General strike in Venezuela of 2002-2003
The oil strike in Venezuela of 2002-2003, also called National Strike or General Strike, consisted of a strike or stoppage of activities labor and economic of a general and indefinite nature against the government of Hugo Chávez, promoted mainly by the union organization Fedecámaras, and supported by the board of directors and workers of the main payroll of the company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the opposition parties brought together in the Democratic Coordinating coalition, the Confederation of Workers of Venezuela (CTV) union, various organizations such as Súmate and even private press, radio and television media. One of the reasons begins by overriding the company's meritocracy when in February 2002 Hugo Chávez appointed a new board led by the leftist economist Gastón Parra Luzardo to replace General Guaicaipuro Lameda. In April 2002, Hugo Chávez fired seven senior officials on television and threatened to fire them all. Later, the events of April 11 of that year would take place, culminating in the brief overthrow of Chávez, which lasted less than 48 years. hours. The strike lasted from December 2002 to February 2003, being one of the longest general strikes in history. According to government supporters, this strike was not a strike, in its precise and correct legal conception, but rather a measure of political protest.
On December 2, 2002, the date on which this event began, the opening of any labor dispute document, a basic requirement for calling a strike, was not made known to the public. On the other hand, its conveners were not workers seeking improvement in working conditions or benefits; Instead, those who appear as the main conveners are the business union, through Fedecámaras, as well as a good part of the PDVSA employees and the Democratic Coordinator. The unions, through the CTV, supported the call, but were not the organizers. At the beginning of February 2003, after lasting two months, the Oil Strike was officially lifted, despite the fact that the oil industry had already been partially operational since mid-January.
Background
Enabling Law
In November 2000, the National Assembly—in which the parties that support President Chávez had a qualified majority of more than 66%—granted special powers to the head of state that allowed him to govern by decree, in addition to presenting and approve a package of laws in accordance with its political program and the new Constitution, established in December 1999, by popular referendum.
Several months later, in mid-2001, the Executive achieved the approval of 49 laws through the Enabling Law given by parliament. Among the most controversial laws were the Organic Hydrocarbons Law, which increased to 30% the taxation of transnational companies in oil extraction activities, and set at 51% the minimum participation of the State in mixed companies, the Fisheries Law that imposed strong restrictions on trawling and commercial fishing for the benefit of artisanal fishermen and the Land and Agrarian Development Law that allowed the expropriation of large estates and benefited peasants who sought to cultivate small areas of land.
The laws generated strong rejection by the business sector and the middle class. They considered the attitude of the Chávez government to be undemocratic, and said legislative package to be unconstitutional. For this reason, the Fedecámaras employers' association called a 12-hour national strike for December 10, 2001, an action that was supported by the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV), the country's main labor union. From that moment on, many opposition leaders called for Chávez's resignation, a request that he always rejected.
Likewise, several allies of President Chávez, such as Luis Miquilena and some of his followers, withdrew their support for President Chávez and gradually joined the opposition. It was later learned that the main reason for his withdrawal was President Chávez's refusal to reverse said laws [ citation needed ] .
PDVSA control
Another reason for the strike was the fight for control of the state oil company PDVSA, a vital industry for Venezuela as the fifth largest oil producer in the world. President Chávez argued that it was a "black box", that its managers refused to give further information about what was happening within the organization, and that middle management did not accept instructions to change policies. of company operation. This management was committed to maintaining control over the company's decisions, including those to sell large quantities of crude oil at low prices, which was in direct clash with President Chávez's policies of strengthening the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).) and stay within the production quotas assigned in the oil organization. Chávez also argued that he wanted to review PDVSA's accounts to understand the reason for its high expenses, and then reorient the oil company to increase its social work; Middle managers claimed that the government was trying to politicize the company and put an end to meritocracy, or promotion based on merit, (which actually happened and continues to happen)[citation needed]. The performance of the state oil company deteriorated rapidly after the government took control of it, reaching unprecedented levels of insecurity, which constantly generates multiple fires, explosions and work accidents.
Coup d'état of 2002
As President Chávez did not accept the demands of businessmen, unions and opposition parties to withdraw the legislative package and stop imposing the military with absolute ignorance of the management of the state oil company, they called for a first 24-hour strike on December 9, 2001, and then to a second strike on April 9, 2002 that became indefinite.
