The Remarkable Fall and Rise of Hugo Chávez
Rosen, Fred & Ellner, Steve
Coup, Chaos or Misunderstanding? President Hugo Chivez speaks to the nation during a press conference on April 15, the day after his return to the presidency. In the late afternoon of Thursday...
...It was shortly after midnight that Army Commander Lucas Rinc6n announced that Chivez had resigned...
...Two weeks after the four dramatic days of coup and countercoup, Venezuela's legislature, the National Assembly, established a Special Political Commission to look into what actually happened...
...But for all its free market rhetoric, neoliberalism is based on discipline and exclusion, and the hard politicians of the right understand this...
...Shortly thereafter, a former socialist presidential candidate turned vehemently anti-leftist, Am6rico Martin, proposed that Miquilena preside over a "governing junta" in which broad sectors of the population would be repre14...
...10, 13...
...The weapons served to intimidate key people during the crucial days of April, including Army Commander Lucas Rinc6n, who, for a time, went into hiding...
...The Chdvez movement has begun to develop an organizational base, albeit rudimentary, in the form of the "Bolivarian Circles," which are mostly pro-ChAvez neighborhood committees engaged in community projects...
...He has done this by assuring the opposition that its propositions will be taken seriously...
...By the time it reached march: Who PDVSA, the anti-Chivez Who fired...
...Chavez's immediate ouster may reflect the opposition's perception that, as a result of the failed coup, time is now on his side...
...See for example "EEUU expres6 desacuerdo con political de Chavez,"El Universal, February 6, 2002, front page, online...
...1 1 The critical comments of Tenet and Powell, along with Ambassador Hrinak's frequent remarks lamenting Chivez's ambiguous role in the U.S.-led war against terrorism, were not perceived in Venezuela as personal opinions...
...how the attempt to remove him from power succeeded and then failed so spectacularly...
...Some of those people fired into the crowd and about 20 people, some from each side, were killed...
...The hard-line rightists rejected Chivez's apparent request to be allowed to travel to a foreign country, possibly Cuba...
...Hearings of the Special Political Commission of the National Assembly...
...In the aftermath of the coup, the Ministry of the Interior ordered an inspection of P6rez Recao's house in the outskirts of Caracas, which turned out to be a veritable arsenal...
...leadership by the governments of Latin America and the Caribbean...
...Rapid Fire Coup Caught Chavez Foes Off Guard" Los Angeles Times, April 22, 2002, p. 1. 11...
...The Commission, presided over by an AD Assembly member named Edgar Zambrano, has unlimited power to call witnesses, and, as we write, remains in permanent session...
...The populist/labor wing of the opposition went unrepresented...
...Indeed, the CTV actually helped draft the neoliberal-inspired social reforms enacted by the Caldera government...
...4 Some nominees for the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation have insisted that these deaths, which the private media has blacked out while focusing on those of April 11, be included in the probe...
...Broadcast on Globovisi6n Channel, May 10, 2002...
...See, for example, "U.S...
...There is nothing to indicate that Carmona was either stepping in to "fill a vacuum," or that he was an innocent tool of certain personalist, militarist designs...
...7 The Poleos are especially keen on exonerating CTV's president Carlos Ortega...
...A crowd was huge, and, by all reports, festive...
...The opposition clearly felt it had the green light from Washington to remove ChAvez from power...
...This flexibility, which contrasts with the hard line that characterized his government throughout 2001, goes beyond mere words.16 In May, for instance, Chavez acceded to a major demand formulated by the opposition prior to the coup by replacing the ministers of Finance, Planning and Production...
...intelligence group claimed that at the time of the coup, Miquilena controlled 23 congressional votes among Chavez's supposed followers...
...1363, April 25-May 6, 2002, p. 14...
...Jesuit priest Jos6 Many Venezu4 Virtuoso, a prominent Church critic, commented "if anyone middle: They i has to ask for forgiveness for Chavez as the what happened it is the Catholic Church...
...Their refusal conformed to a well orchestrated campaign throughout Venezuela that accused Chdvez of the deaths on April 11, calling him an "assassin," and demanding he be tried...
...Colombia...
...The Los Angeles Times, for example, in its otherwise careful coverage of the events, echoes the opposition posi- tion: "For months they [the opposition] had worked to drive him [ChAvez] from office, but a surprising series of events- including the shooting of anti-Chavez protesters-had brought the president down so quickly that few of the move- ment's leaders had a firm idea of what should happen next...
