2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt | |||||||
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Top to bottom, clockwise: Demonstrations against President Chávez on 11 April 2002. Caracas Metropolitan Police exchanging gunfire with Chavista loyalists. Chavistas firing from Llaguno Overpass down to Baralt Avenue. Presidential Guard waving Venezuelan flag after retaking Miraflores Palace. |
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Belligerents | |||||||
Cuba |
Alleged support: |
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Hugo Chávez | Pedro Carmona | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
19 dead and 60 - 150+ injured. |
Alleged support:
Spain
The Venezuelan coup d'état attempt of 2002 was a failed coup d'état on 11 April 2002, that saw President Hugo Chávez, who had been elected in 2000, ousted from office for 47 hours, before being restored by a combination of military loyalists and support from the Venezuelan poor.
On April 9, a general strike was called for by the national federation of trade unions, Confederación de Trabajadores de Venezuela (CTV), in response to Chavez's appointments of political allies to prominent posts in Venezuela's national oil company PDVSA. Two days later, up to one million Venezuelans marched in opposition to Chavez in Caracas. When opposition leaders redirected the protestors to the presidential palace, Miraflores, where government supporters and armed Bolivarian Circles were holding their own rally, the two sides confronted each other. Gunshots rang out, and by that evening 19 people were dead, both opponents and supporters of the government. Military high command then convened at Miraflores and demanded Chavez to resign. He refused, was arrested by the military, and denied asylum in Cuba in order to be tried in court.