2002 Attempted coup in Venezuela Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez was briefly deposed and arrested in a media-military coup d'état on April 12, 2002, which installed a businessman, Fedecámaras president Pedro Carmona, as interim president. This event generated a widespread uprising in support of Chávez that was repressed by the Metropolitan Police. The Presidential Guard retook the palace and the coup collapsed. Since Chávez was being held in a secret location, the presidency was assumed by vice president Diosdado Cabello until Chávez returned to the presidential palace.
On the day of the coup, it was initially announced by General-in-Chief Lucas Rincón Romero that Chávez had resigned; since Rincón remains close to Chávez and is now, in fact, the Secretary of Domestic Affairs, many Venezuelans argue that the resignation was real and that there was no coup. On the other hand, most of the rest of government representatives were trying to inform the country that the president had been kidnapped, which was resisted by the media.
The coup was publicly condemned by Latin American nations and international organizations. The United States, which had acknowledged the de facto government, did not condemn the coup until Chávez had been restored to power. U.S. government statements
An earlier protest by the military was made by two men, Air Force Colonel Pedro Vicente Soto and National Guard Captain Pedro Flores Rivero, who held a small rally to accuse the government of being non-democratic. The new Venezuelan Constitution (approved in 1999 during the first Chávez administration) allows military personnel to carry out such political protests. They were sent home in uniform and placed under investigation by a joint civilian and military board.
On April 9, 2002, Venezuela's largest union federation, the Confederación de Trabajadores de Venezuela (CTV), led by Carlos Ortega Carvajal (who was not present at Pedro Carmona's "inauguration" but greeted him the next morning at the Palace), called for a two-day general strike.
This may have been in response to Chávez's having forced the unions to hold new elections of the leadership amid fraud allegations. Chávez did not recognize the re-election of the union leadership. Chávez raised the national minimum wage by 20% in an attempt to call off the strike. Fedecámaras joined the strike and called on all of its affiliated businesses to close for 48 hours.
An estimated million people marched to the headquarters of Venezuela's oil company, PDVSA, in defense of its fired management. The organizers decided to re-route the march to Miraflores, the presidential palace, so as to confront pro-government demonstrators.
After violence erupted between demonstrators, the metropolitan police (controlled by the opposition) and national guard (controlled by Chávez), 17 people were killed and more than a hundred wounded, most of them Chávez supporters. Doctors who treated the wounded reported that almost all of them appeared to have been shot from above in a sniper-like fashion.
A television crew from Ireland (Radio Telifís Éireann) which happened to be recording a documentary about Chávez at the time (and which after the short coup was based in the presidential palace with members of both rival governments and their supporters) recorded images of the events that contradicted explanations given by anti-Chávez campaigners, by the opposition-controlled elements of the media, by the US State Department, and by President George W. Bush's official spokesman. The television crew released a documentary film called "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" detailing the events of the coup. However the film omits important events, such as the resignation of Chavez publicly announced by General in Chief Lucas Rincon Romero. A summary of ommissions can be read here: [1].
While briefly in power, Carmona announced several decrees. He:
- dissolved the National Assembly, promising elections by December
- pledged presidential elections within one year
- declared void the 1999 Constitution introduced under Chávez and approved by popular vote in a national referendum
- promised a return to the pre-1999 bicameral parliamentary system
- effective immediately, change the name of the nation to Republica de Venezuela
- repealed the 49 laws that gave the government greater control of the economy
- reinstated retired General Guaicaipuro Lameda as president of Petróleos de Venezuela.
- fired the Supreme Court judges, National Electoral Court, and the ombudsman.
Chávez has repeatedly stated that he believes that the Bush Administration and the CIA orchestrated the coup, and in an interview with Al Jazeera he accused the Israeli Mossad of complicity as well. In September 2003 he refused to travel to the United States to address the United Nations because he received intelligence information that the U.S. government had prepared an assassination attempt against him.
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