Reply #83: He attempted one coup, others the second against a monster,

[Judi Lynn]

Carlos Andres Perez, who raised the price of the public transportation severely, bringing deep hardship to the poor who had no other means of travel, not owning cars themselves.

When they protested in the streets, President Carlos Andres Perez ordered his troops to fire into them, in a massacre which was named "El Caracazo." A quick reference:

A history of economic inequality and violence fuel this polarization, which gained momentum in 1989, when right-wing President Carlos Andres Perez came into power. Perez implemented harmful International Monetary Fund (IMF) structural adjustments, and accepted a massive loan from the IMF which critics claim plunged the country deeper into an economic recession. In 1992 Perez was forced from office on corruption charges.

The Caracazo, an uprising in Caracas against the Perez government in February of 1989, was met with massive military repression which left over 3,000 dead. This event marked a turning point in the country's socio-political landscape. Hugo Chavez, then a young colonel in the army, refused to participate in the Caracazco crack down and in 1992 led an attempted coup d'etat against the Perez government. When the coup failed, Chavez took the blame for it and was imprisoned until 1994.
(snip/...)

http://www.upsidedownworld.org/ven-public-opinion.htm

Hugo Chavez was later pardoned by President Rafael Caldero. The brutal asshole, Carlos Andres Perez,



who is a friend of George H. W. _Bush, was impeached for massive corruption, as in the embezzlement of over $17,000,000, and was sentenced to house arrest. He was obviously a man who was not fit to be President.

So if Hugo Chavez had not led the coup, it definitely would have been led by someone else. Men are not encouraged to have their country's soldiers mow down its citizens in the streets, after all.

Anyone who would think otherwise is an unparalleled idiot.