Yadira Cruz-Valera
Correspondent for Prensa Latina in Venezuela
After two days of confrontations, arbitrary arrests of deputies and leaders of the revolution, false reports and insecurities, the permanent action of the masses together with the armed forces would achieve the unthinkable: the rescue of President Hugo Chávez (1954-2013) and the institutional reconquest of the country.
Not even Chávez himself believed that this would be possible anytime soon, and he admitted it to MP Ángel Rodríguez.
“As soon as we met after his return, he hugged me and told me I’ll tell you something, I thought it would take longer,” Rodríguez recalled touchedly during an interview with production company Alpargata Mediatica.
The popular mobilization, the loyalty of the military and the actions of the main government leaders put an end to the intentions of the oligarchy, which he prepared together with the Catholic Church, under the auspices of the United States and the complicity of the media, and carried out the coup d’état. The de facto government of Fedecamaras President Pedro Carmona lasted just 47 hours, becoming the shortest span of time in Latin American history.
The city, protagonist in fact
For analysts, historians and witnesses to what happened in Venezuela on April 11, 12 and 13, even for those unrelated to the trial, there is no doubt that the great protagonist was definitely the people .
The political analyst Fernando Rivera, who was then a member of the student movement M23 and attended the events, assured Prensa Latina that the great lesson of those days was the demonstration of the power of the popular masses in the revolutionary processes.
“A mobilized people married to a political project can keep the hope of the majority despite the strength of the minority. This fact confirmed that the best guarantee of victory is unity,” emphasized the researcher.
For his part, Freddy Bernal, then mayor of Caracas, recalls how, from the evening of April 12, millions of Venezuelans began to move and a great wave of people came down from the hills to Miraflores to defend their President.
“The massive mobilization and loyal action of the President’s Honor Guard made it possible to overthrow the coup in such a short time. I wasn’t wrong, I always knew that people would be the only ones who would defend the process,” he stressed.
Likewise – he emphasizes – the Right was aware of this, which is why they tried all the time to, in one way or another, silence the main leaders, some prisoners, others, as in my case, as if we were dead.
“Imagine they killed me three times. To demoralize us, of course,” comments Bernal ironically, recalling the tense April days with a smile.
I knew they were looking for me, he recalls, but I also couldn’t let them think we were dead, so I called RCTV’s VP and told him I saw the news, “that dead man is alive and I want you to know.”
“I walked out there and there were three security cordons of the same people looking for me to kill me, I left the guys who were with me and told them to wait here, I stopped and said: PERMISSION! Nobody stopped me , there I explained, if people saw me on TV, they went there,” he explained. Bernal recalls the moment when he left the TV station and thousands of people were waiting for him outside, “without realizing it, they carried me, let’s go to Miraflores, they shouted, a tall white boy with red hair climbed on his shoulders and carried me like that, carrying me to the palace, with this great human mass behind”.
For the current governor of Táchira, this process marked definitively the historical and political development of the revolution.
By the time we got back to Miraflores and managed to get into the middle of the crowd, we were already certain that there would be no turning back: “I insist that I’ve always believed in people, but I’ve never believed in them Greatness of popular power imagined, not even Chávez.”
Upon arrival, the President hugged me and said to me, “Freddy, I told you people would react, but I didn’t think that would happen in just a few hours. This city is great, so I have no choice but to surrender to it».
April 13, the final victory
On Saturday, April 13, President Chávez’s supporters began protests across the country in the morning to demand the return of the President, who was kidnapped at the military base on La Orchila Island.
The main roads connecting Caracas to the east and west of the country were blocked by thousands of protesters who spontaneously came down from the neighborhoods and hills.
“Chavez, friend, the people are with you” and “Chavez has not resigned, they have kidnapped him” were the slogans that shook the streets and highways, millions of people with one voice demanded the return of the head of state, but only a few channels broadcast what happened, once again the media silence.
Meanwhile, in the city of Maracay, in the state of Aragua, the emblematic 42nd Parachute Infantry Brigade of the Venezuelan Army declares its adherence to the constitutional order and, together with the Presidential Guard of Honor, activates the rescue operation for national dignity.
Videos captured by some media outlets show images of the coup plotters fleeing the rush of the crowds from the executive branch’s headquarters.
After the restoration of the Miraflores Palace facilities, then-Vice President Diosdado Cabello is sworn in as Provisional President of Venezuela under the provisions of Article 234 of Magna Carta.
Finally, in the early hours of April 14, a military commando carried out the rescue of Chávez in Orchila and transferred the President to Miraflores, where the crowd chanted, “He’s back, he’s back, he’s back!”
The Venezuelan people had just accomplished an unprecedented feat that forever marked the historical development of the Bolivarian Revolution and the country’s political future, consolidating the civil-military union that has become the main strength of the Bolivarian process over these 20 years . .
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