VIC Conference marks fourth anniversary of defeat of coup against President Chavez

VIC Conference marks fourth anniversary of defeat of coup against President Chavez

The Venezuela Information Centre (VIC) held a conference on Saturday 8 April 2006, in Bolivar Hall, London to celebrate the anniversary of the defeat of the coup that briefly ousted democratically-elected President Hugo Chavez on 11-14 April 2002.

The conference was opened by Keith Sonnet, UNISON Deputy General Secretary and Chair of the Venezuela Information Centre, began by informing the meeting about the work accomplished so far by VIC (e.g. two delegations to Venezuela, successful parliamentary work, strong trade union solidarity work, and building links between British and Venezuelan political and social organisations. He stressed there was a need to do more at a time when the US hostility towards Venezuela was increasing.
 

The Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the UK, Sr. Alfredo Toro Hardy told the meeting that President Chavez had asked him to convey his personal gratitude for the solidarity work in the UK. Sr. Toro Hardy thanked VIC for its work in countering the disinformation campaign against Venezuela in the UK.
 

He pointed to the change of heart of leading neo-conservative ideologues, most prominently Francis Fukuyama, who has come to the view that different cultures have different ideas about political and economic models that cannot simply be ignored and that American market liberalism is not so easily imposed on other cultures. However, Fukuyama’s alternative is the use of soft power (instead of hard power) to effect regime change, which includes the activities of the National Endowment for Democracy, Radio Liberty and other bodies which advance regime change by other means. It is nevertheless the same policy of destabilisation as before. Sr. Toro Hardy criticised the neo-conservatives because they want to impose ‘democracy’ by regime change, in Iraq, Cuba and elsewhere. The neo-cons believe they can engage in regime change in countries which they do not deem to be democratic. Sr. Toro Hardy pointed to a prestigious international poll (Latinobarometro) which measures popular satisfaction with democracy in Latin America. A recent poll revealed that Venezuela scored 7.6 out of 10, which is the highest in Latin America, ahead of Uruguay at 7.1.
 

The Ambassador also said that a recent US Department of Energy report recognised that Venezuela had the highest reserves of oil in the world, surpassing Saudi Arabia. In the context of ever increasing energy demand we are talking, he said, about a competition between China and the US over access to energy resources. By 2025 both China and the US will be importing 70% of their oil needs and by that time Venezuela will be a major battleground in the fight for these resources. He felt that Venezuela had to have amicable relations with the US — when President Clinton was in power we had constructive relations — then the Cuban exiles in Miami took control of US Latin America policy.
 

Francisco Domínguez, Lecturer in Latin American Studies at Middlesex University and member of VIC’s Management Committee, gave an historical account of US-Latin America relations in which he explained that the record of US interference in the internal affairs of its neighbours south of the Rio Grande was appalling (Guatemala, Cuba, Chile, Nicaragua, to mention the most prominent examples). He emphasised the need for the US political establishment to undergo a “cultural revolution” and start accepting that it has to respect its neighbours’ efforts to bring about full economic and political sovereignty in their own societies. Latin America is no longer the backyard of the US.
 

Diane Raby, Fellow Researcher of the Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Liverpool, looked at how popular resistance and opposition within sections of the military, concentrated particularly although not exclusively in the garrisons such as Maracay, had led to the defeat of the coup plotters. 
 

What had convinced sections of the military not to support the plotters was coup leader Pedro Carmona’s decision to abolish the democratic gains of Venezuela, including the Bolivarian Constitution — the most democratic constitution the country has ever had; the National Assembly — which had been elected by the people in free and fair elections; and the Ombudsman, a mechanism of citizen’s redress against the state, which ordinary Venezuelans had never previously enjoyed.
 

The civilian and military resistance and opposition to the coup finally made the coup collapse and restored Hugo Chavez to the Presidency. But it was the people in the streets that proved to be the decisive factor. A retired general said that in 1989 the people came down from the barrios (referring to the Caracazo uprising) and they never left.
 

The murder of peaceful demonstrators on 11 April, which provided the justification for the coup, has been captured in a Venezuelan TV documentary [“Puente Llaguno: Claves de Una Masacre” [see: www.venezuelaenvideo.com]. The documentary shows clearly that Chavistas had nothing to do with the murders. The golpista officers, rather than facing severe reprisals from Chavez, were subject to due legal process and over the next several months they were dismissed and retired. The Supreme Court, at that time dominated by judges hostile to Chavez, came up with an extraordinary verdict that there had not been a coup but only a vacuum of power.
 

Jeremy Corbyn MP emphasised the importance of the Bolivarian Revolution and the urgent need to organise solidarity with it in the UK. He stressed that a great deal was at stake given the contagious character of Venezuela’s policies throughout Latin America - polices aimed at benefiting the majority of the population. Venezuela was an inspiration to us all, he said.
 

Kelvin Hopkins MP looked at the parallels between the struggle against neo-liberalism in the UK and the economic policies being implemented in Venezuela by the Bolivarian government of President Chavez. He told the audience how Venezuela is an example to be followed not just by other Latin American nations but by countries such as the UK. As other speakers, he stressed the need to organise solidarity with the people of Venezuela.
 