This strike was supported by the employees of the major and minor payroll of PDVSA, who stopped working and rejected the new board of directors that Chávez had appointed in the industry, made up of people outside the industry, without knowledge of the processes. that they operated in it. In response, Chávez fired through the media the senior staff and more than seventeen thousand (17,000) minor payroll employees: workers, secretaries, plant operators, foremen, middle management supervisors, etc.; which caused the opposition to radicalize its protest actions on the third day. On April 11, while the strike continued, opposition leaders decided to divert the march they had originally planned from Parque del Este to PDVSA-Chuao, to head towards the Miraflores Presidential Palace, causing a confrontation between supporters of the government who were in the place, and encouraging the coup d'état, which overthrew Chávez for two days. Sectors opposed to the government insist that Chávez renounced power as announced on national television by his defense minister.
After the coup and the return of President Chávez to power, instability did not cease. Although Chávez agreed to start talks with the opposition, and that dialogue tables were established between both parties with the mediation of the Organization of American States (OAS), President Chávez himself lifted the dialogue table because he considered " that you could not negotiate with coup plotters" and weeks later the opposition protests restarted.[citation needed]
Altamira Square
On October 22, 2002, a group of fourteen active and retired soldiers spoke out against the government in the Plaza Altamira in the east of Caracas. Day by day, more soldiers joined the protest until they reached about 120 officers; The government decided not to repress or quell the military protest. It was widely supported by thousands of supporters, opposition politicians and even celebrities, who kept the square full at all hours.
Demonstrations took place that led to violent street clashes between Chavistas and anti-Chavistas on an almost daily basis, in the main cities of the country, highlighting Caracas. The positions of both sides became even more radicalized, and the opposition sector was no longer demanding the withdrawal of the package of laws but rather the resignation of Chávez and his full government.
Unemployment
Fedecámaras called the strike on December 2. Its duration was initially 24 hours, but it extended day by day until it became an indefinite strike in the middle of the Christmas business season. The merchants, businessmen, employees and workers received promises that the strike would only last a few days until Chávez resigned, but said resignation did not come.
At first, the strike involved only the employers' companies and the unions affiliated with the CTV, but soon the PDVSA directors and employees at the management level decided to support it. In this way, the country was practically paralyzed. Only some State companies continued to work, public land and air transportation, water, electricity and telephone services, and public and private media, although the latter decided to suspend the usual programming and the broadcast of advertising, replacing it with programming political and informative 24 hours a day. Political spots were broadcast that supported the continuation or not of the strike and the holding of protests and marches in different parts of the country, supported by the Democratic Coordinator or the Government.
Oil workers attached to unemployment
The stoppage reached a climax when the state oil company, PDVSA, was affected. Thousands of the company's employees left their jobs to go on strike. The government initially denied that anything was happening at PDVSA, but things became too evident when, on December 5, the crew of the oil tanker Pilín León declared rebellion and anchored the ship in the navigation channel of Lake Maracaibo. Because they had just arrived from Cuba to drop off some of the first shipments of crude oil of what would be the delivery of 100,000 barrels to Cuba; This crew after verifying the very serious decline in the quality of social and moral life of Castro-Communism on the island; Captain Daniel Alberto Alfaro Faúndez made reference: "On the island, teenage girls prostitute themselves for soap or toiletries.... I don't want that kind of life for my daughters." All of this in the face of the serious shortage of basic products and food on the island of Cuba. In addition to the recent declaration at that time by President Hugo Chavez: "we will sail in the same seas of happiness as Cuba...".
Soon other vessels—which transported oil and its derivatives from extraction wells to refineries or from these to distribution points or to other countries—followed their example. The government accused oil employees of committing sabotage against the company: destruction of equipment, intervention of automated systems that guaranteed the distribution of crude oil and its derivatives, and the blocking of various essential technological services.
Which could never be proven, because at the time of handing over the main Refineries, control centers and industry offices, courts with specialized experts were set up to verify the proper functioning of the equipment; and Private companies that provided computer services to PDVSA, such as Intesa, also joined the strike.
This scenario marked the sustained decline of PDVSA. The performance of the state oil company was seriously affected in the following years, reducing its production and significantly increasing the number of work accidents. The Venezuelan State has even been forced to import gasoline from Brazil and other countries such as the United States, demonstrating the consequences of the company's new policy, which became one in which political affiliations are favored over the quality of its workers.
