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Venezuelan Coup Attempt Of 2002The Venezuelan coup attempt of 2002 saw the brief deposition and arrest of Venezuelan President Hugo Chvez and the installation of a businessman, Fedecmaras president Pedro Carmona, as interim president in a media-military coup d'tat on April 12, 2002. This event generated a widespread uprising in support of Chvez that was suppressed by the Metropolitan Police. The Presidential Guard retook the palace and the coup collapsed. Since Chvez was being held in a secret location, the presidency was assumed by vice president Diosdado Cabello until Chvez was able to return to the presidential palace. On the day of the coup, it was initially announced by General-in-Chief Lucas Rincn Romero that Chvez had resigned; since Rincn remains close to Chvez 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, a version of events that was refuted by the media. The coup was publicly condemned by Latin American nations (the Rio Group presidents were gathered together in San Jos, Costa Rica, at the time, and were able to issue a joint communiqu) and international organizations. The United States, which had acknowledged the de facto government, did not condemn the coup until Chvez 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 Chvez 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 Confederacin 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 Chvez's having forced the unions to hold new elections of the leadership amid fraud allegations. Chvez did not recognize the re-election of the union leadership. Chvez raised the national minimum wage by 20% in an attempt to call off the strike. Fedecmaras 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 Chvez), 17 people were killed and more than a hundred wounded, most of them Chvez 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 Telifs ireann) which happened to be recording a documentary about Chvez 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-Chvez 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 Chvez publicly announced by General in Chief Lucas Rincn Romero. A summary of omissions can be read here: http://www.vcrisis.com/?content=letters/200311161345. 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 Chvez 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 Repblica de Venezuela
- repealed the 49 laws that gave the government greater control of the economy
- reinstated retired General Guaicaipuro Lameda as president of Petrleos de Venezuela.
- fired the Supreme Court judges, National Electoral Court, and the ombudsman.
All these measures cost Carmona much of his support within the middle and upper classes of Venezuela; some Venezuelans who were concerned that Chvez had authoritarian tendencies found these moves even more threatening. Chvez 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.) 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 Venezuala) were not only aware the coup 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 Chvez was not a rupture of democratic rule, as he had resigned and was "responsible for his fate". http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,688071,00.html http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=21723 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 Chvez. He accused Chvez 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"-- which they suspected to be Cubans - were involved in the bloody suppression of anti-Chvez demonstrators. http://www.lossless-audio.com/usa/index0.php?page=582071457.htm Charges for participation Four military officers 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 Chavez' resignation made by Gral. Lucas Rincon Romero. http://www.tsj.gov.ve/decisiones/tplen/agosto/sentencia%20de%20los%20militares.htm On March 12, 2004, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court ruled that the recusals were unconstitutionall, the hearing was invalid, and the military officers (by then retired) may stand trial. 400 others 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 http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=268480. External links Attempted coup in Venezuela
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