Violent coup mongers celebrating themselves

On 4th February 1992 there was a failed but bloody coup in Venezuela. The country had been spared the kind of military dictatorship that had afflicted other Latin American countries in the sixties, seventies and eighties. Still, Venezuela was not free of the military plague.

After so many years of corruption and mismanagement, the living condition of people had been worsening and tension grew. Middle-level military thought their time had arrived and they went in for that coup. The conditions were there: millions of Venezuelans, very naively - and I would say very stupidly - had voted for Carlos Andrés Pérez in 1988. He had been president once before, in the early seventies, when oil prices were high and population much smaller. He got elected in 1988 because people thought Pérez would get Venezuela back to the "Saudi days" of the seventies. That was not possible with the Venezuela (and oil prices) of 1988. He tried to implement some policies by the IMF and he acted very badly when communicating them. One of the first steps he took was to increase prices of petrol. Almost all Venezuelans think they have a birth right to stupidly cheap petrol prices (the cheapest on Earth). Riots followed. The government, supported by the military, used forced and killed many people.

The strange thing is that Venezuela's current government, a government that claims that the 1992 coup was partly motivated by those killings, has not been able after so many years to present a report on the issue. They claim there were "between 300 and 5000 people who were killed". I think we know more about some Greek-Persian wars than about that event. It is very curious because most people in Venezuela do have a family and you cannot just "disappear" so many people in just a couple of days without having family members reporting that. Still, they say "300 to 5000 people". There are no reliable lists. There are hardly any accussed as most of the responsible were in reality military, military who are now with the man in power. The current government cannot explain how they can justify a bloody coup in 1992 because of an event that happened in 1989.

Carlos Andrés Pérez was a highly corrupt man and yet his government was going to end in 1994. Back then the presidential system in Venezuela did not allow for immediate reelections.

In spite of all that, Hugo Chávez and his thugs carried out the coup, murdered many innocent people and ended up in prison because Hugo Chávez at the end was afraid for his life and gave in (he justified it because he did not want to shed more blood, but it was rather his, the other coupster elsewhere were already in control). Some months later another failed coup shook the country. One of the coupsters was Arné Chacón, the brother of the former miniter Jessie Chacón. In 1992 Arné Chacón said on TV during the coup that they were taking over because of the corruption of the government of that time. During the last few years Arné Chacón became one of the richest men in Venezuela. The situation was so blatant and it was getting so embarrassing for the regime that Hugo had to put him in prison. His brother stepped back as minister and is keeping low profile, he says he knew nothing about what his brother was doing, even if street cleaners seemed to be pretty aware of it. But there are still lots of boliburgueses at large.

Today the Venezuelan government is celebrating the initial coup. They are spending a lot of time in marches because, apparently, the people in there do not have to work. This reminds me of Cuba, where a large group of the population has no other work than to go to marches and spy on their neighbours.

The Venezuelan government is even wasting Venezuelan money by celebrating this coup in European capitals where coups against democratic countries are not usually celebrated. Here you see an invitation in French to go today to the Venezuelan embassy in Brussels:



























(snatched from another Venezuelan blogger, V.)

"the morning of 4 February 1992 marked the breakup between the State and society due to a government sunk in corruption and subservient to the interests of foreign powers. This set up the basis for a military rebellion and the emergence of a national leader, Hugo Chávez Frías, thanks to whom the Bolivarian revolution was born".

So they are celebrating right now a coup against a government that was elected by the people and that was going to be over two years later anyway. Their excuse were the crimes said government committed two years earlier, in part backed up by the military. I always disliked the government of Pérez but I definitely cannot justify a coup. I still remember the shootings back then. I was living in a student residence close to one of the places the coup mongers attacked in San Bernardino. I still remember the destruction I saw on several buildings. I still recall the fear in the eyes of the people. I still see the pictures with the corpses of the innocent murdered by the the military under Hugo's command.

The saddest part is that right now corrruption has increased much more and involves most of the high ranking officials in power, foreign powers are more present than ever in Venezuela and the country is much more dependent on oil exports than ever. Apart from that, the murder rate has more than tripled, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have left the country running away from crime and political mobbing and we have one of the worst cases of personality cult in the world.

The joke of the 1000 years in Power

Thanks to Dutch blogger Alpha I saw Hugo of Sabaneta has just now said he thinks the revolution will last for 900 years and he may rule for 10...or perhaps 20 more years...but "20 may be too much, wouldn't it?". Those in the public shouted "no". Isn't this like some kind sick relationship between a harassing man and his beaten wife?

Shame on all those who support this regime.

PS: I still haven't got a response from the Vice-president of the European Parliament on my questions. Oh, I will keep demanding that he answers. He is an employee of the European Union.