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CounterPunch
December
9, 2002
The Crisis in
Venezuela
What Happened in Altamira Plaza?
by ROLDAN TOMASZ SUAREZ
After a detailed coverage of the shooting at Plaza
Altamira, commercial TV stations at once started identifying
one of the suspects connecting him to the government of Hugo
Chavez Frias via images conveniently shown to the public a few
days earlier. As in last April s coup attempt, the network of
private TV channels has summarily judged, found guilty and condemned
the President of Venezuela as an assassin based on evidence that
was collected, shown and assessed by the print & broadcast
media at their complete whim.
Allow me to doubt the legitimacy of this
class of media tribunal and contribute some ideas, which, I hope,
will throw a different light on what happened. There are a number
of important questions, which we could answer without having
to appeal to any class of material evidence.
In the first place, who would benefit
most at the moment if such events took place in Plaza Altamira?
Would it benefit the government or the opposition more? Let us
take a look.
Hugo Chavez Frias government has been
persistently accused both nationally and internationally of promoting
violence in Venezuela and of arming the Bolivarian Circles to
repress opposition groups. The events of Plaza Altamira lend
themselves to be easily interpreted within the framework of these
accusations and moreover, to reinforce them.
Simple conclusion: the government cannot
benefit from such an event.
After failing spectacularly in its intent
to force Hugo Chavez Frias' ousting from the Presidency by means
of an indefinite general stoppage, the opposition seems to have
discovered a new topic that it can use as a vehicle for its plans.
Obviously, the idea that Chavez Frias hunts down and kills his
opponents seems good justification to try and topple him by any
means, whether democratic or not.
Simple conclusion: the main beneficiary
of what happened in Plaza Altamira is the opposition.
On the other hand, if the government
was indeed the author of that criminal action what could have
been the objective? Plaza Altamira rebel military officers have
been installed there several weeks without any minor action on
the part of the government to repress them. Then, after several
weeks of media coverage it was blatantly obvious that the Plaza
Altamira military officers were losing their news appeal and
had not fulfilled their declared objective of turning the Armed
Force (FAN) against the government. For the government it would
have been enough to wait patiently for the media show to peter
out and Plaza Altamira no longer represented any danger.
But ... if the government indeed had
wanted to terminate that situation by violent and bloody means,
would not the military officers at Plaza Altamira been the principal
target? Why kill ordinary protesters that were extras in the
show? It is really significant and a matter of concern that none
of the main promoters and protagonists of the Altamira military
rebellion were victims of the shooting. What does this suggest
to the reader?
Finally, if the government had indeed
planned such as crazy action that would be contrary to its own
interests, wouldn't it have planned it better? I want to ask:
could it not at least have made the material authors escape from
the scene of the crime easier or have had them killed after committing
the crime? It would not have been difficult to infiltrate a second
group of assassins into Plaza Altamira to kill the first group
(appealing to the principle of legitimate defense ) immediately
after they fulfilled their mission.
We see, then, that these simple questions
throw serious doubt on the version so diligently worked out and
published by private TV channels.
But there is more.
If we take a certain distance from all
that has been happening over the last days in Venezuela, we immediately
note an extraordinary similarity between the plot of these events
and those of the April coup.
As we remember, the April coup started
off with a call for an indefinite national stoppage undertaken
by the Federation of Chambers of Industry & Commerce (Fedecamaras)
and the Venezuelan Confederation of Trade Unions (CTV). The coupsters
used the Venezuelan oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA)
as an important element in the conflict with the government,
directing multitudinous marches to important PDVSA installations
to bring them to a halt. The private print & broadcast media
were used as an important key in the coup plan, not just to direct
and coordinate opposition marches, but above all, to gradually
spin an image, making government sympathizers out as fanatics
and violent individuals devoid of scruples and armed to the teeth.
The final thrust of the coup occurred
when certain acts of violence very similar to those of Plaza
Altamira and with identical media coverage were attributed immediately
to the Bolivarian Circles, and served as an excuse for military
coupsters to declare themselves in rebellion. It does not need
any more clarification to realize that all these key elements
are present in events that are currently developing in Venezuela.
We see an indefinite general stoppage
called by Fedecamaras and CTV
We see systematic sabotage of PDVSA
Print & broadcast at the total and
absolute service of destabilizing the country
A new spin creating a negative and distorted
image of government sympathizers
And finally serious acts of violence
for which Hugo Chavez Frias government is immediately made responsible,
even though as we have already shown, there are very simple reasons
for seriously doubting this hypothesis.
All that remains to ask is whether they
are attempting to re-edit the same script of the April coup.
[Translated from Spanish by Patrick O'Donoghue]
Roldan Tomasz Suárez is a professor at the Universidad de Los Andes
in Mérida, Venezuela. He can be reached at: roldansu@ula.ve
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