Open Files – Pedro Carmona Estanga and a Coup d'état That Failed

Open Files. An exhaustive investigative report on the lives and works of Latin America's and the world's most controversial personalities. Today’s program takes a look at the role played by Pedro Carmona Estanga in the U.S. backed military coup that briefly deposed President Hugo Chavez on April 11, 2002. The head of Venezuela’s business confederation FEDECAMARAS and Opus Dei member only ruled for 47 hours. In this report we learn about the months of planning that went into the coup and the destabilization actions in which Carmona was not just a puppet, but a key player. Other significant actors were United States Ambassador Charles Shapiro and two lieutenant coronels assigned to the embassy. When the military junta took power in April, Carmona briefly assumed the presidency of Venezuela. Despite the orders of Otto Reich, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the time, who was apparently concerned about overly extreme measures backfiring, Carmona dissolved the National Assembly, dismissed Supreme Court magistrates and closed all government institutions. Through Reich, the United States issued only one brief statement indicating that Chavez himself was to blame for the coup. Due to mass protests by the Venezuelan people and sectors of the army loyal to the Constitution, President Hugo Chavez was returned to power on April 13. Carmona, who had indicated in private statements that the plan was not just to overthrow Chavez, but to kill him, fled to Colombia, where he was welcomed by then President Alvaro Uribe and continues his far right-wing conspiratorial activities. teleSUR