WORLD AFFAIRS

A subversive agenda

The Venezuelan Supreme Court's verdict setting free Army officers implicated in the failed coup against President Hugo Chavez is perceived as part of a game plan to destabilise his government.

JOHN CHERIAN

IT was a decision that seemingly defied logic. A full bench of the Supreme Court of Venezuela passed a judgment in the third week of August that allowed four Army officers implicated in the April 2002 coup against President Hugo Chavez to walk away without any charges being framed against them. The judgment has inflamed public opinion, especially among poor Venezuelans, who are staunch supporters of Chavez. There was violence on the streets of Caracas, the capital, as the supporters of Chavez marched to the Supreme Court building to register their outrage. Shots were exchanged between the police and the demonstrators. Caracas Mayor Alfredo Pena, who controls the city's police, seemed eager to precipitate a major confrontation.

The 20-member Supreme Court bench ruled, with a narrow majority, that the four officers, who played active roles in the U.S.-supported coup, were not guilty of military rebellion and hence not liable to face court martial proceedings. It was the third time within the span of a month that the court had given such a ruling, though there was concrete evidence for the culpability of the accused. Before the latest verdict, Chavez had taken the unprecedented step of issuing a warning that the people and the Army would not tolerate any action of absolving the officers of the serious charges levelled against them.

LESLIE MAZOCH/AP
President Hugo Chavez at a rally to celebrate the second anniversary of his re-election on August 18.

Chavez had suggested that some of the judges were swayed by the Venezuelan elite. The old elite, which ruled the country since the early 1950s, is today backed by the conservative Catholic Church and a right-wing trade union leadership. This group has not given up its efforts to destabilise the government of Chavez, despite the setback it received in April. Since he assumed office, Chavez has been engaged in the herculean task of restructuring the Venezuelan economy so as to bring economic benefits to the poor. The oil-rich country has one of the most corrupt elites in Latin America. Chavez' efforts to eliminate the twin scourges of corruption and poverty have not endeared him to those who had monopolised power for several decades.

Chavez described the Supreme Court's decision as an attempt to deny that the coup had actually taken place. Addressing a rally in the coastal city of Cumana, the President termed the decision "totally absurd". At the same time he urged his followers to accept the decision. Chavez said: "Independently of what they decided, we all know history's verdict: In Venezuela, there was a coup against the people and the Constitution."

However, some of his supporters are not willing to take the challenge from the Supreme Court lying down. In the eye of many Venezuelans, the country's judiciary has reverted to its old ways, when justice could be easily subverted by the rich and the mighty. Although reforming the judiciary was high on Chavez' agenda, the tumultuous events of the past one year have derailed, at least temporarily, the Venezuelan government's restructuring programme. Chavez' primary aim is to try and help the vast majority of the Venezuelan people, around 80 per cent of whom are impoverished. Laws approved by the legislature in November 2001 guaranteed free health care and free education up to the university level. The rights of indigenous groups and women were also guaranteed.

THE majority of the judges appointed to the revamped Supreme Court are said to owe their allegiance to former Interior Minister Luis Miquilena. Miquilena was once close to Chavez but has since aligned himself with the oligarchs. When they were close political allies, Chavez had given Miquilena a free hand in nominating Supreme Court judges. Now that the former Interior Minister is a leading figure in the Opposition, the judges appointed during his tenure seem to have switched their allegiance to the Opposition, and in the process are riding roughshod over the country's Constitution and the democratically elected government, whom they are sworn to protect.

The Supreme Court's move has assumed more alarming dimensions as the Opposition has brought against Chavez trumped-up charges ranging from corruption to malfeasance. The Opposition's game plan is to get the Supreme Court to pass strictures against Chavez in order to provide the constitutional rationale to impeach him. Apparently, the Opposition hopes that a "legal coup" will succeed where a military coup failed.

However, from all available indications, Chavez' supporters will not be caught napping this time. Rafael Vargas, a senior Cabinet Minister, has warned that if the judiciary is misused to oust Chavez, then Venezuela could implode into a civil war. Vargas said that Venezuela "is ungovernable without Chavez". He pointed out that Venezuela had experienced both urban and rural guerilla war recently and added that the country's oil wells could easily become the targets.

Vargas' warnings were also directed at Washington. The Bush administration has made no bones about its goal of exercising control over most of the world's oil resources. The war being contemplated against Iraq, the talk of balkanising Saudi Arabia, and the replacement of the Chavez government form an integral part of this agenda.

Even before the coup, Washington had made its dislike for Chavez clear. It had many reasons to be upset with Chavez. Venezuela had refused to give overflight facilities to U.S. military planes which were involved in a campaign against Colombian guerillas. Moreover, Chavez, while condemning the September 11 attacks on the U.S., had questioned the Bush administration's right to fight "terrorism with terrorism".

Washington had substantially increased its covert activities against Chavez by the end of 2001. As the Venezuelan government started to implement his radical domestic agenda, senior Bush administration officials started saying that they would put Venezuela in diplomatic isolation. The international financial institutions with their headquarters in the U.S. indicated that they were willing to support a "transitional" government in Venezuela. However, the attempt to overthrow Chavez failed despite the full backing of Washington. The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which is financed by the U.S. government, was in close touch with Fedecameras, a leading business group, and the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers, the leading anti-Chavez union. Pedro Carmona, who was installed as President by the coup plotters in April, was the head of Fedecameras. In the two days he was in office, Carmona tried to dissolve the National Assembly and scrap the Constitution, which had been approved overwhelmingly by the people.

It was the alliance of the dispossessed people and the Army that foiled the coup attempt. Chavez had used the Army to spearhead his reform programmes. While many Army barracks were converted to schools, Army doctors and nurses participated in the public health programmes initiated by the government. Although a demonstration by a large number of middle-class Venezuelans on the streets of Caracas protesting against Chavez may look impressive, the new political reality is that the hitherto hidden Venezuelan majority, comprising the indigenous people, the mestizos and the blacks, are now strongly united behind Hugo Chavez and they would fight until the last to defend their President.

Chavez, after his return to the Presidential Palace following the defeat of the coup, said: "While it is true that they were deceived for many years, while it is true that they were manipulated for many years, while it is true for many years that they were led around like sheep, it has been demonstrated that the people have definitely awoken; they have discovered their own strength and have become historical actors constructing a new way forward." Resentment is growing all over Latin America against the neo-liberal economic policies favoured by the West. In fact, there is nothing much that Washington can do to stop the Left from re-emerging as a strong force on the political landscape of the region.