Social level
Daily there were demonstrations led by the president of Fedecámaras, Carlos Fernández Pérez, and the president of CTV, Carlos Ortega, who served as spokespersons for the opposition. Supporters and opponents of the Chávez government met 24 hours a day in key locations: the opposition gathered around Plaza Francia in Altamira and the PDVSA headquarters in Chuao, while Chavismo gathered around the Miraflores Palace., Plaza Bolívar and the main headquarters of PDVSA in La Campiña.
The population identified with the opposition also blocked the vehicle lanes on the Francisco Fajardo highway (Caracas) and in Plaza Altamira; They also did it in several middle-class urbanizations in Caracas, Valencia and the country in general. In several places, such as Terrazas del Ávila, La Urbina and Santa Fe (in the east of Caracas), there were violent clashes between opponents who wanted to block the roads and Chavistas who lived in adjacent neighborhoods and wanted to prevent it.
The opposition carried out "bangs" (protest by banging pots) every night. In some cases, they held mass marches during the day forcing the closure of those businesses and stores that were open in their neighborhoods, or in front of the homes of government officials and sympathizers whom they demanded to resign.
The political polarization was total: it divided families and made some people fight against each other. Large shopping centers were closed, universities suspended classes, the main local shows—such as baseball, the most popular sport—were suspended, and the holidays were unusual in a country with a great Christmas tradition, because many people had not received their pay. Christmas bonus.
This had serious repercussions on the population. Once the gasoline dispensers were empty, it was common to see long lines at gas stations, which the private media constantly showed to imply that the strike was a success, something that the government denied.
The problem was also critical in popular neighborhoods, where gas cylinders are depended on for cooking. It was common to see in many places in the interior of the country people cooking with firewood, old furniture and other flammable materials.
Deaths in Plaza Altamira
One of the most disturbing moments of the strike occurred on Friday night, December 6, 2002, on the fourth day of the strike. There was already enough concern in the government about the progress of the strike, which had been added to the paralysis of several oil tankers and the support of a group of PDVSA workers to the conflict. In addition, the opposition had taken over the PDVSA headquarters in Chuao and was threatening to take over the main headquarters located in La Campiña, in the center of Caracas. The Plaza Francia in Altamira had become the main meeting point of the opposition and thousands of people gathered there every day to listen to the more than one hundred active military personnel who had spoken out against the government and gave speeches in that square., along with prominent leaders of opposition parties, artists, businessmen and personalities who appeared there every day to motivate the protesters. Television teams from private channels broadcast live, reporting everything that was happening, maintaining teams 24 hours a day during almost the entire strike and the days that preceded it.
That day, at approximately nine at night, a large group of people were present in the square when, suddenly, someone fired more than 20 shots at the group of protesters, leaving three people dead and about thirteen wounded. The shooter, an individual named João de Gouveia, was immediately captured thanks to a joint action between protesters and police.
Throughout the night, the four private television channels constantly repeated the images in the square accusing the government. In middle-class areas sympathetic to the opposition, hundreds of people took to the streets to protest and demonstrate. Some headquarters of the Fifth Republic Movement (government party) were attacked in El Rosal (east of Caracas) and in several places in the interior of the country.
On December 7 and 8, the crisis continued. Due to the incidents in Plaza Altamira, opposition protests intensified, making the fall of the government seem imminent. The support of the majority of PDVSA employees for the strike and the statements of various politicians increased this matrix of opinion.
Protests against the media
On the night of December 9, a group of people affected by the government gathered around the headquarters of PDVSA La Campiña, headed towards the headquarters of the private channel Globovisión, in order to protest against the private television stations. Venezuelans, such as Venevisión, RCTV, Globovisión, Televen and others. The protest was carried out mostly by students, neighbors, housewives and workers who decided to express their disagreement with the development of the media in promoting the oil strike.
By 11:00 p.m. m. At night, the headquarters of the channels RCTV, Televen, Venevisión and other national private channels had already been surrounded by Protestant Chavistas. The action was also carried out in the interior of the country, where hundreds of people went to the headquarters of TVS in Maracay and other television stations in the states of Zulia and Bolívar.
The protest was based on the request to put an end to the conduct of the majority of private media outlets, who to date had ceased their usual programming of news programs, soap operas, films and children's programs; and they were continuously transmitting the acts of violence that occurred.
