Some 300,000 People Marked Ven Coup Anniversary in Caracas

[magbana]

Massive Show Of Support For Venezuelan President Chavez On Coup Anniversary

April 15th 2008, by Kiraz Janicke - Venezuelanalysis.com

Caracas, April 14, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Under the banner, "Never again will the people be betrayed," some three hundred thousand people rallied outside the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas on Sunday in a massive show of support for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The rally was held to celebrate the anniversary of the popular uprising that defeated a US-backed opposition coup from April 11-13 in 2002, and restored the democratically elected Chavez to power.

On April 11, 2002, the shooting of nineteen people by opposition snipers and renegade police officers was used as a pretext to spark a military revolt by rightwing generals who kidnapped Chavez and tried to force him to resign. Pedro Carmona, head of the Chamber of Commerce (FEDECAMARAS) declared himself interim President issued a decree dissolving Venezuela's democratic institutions including the Supreme Court, the Constitution, and the National Assembly and fired the Ombudsman and the Attorney General.

Hundreds of Chavez supporters were rounded up during the coup and imprisoned and state and community media outlets were shut down, while opposition aligned private media imposed a blackout on events. The United States was one of few countries to grant diplomatic recognition to the illegal government, claiming "a democratic transition" had taken place.

However, the coup collapsed after only 47 hours when masses of poor Venezuelans came out onto the streets in protest and loyal sections of the armed forces retook the presidential palace and the Fuerte Tiuna military base in Caracas.

In a speech at the rally Chavez denounced the coup government as "tyrannical, murderous, bourgeois, despotic, and subordinated to the White House," and called on all Venezuelans to reflect on the importance of the popular victory of April 13, 2002.

"We still have not calibrated in all its magnitude, the significance of what happened on this day six years ago, and above all, the consequences, the impact," he said.

"The great Venezuelan victory of April 2002 contributed in a powerful manner to changing the course of history," he argued pointing to the continental revolt against neo-liberalism and US domination across Latin America spearheaded by the Bolivarian revolution, as the radical process of social and political change in occurring in Venezuela is known.

This revolt is reflected in the election of left governments, in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Uruguay he said.

The election of presidents Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and Álvaro Colón in Guatemala showed that the "the geopolitical map of Central America is also beginning to change," Chavez argued.

In reference to the defeat of his proposed constitutional reforms in December last year aimed at "opening the path to socialism," Chavez reaffirmed the socialist direction of the revolution.

"The December 2 defeat was a party for the Latin American oligarchy, a party for North American imperialism and was a minute of silence for the peoples of our America," he said. "What happened in December must never occur again."

"We are playing with the future of Venezuela and Latin America, we don't have the right to fail."

"It is a giant challenge. It is important that we strengthen our consciousness. It is necessary that we re-empower our consciousness, our will, the quality of our government, that every day we struggle without rest for those victories, that every day, every minute we are constructing the path towards victory, because this is the only path," he said.

Chavez also pointed to the recent nationalization of the Argentine-controlled SIDOR steel plant after a long workers' struggle as an advance and called on workers to assume a protagonistic role in the revolution. "The role of the working class is fundamental to a socialist revolution," he stressed.

However the "battle of April 11 still has not ended" Chavez said, "the opposition sectors and oligarchs of Venezuela" who carried out the coup "are dying to return, but we are here every day to say to them that they will never come back."

A key challenge for the revolution in 2008 is to win the regional elections for governors and mayors and strengthen popular organization through communal councils he said.

"In order to do this we must increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the government, the unity of the people, defeat divisionism and infantilism, personalism and egoism that penetrates and threatens our process."

Affirming his commitment to struggle against US imperialism, the popular president, who, according to the results of a survey by the Venezuelan Institute of Data Analysis published on April 4 has an approval rating of 65%, said he would "never betray" the people of Venezuela.

"Every breath I have left, every minute and every second, will be dedicated to the battle in defense of the Bolivarian socialist revolution," he declared.

The rally was the culmination of a series of events over the "Week of the Brave People" including a special congressional session at the Llaguno Bridge - the epicenter of the April 11 shootings by opposition snipers and police – to commemorate the victims of the coup, and a ceremony on April 12 in honor of the loyal sections of the military who defended the democratically elected government.

In addition, numerous solidarity events, including rallies, film screenings, and forums were organized by Venezuelan diplomatic missions and solidarity groups in more than 100 countries around the world, including cities across the United States, Canada, UK, Australia, Spain, Germany, Norway, China, the Philippines, Belorussia, Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, Chile, Poland and many others.

A rival demonstration called by opposition sectors on April 11 and billed on Internet networking site Facebook as a "global march against Chavez," attracted about 50 opposition sympathizers across town in the wealthy eastern suburbs of Caracas, as well as smaller rallies in some US cities, Vancouver and Buenos Aires. The opposition demonstration that had been planned at the Venezuelan consulate in New York was canceled, though.

