One-day general strike brings warning from Chavez that nobody will halt his revolution

Venezuela ground to a near-standstill yesterday when millions stayed at home in protest at President Hugo Chavez's three-year-old leftist-populist "revolution".

A 12-hour general strike, organised in response to new laws that business leaders call a frontal attack on the concept of private property, drew support across the social spectrum of a people increasingly frustrated by the President's authoritarian style. Shops, schools and businesses were shut and the streets of Caracas, normally among Latin America's most bustling cities, were deserted.

President Chavez, a former paratroop commander and close ally of Cuba's Fidel Castro, led a failed coup in 1992. In 1998, elected with a large majority, he started dismantling the discredited, two-party system and its corrupt institutions.

But after the political ferment of the first two years was over, the incompetence of President Chavez became apparent, pinpointed by the plummeting price of crude oil, Venezuela's main export, and his inability to resolve the country's deep-rooted unemployment and violent crime. On paper, his presidency still has more than five years to run, but few analysts expect him to complete his term.

Yesterday Mr Chavez angrily condemned the "immoral" and "anarchic" work stoppage, accusing organisers of conspiring to destabilise the country. "The strike, to me, doesn't bother me at all. Absolutely not at all," Mr Chavez said. "Nobody, and nothing, will stop this revolution."

F-16 fighter-bombers flew over Caracas in what was plainly intended as a show of force.

During the first year of his government, Mr Chavez re-wrote the constitution. He extended the presidential term from five to six years, and abolished the re-election ban. Then he stood for what he called "re-legitimisation" under the new constitution, and had the supreme court rule that his term had not actually started until January this year.

Ominously, the President has threatened to defend his regime with military force and emergency laws. "The revolution is armed," he warned opponents. "That is not a metaphorical expression."

One opponent, the architect Nedo Paniz, said: "Chavez has achieved the miracle of bringing together absolutely irreconcilable elements of Venezuelan society. We're heading for an enormous train wreck. There's no doubt about it."