Civil-Military Relations in Venezuela after 11: April Beyond Repair? Strategic Insights: v.1, issue 3 (May 2003)
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Authors
Trinkunas, Harold A.
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Advisors
Date of Issue
2002-05
Date
May 2002
Publisher
Monterey, CA; Naval Postgraduate School
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Abstract
On the evening of 11 April 2002, the third day of a general strike against the government, the Venezuelan armed forces rebelled against their president, Hugo Chávez Frias. Reacting to the bloody clashes between pro- and anti- government demonstrators near the presidential palace, the commander of the Army, General Efraim Vásquez Velasco, announced in a nationally televised address that he would no longer obey presidential orders. Other senior generals and admirals soon followed him onto the airwaves, expressing their solidarity with the Army commander and their opposition to the president. Within hours, the senior military officer in the Venezuelan armed forces, General Lucas Rincón Romero, announced President Chávez's resignation. This document discusses the future status of civil-military relations in Venezuela since any future democratic government in that country will have to contend with the reemergence of the military as a political actor.
Type
Article
Description
This article appeared in Strategic Insights (May 2002), v.1 no.3
Series/Report No
Department
National Security Affairs (NSA)
Organization
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
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Citation
Strategic Insights, v.1, issue 3 (May 2002)
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This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.