Venezuela: Popular
Counterattack
CARACAS - Venezuela commemorates the eighth
anniversary of President Hugo Chavez' return
to power, after he was ousted by a military
coup for two days, with actions Tuesday
favoring the civic-military alliance that
marked those events.
The swearing-in ceremony of 34,000
militiamen at the centric Bolivar Avenue
today symbolizes the spirit of those
actions, when the population, along with
constitutionalist officers, rescued the
constitutional order.
On April 11, 2002, the rightist opposition
headed by big businessmen, the leadership of
the Catholic church, and the US embassy in
Caracas took Chavez out of the Presidential
Palace and detained him.
Though they tried to justify the coup with a
power vacuum resulting from deaths they
attributed to an order by Chavez, the
majority of the population did not believe
in the pretexts.
Thousands of Venezuelans took the streets
demanding the return of the president, whose
victory meant a hope for millions of
Venezuelans traditionally excluded.
After eight years of the military coup, the
commemoration takes place amid warnings that
putschist sectors and foreign allies keep
thinking on overthrowing the president by
force.
Regarding that, local authorities and
leaders of the United Socialist Party of
Venezuela (PSUV) alert on the need to be
ready to defend the country, with the
creation of the popular militias playing a
key role amid this context.
The reality for the president is similar to
that of 2002: fight between the oligarchy
and the poor, defined as confrontation
between capitalism and socialism, with the
parliamentary elections on September 26 as
the next episode.
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