By Hector Bernardo
April 11 marks the 20th anniversary of the 2002 coup that removed President Hugo Chávez Frías from the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela for 48 hours. In a heroic act and in record time, the people and the Bolivarian armed forces rescued the Venezuelan leader and restored democracy to that country. A fact that many compare to October 17, 1945 in Argentina, when people took to the streets to force the de facto government to release Juan Domingo Perón. Both, founding processes of two of the largest popular movements in the region, Peronism and Chavismo.
To recall what this coup against Chávez and the ensuing popular uprising that brought him back to power were like and what they meant, Contexto spoke to Stella Calloni, one of the journalists who knew the Venezuelan leader best. Between 1994 and 2013, Calloni interviewed Commander Hugo Chávez eleven times: after leaving prison, after leading a popular uprising, as a candidate, as president and even spoke to the Venezuelan leader on the 11th, opposite the version already presented in the circulating in the hegemonic media, Chávez assured him: “I have not resigned. What is happening here is a coup.”
How did Hugo Chávez become this great leader?
It must be remembered that Chávez was a leader who came onto the public stage in 1992 with a civil-military insurgency against the neoliberal model of then-President Carlos Andrés Pérez. An uprising that the media wanted to portray as an attempted coup.
This uprising, in turn, was the product of the popular uprising of 1989 that became known as “El Caracazo” and was the first popular uprising against the neoliberal model in Latin America. On this occasion, the government of Carlos Andrés Pérez ordered a repression and a massacre ensued that outraged the young soldiers, including Chávez.
For this reason, in 1992, this uprising took place, which was crushed and Chávez went to prison for his leadership, but he became the great reference for all the oppressed in Venezuela and after being released from prison, he won the 1998 elections with an overwhelming majority .
When Chávez assumes the presidency, the re-establishment of Venezuela will begin, and for this a process of creating a new constitution will be carried out.
The policies promoted by Chávez reversed the totally unjust model. Venezuela was a very rich country, but before Chavez, this wealth generated from the sale of oil was in very few hands and the majority of Venezuelans lived in poverty. The oligarchy, an ally of the United States, grew rich and the majority of the population lived in misery. Chávez reversed that, and for that reason he was always in the sights of the right, who immediately started attacking him.
How was the coup and the reaction of the population?
It was in this context that he described that the April 11, 2002 coup d’état took place, which was a media military coup. This is reflected very well in the documentary The Revolution Will Not Be Broadcast, which shows the role of the media and the United States in this coup.
On the same day, all the information that came in was very biased and the hegemonic media circulated the version that Chávez had resigned. The correspondents who were in Caracas did not know what was happening. After insisting in various ways, I managed to communicate with Miraflores Palace. [la Casa de Gobierno de Venezuela] and I spoke very briefly to President Chávez, who said to me: «Stella, I have not resigned. This is a coup d’état”, and from La Jornada de México we were the first to denounce that it was a coup d’état.
The same media that openly lie about what is happening in Ukraine today, the same media that openly lied about what happened in Libya and other countries, are the ones that openly lied then about what happened in Venezuela, and these of us wanted to believe that Chávez had resigned and there was no coup.
When the coup was carried out, Chávez was taken to the La Orchila island base and Pedro Carmona was sworn in as President, who was a resident of the Fedecamaras bosses, a representative of the Venezuelan oligarchy who championed the interests of the Venezuelan oligarchy The United states.
It was amazing, extraordinary. In the slums around Caracas, people began to rise up, shouting with megaphones and holding the new Bolivarian Constitution, to come out to defend democracy and President Chávez.
It was a social explosion comparable to that of October 17 in Argentina. Millions of poor people took to the streets of Caracas and surrounded the Miraflores Palace. At that moment, the democratic military loyal to Chávez joined the popular rebellion, regained control of the government, and a squad of paratroopers went to the island where Chávez was being held and rescued him. On April 11, a US-imposed coup was defeated for the first time in 48 hours.
Did this fact mark a before and after in Venezuela’s history?
Not only from Venezuela, but from all over Latin America. One thing Chávez taught us was that he came out stronger with every punch, with every aggression. After that coup came the oil strike, and then countless attacks followed, and Chávez came out stronger and stronger.
After the reversal of the 2002 coup and with the phenomenal alliance that took place between Chávez, Néstor Kirchner and Lula da Silva came the “No to the FTAA”, the regional alliance was consolidated, MERCOSUR was reformulated, OPEC was consolidated, UNASUR was founded, ALBA-TCP was created, CELAC was created. TeleSUR was created, which is a fundamental tool for the communication battle across the region. The Venezuelan government implemented an enormous number of measures that greatly favored the people. It was an extraordinary stage. For this reason, twenty years after this historic event, it was a milestone for Chávez, for the Venezuelan people and for all of Latin America.
Taken from context