[Marxism] Behind the 2002 coup attempt in Venezuela

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=2018
An Account of April 11-13, 2002, in Venezuela
The 47-Hour Coup That Changed Everything
Friday, Apr 13, 2007

By: Gregory Wilpert ? Venezuelanalysis.com

The April 2002 coup attempt against President 
Chavez represented the perhaps most important 
turning point of the Chavez Presidency. First, it 
showed just how far the opposition was willing to 
go to get rid of the country?s democratically 
elected president. Up until that point the 
opposition could claim that it was merely 
fighting Chavez with the political tools provided 
by liberal democracy. Afterwards, the mask was 
gone and Chavez and his supporters felt that 
their revolution was facing greater threats than 
they had previously imagined. A corollary of this 
first consequence was thus that the coup woke up 
Chavez?s supporters to the need to actively defend their government.

Second, the coup showed just popular Chavez 
really was and how determined his supporters were 
to prevent his overthrow. They went onto the 
streets, at great personal risk (over 60 people 
were killed and hundreds were wounded by the 
police in the demonstrations that inspired the 
military to bring Chavez back to power), to 
demand their president?s return to office.

Third, the coup woke up progressives around the 
world to what was happening in Venezuela. It 
forced them to examine why a supposedly unpopular 
and authoritarian government would be brought 
back to power with the support of the county?s 
poor. As such, the coup shone a spotlight on what 
was happening in Venezuela and eventually rallied 
progressives around the world to support the 
Bolivarian (and now socialist) project.

Fourth, and perhaps most importantly for the 
future evolution of the Venezuelan conflict, the 
coup was the third nail in the political coffin 
of the country?s old elite. The first such nail 
was Chavez?s election in 1998, which brought an 
explicitly anti-establishment figure into 
Venezuela?s presidency for the first time in 
forty years. The second nail was the passage of 
the 1999 constitution and Chavez?s confirmation 
as President, in 2000, which democratically swept 
the country?s old elite almost completely out of 
political power, such as the governorships, the 
Supreme Court, and the National Assembly. With 
the third nail, the failure of the 2002 coup, the 
opposition lost a base of power in the military 
and a significant amount of good will in the 
international community. The next three nails, 
the failed 2002-2003 oil industry shutdown, the 
August 2004 recall referendum, and the December 
2006 presidential election, only further 
solidified the old elite?s demise as a political force in Venezuela.

Each of these victories against the opposition 
heightened consciousness in Venezuela about the 
need to take the Bolivarian revolution further 
and thus also allowed Chavez to further 
radicalize his political program. The coup 
attempt represented a crucial moment in this 
process because it was the most dramatic 
expression of the Venezuelan conflict between a 
charismatic President and a mobilized poor 
population on the one hand and the country?s old 
elite and their supporters on the other.

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