begin importing oil to meet its foreign obligations; domestically, gasoline for cars became virtually unobtainable, with many filling stations closed and long queues at others. Many privately-owned businesses closed or went on short time, some out of sympathy for the strike, others because of the fuel shortage and economic paralysis. Large pro- and anti-Chávez marches were held in the first weeks of the strike, which on 9 December the opposition had declared to be of indefinite duration. Before the strike began to dissolve in February 2003, it produced severe economic dislocation. The country's GDP fell 25% during the first trimester of 2003; open unemployment, which was running about 15% before and after the shutdown, reached 20.3% in March 2003; the volume of crude oil produced was 5% less in 2003 than the previous year; and the volume of refined oil products was 17% less. The strike began to dissolve in February 2003, when "small- and medium-sized businesses reopened their doors, admitting that the strike now threatened to turn into a 'suicide watch' that could well bankrupt their businesses for good." The government gradually reestablished control over PDVSA and oil production reached pre-strike levels. In the aftermath of the strike, the government fired 18,000 PDVSA employees, 40% of the company's workforce. 2003–2004: Recall vote In 2003 and 2004 Chávez launched a number of social and economic campaigns which had become possible as for the first time he had a good economy and the oil industry, which produces 80% of Venezuela's exports by value, 25% of its GDP, and 50% of the government's income, was for the first time not under hostile management. In July 2003 he launched "Mission Robinson", billed as a campaign aimed at providing free reading, writing and arithmetic lessons to the more than 1.5 million Venezuelan adults who were illiterate prior to his 1999 election. On 12 October 2003, Chávez initiated "Mission Guaicaipuro", a program billed as protecting the livelihood, religion, land, culture, and rights of Venezuela's indigenous peoples. In late 2003, the Venezuelan president launched "Mission Sucre" (named after independence-war hero General Antonio Jose de Sucre), which is primarily a scholarship program for higher education. As of about 2005, it was giving out about 100,000 need-based grants each year to bright students who would have been financially barred from university education in the past. In November 2003, Chávez announced "Mission Ribas", with the promise of providing remedial