Venezuelan paratrooper soldiers line up during a visit of President Hugo Chavez in Maracay, Venezuela, Sunday, April, 14, 2002. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Posted on 04/15/2002 3:17:53 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
MARACAY, Venezuela (AP) - Reassuming his post as commander-in-chief, President Hugo Chavez made an outing to the army base where his career as a paratrooper and political leader was born, thanking soldiers who stood by him in his toughest moments.
Venezuelan paratrooper soldiers line up during a visit of President Hugo Chavez in Maracay, Venezuela, Sunday, April, 14, 2002. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
In an outdoor address to hundreds of troops Sunday, Chavez praised their base as an "epicenter" of resistance against an "oligarchical coup" that he said sought to install a "tyranny."
"I want to tell you that I leave my heart, my commitment, my gratitude forever with this brigade of parachutists," Chavez told the soldiers and thousands of civilian supporters who chanted: "Paratroopers! Paratroopers!"
Chavez was ousted early Friday by the military high command, which claimed he resigned under pressure after gunmen opened fire on opposition protesters Thursday. Sixteen people were reported killed and hundreds wounded.
But Chavez's loyalists pressed for his freedom, saying he had never relinquished power, and an interim government appointed in his place dissolved as its influence eroded.
Surrounded by young men in camouflage fatigues, Chavez seemed at home, praising a military culture that he said had stood up for the rights of Venezuelans. He said he had been "rescued by the people and the soldiers of the people."
He praised Gen. Raul Baduel, commander of the paratroopers' brigade, and other officers who were loyal. He also spoke fondly of soldiers who during his captivity brought him coffee and told him they were plotting his escape.
Meanwhile, more than 100 military officials had been detained, and officers involved in the conspiracy could face charges, Vice President Diosdado Cabello said.
National Guard commander Gen. Belisario Landis said, "there has been a rupture" within the military. "We must repair it in the best way possible," he said.
Among the soldiers in Maracay, Chavez recalled when in 1992 he led a coup attempt, "it arose from here." The lieutenant colonel's plan failed, and he was imprisoned for two years, then released. Chavez was elected president in 1998.
Maracay, located 60 miles southwest of Caracas, is filled with military installations, including the Air Force Academy. It also is known as Venezuela's "garden city" for its bountiful greenery.
Nothing like getting right to the bottom line.
there was total despair in the subsequent email, after Chavez had resumed power. They fear that there will be retaliation, firings, etc. She reported that there was no press, no news coverage on TV, save for Channel 8 (which i am assuming is a state gov't channel, because she said all that was on there was the idiot Chavez, ranting about how he had been kidnapped and had not really resigned), that there were attacks by Chavistas on perceived "oligarchas" (which basically is anyone with a newish car), and that it was impossible to leave the country by plane. It is a tragic situation. My friend's parents live in Merida, and it is much calmer there, but they still feel that they have to make a decision on whether to stay. Her mother does not want to abandon her country, but her father is originally from Portugal, and he feels that if things get too bad, that they will need to leave.
Let's learn from these South American losers.
If any of us are ever in the position of plotting revolutionary terror, let's remember to not send the deposed tyrant to some island to simmer...
History may speak of the "excesses" of the French Revolution, but the guillotine made sure that the revolutionaries only had to worry about new problems, not the same old ones again...
Mark W.
Didn't the people of DC re-elect Marion Barry?! If it weren't against the law, wouldn't the people of America have re-elected Clinton forever?! Don't the people of MA continue to re-elect Teddy?!
I'm not saying democracy sucks. But I would say that, in a modern media culture, in a culture balkanized by social engineering and heavy-duty psychological/advertising trickery, any rational person must re-evaluate the simple reality of democracy...
Heck, and that's in America, a country with very high adult literacy and a reasonably long tradition of self-education... What about these oddball fringe hell holes around the world where there is no cultural tradition of education or self-directed action? How can we kid ourselves and tell each other that democracy is like a shirt, the people will just put it on like a shirt and that will make politics just magically work...
Look at the PLO. They "elected" Arafat. The US is making Israel "respect" that bit of democracy. Is that any kind of real example of democracy, or is that some kind of Clinton-ized, working definition of democracy that has nothing to do with its real meaning?!
The more I see of modern politics, the more I believe the only workable politics for any serious change will involve -- must involve -- some contemporary, Olvier Cromwell type of figure...
Mark W.
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