International audiences -- and in fact, many Venezuelans -- were baffled by Chavez's tumultuous overthrow and swift return to power between April 11 and April 14. Many have speculated that Chavez launched a controlled auto-coup to flush out his numerous opponents within the FAN and opposition political groups.
In fact, as Caracas returns to normalcy, it's becoming clearer that extremist groups on both sides that strongly support or oppose the Chavez regime likely took advantage of this situation -- the largest anti-government demonstration in Venezuela's history -- to trigger a violent confrontation that unseated Chavez, but ultimately restored him to power. STRATFOR has pieced together the following chain of events April 11-12 from public and private sources in Venezuela:***
....... We have an endless problem, contending with our superstitious assumption that a democratically elected leader is absolutely entitled to govern. He is presumptively entitled to govern. Allende was democratically elected in Chile, and in three years was busy subverting freedom of the press and the nation's Constitution, inaugurating years of despotism by Pinochet. The restored Hugo Chavez has said he will seek to cooperate with the policies of his opponents, and so far, he hasn't executed anybody, but democratic standards aren't automatically guaranteed by his restoration. The U.S. didn't engineer the attempted coup, but there is no reason to rejoice in its failure.***