Caracas, Venezuela ? Tens of thousands of Venezuelans marched Saturday in support of 9,000 oil workers fired for leading a two-month strike against President Hugo Chavez that battered the economy of this oil-dependent nation.

Tens of thousands of Chavez opponents gathered outside four Caracas office buildings of the state oil monopoly, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., or PDVSA, chanting anti-government slogans.

“Chavez, thief! PDVSA is not yours, it’s everyone’s,” the crowd chanted.

Venezuela’s opposition — business groups, labor unions and leftist and conservative politicians — last week ended a strike in all areas but the crucial oil industry. The strike began Dec. 2 and sought Chavez’s resignation or early elections.

The government claims most of PDVSA’s 40,000 employees have returned to work. Strike leaders deny this, saying thousands refuse to return to their posts until Chavez rehires the fired workers and agrees to an early vote on his rule.

The government gradually is recovering Venezuela’s oil industry, which was the world’s fifth-largest exporter and a major U.S. supplier before the strike, when production was 3 million barrels a day.

Production during the strike fell to a low of 200,000 barrels. The government says production now is at 1.9 million barrels, while dissident executives put the figure at 1.3 million.

But two of the country’s three major refineries remain largely idle and gasoline is scarce nationwide.