...media, for example, that then-U.S...
...Its mandate is the nearly impossible task of preparing a single report to be presented to the plenary of the National Assembly...
...4. During the nationally televised hearings of the Special Political Commission headed by Edgar Zambrano, videos were shown in which police are seen firing on crowds of Chavistas...
...When his name was called to sign the decree eliminating the Assembly, it was announced that he had left to make a phone call...
...they were perceived as coordinated signals...
...Available at http://Aww.nacla.org/art display.php?art=2024 17...
...8. Rafael Poleo, interviewed by Pedro Penzini Fluery, Uni6n Radio, April 17, 2002...
...According to this interpretation, the anti-Chav- istas were intent on overthrowing the government from the outset, but while one part of the coalition was caught off guard by events, the other part had a hidden agenda and moved decisively to achieve it...
...As the anti-Chdvez march approached the President's fervent defenders, it became evident that some people were armed...
...It is, in fact, well known that a less disruptive alternative plan to force Chdvez out of power by "institutional" means had been amply discussed in ad-hoc committees that had organized anti-Chivez protests over the previous six months...
...At this point it seems to be in nobody's interest to defend the third version because it is in nobody's interest-neither the government's nor the opposi- tion's-to point out that the anti-Chivez movement is plagued by a deep political and ideological divide...
...Subsequently, AD concentrated all its efforts on defeating Chavez in the presidential elections of 1998, thus further distancing the party from anti-neoliberalism...
...n; im n ron,' Carmona is now living in *I I lI y J VI I e violence...
...One after another, perhaps in response to the impressive outpouring of the poor, perhaps in fear of a right-wing dictatorship, key military garrisons changed sides...
...Chdvez was removed from office...
...The Remarkable Fall and Rise of Hugo Chivez 1. "Si el Presidente no viene podemos ir a Miraflores," TalCual (Caracas, online), May 21, 2002...
...Since Chdvez's return to power, these leaders have virtually without exception attempted to wash their hands of responsibility...
...On Thursday, the third day of the strike, the march to the oil company's headquarters was widely publicized...
...May 1 in Caracas...
...286, April 19- 26, pp...
...Carmona's subservience is attributed to his status as an executive in a petrochemical company that the P6rez Recao family has stock in...
...2 There is, however, a third version of events that combines elements of the first two...
...The clash among the anti-Chavistas pitted rightwingers against "moderates," and played itself out much more vigorously in the armed forces than on the political front...
...According to one proChdvez army officer, the conspiratorial officers had distributed combat arms to civilian allies throughout the year prior to the coup...
...According to Chavez this campaign against the Circles has boomeranged by providing free publicity...
...9 In any case, whether or not Pedro Carmona was acting under the influence of a testosterone-charged "Venezuelan Rambo," the neoliberal strategy he embraced clearly represented the long-standing position of Fedecmuaras...
...Then it directed th turned toward the presidential palace...
...Washington quickly claimed it warned opposition leaders to proceed by constitutional means, admitting at most that some U.S...
...Large pro-Chivez crowds then quickly-and spontaneously-descended from Caracas' popular barrios and materialized at Miraflores and at Fuerte Tiuna where Chavez had temporarily been held prisoner...
...In an interview published by the Poleos, the provisional president of Fedecimaras, Carlos Fernandez, claims that P6rez Recao and his associates "isolated" 12 NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS a 12 NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICASCRISIS IN VENEZUELA Carmona "so that there was no way to talk to him, not even by phone...
...Cardinal Ignacio Velasco, for example, claimed that he signed the decree without having had the opportunity to read it, an excuse used by others as well...
...Steel workers president e ar n 1. t h Ram6n Machuca has agreed to take part in government-sponsored dialogues from which the CTV has been excluded...
...er but equally militant crowd of Chivez supporters, mostly residents of Caracas' poor barrios, had already gathered at Miraflores to "protect the gates" of the palace from the opposition...
...Indeed, the widespread apprehension of a rightist dictatorship alienated some members of the original coalition...
...These police obviously belonged to the Metropolitan Police of Caracas' anti-Chavista Mayor Alfredo Pehia...
...Navy intelligence officer named Wayne Madsen told London's Guardian, for example, that Navy vessels carrying out exercises off Venezuela's Caribbean coast engaged in strategic "communications jamming" during the days of the coup...
