Posted on 04/21/2002 10:39:04 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
CARACAS, Venezuela -- When Hugo Chavez returned to the presidency early last Sunday following his brief ouster in a military coup, he spent the afternoon reviewing troops at the Maracay base just west of Caracas.
Although the Venezuelan leader hadn't slept for two days, he insisted on making the trip. After all, dozens of officers had rebelled against him, but the paratroopers at Maracay had remained loyal and helped foil the uprising.
"How grand all of you soldiers are," said Chavez, a former army lieutenant colonel who launched a failed coup attempt from the Maracay base a decade ago. "I will always be here for you. I will never abandon you."
Amid growing opposition in the streets to Chavez's 3-year-old government, the military until recently was considered the president's last bulwark of support.
But the bizarre events of April 11-14, when commanders forced out the president and then restored him to power, provided proof that the military was willing to abandon its commander in chief.
Analysts say the flip-flop coup may have lasting repercussions. They contend that it stained the reputation of the armed forces and demoralized an officer corps that was already deeply split between pro- and anti-Chavez factions.
They also warn that, should Venezuela's political turmoil intensify, the generals could once again be tempted to intervene.
"There are officers who are not going to back down when the next confrontation occurs," said Crispin Nuñez, a lawyer who represents a naval officer under military investigation for speaking out against Chavez in February. "Just one of them could spark an uprising."
Even before this month's rebellion, Chavez seemed to be losing his hold over segments of the armed forces. Several officers publicly censured the president for his autocratic style, his rants against the upper class and his friendship with Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Some observers claimed that a kind of "slow-motion coup" was under way.
To a large extent, critics say, Chavez reaped what he sowed.
Venezuela's 1961 constitution discouraged the military from becoming involved in civic affairs. For the next three decades, the troops followed the rules, while militaries elsewhere in Latin America threw their weight around and took over governments.
"The Venezuelan armed forces are not natural-born putschists," said Francisco Rodriguez, a former instructor at the military's Institute of National Defense Studies in Caracas.
But in 1992, Chavez launched Venezuela's first serious coup attempt in years, when he tried and failed to overthrow the government of Carlos Andres Perez.
An admirer of former military strongmen such as Juan Peron of Argentina and Marcos Perez Jimenez of Venezuela, Chavez was determined to give the armed forces a larger say in national life after he was elected president in 1998.
A new constitution, approved the following year, gave soldiers the right to vote and even to rebel against the government if it proved tyrannical.
Officers questioned a program called Plan Bolivar 2000 that had troops repairing schools, building roads and setting up farmers markets to provide low-cost food to the poor. Many viewed such tasks as a deviation from their traditional role of national defense.
Chavez also appointed some of his best and brightest officers to top jobs in government ministries, a maneuver that left commanders with mediocre leadership skills in charge, according to political analyst Maruja Tarre.
In a breach of military protocol, the president often wore his old uniform, which meant that active-duty generals were forced to salute a lieutenant colonel.
Despite the complaints, however, the military was a reluctant player in this month's rebellion, according to many experts.
Although anti-government demonstrations had become increasingly frequent over the past year, opposition parties remained weak and no natural leaders had emerged. Saying that Chavez, whose term ends in 2007, had no intention of voluntarily stepping down, many protesters began calling for the armed forces to throw him out.
"That's when it started to snowball," said Mario Carratu, a retired navy rear admiral who helped put down Chavez's coup attempt a decade ago.
When suspected government-backed snipers began shooting and killing protesters during an anti-Chavez march April 11, the heads of the army, navy, air force and national guard withdrew their support for the government. Troops detained Chavez, and his government appeared to be history.
But almost immediately, the uprising began to break down.
When businessman Pedro Carmona assumed the presidency the next day, he named a navy rear admiral as his defense minister and installed other naval and national guard officers in top jobs. That upset army generals, according to Carratu, because their branch of the armed forces had traditionally held sway.
Many officers also opposed Carmona's decrees to dissolve Congress, fire most Chavez-appointed officials and rule with a coterie of conservative business associates. Rather than facilitating a popular uprising against Chavez, the military's action began to look more like an anti-democratic coup that was denounced by governments around the world.
"They did not want to violate the constitution," said Rodriguez, the former war college professor. "But it's a contradiction. You can't make a coup and preserve the constitution."
Nuñez, the lawyer, was at the Miraflores presidential palace April 12 when Carmona issued his decrees. He said the army's commander, Gen. Efrain Vasquez Velasco, who was a key figure behind the uprising, was flabbergasted.
"He was very, very against the decrees. He said that he had to consult with other commanders about whether or not to support the new government," Nuñez said.
Another problem was that Vasquez and other top officers who rebelled did not exercise direct control over troops. Instead of taking control of the Miraflores palace, arresting pro-Chavez officers and securing the countryside, they wasted time squabbling over political appointments, said Fernando Ochoa, a former defense minister.
By April 13, commanders of key military installations in Caracas and Maracay had declared their opposition to Carmona. As demonstrators took to the streets of Caracas and other cities to demand the return of Chavez, loyalist soldiers took control of the presidential palace.
"I have never seen so many mistakes in so little time," said Tarre, the analyst.
Gen. Lucas Rincon, the overall commander of the armed forces who had earlier announced the president's resignation, proclaimed his loyalty to Chavez. Carmona was placed under arrest, and before dawn Sunday, Chavez was back in his old job.
Nestor Gonzalez, an army general who had expressed support for the uprising, said the coup's failure will likely produce even more fractures within the armed forces.
"It's hard to understand how a general can say one thing at one hour and the next hour say something else," Gonzalez told reporters. "The leadership is weak. It has no credibility."
Some analysts wonder whether Chavez must now rule at the behest of the officers who brought him back to power.
But Carratu, the retired rear admiral, believes Chavez is in control and points out that a purge of the military is in full swing, with about 80 officers under investigation. Chavez has replaced top commanders, including Vasquez, who actively supported the coup.
Chavez allies maintain that the military's ultimate decision to support the elected government proves its commitment to democracy.
"We have legitimate reasons to feel proud of our armed forces," said Miguel Madriz, a retired lieutenant colonel who took part in Chavez's 1992 coup attempt and now directs the pro-government Fifth Republic Movement political party.
Madriz believes that reports of dissent within the armed forces have been deliberately exaggerated by the opposition to confuse officers and foment unrest. He said he called 11 military commanders around the country during the uprising and that all of them backed Chavez.
Yet talk on the streets of Caracas often centers not on whether the military will again rise up against Chavez, but on when.
That kind of speculation concerns Cesar Gaviria, the secretary-general of the Organization of American States, who was dispatched to Venezuela last week to help resolve the crisis.
"People keep looking to see what's going to happen within the military. I frankly think that's a big mistake," Gaviria said.
"Strengthening democratic institutions means exactly the opposite," he said. "People should not be expecting the military to solve the problems of Venezuela."
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