Civil-Military Relations in Venezuela after 11: April Beyond Repair? Strategic Insights: v.1, issue 3 (May 2003)

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.