...Globalvisi6n Channel, May 15, 2002...
...1 0 But, in fact, Washington's signals to Chdvez's opponents had been quite open, and had come from the highest levels...
...American Navy 'helped Venezuelan coup,'" The Guardian (London), April 30, 2002...
...1 4 What neither Washington nor the opposition counted on, and what proved to be one of the more remarkable aspects of this remarkable chain of events, was the universal rejection of the coup and of U.S...
...On Saturday evening at about ten o'clock, 36 hours after his swearing-in, exactly what Carmona was forced to resign...
...For all their hesitation, it is no wonder that AD and the CTV finally disassociated themselves from the Carmona coup-within-the-coup...
...This middle ground between the pro and antiChavistas may be where at least half the population is situated...
...Ultimas Noticias, May 5, 2002, pp...
...time, he passed over the equally anti-Chdvez AD, which enjoys much greater influence and controls the CTV...
...wing ideologue who had served as Ambassador to Venezuela during the Reagan administration-U.S...
...3 Indeed, just hours before the coup, Miquilena formally broke with Chavez, as did several governors and other followers, thus opening the doors for the implementation of the plan...
...2. This became the conventional story in the days following the coup...
...The April fiasco was also an embarrassing affair for the Venezuelan Catholic Church, the privately owned media, political parties of the opposition and 14NM2IA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS C NCA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 14CRISIS IN VENEZUELA social organizations, whose representatives welcomed Chivez's overthrow and signed Carmona's infamous decree...
...An anti-Chavez protester in Caracas proudly claims to be an escu6lido, or squalid one, the name Chdvez gave to his opponents...
...The major parties of the nti-Chavistas, opposition, however, without exception, continue to subor- ly attempt tp dinate proposals on specific Many still say issues to the clamor for ChAvez's removal-as if the e for Chavez if April coup attempt had never occurred...
...1 5 but oppose a Since his return, Chavez has overthrow hin encouraged the emergence of a "loyal opposition" as well as they would vo a bloc of critical supporters, spaces unoccupied by political elections were parties up until then...
...his removal was quickly celebrated by the anti-Chavistas in the streets and, significantly, by the Bush administration in Washington whose spokesperson, Ari Fleischer, announced the following morning that the government had brought on its own downfall by firing on unarmed demonstrators...
...They were caught in their own contradictions...
...and "Color de hormiga," a front page February 7 editorial in TalCual which states: "The point is clear...
...6 Some of these arms may have been supplied by the most notorious member of the Carmona inner circle, arms dealer Isaac P6rez Recao, known by his friends and enemies alike as the "Venezuelan Rambo...
...6. El Universal (Caracas), May 5, 2002, p. 1-4...
...Indeed, what took place was nothing less than a coup within the coup...
...That is the signal they have sent...
...Carmona appointed two prominent leaders of the social Christian party Copei, including a member of the right-wing Opus Dei as Foreign Minister, even though Copei has all A memorial on Puente Llagun but disappeared as a politi- on April 11...
...Despite the nearcertainty of some sort of confrontation, the antiChavez march proceeded to the presidential palace and, in the historic center of Caracas, the two groups met...
...8 The fact remains, however, that throughout the coup attempt, the anti-Chivez politicians who had qualms about Carmona's dictatorial and anti-popular measures hardly raised their voices above a whisper...
...The right had learned the "lessons" of the presidency of Carlos Andr6s P6rez (1989-1993) whose drastic neoliberal anti-popular measures, known as the "great turnaround," were opposed by much of his own "populist" AD party...
...Given the actions and the alliances of the Carmona group on April 12 and 13-and particularly given the exclusion of the populist anti-Chavez actors-it is evident that they were not simply interested in a military dictatorship in which they themselves would have wealth and power, but in a clean and violent break with the populist past...
...The makeup of the brief Carmona government was unabashedly elitist...
...Who was armed...
...The repression unleashed during Carmona's day-and-a-half in power included house break-ins throughout the country, allegedly in search of weapons...
...We know that after the armed confrontation events moved very quickly: Word spread that the snipers who had fired into the crowd were Chavez supporters, that the hands of the government were "stained in blood...
...14-15...
...The arms may have also been used by sharpshooters who were responsible for some of the deaths when the two marches approached one another on April 11...
...Curiously, one of the few opposition politicians who has accepted the president's overtures is Francisco Arias C.rdenas, one of his co-conspirators in the 1992 coup attempt, who subsequently ran against him in the presidential elections of 2000...
