Amid US-led Campaign Against Maduro, Venezuela Remembers Anti-Chavez Coup

Sixteen years ago today the Venezuelan people took to the streets in defense of the Bolivarian Revolution and late President Hugo Chavez against the a brief coup in 2002 that was supported by the United States, a recent event that feels uncomfortably familiar to many Venezuelans today as the U.S. and its allies in the region employ economic and political war against the current socialist government aiming to oust President Nicolas Maduro.

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On April 11, 12 and 13, 2002, millions of Venezuelans took to the streets despite the coup and defended a government project that guaranteed a socialist model of inclusion, popular, participatory democracy that would make possible a just, peaceful, sovereign and independent homeland.

Despite a media blackout by local private news outlets, thousands of Venezuelans organized and came out in defense of the revolutionary government, and the popular masses confronted the right-wing opposition actors behind the coup, the same ones currently launching another international campaign for ousting Maduro.

Political leaders who have accompanied the revolutionary process since the triumph of Hugo Chavez highlight the heroism of the millions of citizens in the days of April 2002.

Speaking at a local news program Tuesday evening, current minister for the Communes of Venezuela Aristobulo Isturiz remembered the revolutionary Venezuelan leader and the people’s triumph against the coup.

"That was the day of the civic-military conscience. It was the day when the conscience went out to the street, went to Miraflores [presidential palace] … For us it was another April 19 only with a town with more conscience," Isturiz said referring to the date when Venezuela gained independence from Spain in 1810.

Also Minister of Popular Power for the Penitentiary Service of Venezuela Iris Varela was another person present at the popular demonstrations in April in 2002 in support of Chavez.

"The people were willing to do everything. Even before President Chavez was kidnapped, the Bolivarian people had become the guardian of the president and defender of the palace. Later, when 11 of April had already passed, they could not accept it and went to the streets, with a lot of determination," Varela said remembering the events of that year.

Such events resemble the pressure facing the current socialist government of President Maduro as he faces a coordinated international campaign to oust him, led by Washington and its allies in Latin America. U.S. President Trump and members of his government as well as members of the U.S. Congress have publically suggested and called for a coup by the military in Venezuela.

However many Venezuelans continue to vow support and solidarity with the government and assure that they would be ready to repeat their 2002 mobilizations in the case of such assault on Venezuelan democracy.