Weakening and end of unemployment
The strike weakened as the days went by. The Chavista protests on December 9 in front of private media outlets helped the government recover from the crisis caused by the attack perpetrated by Joao de Gouveia on December 6 against Altamira Square. The government soon ensured the supply of food and basic services to the population, after which all that remained was to regain control of PDVSA.
For several days, there was no progress on either side. President Chávez did not resign from office always placing himself above the demands of a large part of the population; The opposition was not giving in either, although he was realizing that he was not achieving his objectives because he had not managed to corner the government. Likewise, a negotiation and agreement table organized by the Carter Center and the OAS did not achieve greater progress between the government and the opposition. At the same time, every day at six in the afternoon Carlos Ortega and Carlos Fernández, leaders of the union and employers' confederations, broadcast advertisements on television extending the strike for another day and urging their followers to continue it.
The first noticeable sign that the government would regain control of PDVSA occurred on December 21, when the tanker Pilín León was recovered and taken to a safe port through the navigation channel of Lake Maracaibo and under the bridge Rafael Urdaneta. Days later she was put to work bringing supplies to the refineries. These events, broadcast live on the State channel, had a very strong psychological impact on both sides of the conflict, and can be considered the beginning of the end of the strike. The other vessels were also recovered a few days later.
Gradually, in January 2003, the government managed to regain control of PDVSA thanks to the support of employees who did not join the strike, and of sympathizers who gathered around refineries and fillers (sites where the trucks were supplied. to bring fuel to gas stations), volunteering to help reactivate the company.
Businessmen, on their own, began to open their businesses and commercial premises, disobeying the federations that grouped them together. To face the crisis created by the conflict, they had to take measures such as cutting hours and reducing personnel, which directly affected unemployment rates. Other companies and stores could not withstand the crisis and had to close their doors, leaving thousands of employees on the streets. The media also took similar measures, firing many journalists.
The strike ended on February 3, 2003, without further notice from its leaders. One day before, on February 2, the opposition collected signatures for a consultative referendum (a collection that was later declared null and void by the National Electoral Council (CNE) for not meeting a series of legal requirements). That night, the opposition celebrated the success of collecting signatures; These signatures that from that moment were used to politically discriminate against their signatories, preventing the people who were identified as signatories of the consultative referendum request from being given employment, allowed entry to any state entity, or military. On February 3, many companies began working with the aforementioned limitations.
International impact
The strike was a determining factor in the escalation of the price of oil, because Venezuela did not export it, but had to import it. And despite the fact that the United States bought 70% of the country's oil production, American spokesmen did not show any objection to the paralysis of oil production by oil workers, they only urged that the crisis be resolved through of the so-called 'Group of Friends of Venezuela', promoted by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva through the president of Brazil at that time Fernando Henrique Cardoso, and which in addition to this country was made up of Chile, the United States, Spain and Portugal. Countries whose governments did not get along with the Chávez government, at that time except for Brazil.
Mediation or facilitation alternatives
Another alternative to stop the crisis was the one promoted by the Secretary General of the OAS, the Colombian César Gaviria, within the framework of the Negotiation and Agreements Table of Venezuela that allowed dialogue between the opposing sectors. This table was established before the strike but could not prevent its start, and culminated weeks later with the signing of a document against violence, but not with the culmination of the strike because the central request of the opposition side was resignation. of the President, or the holding of a presidential referendum on the continuity of Chávez.
The recall referendum was included in the Constitution, but according to the laws it had to be carried out in mid-2003, and the opposition was not willing to wait that long. Furthermore, they did not accept the conditions of the recall referendum, which was in the Constitution, and asked for the opinion or advisory referendum, which, although not binding, required fewer signatures to be called and could be carried out in a much shorter period of time. The government never accepted the referendum proposed by the opposition, but rather the one specified in the Constitution. Another difference in criteria at the negotiating table between both sides was the functions of the OAS and the Carter Center; Chavismo spoke of facilitation, while the opposition insisted on the role of mediation.
Consequences
Media
During the strike, the media behaved in an atypical way compared to other countries: all the national private television stations and the most important newspapers gave it unrestricted, undisguised support. The former suspending all their entertainment programming and commercial advertisements to make way for political and informative programming for 18 or 20 hours a day.