...the oppo- sition claims it was simply reacting to the unexpect- ed events of the day...
...Another encouraging breakthrough is with organized labor...
...Though the work stoppage was not as effective as a previous one in December, the CTV-which is controlled by Democratic Action Vol XXXVI, No 1 JULY/AUGUST 2002 9 0 C 0 C Vol XXXVI, No 1 JULY/AUGUST 2002 9CRISIS IN VENEZUELA (AD), until recently the nation's largest party-decided to extend it to a second day, and then, at the end of the second day, to an indefinite period...
...1 7 Arias's position may be a reflection of the antiChavez "moderate" position within the Armed Forces...
...Perhaps a good starting point for the non-rightist anti-Chavistas would be to put a hold on the effort to topple Chdvez, and perhaps to refrain from talking about Chavez altogether, in order prioritize concrete demands and issues...
...El Nacional, May 3, 2002...
...After Zambrano's Special Commission does its work, the Assembly will convoke a Commission for Truth and Reconciliation to probe the shooting incidents and human rights abuses of those days...
...Ambassador Donna Hrinak, concerned about the seeming impropriety of U.S...
...and how presidentfor-a-day-and-a-half Carmona got into that position in the first place...
...Although the Chavistas have curiously not harped on this point, Ortega had publicly called for the immediate dissolution of the Assembly on April 12 prior to the announcement of Carmona's decree...
...The Navy was privileged with two key positions in the government, including the Defense Ministry, at the expense of the much larger but less prestigious Army, where Chivez's military support is concentrated...
...Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello told the special congressional committee that within a month of the April coup the number of Circles increased from 80,000 to 130,000.18 An added worry for the opposition is that a purge of military officers involved in the April coup, and promotions of the middle-level pro-Chavista ones, will strengthen the President's position in the Armed Forces...
...Many AD party loyalists, defending their initial association with Fedecito Chdvez supporters killed maras, now say the coup hots came from this bridge was "hijacked," not by Carmona, but by P6rez Recao...
...Cautioned Leader of Plot Against Chavez," The New York Times, April 17, 2002...
...business representatives expressed general approval of these new appointments...
...officials were overly enthusiastic about the removal of Chivez from office by any means necessary...
...1 3 hether Washington actually provided covert assistance to the coup plotters is a question that remains to be more thoroughly investigated...
...7. Zeta, No...
...The United States, which surely played a role in the April events, has been steadily backtracking from its initial approval of the coup...
...9. Hearings of the Special Political Commission of the National Assembly...
...Other concessions that were designed to satisfy the opposition included the reorganization of PDVSA's top leadership, Chivez's willingness to stop monopolizing the airwaves with simultaneous TV and radio broadcasts, and his avoidance of public appearances in military uniform...
...See Steve Ellner and Fred Rosen, "Chavismo at the Crossroads," NACLA Report, XXXV No...
...sented...
...The entire bloc of anti-Chavistas stood behind the campaign to deny legitimacy to Chavez's government...
...officials as well as embassy staff in Caracas actively met with the opposition figures who were to become coup leaders...
...Washington, virtually alone in its support for the coup plotters, was left embarrassed by its seeming violation of its own "democracy promotion" initiative in the hemisphere...
...In their publications, the Poleos have run numerous articles that portray P6rez Recao as a spoiled rich boy who manipulated an obedient Carmona...
...Who fired...
...Who, if anyone, directed the violence...
...They were rebelling, that is, not on behalf of "democracy," a claim that could credibly be made by some of the populist anti-Chavistas, but on behalf of their class interests...
...6, May/June, 2002...
...In the end, however, the moderates prevailed...
...Bush Officials Met With Venezuelans Who Ousted Leader," The New York Times, April 16, 2002...
...at 4:15 the head of Fedecdmaras, Pedro Carmona, was sworn in as president...
...It is known some cal party...
...What happened next-at that moment and over the next three days-is still in dispute...
...Carmona's appointed cabinet consisted of individuals belonging to the nation's dominant institutions and in some cases had held positions in the pro-neoliberal government of Rafael Caldera (1994-1999...
...12 Further, on several occasions, under the apparent coordination of Assistant Secretary of State Otto Reich-an anti-Castro Cuban American and rightds "Forbidden to Forget April 11...
