The War on Democracy Page #3

against the empire - it's impossible,

In Washington and Miami

and the country clubs of Caracas

getting rid of Chavez became an obsession

In early 2002, secret plans were laid

by the Venezuelan opposition

with the media leading the attack

Do you think the president is mad?

It's time for all of us

to start discussing the transition

without Chavez, needless to say,

Anti-Chavez protesters took too the streets

their anger inflamed by the media

There has never been someone

so ugly and bad as this,

Hugo Satan Chavez is the Antichrist,

Is the demon, the devil, the dragon, Lucifer,

He should leave immediately,

The campaign too overthrow Chavez

came to a head on April 1 1th 2002,

An anti-Chavez protest march

was called in the centre of Caracas

Out! Out!

Chavez, the die has been cast,

What they didn't know

was that there were two marches that day -

the other one was led by Chavez supporters

outside the presidential palace

known as Mirafloores

The two rallies were supposed to be kept apart

but then an extraordinary series of events

unfolded

Without warning the opposition marchers

were redirected to the presidential palace

by one of the organizers

He announced that the march would be

diverting towards the Miraflores Palace,

People tried to stoop the march

from changing course

but the organizer was having none of it

He responded "I'm in charge here,

so you can mind your own business,"

"This has already been planned

and we are going to Miraflores,"

The opposition marchers were suddenly herded

towards government supporters

As they approached the palace

shoots rang out

(Gunfire)

They were being fired upon by snipers

who shoot them one by one

many with a bullet to the head

Soon afterwards these pictures

began appearing on anti-government TV

blaming the shooting on Chavez supporters

on a city bridge

They kept shooting -

aiming and unloading

their automatic weapons,

This will go down in history,

Thank God there's this evidence,

They're shooting at the people

marching below,

This is an unspeakable act of savagery,

Is this what they call revolution?

However, as this camera angle reveals -

there were no opposition marchers

on the street below the bridge

What the TV pictures did not show was this -

the people on the bridge

are clearly trying too protect themselves

crouching down too avoid the bullets

of unknown snipers above them

and anti-Chavez police units below them

The people on the bridge

were actually defending themselves

It was like a war zone

that they had planned and were controlling,

Within hours these military chiefs

appeared on television

They too blamed Chavez

and his supporters for the killings

Venezuelans,

the President of the Republic

has betrayed the trust of his people,

He is massacring innocent people with snipers,

So far,,,

six people have been killed

and dozens wounded in Caracas,

This is intolerable,

We cannot accept a tyrant

in the Republic of Venezuela,

It was all a set-up

The CNN correspondent in Caracas

Otto Neustald, later revealed

that the generals had recorded their statement

before the shooting

On the evening of the 1 0th,

they phoned me and said,,,

"The march will go towards Miraflores Palace,

There will be deaths

"and 20 high-ranking officers will appear

speaking against the Chavez government,

"and demanding the president's resignation,"

This proves that they were talking about deaths

when there hadn't been a single death yet,

It was all planned,

Soon the presidential palace

was surrounded by renegade army officers

Inside, Hugo Chavez was delivered

an ultimatum - resign or be bombed

One of his cabinet ministers broke the news

It is finally clear this is a coup,

The president has refused to resign,

He is being taken prisoner, this is a coup,

Let the world know,

It's a coup,

A coup against the people who love him.

The plotters announced

that Chavez had resigned

He hadn't, He was kidnapped

The following morning

an unelected dictator was sworn in

He was a leading businessman

called Pedro Carmona

(Cheering and applause)

They were all celebrating,

I watched the whole programe

when they were on television,

You can't imagine how much I cried -

as if my children and my mother had died,

and they are what I hold most sacred

in the world,

Just seeing how they said,

"A new dawn has risen in Venezuela,"

In one amazing proclamation

democracy was demolished piece by piece

We suspend the members

of the National Assembly,

(Cheering)

We suspend the president

and all the members of the supreme court,

(Cheering)

And also the Attorney General,,,

(Cheering)

,,and the head of the Central Bank.,,

(Cheering)

,,and the Ombudsman,,,

(Cheering)

,,and the members

of the National Electoral Board,

(Cheering)

(All) Democracy! Democracy!

You can't possibly imagine what that decree

did to us, It was such a terrible situation,

because we saw the past,

the repression coming back.-

the need to struggle for everything,

In the United States the broadcast media

carried the same pictures

and the same story used to justify the coup

The Bush administration made it clear

it is happy with the change in leadership

in the country responsible

for 1 5% of America's oil imports,

Anthony Mason has our report,

(Mason) In the end, this is what triggered

the overthrow of Hugo Chavez,

Armed gangs

loyal to the Venezuelan president,

firing on thousands

of anti-government protesters,

After 1 6 people were killed

and hundreds wounded,

Last night

soldiers surrounded the presidential palace,

At the White House the spokesman

of President Bush rubber-stamped the story

Let me share with you

the administration's thoughts

about what's taking place in Venezuela,

We know the action encouraged by

the Chavez government provoked this crisis,

The Chavez government

suppressed peaceful demonstrations,

fired on unarmed peaceful protesters,

resulting in ten killed and 1 00 wounded,

That is what took place and a transitional

civilian government has been installed,

Back in Venezuela three years of modest

democratic reform had been overturned

Fortunately, we have a great weapon

which is the media,

As you and the people saw today,

neither the army nor the armed forces

fired a single shot,

Our weapon was the media,

The plotters and their friends

had everything to celebrate

or so they thought

The next morning

distraught people began phoning

one of the independent radio stations

still broadcasting

(Woman) My soul aches for my son

and daughter and all the young ones

who will be adrift, at the mercy

of all these corrupt people

who have thrown this country into total chaos,

It's immoral,

(Man) The hope of a people is gone,

The constitution's gone,

Democracy's gone,

The hope of the children is gone,

But hope had not gone

The truth began to emerge

that the resignation of Hugo Chavez

had been faked

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