The newspapers supported the strike: some did not circulate the first days, but later they decided to continue publishing editions where only the development and "success" of unemployment, suspending advertising and sports, cultural and other news. It was everyday to see large national circulation newspapers, such as El Universal, headline on their front page in large capital letters: "Until he leaves!" This attitude of the media was criticized by some opponents of Chávez, such as the historian Jorge Olavarría.
Supporters of President Chávez accused the private media, including television channels, radio stations and the national press, of only broadcasting the opposition's protest events - there were also Chavista demonstrations and rallies every day - and of not allowing people who support the government to be interviewed. The official television channel and radio station also participated in this media confrontation, biasing themselves in favor of the government, although it was a disproportionate confrontation. In this way, polarization became much more accentuated and impartial media practically disappeared.
These positions have been maintained in subsequent years, although some media outlets have bowed by abandoning opposition-oriented programs or articles. The government also supported the creation of newspapers, radio stations, television stations and alternative Internet sites, which are considered by the opposition as sources of government propaganda, but which the government defends as spaces of expression for those who were censored by the stations. private.
General strike or lock out
Sectors loyal to the government and its socialist project insist that the strike was also a lock out, since in many companies, factories and commercial establishments the workers wanted to continue their work, but the bosses made the decision to stop. However, in the Public Administration some representatives of unions and unions, active opposition activists, called for strikes. Among these, those unions stood out, which were part of the CTV, whose leader Carlos Ortega, led the so-called National Civic Strike. The majority of the representatives of these unions are actively involved in opposition parties such as Democratic Action. Unions such as the Venezuelan Medical Federation also called for a strike, whose leader was part of the opposition coalition that had called the Strike.
As the employers' strike weakened, the Democratic Coordinator called for an Educational Strike, which was joined by the owners of almost all of the Private Schools in Caracas and the country, with certain exceptions such as the Center Educational Center for Teachers of the Central University of Venezuela (CEAPUCV), which remained open during all the days that the Strike lasted, with the attendance of teachers and students being mandatory, with the exception of those who due to distance, or being located in places close to the sites of protests or marches, it would be counterproductive to leave their homes.
This type of educational strike was carried out as a last measure of pressure for the departure of the Venezuelan president.
Economic consequences
The consequences were disastrous for the population and the country. There were shortages of food and gasoline during and after the strike. Many small and medium-sized companies went bankrupt because they depended on the companies that Fedecámaras grouped together to carry out their activities. Unemployment and informal trade rates increased enormously.
The government propaganda sectors insist on pointing out that the strike was imposed from the top of the business chambers, and that as a result many companies that belonged to said centers had to close against their will, which contradicts the argument that the strike failed due to lack of support. The owners of large shopping centers such as the Sambil Center, the largest in Venezuela, prevented small merchants from opening their businesses and stores. The merchandise distributors also joined the strike and prevented the merchandise from reaching the merchants. This affected them enormously due to the importance of the holiday season for sales, which influenced an increase in smuggling of basic products of all kinds from Colombia.
In the macroeconomic aspect, the consequences were also very negative: inflation skyrocketed, as did unemployment, and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell. Shortly before the end of the strike, President Chávez denounced that businessmen were taking large amounts of foreign currency out of the country in order to devalue the Venezuelan currency; To prevent this, he decreed an exchange control mechanism administered by a new government entity, the Foreign Exchange Administration Commission (CADIVI), which remains in place to this day.
For its part, the government created the Mercal Mission, a social program in charge of the sale, distribution and storage of food and products at low prices as a forecast to counteract hypothetical strikes of this magnitude if they occurred in the future, however This system has been involved in numerous complaints of corruption and failed importation of food that has appeared in a state of decomposition in different port areas and landfills in the country. The public teaching profession has systematically refused to investigate these cases despite clear evidence. tons of decomposing food.
Consequences for PDVSA
More than 15 thousand employees of the state oil industry who participated in the strike were dismissed from the payroll, despite the constant requests and demands of the opposition for their reinstatement, without any payment being made to date. their assets or savings that they maintain in the industry. In this way, the government managed to win the fight for control of PDVSA. The state company became an entity under the control and supervision of the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, and was completely restructured.