...The failure of AD and the CTV to speak out more firmly against the pro-business bent of the shortlived, rightist regime was in keeping not only with their hatred of ChAvez, but with their ambivalence toward neoliberalism over the past ten years...
...The father and daughter publishing team of Rafael and Patricia Poleo, for example, who own and run several important periodicals closely tied to AD, are spirited defenders of this thesis...
...During Carmona's short rule, the moderates were strongest in the Army, while the rightists controlled the Ministry of Defense...
...restored to the presidency...
...In particular, the CTV's anti-Chivez sentiments were so strong that even when they themselves were excluded by the neoliberal right, they found it difficult to complain...
...On the contrary, as a member of the exportoriented business class, he and his followers very likely wanted once and for all to remove all the obstacles to full-fledged, neoliberal formulas...
...CTV president Ortega, obviously upset that both AD and the CTV had been shunted aside, traveled to the distant state of Falc6n in order to avoid being associated with the de facto government...
...He appointed a cabinet consisting of tI business leaders, military men and conservative politicians...
...In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on February 5, Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed concern "with some of the actions of Venezuelan President Chdvez and his understanding of what a democratic system is all about...
...The banner rea Embassy in Caracas was at pains to distance itself from coup rumors...
...This insistence on eld tomorrow...
...The attitude of the moderate anti-Chavis- tas toward Carmona-along with the determination of middle-level pro-Chavista officers and the spon- taneous mobilization of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in front of the presidential palace and Vol XXXVI, No 1 JULYIAUGUST 2002 11 o C 0 C Vol XXXVI, No 1 JuLY/AUGUST 2002 11CRISIS IN VENEZUELA military bases throughout the country-is what made possible Chdvez's return to power...
...The April events demonstrated the extent to which the parties of the opposition have failed to push for their own particular programs and demands...
...s this is written, some two months after the events, there is still disagreement among Venezuelans about what happened from the afternoon of April 11 through the morning of April 14 when an insurgent coalition of conservative businessmen, anti-Chivez populists, union leaders affiliated with the old regime, disgruntled military officers and fearful-of-expropriation middle and upper-class citizens forced President Hugo Chivez from office, only to see him return two days later, after the coalition had disintegrated...
...Indeed, throughout the months leading up to the coup, the U.S...
...With just a few exceptions, the anti-Chavista "democratic" leaders spoke out against Carmona's dictatorial actions only after Chivez's return to power...
...A former U.S...
...I The government, that is, says there was a pre- existing conspiracy to overthrow Chdvez...
...It was widely reported in the U.S...
...Report of Stratfor: The Global Intelligence Company, cited in Quinto Dia, No...
...To the dismay of the leaders of his Uni6n party, Arias met with Chavez after the coup and called the government's efforts at promoting dialogue "positive...
...Carmona proceeded to dissolve the National Assembly, repeal a series of popular reforms, reinstate the fired leadership of PDVSA and fire all the judges on the Supreme Court...
...support for a coup against a democratically elected regime, "took the unusual step of asking the American military attach to cease contacts with the dissidents...
...The Special Commission must determine just what happened to Chivez on April 11-14 and how he returned so quickly...
...They rebuked Carmona for issuing the decree on April 12 and the next day presented him with an ultimatum to revoke it...
...According to Rafael Poleo, Carmona, under P6rez Recao's influence, "utilized Ortega to attain power and then discarded him...
...The government offered to negotiate with Fedecdmaras but refused to have any dealings with the CTV leadership, which it claimed had gained control of the confederation through widespread fraud in internal elections held last October...
...At about four in the morning the President, now a prisoner, was taken to the Fuerte Tiuna military base...
...The persecutions on April 1213 resulted in an estimated 20 to 30 deaths...
...77, 132...
...Wanted: Dead or Alive" leaflets with the names of political leaders obliged many Chavistas to go underground...
...In the months leading up to the coup, the differences between the rightist and non-rightist anti-Chavistas virtually melted away...
...Fred Rosen is the director of NACLA...
...how a business executive named Carmona took power for 36 hours only to see his anti-Chdvez coalition crumble and disappear...
...Still at issue is simply what happened: What was the sequence of events...
...All the Latin American heads of state, with the exception of the right-wing government of El Salvador, were vehement and explicit in their refusal to recognize the brief regime of the coup plotters...
