2002–2003 Venezuelan general strike

The main impact of the strike derived from the stoppage of the oil industry, in particular the state-run PDVSA, which provides a majority of Venezuelan export revenue.

[4] On 22 October 14 military officers who had been suspended for participating in the coup, led by General Enrique Medina Gómez, occupied Plaza Francia in Altamira, an Eastern Caracas neighbourhood, and declared it a "liberated territory".

On 4 December the captain of the large oil tanker Pilín León, named after the beauty queen, anchored in the Lake Maracaibo shipping channel and refused to move.

[citation needed] The key element of the strikemation and technology enterprise that was formed to run electronic operations at Petróleos de Venezuela, was at this time 60 pe was the stoppage of production at the state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), which was effected by management's locking workers out of facilities, along with the shipping shutdown.

[citation needed] Petroleum production soon fell to one-third normal; Venezuela had to begin importing oil to meet its foreign obligations; and domestically, gasoline for cars became virtually unobtainable, with many filling stations closed and long queues at others.

On 6 December a Portuguese taxi driver named João de Gouveia [es] killed three and injured 28 at Plaza Altamira.

Involvement in government efforts to maintain food and gasoline distribution saw turning points in the careers of leading businessmen Ricardo Fernández Barrueco and Wilmer Ruperti respectively.

[citation needed] After the February 2003 collapse of the strike, the Coordinadora Democrática (CD) was much more willing to participate in the Organization of American States (OAS) "mesa" dialogue process which had been set up following the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt.