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The Venezuelan coup attempt of 1992 was an abortive Coup D'état led by Hugo Chávez . The coup was directed against the Carlos Andrés Pérez government and its Neoliberal policies. Despite its failure, this coup left a legacy of extended class polarization and controversy that lasts to the present day, and rocketed Chávez to the national spotlight. BACKGROUND INFORMATION Through Chávez's early life, Venezuela had enjoyed a period of economic and democratic stability that was remarkable in South America at the time; the stability was based on the massive foreign exchange earnings from oil sales. However, when Saudi Arabia and other United States -aligned oil producers significantly raised their production output in an attempt to collapse the heavily oil-dependent Soviet economy, a glut ensued. Oil prices collapsed to historic lows, and Venezuelan oil earnings, and economic and social stability in general, were suddenly imperiled as Per Capita Income fell to a fraction of its previous levels. Responding to this, in 1989 the Carlos Andrés Pérez administration enacted widely unpopular IMF -inspired Structural Adjustment programs. The programs' backers sought to restore fiscal stability to Venezuela's ailing economy by way of Neoliberal policies, such as curtailing social spending and releasing longstanding Price Controls on many goods. These policies resulted in many hardship for Venezuela's poor majority, and their resultant discontent erupted in the violent February 27 , 1989 Caracazo riots—the most violent and destructive in Venezuelan history. Origins of the Coup The 1992 Coup Attempt in Venezuela has its origins based in the system of 'partyarchy' and the government's subjective control of the military. From 1959, Venezuelan politics had been dominated by two major political parties, the Democratic Action party (AD) and COPIE. During the pre-Bolivarian era, these two parties had formed themselves into a loose coalition which became known as a 'partyarchy', rule by parties. This type of government soon led to problems with corruption, particularly in the wake of an oil boom. Oil revenues had been up 54% during the Perez government of 1975 to 1979. Money was diverted from the government into the hands of officials. The courts who had aligned themselves along party lines and were reluctant to convict those accused of corruption. Corruption and partyarchy were later blamed for many problems including an economic crisis in the 1980s. The coup was also partially caused by the way the Venezuelan government had chosen to run the military. Under an objective military system, the military and civilians are separated. A subjective system relies on the military working together with the civilian population. Middle ranking military officers were sent out in the field to work with civilians. The main goal was to democratize the military. The exact opposite would happen. When military officers, including Hugo Chavez, saw the conditions in which Venezuela's poor lived, they became disenchanted with the country's system of government. Corruption was blamed for the problem This feeling was being felt by the nation's citizens as well. By 1990, the government had ceased attempts to satisfy them. People began searching for alternatives to the corruption of Venezuelan democracy. Riots erupted in 1989 to protest government corruption. The MBR-200 The MBR-200 (Movimiento Bolivariano Revolucionaro 200) was founded by lieutenant colonels Hugo Chavez Frias and Francisco Arias Cardenas. They used the Venezuelan revolutionary hero Simon Bolivar as their group's symbol. Their main point dispute was the corruption of the Carlos Andres Perez as well as Venezuela's ongoing economic difficulties and social turmoil. In the view of these two men, the entire political system had to be changed in order for social change to occur. THE COUP UNFOLDS After an extended period of popular dissatisfaction and economic decline . under the Neoliberal administration of Carlos Andrés Pérez , Chávez made extensive preparations for a military-civilian Coup D'état . Initially planned for December, Chávez delayed the MBR-200 coup until the early twilight hours of February 4 , 1992 . On that date, five army units under Chávez's command barreled into urban Caracas with the mission of assaulting and overwhelming key military and communications installations throughout the city, including the Miraflores presidential palace, the defense ministry, La Carlota military airport, and the Historical Museum. Chávez's ultimate goal was to intercept and take custody of Pérez before he returned to Miraflores from an overseas trip. Chávez held the loyalty of some 10% of Venezuela's military forces;. still, numerous betrayals, defections, errors, and other unforeseen circumstances soon left Chávez and a small group of other rebels completely cut off in the Historical Museum, without any means of conveying orders to their network of spies and collaborators spread throughout Venezuela.. Worse, Chávez's allies were unable to broadcast their prerecorded tapes on the national airwaves in which Chávez planned to issue a general call for a mass civilian uprising against Pérez. As the coup unfolded, Pérez eluded capture, and fourteen soldiers were killed, and 50 soldiers and some 80 civilians injured, in the ensuing violence.. Nevertheless, rebel forces in other parts of Venezuela made swift advances and were ultimately able to take control of such large cities as Valencia , Maracaibo , and Maracay with the help of spontaneous civilian aid. Chávez's forces, however, had failed to take Caracas.. Chávez, alarmed, soon gave himself up to the government. He was then allowed to appear on national television to call for all remaining rebel detachments in Venezuela to cease hostilities. When he did so, Chávez famously quipped on national television that he had only failed "''por ahora''"—"for the moment".. Chávez was immediately catapulted into the national spotlight, with many poor Venezuelans seeing him as a figure who had stood up against government corruption and Kleptocracy .. Afterwards, Chávez was sent to Yare prison; meanwhile, Pérez, the coup's intended target, was impeached a year later. While in prison, Chávez developed a Carnosity of the eye, which spread to his Iris . The clarity of his eyesight was slowly corrupted; despite treatments and operations, Chávez's eyesight was permanently weakened. A second coup attempt in November 1992, while Chávez was still in prison, also failed. Why The Coups Failed The first coup attempt in 1992 was largely unsuccessful due to a lack of planning by the MBR-200. The organizers had been too secretive and failed to gain control of the media. The first coup proved to be popular among civilians. Polls taken after the attempted showed that roughly half of Venezuelans approved a military coup in order to enact social change, but not necessarily a military government. However, roughly 70 percent still approved of solving the nation's problems through democratic means. A second coup was later to take place on November 27th, 1992. This coup also largely failed for much of the same reasons as the first one. The military had also been cracking down on the middle ranks in order to keep them loyal to the nation. The second coup was mainly conducted by the air force. It proved violent but was largely unsuccessful. AFTERMATH , 1994 , being interviewed by reporters immediately after his pardoning and release from prison.]] With Pérez's public image discredited by the unsuccessful neoliberal reforms and shattered by the coup attempts, other politicians began to challenge his authority, endangering the decades-old two-party '' Puntofijismo '' system. The turmoil and failed coups were utilized by former president Rafael Caldera to comment on the gradual deterioration of Venezuelan democracy and the explosive conflation of poverty and corruption in the nation. Subsequent actions by intellectuals associated with Caldera resulted in Pérez's ousting from the presidency on May 2 , 1993 , on charges of corruption. Swift political maneuvering allowed Caldera to gain the presidency in 1993 with a heterogeneous and non-traditional group of small independent political parties. Chávez's imprisonment While Chávez was in prison, he developed a Carnosity (a small fleshy excrescence) of the eye; the condition gradually spread to his Iris , and the clarity of his eyesight was slowly corrupted. Chávez was operated on while still in prison, but his eyesight remains severely compromised to this day. Chávez later cited this experience as important in his avowed sympathy towards those without access to quality eye care and healthcare, particularly those poor people whose learning and life are disrupted by preventable and operable eye conditions such as congenital Cataract s. SEE ALSO NOTES REFERENCES
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