Anatomy of a Coup
Anatomy of a Coup
Published on Mar 6, 2013
The astonishing story of how an American sponsored coup d'état almost led to the collapse of democracy in Venezuela. Featuring exclusive interviews with the key ringleaders and extraordinary archive footage - Chavez in jail arguing with his captors, secret meetings with the plotters and soldiers storming the presidential palace as plotters escape. As a fly on the wall documentary, you've never seen anything like it.
Definitely a must watch. It exposes ever more lies by the Chavez haters.
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of chavistas shooting people. M-m-m, bastards with crystal balls, eh?
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I don't think that this documentary is nearly as good as "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," but it is well worth watching, for that footage, for the interview of the parents of the 18 year old who was shot by the coupsters' snipers in their protest march--gawd, the bastards!--for the interview of the VP Diosdado Cabello who escaped the coupsters, the footage of the interior minister who managed to make the announcement that Chavez had not resigned, and for other items like the interview with that smiley-faced murderer Carmona!
"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" gives a much better understanding of the massive pro-Chavez crowds--hundreds of thousands of people--who surrounded Miraflores Palace and demanded return of their elected president. They were pivotal in prompting the Carmona coupsters to leave the premises. This doc gives too much credit to Gen. Baduel, I think. His smooth talk about "The Art of War" is just a bit too-too. I suspect that he was "sniffing the wind." The people were in full revolt against the coup (as "Revolution" plainly shows) and, short of a terrible massacre, there is no way that the coupsters could have kept control of the country.
Somehow this doc manages to convey that the opposition was in the majority. This most certainly isn't true, neither in the protests around the coup nor in subsequent elections, which Chavez won hands down in every case (in an election system that Jimmy Carter recently called "the best in the world"
. Although this doc makes a few snipes at Chavez in its very first sentences--for instance, saying that he "mismanaged" the economy, as if to imply that he caused the coup, when the coupsters themselves had been actively trying to crash the economy with a "general strike"--I think that the doc's off-kilter overall impression that the rightwing was the majority was more an editing problem, than an intention. They didn't have sufficient footage of the Miraflores crowd, for instance, and just threw in whatever footage they had?
Also, although both docs stop soon after the coup (don't say what happened next), "Revolution" was much more accurate as to its upbeat tone. In fact, Chavez dealt with the military coupsters--fired the key high echelon officers and forgave the lower rung officers (who had been lied to that Chavez had resigned), the opposition-controlled police who incited a riot and killed people were prosecuted, and, though, the coupsters, of course, continued their efforts to overthrow the government, in collusion with the Bush Junta, Chavez defeated them time and again, because his support among Venezuelans was GENUINE. This doc does not convey that buoyancy of the Chavez government--brilliance, really, considering what they faced, what they triumphed over and what they achieved for the Venezuelan people--and it doesn't convey the fervor of most Venezuelans for CONSTITUTIONAL government, so apparent during the coup, and for social justice, which they would soon demonstrate in election after election in favor of the Chavez government.
"Revolution" captures the spirit of what happens next better than this doc does.
I just looked up the wikipedia account of the coup because I couldn't remember some of the sequence of events just before the coup, and I have to share this hilarious comment by Condoleeza Rice, after the coup failed. Bush Jr.'s comment is also precious:
Upon news of Chávez's return, Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor to U.S. President George W. Bush, said: "We do hope that Chávez recognizes that the whole world is watching and that he takes advantage of this opportunity to right his own ship, which has been moving, frankly, in the wrong direction for quite a long time."[105] Bush denied any involvement of the U.S. government in the coup attempt and asked Chávez to "learn a lesson" from it.[106] Asked whether the administration now recognizes Mr. Chávez as Venezuela's legitimate president, one administration official replied, "He was democratically elected," then added, "Legitimacy is something that is conferred not just by a majority of the voters, however."[107]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Venezuelan_coup_d'état_attempt
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The Titanic, at the bottom of the North Atlantic, still signaling its "unsinkability" and lecturing others on safe sea travel?
Ga-a-a-a-wd.
Just about to slaughter a million innocent people in Iraq, to steal their oil for Chevron & co. Torture of thousands in progress. Bankruptcy of the United States and worldwide depression in progress. End of U.S. democracy well under way. And Venezuela "has been moving, frankly, in the wrong direction for quite a long time"!? Venezuela?!
