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Venezuelan coup attempt of 2002
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, 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 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 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 Chávez publicly announced by General in Chief Lucas Rincón Romero. A summary of omissions can be read here: [2]. While briefly in power, Carmona announced several decrees. He:
All these measures cost Carmona much of his support within the middle and upper classes of Venezuela; some Venezuelans who were concerned that Chávez had authoritarian tendencies found these moves even more threatening. 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.) 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 Chávez was not a rupture of democratic rule, as he had resigned and was "responsible for his fate". [3] [4] 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"-- which they suspected to be Cubans -— were involved in the bloody suppression of anti-Chávez demonstrators. [5]
Charges for participationFour military officersUnder 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. [6] 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 othersOn 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 [7]. External links
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