For more images of the demonstration in support of the Bolivarian Revolution, see: http://www.radiomundial.com.ve/yvke/noticia.php?4955

Source URL: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/
Printed: April 15th 2008
License: Published under a Creative Commons license (by-nc-nd). See creativecommons.org for more information.

[magbana]

1. Make sure you check out the GREAT PICS at Radio Mundial site

Incredible!! My favorite is the presidential guard on the roof of Miraflores

http://www.radiomundial.com.ve/yvke/noticia.php?4955

[Peace Patriot]

4. Great photos! My favorite sign: "Christ was the first revolutionary!"

"Cristo Primer Revolucionario!"

(I presume that's what it says. Am I right? But I don't know what the rest of it means--I can pick out the words (equality and community (or communism)??? - alpha and omega - I get the gist, but these may be idiomatic expressions that I'm not getting the specific meaning of.)

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What is that hand-written document that is hung on the front of Chavez's podium? Can anybody translate it?

[Judi Lynn]

2. Wonderful, wonderful photos. I've packed them away in my files. Looked up the translation

of signs I saw in the crowd, they were so positive, so determined!

Loved this one:

Nunca mas será traicionada la volundad del pueblo

I looked it up in google translation and it said it means:

Never more will be betrayed the will of the people

Didn't know the building with the soldiers standing on top is Miraflores. That is especially dynamic, isn't it?

Obviously we're not going to be seeing these anywhere in our own corporate media. They are so confirming.

Also loved:

Cada 11 tiene su 13.

People here would need to know the coup was implemented by the U.S. supported oligarchy on the 11th, and on the 13th, the people finally got the information they needed which the Venezuela media had been blocking, learned Chavez had NOT resigned, and rallied with such strength the US supported coup people who had dissolved the Constitution, the National Assembly, the Supreme Court, an had sent police out to round up and imprison Chavez' cabinet members, these thieves and liars were forced to release the hostage after he was kidnapped at gunpoint.

"Each 11th has its 13th!"

Beautiful.

Thanks for taking the time to post these photos. It's a bonafide NEWS EVENT we will never hear from our own "news" people.

[magbana]

5. I am sure it is the presidential guard (check out their red scarves) and I'm

pretty sure they are on top of Miraflores because it was from there that they signalled to the crowd in 2002 that they were re-taking the Palace. Remember from the movie they were giving clenched fists to the crowd and thumb's up?

[Peace Patriot]

3. "We still have not calibrated in all its magnitude, the significance of what happened on this day"

"We still have not calibrated in all its magnitude, the significance of what happened on this day six years ago, and above all, the consequences, the impact." --Chavez

"'The great Venezuelan victory of April 2002 contributed in a powerful manner to changing the course of history,' he argued pointing to the continental revolt against neo-liberalism and US domination across Latin America spearheaded by the Bolivarian revolution...."

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The truth of this struck me one day, not long ago, in thinking about events in South America. That amazing, peaceful peoples' revolt against a violent rightwing military coup in Venezuela actually REVERSED the course of history. It was a mighty backlash against the past, as well as the beginning of a tidal wave of change.

It really is the most important event in South American history since the revolution against Spain led by Simon Bolivar nearly two centuries ago. And, like our own revolution, April 11/Venezuela was "the shot heard round the world"--an event that electrified existing power regimes and changed everything. In our case, now the people would be the "sovereign power," as opposed to monarchs. And in Venezuela's case, on April 11--or, as the signs remind us, on April 13--the right of the people of South America as the "sovereign power" in their own lands was finally established. No more "banana republics." No more Chiles. No more U.S.-instigated destruction of Latin American democracies and installation of fascist regimes and heinous dictators. No more looting and plundering and enslavement. The peaceful democracy movement that had been on the rise for some time, throughout South America, was given hope and heart by this remarkable Venezuelan defense of their Constitution and their elected government.

And it is extraordinary that the revolt against the coup was peacefully done, by the sheer number of people who filled the streets around Miraflores Palace. Also remarkable, that the corporate news monopolies put an "Iron Curtain" over the news, cooperating with the coup (and, in the case of RCTV, sponsoring the coup), and it didn't work--word got around anyway that Chavez had not resigned. It was a triumph of word-of-mouth communication overcoming a fascist lock on the media. The title of the Irish filmmakers' documentary about these events--"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"--works both ways: The fascist putsch was not to be televised; nor the peoples' revolt against it, and their re-establishment of law and order. The corporate news monopolies--by their utter corruption as journalists--made themselves irrelevant.

Both things are just amazing--considering the past history in South America: the peaceful re-establishment of Constitutional government, and the victory of people-to-people communication over the multi-billion dollar propaganda machine of the corporate rulers.

Chavez nails it. This is the event that changed everything--in Venezuela, in the region and in U.S.-Latin American relations. It was simply unprecedented for a U.S.-backed fascist coup to fail, and to fail in this way: massive peaceful resistance.

