Please spread the word far and wide and call your foreign ministry or the
U.S. State Department and tell them not to recognize the new government
of
Venezuela. Chavez has not resigned! According to people I spoke to this
morning, who work close to Chavez, he is being held against his will by
the
military, who are claiming he has resigned, when he has not. Isolate the
new government of Venezuela, so as to support democracy everywhere!
Coup in Venezuela: An Eyewitness Account
By Gregory Wilpert
The orchestration of the coup was impeccable and, in all likelihood,
planned a long time ago. Hugo Chavez, the fascist communist dictator of
Venezuela could not stand the truth and thus censored the media
relentlessly. For his own personal gain and that of his henchmen (and
henchwomen, since his cabinet had more women than any previous Venezuelan
government's), he drove the country to the brink of economic ruin. In the
end he proceeded to murder those who opposed him. So as to reestablish
democracy, liberty, justice, and prosperity in Venezuela and so as to
avoid
more bloodshed, the chamber of commerce, the union federation, the
church,
the media, and the management of Venezuela's oil company, in short: civil
society and the military decided that enough is enough--that Chavez had
his
chance and that his experiment of a 'peaceful democratic Bolivarian
revolution' had to come to an immediate end.
This is, of course, the version of events that the officials now in
charge
and thus also of the media, would like everyone to believe. So what
really
happened? Of course I don t know, but I'll try to represent the facts as
I
witnessed them.
First of all, the military is saying that the main reason for the coup is
what happened today, April 11. 'Civil society,' as the opposition here
refers to itself, organized a massive demonstration of perhaps 100,000 to
200,000 people to march to the headquarters of Venezuela's oil company,
PDVSA, in defense of its fired management. The day leading up to the
march
all private television stations broadcast advertisements for the
demonstration, approximately once every ten minutes. It was a successful
march, peaceful, and without government interference of any kind, even
though the march illegally blocked the entire freeway, which is Caracas
main artery of transportation, for several hours.
Supposedly at the spur of the moment, the organizers decided to re-route
the march to Miraflores, the president's office building, so as to
confront
the pro-government demonstration, which was called in the last minute.
About 5,000 Chavez-supporters had gathered there by the time the
anti-government demonstrators got there. In-between the two
demonstrations
were the city police, under the control of the oppositional mayor of
Caracas, and the National Guard, under control of the president. All
sides
claim that they were there peacefully and did not want to provoke anyone.
I
got there just when the opposition demonstration and the National Guard
began fighting each other. Who started the fight, which involved mostly
stones and tear gas, is, as is so often the case in such situations,
nearly
impossible to tell. A little later, shots were fired into the crowds and
I
clearly saw that there were three parties involved in the shooting, the
city police, Chavez supporters, and snipers from buildings above. Again,
who shot first has become a moot and probably impossible to resolve
question. At least ten people were killed and nearly 100 wounded in this
gun battle--almost all of them demonstrators.
One of the Television stations managed to film one of the three sides in
this battle and broadcast the footage over and over again, making it look
like the only ones shooting were Chavez supporters from within the
demonstration at people beyond the view of the camera. The media over and
over again showed the footage of the Chavez supporters and implied that
they were shooting at an unarmed crowd. As it turns out, and as will
probably never be reported by the media, most of the dead are Chavez
supporters. Also, as will probably never be told, the snipers were
members
of an extreme opposition party, known as Bandera Roja.
These last two facts, crucial as they are, will not be known because they
do not fit with the new mythology, which is that Chavez armed and then
ordered his supporters to shoot at the opposition demonstration. Perhaps
my
information is incorrect, but what is certain is that the local media
here
will never bother to investigate this information. And the international
media will probably simply ape what the local media reports (which they
are
already doing).
Chavez' biggest and perhaps only mistake of the day, which provided the
last remaining proof his opposition needed for his anti-democratic
credentials, was to order the black-out of the private television
stations.
They had been broadcasting the confrontations all afternoon and Chavez
argued that these broadcasts were exacerbating the situation a
