Caracas (AFP) -- The Venezuelan Military High Command maintains its support for President Hugo Chavez despite calls from the opposition to take part in an indefinite general strike declared Wednesday night [10 April], and despite the individual acts of insubordination of two generals on that same day, one of them in command of no troops. Analyst Luis Vicente Leon, head of the influential polling firm Datanalisis, told AFP on Wednesday that the "president continues to control power," and that "the military sector, despite the emergence of another dissident general, shows no sign of contravening the president's authority: Chavez still controls the troop posts." Army Brigadier General Nestor Gonzalez, who commands no troops, appeared at a press conference on Wednesday and made pronouncements against the chief of state, joining five other dissident officers on active duty who rebelled in February. He was followed by Division General Rafael Damiani, from the militarized National Guard (GN), who condemned the fact that President Chavez ordered troops to use force in putting down a demonstration in Caracas in support of the striking managers of the state-owned PDVSA [Venezuelan Petroleum, Inc.]. However, the high military commands supported the government during the emergency caused by the strike staged by the trade union and business association opposition, a strike that was extended indefinitely on Wednesday night, according to Carlos Ortega, president of the Venezuelan Workers Confederation (CTV), the largest labor confederation in the country. On Tuesday, the inspector general of the Armed Forces, General Lucas Rincon, accompanied Civil Defense Minister Jose Vicente Rangel and Energy Minister Alvaro Silva Calderon in a tour of the strategic oil facilities of the state-owned PDVSA, whose managers are completing their seventh day of the strike that paralyzed refining operations and shipments of fuel. Following their tour, Rincon supported the official report by stating that "the supply of oil to the main national and international markets (this country's main source of foreign exchange) is normal and meets existing agreements." Speaking in his turn, Army Commander Efrain Vasquez and General Francisco Belisario Landis, commanding officer of the GN, affirmed that their forces are participating in the Armed Forces' plans of alert and denied that there is any militarization of the facilities of the state-owned Venezuelan Petroleum (PDVSA). Luis Alberto Camacho, deputy minister of citizen security, reported that 22,000 members of the National Guard, one of the components of the Armed Forces, have been deployed throughout the country in order to safeguard individuals and property during the general strike. At the same time, security at oil facilities at bases of operations and in administrative areas of Caracas has been stepped up, it was reported. Opponents of the president who assembled this Wednesday in one of the offices of the state-owned Venezuelan Petroleum (PDVSA), joining the strike waged by its executives since Thursday [4 April], are carrying signs appealing for support for the men in uniform. "Soldiers, where are you?"" and "Soldier, support us," read some of the posters carried by the strike sympathizers. General Gonzalez, who reviewed the Venezuelan-Colombian border conflict, accused Chavez of lying when he stated that the Colombian guerrillas are not entering Venezuelan territory and contradicted him: They are indeed entering and "have been fought militarily" by troops from this country. "With the guerrillas in particular, we supply the dead, while you enjoy politics," Gonzalez said, the first of the military officials to rebel on Wednesday. The second rebel, GN Div Gen Damiani, accused Chavez of having "ordered the National Guard to use force for the purpose of removing individuals positioned" in front of one of the PDVSA buildings in Chuao in this capital. Damiani, an official on active duty, said he had revealed the information in order to try to impede "this action resulting from a presidential folly that will sully the name of the Armed Forces and especially the National Guard." However, Datanalisis analyst Leon indicated that even though Chavez still controls the military forces at the present time, this fact "constitutes no permanent life insurance," since the current indefinite general strike called by the opposition CTV and the FEDECAMARAS [Venezuelan Federation of Associations and Chambers of Commerce and Industry] leadership is only one battle in a war that he predicts will be a long one. "The conflict will intensify in time. The national strike is an important battle in the long-range war whose final result is not shaping up as a romance," he said. The analyst observed that "Venezuela is now radicalized between an inept, abusive and authoritarian government and a neutralized, heterogeneous, impatient and politically immature opposition." He further noted that the "possibilities of negotiation between these two groups are becoming nonexistent. They have an existential conflict: Chavez wants to take over the institutions, and they want to oust him from power." Leon added that the opposition has viewed the PDVSA conflict as "the perfect lifesaver for reviving civilian social pressure for Chavez' ouster from power, this following a cooling" of such pressure in recent days. The analyst noted that although there is growing unrest in the streets, the opposition's hope of the immediate exit of the chief of state "looks presumptuous." Leon visualizes two scenarios: In the first, tension will increase in the days ahead, but not destabilize the government, then dwindle toward the end of the week and generate frustration among the opposition over not achieving its objective, a factor that would in turn strengthen Chavez. The second, "not to be dismissed," he said, is that Chavez will remain strong in his position vis-a-vis his opponents and declare a state of emergency with the suspension of guarantees, the people would declare themselves in a state of civil disobedience, and uncontrolled violence would be unleashed. "At this point, the military would have to intervene, either pressuring both sides into a real agreement or opting for an unconstitutional way out (a coup)," he predicted. The alternative of a state of emergency was explicitly ruled out this Wednesday by Interior Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacin.