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International
Chavez backers may try for civil war
2002-04-13
  • The sprawling slums of Venezuela's capital seethed with rage on Saturday at the military coup that toppled populist President Hugo Chavez as his political backers struggled to regroup and organize protests. A wildly gesticulating group surrounded a Reuters crew at a market in the grimy working-class neighborhood of Petare, shouting that they would fight back. "There's going to be a civil war here. The people are going to rise up," yelled Antonio Orellana, 65. With the fiery former paratrooper in military custody, his supporters said they would try to take their seats in the National Assembly for a scheduled session on Monday even though the new military-backed interim government has decreed the parliament's abolition.
    That should make things interesting, without helping the country much...
    It seems that the coup has collapsed, and Chavez is now back in power. Apparently not just the slum dwellers rebelled, but large numbers of enlisted people in the armed forces rebelled against the junta, which thereupon collapsed. I have no idea what's going to happen next, except that Washington, which praised Chavez's ouster, now has a ration of egg on its face and the problem of dealing with a person who is now going to be absolutely insufferable.
    Posted by Joe 4/14/2002 10:01:06 AM
    • Posted by:Fred Pruitt

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