The highly acclaimed and prize winning documentary “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” was screened. Many of those who attended the conference saw it for the first time. The film captures, blow by blow, the unfolding of the dramatic events leading to the coup, its collapse and the restoration of Chavez to power within the Presidential Palace in Miraflores. More poignantly, it captures the reactions of anger and opposition by the mass of the people in the Caracas barrios and streets and their clashes with the militarised police. It shows the extreme violence inflicted on Chavez supporters by strategically placed snipers — but also the power of the people when they surrounded the Miraflores Palace by their hundreds of thousands to demand ‘!Que vuelva Chávez!’ (!We want Chavez back!).
 

The expressions of exhilaration, the tears of emotion and the immense joy of the crowd around the Presidential Palace on seeing their leader descending from the skies on a helicopter, are indeed unforgettable images of the success of the democratic will of the people.
 

The conference was privileged to have present Rod Stoneman, Executive Producer of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, who told the audience how the film was made and the technical and political difficulties of showing it on television. He also shared details such as the editing of 200 hours of footage which were turned into 73 minutes; the agony of decisions regarding what to leave in and what to take out; the enormous amount of time and effort the production and editing team put in to ensure synchronisation between the various strands of the film (the drama unfolding inside the palace, the lies being spread by the media and the mass opposition to the coup in the streets). Without doubt “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” is a labour of love and we can only thank the crew, and the editing/producing team for having given us such a wonderful expression of alternative media: one that tells the truth.
 

Zuleiva Vivas, Cultural Attaché of the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the UK gave a moving account of the terrifying moments that those in Venezuela lived through at the time of the coup. She explained how women and men organised to resist the coup. She was in Caracas during the days of the coup and told how supporters of President Chavez led to safety members of the government and key political leaders. It was crucial to protect the leadership following the arrest of the President and the suppression of civil liberties by the de facto Carmona administration.
 

Mark Dinneen, Lecturer in Culture and Latin American Studies at Southampton University, delivered an analysis of the opposition role of the Venezuelan media against the Chavez government — covering the period from the early stages of the government to the coup, the 2002/2003 oil strike lock-out, the 2004 recall referendum and the withdrawal of the opposition from the parliamentary elections of December 2005. Mark stressed the enormous role which the media, especially, the television channels and the press, played in the coup by eithernot reporting, distorting or misreporting news items. He said that most of the Venezuelan media, which is privately run and holds extreme right wing views, willingly and enthusiastically supported the coup.
 

He belied the claim that there is authoritarian legislation which regulates the functioning of the media in Venezuela under President Chavez (the Resorte law). There is legislation which covers children’s programmes and the normal responsibilities of the media — something similar to what exists in many countries. In fact, Dinneen pointed out, it was the private media itself that applied severe censorship during the coup to prevent the truth being told to the people, including the shutting down of Channel 8, the only state television channel and the sacking of journalists who would not accept the lies and manipulation of events. He informed us that there is the emergence of a strong grassroots media (local newspapers, community-run radio stations, etc.) in Venezuela which is in tune with the participatory nature of the Bolivarian democracy.
 

Colin Burgon MP amused the audience when he told them about how, unwittingly, he had created a small “political tsunami’” as a result of Tony Blair’s outburst to an innocent question of his which invited the Prime Minister to share in celebrating the democratic gains and the poverty eradication programmes being adopted by many countries in Latin American — especially Venezuela — after they had elected governments of the left, Colin said he wanted to stress the need to concentrate on practical solidarity work. What he, with fellow MPs, could do in Parliament to influence government policy was important. The main preoccupation he and his colleagues have is not to allow the UK’s foreign policy on Latin America, especially Venezuela, to be dictated by the extreme right-wing Republican administration in Washington.
 

Richard Gott, author of the acclaimed book “Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution”, spoke about the general impact that the Venezuelan revolution is having on Latin America and the implications of this throughout the sub-continent.
 

He said that in many ways all the left-leaning governments in Latin America were unique — each very individual but sharing many characteristics. Evo Morales’ government, for example is highly unique since it is based crucially on support from organised coca growers, the indigenous movement and the poor in general. Morales’ aim is to take control of Bolivia’s natural gas away from the multinational companies. The same goes for Argentina where the Kirchner government has embarked on a policy of endogenous development and is challenging the dominance of the IMF over the country’s finances.
 

In summary, these governments are very distinct to each other. Nevertheless, they share common aims which they seek to achieve in ways determined by their own national realities. However, there is no doubt that a powerful factor bringing them together is the many initiatives and integration proposals that are emanating from Venezuela.
 

President Chavez has been shown to possess an extraordinary dynamism and he has also demonstrated boldness. An example of this has been his approach to reinvigorating OPEC. Richard also spoke about Chavez’s inveterate optimism and gave personal testimony of the many conversations he has held with him where he enthused everyone with his very positive attitude. Richard concluded by saying that the Bolivarian Revolution is an extraordinary process which is changing the face of Latin American qualitatively.
 

At the end of the conference and, prompted by representatives of the Venezuela Information Centre, the conference adopted the following statement:
 

“This conference wishes to send a clear message. Let the people of Venezuela express their democratic will and determine their own future without external interference, especially from the United States. With respect to the US-inspired coup carried out back in April 2002, the conference wishes to state: Never Again! !”