I guess we can leave the 11th behind, but who can forget the 12th?
I, for one, had never seen the raw footage in this video.
#40 … g’night!
The Book
In praise of Blogging the Revolution
“Caracas Chronicles has been an indispensable source of lucidity and perspective in these turbulent times in Venezuela. Toro and Nagel have been right on target, without pretending to be ludicrously impartial; they have been able to rise above polarization, trying hard to make sense of an often implausible reality. Blogging the Revolution shows them at their best. If you are not already a fan, you will become one.”
- Francisco J. Monaldi, RFK Visiting Professor at Harvard Kennedy School and Director, Center on Energy at IESA in Caracas.Recent Comments
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Note that when Carmona is brought the decree to sign it, they say “Presidente de la República de Venezuela.”
The sad thing about these off-the-cuff quickies, and in this instance, Quico’s revisionism, is the blindness that conveniently avoids context. Yeah, context is messy. It kills the intoxication from self-publishing so many posts in few days. Wheee, look at me!
To redress the balance, I’d ask: Is Carmona really the bad guy? I see him more like a cross between an opportunist and a tool designated by the quiet hand of the military, in the small hours of April 12, 2002. That is, after General-in-Chief, Lucas Rincón declared, over national television: “Deplora el Alto Mando Militar los lamentables acontecimientos sucedidos en la capital en el día de ayer, ante tales hechos se le solicitó al señor Presidente de la República la renuncia de su cargo, la cual acectó. Los miembros del Alto Mando Militar ponemos a partir de este momento nuestros cargos a la orden, los cuales entregaremos a los oficiales que sean designados por las nuevas autoridades.”
That oh-so-critical declaration is never mentioned in the propaganda video that caused Quico such glee.
Here’s something else to chew on: In light of the vacancy (vacío de poder) caused by Chavez’ resignation – and the military’s likely unwillingness to become too up-front, who else was going to appoint Carmona? Better to let him to take a Napoleonic route and auto-declare himself president. It must have been intoxicating for the little guy.
Lastly, one wonders if Chávez’ resignation and restoration wasn’t a set-up from the get-go. But that’s just one too many questions causing too much of a mess. Better to keep dancing. The self-publishing music is too hard to resist.
Oops, I left out JC in my diatribe.
Syd,
For the record, I found the video, but I didn’t write the captions in it! Did you think I or Quico did…?
Oh Ethel, I think both you and Lucy were writing the video captions, when you weren’t wrapping chocolates.
;-) It’s getting hard to keep up with the total of your 20 flying fingers. So stop wrapping chocolates and get back to normal. Please.
lkjashrñoiuheoñnaosimds…
(chocolate in my keyboard)
:)
Syd, For added context, consider that at least three admirals and a general involved in the Carmonazo had been cooking a coup *before* chavez’s first coup. That is, it wasn’t because of chavez that they were backing a coup, but despite chavez. In fact, they saw chavez as a worsening of the reasons that had gotten them thinking of a coup in the first place, with CAP.
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