Caracas, Venezuela ? Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets demanding the resignation of President Hugo Chavez on Sunday, the 28th day of a nationwide strike that has virtually halted oil exports and evaporated domestic gasoline supplies.

Protesters chanting “Elections now!” and “Chavez out!” converged on an avenue in the capital, Caracas, known as “La Victoria,” or victory. Politicians, businessmen and labor leaders listed their arguments of why Chavez should quit in a scene that has played many times during the strike — without success.

Chavez refuses to step down and insists the government is regaining control of the state oil monopoly, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., where most managers are on strike. He says he will use the protest to downsize the mammoth corporation and has already replaced many strikers.

“I feel so loved that I am never going to leave,” Chavez said during his weekly television show. “It’s a treacherous oligarchy that wants to break the government and break the Venezuelan people.”

The strike has slashed oil exports, forcing the world’s fifth-largest oil supplier to barter with other countries for food and fuel. Venezuela received its first foreign shipments of gasoline Saturday when a Brazilian tanker delivered 525,000 barrels of gasoline, roughly a day’s demand.

At the Caracas rally, Chavez’s foes threatened more civil disobedience, including not paying taxes. The head of the Caracas fire department, Rodolfo Briceno, said the crowd numbered in the hundreds of thousands.

Many protesters wanted to march on the presidential palace, but the last time that happened, 19 people were killed in a clash between Chavez foes and followers. The April 11 violence provoked a coup that ousted Chavez for two days.