Republican News · Thursday 27 February 2002

A very short-lived coup

BY BRENDAN HOGAN

Last week, RTé brought us an invaluable piece of history from Venezuela, True Lives: Surviving the Coup.

Young Irish film-makers Kim Bartley and Donnacha O'Briain were initially drawn to the Latin American country by the charismatic and untypical leader Hugo Chavez, who had won a landslide election with the support of the overwhelming majority of Venezuela's poor and dispossessed. It was they who were getting organised into 'Bolivarian Circles' (named after the Latin American revolutionary, Simon Bolivar), groups primarily concerned with local education among the poor, and Chavez' government was putting down markers for literacy and nationalisation projects to try to restore some dignity to the impoverished.

d so the filmmakers travelled to Venezuela to chronicle the progress of this man, and to discover the truth about his revolution. What they discovered was a president under siege, trying to lead his people forward against the will of the ruling and middle-classes, who controlled the state oil company, and thus most of the country's profit.

In (mainly white) middle-class areas, residents' groups were set up, where the whining well-to-dos were told to "keep an eye on your domestic servants", to stop them from joining the Bolivarian circles, or achieving literacy.

The contempt the rich felt for the bulk of the population, and indeed for the democratic system, was summed up by a middle-class woman, who screeched that the people who elected Chavez had no education or values. She would be proven wrong about the 'values' bit very shortly.

There was a non-stop onslaught of anti-Chavez propaganda on the five private TV stations. They reported ridiculous slanders like his alleged sexual attraction to Fidel Castro, his mental instability, and of course the tut-tutting from the corridors of power in the US, summed up by Colin Powell's "concern about his [Chavez'] idea of a democratic system". CIA Director George Tenet went further. Noting that Venezuela had huge oil reserves, he said that Chavez was a danger who was acting in a way that did not have the concern of the US at heart.

The straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak, was Chavez' attempt to renationalise the state oil company, by inserting revolutionaries into management positions. The middle-class bolted and arranged a protest march, and the fat cats and oil barons flew out to the White House to arrange a form of democracy that might not irritate the US government so much, preferably one that held 80% of the population in grinding poverty.

The middle-class anti-Chavez march switched course at the last minute and headed towards the Presidential Palace, the seat of government in Caracas. They were met by a counter demonstration of Chavez supporters.

One man, dressed in a vest and jeans, shouted "What about my vote? I voted for Chavez!" Over one million people gathered outside the Palace. Seeing this demonstration of solidarity, the pro-Chavez Palace guards plotted to retake power

Then snipers began firing on the pro-Chavez crowd, and after numerous protestors had been hit, the Chavez supporters began to return fire. The private TV channels edited this footage to give the impression that the Chavez supporters had fired on the anti-Chavez demonstration, giving fresh impetus to what was fast becoming a coup.

Naval commanders then went on TV to withdraw support for the government, and the coup orchestraters had by now seized the only public TV station, Channel 8. Tanks had surrounded the palace, and the Chavez government was cut off from contact with the outside world. The Army told his people to hand over power peacefully or the palace would be bombed.

The scene inside was one of despair; idealistic young men and women choked back tears, and kept their hands on their guns. The Economic Development Minister said "the game is up" and called it "the victory of death".

After an emergency cabinet meeting, Chavez gave himself up as a prisoner to avoid the bloodshed of a bombing, but refused to resign. The emotion, and the sadness in that palace, was palpable. This was incredible documentary footage. These people knew that the bastards had won, and only a handful raised the hope that the "people of Venezuela are not going to stand for this".

The sequence of events that followed was remarkable. First, we had the coup orchestrators on private TV slapping backs and laughing it up, then the 'provisional' government meeting in the palace, where we caught sight of Catholic priests joking with oil barons, businessmen and military hard men.

The 'new' president was to be Pedro Carmona, a leading member of the moneyed ruling class. He dissolved the Assembly, the Supreme Court, the Central Bank, the Attorney General, and said that his provisional government would set about reversing Chavez' policies immediately. He called upon the international community to "accept this profoundly democratic process".

Here, the filmmakers sought to illuminate the extraordinary symphony of events that led to Chavez' return. We cut from shots of the provisional government to police repression on the streets, to the private TV coverage - which was telling everyone that the situation was calm and normal, that Chavez had resigned and had been replaced - and to the White House, where a spokesperson was telling the world that the coup had been peaceful, the will of the people had prevailed, and the new government had the full backing of the US. It seemed that through censorship and lies, the coup was being fastened.

News reached the people, through word-of-mouth, that Chavez had not resigned, but was being held prisoner. They came onto the streets in droves, and formed a march to the Palace. The members of the provisional government chatted inside, their voices drowned out by the furious chanting of the crowd. Even if they had no education, as our middle-class lady had asserted, they surely had values.

One man, dressed in a vest and jeans, shouted "What about my vote? I voted for Chavez!" Over one million people gathered outside the palace. Seeing this demonstration of solidarity, the pro-Chavez Palace guards plotted to retake power. It all happened remarkably quickly - the plotters were arrested and the elected government, which had gone to ground, returned to the Palace.

Even now that the gig was up, the private TV stations still refused to report the restoration of government, and broadcast a remarkable interview with Carmona, who maintained that his supporters were in full control, including of the Presidential Palace. The private TV stations were banned by their owners from showing any Chavez supporters.

When Chavez returned by helicopter to the Palace, his smile was that of a man whose faith in humanity has been restored. The first thing Chavez said was "the people have made history". In his address to the people, he called for calm, said his opponents could certainly oppose him, but they must respect the Constitution, "the people's book", and appealed to the people: "Don't let them poison you with their lies."

The remarkable thing was that all of this was captured on video. The real value in this is that the camera doesn't lie. The truth of the coup was rescued from the shroud of claim and counter-claim, and the capitalists were shown in all their vicious disregard for human suffering.

This time, they failed. And this time, the camera was watching.

Incidentally, licence payers will be interested to know that RTé did not consider the coup in Venezuala important enough to report on as it happened, even though they had a crew inside the Palace. It wasn't until the story made headlines around the world and the intrepid documentary makers had spoken to every other media outlet in Ireland that the bright sparks in Montrose decided to cover the story.