2002 Venezuelan coup attempt
The Venezuelan coup d'état of April 11 2002 saw the brief deposition and arrest of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and the installation of a businessman, Fedecámaras president Pedro Carmona, as interim president in a media-military coup d'état on April 12, 2002. This event generated a widespread uprising in support of Chávez that was suppressed by the Metropolitan Police. The Presidential Guard retook the palace and the brief interim government collapsed. Since Chávez was being held in a secret location, the presidency was assumed for some hours by vice president Diosdado Cabello until Chávez was able to return to the presidential palace.
The coup was publicly condemned by Latin American nations (the Rio Group presidents were gathered together in San José, Costa Rica, at the time, and were able to issue a joint communiqué) and international organizations. The United States, which had acknowledged the de facto government, did not condemn the new government until Chávez had been restored to power.
Background
- Main articles: Hugo Chávez, Bolivarian Revolution
Chávez had been elected by a popular mandate in 1998, and introduced a new constitution in 1999, and was re-elected in 2000 under the new constitution. His attempts to reform the state oil company, PDVSA, led to massive resistance from the officials who controlled the company as well as the private media.
At the same time, Chávez made no secret of his populist intentions, which despite his alleged support for freedom and democracy, his measures and actions have been seen by many opponents as threatening, dictatorial, and/or too socialist. Chávez did in fact befriend Fidel Castro, providing him with 160,000 barrels of oil a day and help with his fledgling oil industry. In return, Venezuela got Cuban sports expertise and some 10,000 doctors and other health care workers to jumpstart Chávez's effort (Barrio Adentro) to reduce infant mortality and the occurrence of easily treated diseases.
Events
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.
Violence
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.
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 the victims were from the opposition. Doctors who treated the wounded reported that almost all of them appeared to have been shot from above in a sniper-like fashion. Several television channels claimed that pro-Chavez snipers were shooting from "Puente Llaguno", a bridge that goes over Baratl Avenue from Urdaneta Avenue. The snipers were identified as Rafael Cabrices, Richard Peñalver, Henry Atencio, and Nicolás Rivera, which were captured by the police, but are now in freedom. Irish filmmakers later released footage showing that there were no protesters actually under the brigde. They claim that the pro-Chavez demonstrators were in fact returning fire at unknown snipers.
Carmona sworn in as President
On the day of the events, 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 and Justice, 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, a version of events that was rejected by the (opposition-controlled) media.
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, reverted the name of the nation to República 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.
All these measures cost Carmona much of his support within the military that had rebelled against Chávez; some Venezuelans who were concerned that Chávez had authoritarian tendencies found these moves even more threatening.
Retaking of the Presidency
Carmona's installation as President generated a widespread uprising in support of Chávez that was suppressed by the Metropolitan Police. The Presidential Guard – which according to some sources had been strengthened by Chávez in advance after being warned of the rebellion – retook the palace and the rebellion collapsed. Since Chávez was being held in a secret location, the presidency was assumed for some hours by vice president Diosdado Cabello. Chávez was reinstated after Cabello, having named Chávez his vice president, resigned to allow Chávez to return to office.
Participation in coup attempt
Alleged US involvement
Chávez has repeatedly stated that he believes that the Bush Administration and the CIA orchestrated a 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, saying that he had received intelligence information that the U.S. government had prepared an assassination attempt against him.) It subsequently emerged that Bush administration officials Elliott Abrams, who is said to have supervised the planning of the operation, and Otto Reich (ex-US ambassador to Venezuela) were not only aware that something was about to take place, but had sanctioned it and discussed it in some detail with the coup plotters at the White House, including Carmona, right down to its timing and chances of success, which were deemed to be excellent. On the day Carmona was installed, Reich summoned ambassadors from Latin America and the Caribbean to his office and told them that the removal of Chávez was not a rupture of democratic rule, as he had resigned and was "responsible for his fate". [1] [2]
According to a report in the New York Times, Reich warned Congressional aides that there was more at stake in Venezuela than the success or failure of Chávez. He accused Chávez of meddling with the historically independent state oil company, providing haven to Colombian guerrillas and bailing out Cuba with preferential rates on oil. He also said the administration had received reports that "foreign paramilitary forces" – whom they suspected of being Cubans – were involved in the bloody suppression of anti-Chávez demonstrators. [3]
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
Charges for participation
Under the 1999 Venezuelan constitution, military officers are entitled to a pre-trial hearing before the Plenary Hall of Venezuela's Supreme Tribunal of Justice to rule whether they should be charged with a crime. In such a hearing on August 14, 2002, the Tribunal ruled by an 11-9 margin (with two justices recused) that four high-ranking military officers charged with rebellion should not stand trial, arguing that what took place was not a 'coup' but a "vacuum of power" that had been generated by the announcement of Chávez's resignation made by Gen. Lucas Rincón Romero.[4] On March 12, 2004, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court ruled that the recusals were unconstitutional, the hearing was invalid, and the military officers (by then retired) may stand trial.
On November 18, 2004, leading Venezuelan state prosecutor Danilo Anderson was assassinated, shortly before he was scheduled to bring charges against 400 people who participated in the coup [5].
Documentary
Main article: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
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.
External links
- Timeline of events concerning the attempted coup – Center for Cooperative Research.
- "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" – Excerpt from the documentary in RealVideo format.
- VenezuelaFOIA.info – CIA briefings from before, during, and after the coup, released under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. The 6 April brief states: "Dissident military factions... are stepping up efforts to organize a coup, possibly as early as this month."
- venezuelasolidarity.org.uk – Website distributing the documentary.
- CaracasChronicles: blogger Fernando Toro writes a minute chronicle of the 2002 coup.
Spanish
- La Revolución no será transmitida Downloadable in Spanish.
- "Puente Llaguno, Claves de una masacre," 'Puente Llaguno, Understanding a Massacre' Opposition's response to "La revolución no será transmitida".