Venezuela's Supreme Court has issued a temporary ruling ordering a restart of state oil operations halted by an opposition strike that has rattled global markets and forced motorists to hunt for scarce petrol in the world's No. 5 petroleum exporter.
However opposition leaders, locked in a battle to push the populist president to resign and call immediate elections, rejected the ruling and said they would press ahead with the shutdown that has crippled the nation's vital oil industry. "What are they going to do? Put us all in prison? The strike continues," opposition leader Timoteo Zambrano told journalists on Thursday.
Nearly three weeks into the stoppage, lines of several hundred cars and trucks formed outside petrol stations across the country. Others were deserted, posting "No Gas" signs, as Venezuelans faced the prospect of empty tanks. The Supreme Court's ruling applies until it makes a final decision on the legality of the 18-day-old oil industry shutdown. But it was not clear when the nation's highest court would make that decision.
The court ordered officials at the state oil firm PDVSA to obey government instructions to guarantee operations. The government, which has already sent troops to control refineries and oil tankers, swiftly welcomed the decision. "The ruling is very clear. They have to return to work. If they don't they face severe sanctions," Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel told Reuters.
Chavez, who was elected in 1998 and survived a coup in April, has dismissed opposition calls for an early vote. The populist president, who says most Venezuelans back his left-wing reforms to ease poverty, says the constitution only allows a referendum on his mandate in August.