Its headquarters located in Caracas (where most of the dismissed managers and senior staff worked) were considered excessive; The Los Chaguaramos headquarters was transferred to the Bolivarian University of Venezuela and the Chuao headquarters, emblematic for the opposition, was transferred to the National Experimental University of the Armed Forces (UNEFA). The La Campiña headquarters was partially transferred to the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum (as was foreseen in the construction plans of El Complejo since the '70s); Other locations in the interior were also transferred to public educational entities.
The restructuring of Pdvsa allowed it to directly support and finance several educational and social missions that the government carried out, among them the "Misión Sucre", which provides higher education to young people who could not enter the universities. Likewise, the oil company opened up more to include cooperatives and SMEs among the companies it hired for its services, and is preparing to begin the migration of its systems to Free Software, as agreed in a recent presidential decree. With the consequences of the deterioration and poor functioning of the company, all of this due to diverting the budget that corresponded to its maintenance, to the missions and support to groups affected by the government, which has generated disastrous consequences for the industry and the adjacent populations. to its surroundings, proof of this by the explosion that occurred in August 2012 in the Paraguaná Refining Complex and corroborated by the delivery of the report and accounts of the then Minister of Energy and Petroleum to the National Assembly, where the lack of occurrence of 6 maintenance is evident. that should have been carried out that year to said Refinery complex.
According to the government, the profits that the State receives from PDVSA increased as a result of the restructuring. At first the opposition alleges low profits, due to the supposed ineffectiveness of the new workers, which seems to confirm the complaints about the management that towards the oil meritocracy. However, these gains are also criticized by the opposition, who claim that the country has not improved despite the huge monetary inflows. PDVSA paradoxically began to accumulate debt and both its production and its real financial status are unknown because the government refuses to make the accounting figures public and prevents any attempt at an independent audit, turning it into a true black box, a term that Chávez insisted on describing. to the state oil company that before the strike was among the leading companies in the global petroleum-chemical sector.
Political and criminal consequences
A few days after the strike ended, Carlos Ortega and Carlos Fernández, presidents of the CTV and Fedecámaras respectively, were charged as allegedly responsible for the crimes of treason and civil rebellion.
Both Ortega and Fernández fled the country. Ortega had to leave Costa Rica, the country that had given him asylum, because he made a series of political statements that that country had asked him to avoid, returned clandestinely to Venezuela, and was captured in a bingo hall in February 2005. In December 2005, That year, Ortega was sentenced to 16 years in prison for the events of the strike, but he managed to escape from the place where he was being held in August 2006. He is currently in Lima, Peru.
Joao de Gouveia was sentenced to serve 29 years and 11 months in prison after pleading guilty to the deaths in Plaza Altamira. Gouveia appears to have psychological problems or disorders, and so far there has been no evidence linking him to Chavismo or the opposition, although politicians from both sides have launched accusations without evidence stating that he was paid by one political sector or another.
Social consequences
The strike is remembered, after politically, economically and socially affecting the Venezuelan population and in particular the residents of large cities. Furthermore, it became a failure for its organizers, as its initial objective of achieving the departure of the Head of State was not met. Among other causes of said failure, we can mention the absence of a military component allied to the opposition - these had been removed by the government, after being detected in the coup of April 11, 2002 - that achieved the removal of the President through of a break in the constitutional thread.
Likewise, the support of a large part of the humble class population for the Government prevented it from falling. Furthermore, the business associations and the traditional parties were victims of strong rejection by the popular classes and were unable to connect with them to gain their support.
The middle class sectors, largely followers of the opposition, tended to feel identified with Juan Fernández, leader of the PDVSA employees who had gone on strike, but not with the political parties of the Democratic Coordinator, the employers, nor the CTV union.
Once it was clear that President Chávez was not going to resign, the strike began to have other objectives that were not met either: the non-binding referendum demanded by the opposition to consult on Chávez's permanence in power was not carried out due to lack of power. be in the Constitution. Finally, a Referendum was held in 2004, which President Chávez won. The enabling laws passed in 2001 were not annulled. The opposition oil workers' struggle broke down when all those who joined the strike were fired.
Other minor consequences
One of the minor consequences was the suspension of the 2002-2003 season of the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League (number one sport followed by the majority of Venezuelans), when for the second time in the history of the league, a championship does not materialize, and respectively Venezuela is absent from the annual Caribbean Series tournament. Puerto Rico, as the host country at that time, was given the power to bring two teams to fill the void of the Venezuelan representative, because the league joined the strike after almost three months of activity.