I also agree with him that it has deep connections to the leftist sweep of the continent--in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Uruguay--and the coming sweep of Central America, starting with the least likely elections of leftists, in Nicaragua and in Guatemala. In Nicaragua, the very man getting elected president whom the Reaganites violently overthrew, and whom the Bushites hate--Daniel Ortega. And troubled Guatemala electing its first progressive government, ever, on a platform of social justice against a rightwing 'police state' opponent. Guatemala--where the Reaganites slaughtered 200,000 Mayan indians in the 1980s, on suspicion of their being leftists. Mexico likely elected a leftist, as well--in an election that is widely believed to have been stolen by the Bushite right (--the Bushites want to privatize Mexican oil, and, of course, don't want a peaceful, leftist, democratic revolution on the U.S. border--the people of the U.S. might get ideas).

Paraguay will be next--with the election of the beloved "bishop of the poor," Fernando Lugo, this coming weekend (barring violent Bush-CIA interference). Lugo is ahead in the polls, and it is certainly time for Paraguay to join the revolution and reap its benefits in clean government, social justice and regional integration. Paraguay is important to Monsanto and other agrofuel monoculture corporations (soy), and is important both to Bush Cartel drug/weapons trafficking and to U.S.-Rumsfeld strategic military planning against the Andes democracies--where the oil is--especially Venezuela and Ecuador--and their ally, Bolivia, which borders Paraguay. Bolivia's eastern provinces bordering Paraguay are a hotbed of fascist, white supremicist activity against Evo Morales' central government. Morales is the first indigenous president of Bolivia (a largely indigenous country), and the eastern landowners want to split off their provinces and take the gas and oil reserves with them. The Bush Cartel's rumored purchase of a 100,000 acre enclave, near the U.S. air based in Paraguay, is in close proximity to these secessionary provinces in Bolivia. I expect major trouble there this year--as the Bushites try to re-gain some strategic ground in South America, for their last desperate "surge" for oil.

The final two South American dinosaurs are Peru, run by corrupt "free tradists," and Colombia, where thousands of union leaders and other leftists have been murdered by death squads with close ties to the government--a government on whom the Bushites have larded $5.5 BILLION of our tax dollars in military aid. Peru will likely go leftist in the next election cycle (2009? 2010? not sure). And, at that point, Colombia will be completely isolated--and very probably some kind of concerted continental effort will impose peace on Colombia (ending its 40+ year civil war and slaughter of leftists) and also disengaging it from the corrupt, failed, murderous, pesticide-spraying U.S. "war on drugs."

The Colombian "free trade" deal--that Donald Rumsfeld* and Mark Penn (i.e., Hillary Clinton) so desired--has been 'postponed' by our so-called Democratic Congress, but it will likely make a comeback after November, engineered by the corporate Democrats. Alvaro Uribe (Bush pal, former Medellin Cartel, 'president' of Colombia) will likely have to go, in order for the U.S. to gain this wedge into the South American economy (and, like Israel, I think Uribe's going to find out just how treacherous the Bush Cartel is). Rumsfeld & pals have so far failed to stir up a war--chaos, destabilization, bloodshed--not for lack of trying. And I don't think they're done. I think we're going to see serious trouble in Bolivia before it's over. But they will fail, in the end--for the reason laid out by Chavez in this 4/11 speech. South America is now the democratic bastion of the hemisphere. Democracies are difficult to overturn if they stick together--which they seem to be doing in South America. It is very unlike the Middle East, where undemocratic factions are at war with each other over the oil--and thus have been easily manipulated, bullied and slaughtered by the Bush Junta. Chavez himself and his government--and the people of Venezuela--have set the example: share the oil; control it democratically and use it as a bootstrap, for the poor and for whole countries. Use it to get neighbor countries out of ruinous, U.S.-dominated World Bank/IMF debt; use it for national and regional development; use it for education and medical care, and land reform. Be generous. Don't fight about it. Use it for the common good.

And this strong potential for successful democratic resistance against U.S. interference and domination, that now exists in South America (and is spreading to Central America), has its origins on that day, April 11, 2002, when the courageous Venezuelan poor came out of their hovels, and braved rightwing death squads, guns, tanks, soldiers and police, and said "No!" to another U.S.-backed coup.

I found it interesting that the first words on Venezuelans' lips--in "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"--were, "What about our Constitution?!". Yeah, they wanted their elected president back, but that was not their first concern. This was not about one man--and it never has been. It is about democracy and the rule of law, as opposed to the lawless corporate predators that have exploited and bullied Latin America for decades, and that now entirely control the U.S. government. The issue is the sovereignty of the people, here and there, in relation to these global corporate predators (Exxon Mobil, Monsanto, et al). And there, in South America, over those three days--April 11-13--the people won. And everything changed.

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*"The Smart Way to Beat Tyrants Like Chávez," by Donald Rumsfeld, 12/1/07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/30/AR2007113001800.html