company, Petróleos de Venezuela, was still producing and shipping oil, its president, Ali Rodríguez, said in a news conference that the industry was "vulnerable" and that damages from the walkout had been "considerable." Late tonight, six senior board members offered their resignations.

Mr. Rodríguez said the company had sent some clients notices of force majeure, invoking a legal clause that allows a seller to escape contract terms because of circumstances out of its control.

"We have had to declare a state of force, telling our clients today that there can be delays in the deliveries of crude and products that come from Venezuela," Mr. Rodríguez said.

The increasing involvement of oil workers and executives from Petróleos de Venezuela in the strike had given the anti-Chávez movement momentum and brought the country much closer to a standstill.

Oil accounts for 80 percent of export earnings and 50 percent of government revenues in Venezuela, one of the world's largest oil exporters.

The shooting in Caracas, at 7:15 p.m., then escalated the crisis, infuriating government opponents who have long accused the Chávez administration of using repressive tactics to squelch protest. Foes of the president had been pushing for early elections to resolve Venezuela's political turmoil, but within minutes of the shooting, leading strike organizers declared that only the president's resignation would do.

"The president should resign to open the path to 24 million Venezuelans who want their liberty," said Julio Borges, an opposition Congressman.

The vice president, José Vicente Rangel, called the shootings a "provocation" to prompt further turbulence, saying the Chávez administration had nothing to do with the shootings.

"The national government in the most categorical and profound way condemns what happened tonight," he said. "We are not protecting anybody."

Diego Garrido, 20, who was standing in the plaza, said the gunman stood calmly and emptied the bullets from a semiautomatic handgun, pulling new cartridges from a knapsack. Mr. Garrido's girlfriend, Olga García, 19, was hit in the abdomen.

The dead included a 17-year-old girl and among the wounded were children, medical workers said.

"He would shoot, take out a new cartridge and keep firing," Mr. Garrido said. "It was so fast. I saw 15 people go down." A group of high-ranking military officers opposed to Mr. Chávez, who have used the plaza as their base, pulled their weapons as the shooting began and told people to get down. The protesters — many draped in the red, blue and yellow of the Venezuelan flag — scattered.

Luis Jiménez, 48, had been standing among the people who were killed. "The first to fall was that man," he said, pointing to a body covered by a sheet and a Venezuelan flag. "Then a woman fell right here. She said, `Help me! Help me!' "

The shooting came eight months after a huge antigovernment protest ended in gunfire, leaving at least 19 people dead. Mr. Chávez was temporarily removed from power in the chaos afterward, with opponents charging that pro-Chávez gunmen were responsible for the violence.

An hour after the shootings tonight, César Gaviría, secretary general of the Organization of American States, said the two sides had agreed to meet, and he called for calm. "These events take place at moments of high tension," he said."In a moment like this, I say to all the officials and Venezuelans: be calm."

Still, some opposition leaders of the Democratic Coordinator, a large umbrella group for anti-Chávez groups, called for the strike against the government to go on indefinitely, until Mr. Chávez resigns.

The United States issued a warning to its citizens tonight to put off nonessential travel to Venezuela, saying it was "gravely concerned" about the escalating violence.

The strike's threat to the oil industry was apparent earlier today at the Paraguana refinery complex, outside Punto Fijo in northwest Venezuela.

The refinery, the largest in the country, usually processes about a million barrels daily. But it was at a standstill today as dockworkers stayed home and several tanker crews refused to transport crude.

"You will usually see the dock full," said Eligio Luques, 40, as he steered his fishing boat near idle tankers anchored near the refinery. "Normally, they come in and out of there."