Ambassador provides lessons in Venezuelan history

Persons with limited knowledge of what took place in Venezuela in April 2002 were brought up to speed last Thursday, April 14, by two events hosted at the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela on Murray Road.

The first schooling was done through an hour-long documentary, dubbed ‘The Revolution will not be televised’, after which persons were invited to view a photo exhibition on the ground floor{{more}} of the Embassy.

Speaking before the documentary was shown, Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in St Vincent and the Grenadines Yuri Pimentel stressed that April is dubbed ‘Revolutionary April’ in Venezuela, as a number of historic events have taken place in that country in the month of April.

He explained that in April 2002, the democratically elected Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, faced a coup d’état, which was alleged to be backed by America. The coup failed just after 47 hours and Chavez was reinstated.

Two Irish filmmakers happened to be making a documentary about Chavez when the coup erupted, so they captured footage of the massive opposition and pro-Chavez crowds and analysed how Venezuelan TV manipulated images for propaganda purposes.

The film’s initial release was in September 12, 2003 in Finland. It was directed by Donnacha O’Briain and Kim Bartley and has received numerous awards, including the Prix Italia for TV Documentary – Current Affairs and the Prix Italia – Signis Special Prize.

Talking about other events that took place in the month of April in his country, the Ambassador, addressing the audience gathered to look at the documentary, commented, “It was on April 19, 1810….when the fight for independence for Spanish rule in Venezuela started. We dismissed the captain general appointed by Spain and constituted the first meeting of an autonomous government”.

He noted that although independence was formally declared in 1811, the Spanish empire was soon replaced by the American empire, against which many Venezuelans also fought.

“The Americans did nothing but deepen imperial domination thirsty for our energy resources. Although many Venezuelans lost their life in the struggle for a truly independent country with social justice for the impoverished majority, we prevailed only with the arrival of Commander Hugo Chavez to the presidency in 1999,” said the Ambassador, who stressed that a revolutionary process started under Chavez.

“The position was not accepted by George W Bush, the president of the United States and on April 11th, 2002, they articulated a fascist coup d’état against the popular and democratically elected government of Hugo Chavez,” said Ambassador Pimentel, who noted that before the coup, Chavez had put a number of things in place to help the poor and make Venezuela sovereign and able to earn royalties for the country’s oil production.

The Ambassador stressed that the coup d’état attempt failed, but saw President Hugo Chávez ousted from office for 47 hours, before being restored by a combination of military loyalists and support from some of Venezuela’s poor.

“…they did not take into the account the consciousness of the Venezuelan people and of the young soldiers…. Chavez was re-elected in 2006 and 2012 but with his death, new presidential elections were won by Nicolas Maduro on April 14th, 2013, three years ago,” said the Ambassador, stressing that persons have never stopped conspiring against the country and the Bolivarian revolution.

He said that Maduro continues to make progress in many areas and the photos displayed at the exhibition reflect some of these achievements.

The Ambassador, however, noted, “today, coups are not always military, but other resources like the media are being used” to wage war on Venezuela.

Also, the Ambassador, once again outlining the significance of April, stated that April 2016, is the 14th anniversary of the reinstatement of President Chavez after the April 11th coup d’ etat, while it is also the third anniversary of the electoral victory of President Nicolas Maduro.