Reflections on a Coup

In the early hours of Friday, April 12, 2002 , President Hugo Chavez was taken from the Miraflores palace to an undisclosed location by leaders of the Venezuelan military working in conjunction with the civilian leaders of the political opposition. He had not resigned.

Members of the ancien r'egime as well as past supporters of Chavez who felt his reforms had gone to far included Generals, the rich and powerful media moguls, the Catholic hierarchy ( aren't they supposed to help the poor?), ( little dig there Eric) an alliance of union leaders and business leaders (what's up with that?) and political parties representing middle and upper classes. Covert support came from the CIA and US State Dept. and their various front groups.

The treason within the upper ranks of the military can be explained many ways, a natural conservatism related to class and status, greed, true concern. The history of Latin America overflows with such generals. The wealthy media owners and other industry elite are also pretty easy to figure out, more greed. Chavez proposed spreading Venezuela's wealth to the lower rungs of society in defiance of US imposed neo-liberal development strategy. The motives of the Church I will leave for others to parse, the union primarily represented workers in the petroleum industry, the top paying jobs in the industrial sector, typically upper middle class, in an unholy alliance with business leaders who dreamed of privatizing the industry and raking in huge profits. So once again ,greed. The person chosen to head the new, illegal government was also the president of the business leaders association. The old political parties, greed. The US, greed and ideology, hate to see the commies and the dominoe theory and terrorists blah blah.

What I love about this scenario is how it cuts to the chase. Unlike here in the US where conservatives and liberals go through all this crap about their "philosophy"or their "morals" or God or gays or guns in Venezuela they are honest enough to admit what it's really about,MONEY. The newspapers and TV and radio don't put on this big charade about "news" or information or public service like they do here, they come right out and say they are propogandists for MONEY. The union doesn't put on some "progressive" front like they do here (the ex AFL-CIO, through a front org.ACLIS, helped fund the coup) but admits its partnership with the bosses is because they get more MONEY. Business leaders need no further explanation for their motives. MONEY. In the US they whine about "rights"and talk about "globalization" and family values and patriotism and all kind of crap to get the serfs to support their owners but it's about money and money is power.Straight up. Untill the People rise up.

This is the other thing I like about this coup story. It failed. The people came down from the shanty towns and the slums and filled the streets, holding copies of the constitution. All that money meant nothing and The Rich people were very ,very afraid. The soldiers rejected the generals and turned against the coup plotters. A new union formed which represented the mass of workers. The media spews it's lies but only the elite sit and watch it. The poor people are to busy being educated and learning new skills and forming co-operatives and re-claiming property and factories. Start a movement like that here and they will derisively call you a populist or say you are advocating class warfare.
That is exactly what I am talking about.