...10NMZ1A REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 10 NCIA REPORT ON THE AMERICASCRISIS IN VENEZUELA A man loots a store in the Catia neighborhood of Caracas on April Meanwhile, says Zambrano, there are two contradictory narratives being told within the Assembly, each with its own powerful defenders: "The official [pro-Chdvez] bloc...seeks to demonstrate that there was a coup d'etat and a break with constitutional continuity, the opposition promotes the thesis that the President resigned, and a vacuum of power gave rise to the participation of the military...
...CTV leader Alfredo Ramos unobtrusively walked out of Carmona's presidential inauguration...
...In the late afternoon of Thursday April 11, a huge anti-government march, perhaps half a million strong, wended its way through the streets of Caracas, first to the headquarters of the state-owned Venezuelan Oil Company (PDVSA) to lodge its protest against President Hugo Chivez's firing of the oil company's chief executives, then to the presidential palace, Miraflores, to lodge its protest against Chivez's rule in general...
...he opposition has accused the Circles of storing arms and claim that they are modeled after Cuba's Committees for the Defense of the Revolution and receive state funding...
...The strategy, which was referred to as "Chavismo without Chavez," counted on the congressional votes of the followers of the ex-Chavista former Minister of the Interior Luis Miquilena in order to impeach Chdvez...
...One of P6rez Recao's close confidants served as Carmona's bodyguard during the coup attempt...
...The Venezuelan right obviously wanted to keep parties with any kind of popular following at arm's length...
...Not only did Carmona annul popular and nationalistic legislation such as the agrarian reform and a law guaranteeing state control of the oil indus- try, but, in a high-stakes gamble, he seemed to delib- erately split his own coalition by closing the Nation- al Assembly and other democratic bodies...
...Rapid Fire Coup Caught Chavez Foes Off Guard," Los Angeles Times, April 22, 2002, p. 1. 3. A private U.S...
...As varied as the anti-Chivez sentiment may have been, the decisiveness with which Carmona and his closest allies acted on the first day of the coup seems to make evident the existence of a well-conceived plan...
...Many of those in this bloc are as critical of Chavez as are the antiChavistas, but when asked who they would vote for if lans are in the elections were held tomorrow, re as critical of they say "Chavez...
...Indeed, Carmona's inner circle included shady figures who, at press conferences and meetings with o '5 top officers at military bases on April 11 and 12, were accompanied by paramilitary types carrying sophisticated weapons...
...At the same that day...
...5 An extended Carmona regime would have not only been elitist but would likely have ruled with a very hard hand...
...The non-Chavista leadership of the allimportant unions representing steel, oil, Metro and public employees has criticized the CTV's alliance with Fedecimaras and refused to participate in the confederation's actions...
...It is precisely this insecurity-this harsh labor discipline-that has weakened the region's trade-union movements, and created the conditions for the profitable streamlining of production and trade...
...Powell's comments made front-page news in Venezuela on February 6, sharing the headlines and the talk-show news with similar remarks made that same day by CIA director George Tenet...
...The hawks in the North American government are washing their hands regard- ing what might happen in our country...
...As the march got underway, word spread, helped by the privately owned media [See "The Revolution Will Not Be Tele- Still at issue is vised," p. 16], and the crowd happened on quickly grew in size and in spirit...
...On Tuesday April 9, two days before the march to Miraflores, the CTV and Fedecmaras had called for a 24-hour general strike of workers and businesses alike, demanding that the fired management of PDVSA be reinstated [See "Venezuela's Oil Reform," p. 21...
...5. Mois~s Naim, Paper Tigers & Minotaurs: The Politics of Venezuela's Economic Reforms (Washington: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1993), pp...
...he day of the In the early morning hours of Sunday April 14, Chdvez was vas armed...
...an important section of the armed forces went over to the opposition...
...This new conciliatory policy has met but limited success...
...Nearly all the dead and wounded appeared to have been shot from above, by snipers firing from rooftops and pedestrian bridges...
...There are, so far, some credible allegations...
...It has sped the growth of a casual, "flexible" labor force, willing to work hard for low wages in terribly insecure conditions...
...The throng's leadership, an unlikely tandem of the country's largest trade union federation, the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV) and the national Chamber of Commerce (Fedecdmaras), knew that a smallSteve Ellner is co-editor of Venezuelan Politics in the Chavez Era: Class, Polarization and Conflict, forthcoming from Lynn Rienner Publishers...
...And, he continued, "we have not been happy with some of the comments he has made with respect to the campaign against terrorism...
Vol. 36 • July 2002 • No. 1
