On April 11th, a carefully orchestrated military coup took place in oil-rich Venezuela. Democratically elected President Hugo Chavez was deposed and arrested, and the military placed the chair of Venezuela’s largest Chamber of Commerce, Pedro Carmona, as interim President.

Carmona instantly suspended the Constitution, dissolved the legislature, the Supreme Court, and the state governorships. A "unity cabinet" made up of only the most conservative elements of Venezuelan society was put in place to rule by decree for at least a year before elections would be held.

It looked as if the ambitious reforms of the "Bolivarian Revolution" and President Hugo Chavez had gone the way of Salvadore Allende – the suppression of democratic government by the military in the interests of the economic elite. Given Chavez’ harsh criticisms of the United States and the new world order of the international corporate sector, it seemed just as likely that the United States also had a hand in this coup as they had with Allende in Chile.

The Bush administration was alone in hailing the new leadership - it was condemned by most latin anerican governments. This was hardly surprising. The Chavez government has resisted pressure to privatize the state oil corporation, trades openly with Cuba, and disdains the dictates of the IMF and World Bank on social issues. Closer American complicity in the attempted coup is suggested by the fact that U.S. State Department officials met with the key coup leader a month before the attempted takeover.

Protest destabilizes coup

However, within just three days, the coup was defeated and Chavez was returned to his elected office as President. The military leaders of the coup have been dismissed, but the civilians have not been charged.

Stunned observers and international media scrambled to come to terms with the unlikely turn of events. It seems that the coup organizers were victims of their own propaganda. Since virtually all of the media in Venezuela are in the control of the conservative elite, there has been a constant attack on Chavez – always claiming that he did not have any popular support.

Yet when Chavez was deposed, the poor of the capital city, Caracas, rose in protest. These barrios, which comprise over half the city population, broke out in protest riots on April 13th and 14th, culminating in a massive 100,000 pro-Chavez demonstration around the Presidential palace on the evening of the 14th. The paratroop battalion then decided to remain loyal to Chavez and took over the presidential palace in his name. In the countryside, other provincial military leaders then threw their support behind Chavez, and the coup was finished.

Chavez has now been returned to power to pursue his popular agenda – which includes land reform, ecological community development programs, a massive increase in education spending (which has seen over one million children schooled for the first time), legal, democratic and tax reform, and social security measures to alleviate poverty.

The role of the conservative media in the failed coup indicates just how dangerous it is to have sources of public information and public opinion concentrated in the hands of a single interest group. The Venezuelan media falsely reported the incidents which were the excuse for the coup. They announced that Chavez had opened fire on a peaceful anti-government demonstration – which in fact was a carefully orchestrated part of the coup. The actual gunfire at the demonstration was done by hidden snipers on the rooftops. Most of the dead were Chavez supporters, not opponents. Yet the media ran clips over and over which made it appear as if the National Guard were firing at anti-government protesters instead of at the snipers – which were the Guards actual targets.

Indeed, the media had shamelessly promoted the anti-government rally in the first place – running promotions for it every ten minutes on the day of the coup. The corporate media were an integral part of an attempt to bring down the government in collusion with the business and military elite.