Venezuela: 2014 is not 2002 - Rafael Uzcátegui

A Venezuelan anarchist responds to the government's cries that the current wave of protests across the country is akin to the 2002 right-wing coup attempt.

Submitted by Steven. on February 23, 2014

At the bottom of all the recent events, President Nicolás Maduro assures us, is a “golpe de estado” [a coup] in process, one that is repeating the “script of April 2002.” If it’s true that in a magical realist country like Venezuela nothing is impossible, we still believe that the conditions of 2014 are so different that it would seem impossible that there could be a breaking of the constitutional fabric, at least in the terms that we witnessed 12 years ago.

In the first place, the fragile leadership of Maduro contrasts greatly with the ascendency that Hugo Chavez and his followers enjoyed. In the absence of a figure around which the events of 2002 developed, today the government, as well as the opposition, and each side is undergoing a crisis of representation and internal disputes between tendencies for political dominance.

Secondly, if the government has been effective in anything, it has been in the purging of the middle and upper ranks of the Armed Forces, unifying and strengthening the military support for the Bolivarian project. By comparison, the opposition has an overwhelmingly minor influence over those in uniform.

Thirdly, the comparison between the media with a pro-government line with the dissident media was relatively equal in 2002, with a slight edge in favor of the opposition. That’s very different today. The State has efficiently reached its project of communicational hegemony, and now controls television; it has neutralized sectors of the radio and it is boxing in the print media, the only space where it isn’t preponderant, by means of controlling access to foreign exchange for the import of supplies.

Fourthly, in 2002 there were guns used by both sides, now this is the sole option of the State, which is also incorporating repressive forces, as well as parapolice groups for the dispersal and control of demonstrators. If such forces were present in the “Camonazo,”1 Their activity today is much more structured and evident with different levels of participation and much less control on the part of the central authority of the Executive.

The government’s portrayal of itself as a victim after the April 2002 has been an effective communication strategy both inside and outside of the country to criminalize dissent. Will it continue to be effective?

Rafael Uzcátegui is co-editor of the Venezuelan anarchist/social movement newspaper El Libertario, author of Venezuela: Revolution as Spectacle (2010, See Sharp Press) and social researcher for the Venezuelan human rights group, PROVEA. He can be followed on twitter at @fanzinero. Translation by Clifton Ross

  • 1Pedro Carmona, also known as “Pedro the Brief” the figurehead of the April 2002 coup that took Chávez from power for two days.

Comments

gomes l

10 years 8 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by gomes l on February 24, 2014

there are some people in Roar's blog which are posting some pretty interesting comments on regards of the quality of El Libertario's analysis, as well as the political views of those who support it. I recommend the readers of this article to check the comments on this post:
http://roarmag.org/2014/02/anarchist-perspective-protests-venezuela/

Pennoid

10 years 8 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Pennoid on February 24, 2014

Yeah, this is bizarre.

erikathered

10 years 8 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by erikathered on February 24, 2014

Appreciated this article, I've been seeing indiscriminate support from both liberals and leftists, the former for the protestors and the latter for the government, and both have been distressing to me. This put a lot of the discussion around the protests in perspective.

Entdinglichung

10 years 8 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Entdinglichung on February 24, 2014

http://www.uit-ci.org/index.php/donde-encontrarnos/venezuela/797-venezuela-contra-el-ajuste-economico-y-la-restriccion-de-las-libertades-democraticas-imovilizacion-y-unidad-de-los-trabajadores-y-el-pueblo ... a text by the Partido Socialismo y Libertad which is the Venezuelan section of the "Morenist Trotskyite" UIT, they're basically calling for a "Third Camp" of the working class in defence of "workers' and people's rights"

Felix Frost

10 years 8 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Felix Frost on February 25, 2014

gomes l

there are some people in Roar's blog which are posting some pretty interesting comments on regards of the quality of El Libertario's analysis, as well as the political views of those who support it. I recommend the readers of this article to check the comments on this post:
http://roarmag.org/2014/02/anarchist-perspective-protests-venezuela/

I think there are valid critisisms to be made of El Libertario, and I find a lot of their material lacking in class analysis. However, I still prefer El Libertario over the mindless anti-imperialism expressed in some of the comments over at roarmag, where the most important issue seems to be if you are sufficiently against US foregn policy...