Chávez removes coup generals
The Miami Herald reported on May 19 that 106 generals and
admirals who had supported the coup against President Hugo
Chávez of Venezuela have been removed from their posts.
Only six of them have actually been charged, however. The
others remain in the military but without command
authority.
Venezuela has had 260 generals and admirals--a huge number
of high-ranking officers for a country of 24 million people
that has not waged a war in many years. That's about three
times as many general officers per person as in the U.S.
Obviously, Chávez inherited a large number of
high-ranking officers promoted in years past by the oligarchy
for reasons of patronage and privilege.
"Another 500 lower-ranking officers were sent home under
suspicion of supporting the coup or failing to back the
president on April 11," says the Miami paper. They included the
commanders of the barracks in Caracas, who allowed the coup
members to take over the presidential palace until a mass
mobilization of hundreds of thousands forced them to flee. In
that confrontation, most rank and file soldiers defied their
officers and came over to the side of the people.
--D. Griswold
Reprinted from the May 30, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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