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| - The Venezuelan coup d'état attempt of 2002 was a failed coup d'état on 11 April 2002, that saw the late President Hugo Chávez ousted from office for 47 hours, before being restored by a combination of military loyalists and massive public support for his government. Chávez was initially detained by members of the military and of pro-business elites represented by Venezuelan Federation of Chambers of Commerce (Fedecámaras) president Pedro Carmona, who was declared as the interim president. Carmona's brief rule saw the Venezuelan National Assembly and the Supreme Court both dissolved and the country's 1999 Constitution declared void. In Caracas, the coup led to a popular pro-Chávez uprising that the Metropolitan Police unsuccessfully tried to suppress. Key sectors of the military and parts of the anti-Chávez movement also refused to back Carmona. The pro-Chávez Presidential Guard eventually retook the Miraflores presidential palace without firing a shot, leading to the collapse of the Carmona government and the re-installation of Chávez as president. The coup was publicly condemned by leaders of Latin American nations (the Rio Group then gathered in San José, Costa Rica at the time) who issued a joint communiqué to that effect. On the other hand, the United States and Spain both rushed to acknowledge the (pro-US) Carmona forces as the de facto government but ended up choosing to condemn the coup once it became clear the plotters had been unsuccessful. The coup had apparently been planned for some six to nine months. The decision to try to overthrow Chávez came on the heels of what they hoped were a number of controversial laws Chávez passed that November attempting to strengthen government control over Venezuela's national oil company, PDVSA. A general strike was called for in December 2001. Whereas early 2002 saw calls for Chávez's resignation coming from a number of leading military figures. By early April the ensuing power struggle saw an escalation of the strike at PDVSA, which became a general strike with support coming from the national federation of trade unions Confederación de Trabajadores de Venezuela (CTV) and the pro-capitalist business group Fedecámaras. On 11 April, marchers were rerouted to the presidential palace where pro-Chávez supporters were holding their own rally. Efforts by civil authorities to keep the opposition marchers away from the palace were thwarted by media reports encouraging a clash. As the opposing sides neared each other, shots rang out. By that evening, some nineteen people were dead, with more wounded. The opposition media aired footage of Chávez supporters firing handguns from a bridge and alleged that it showed them firing on unarmed protesters. However, additional footage shows that the Chávez supporters were both being fired upon themselves and were also firing at a largely empty street, rather than a march. Chávez supporters claimed that unidentified snipers were responsible for the deaths. The opposition media immediately blamed these deaths on "Chavistas", whom they claimed to have actually filmed firing on unarmed marchers from a bridge. This narrative was largely accepted without question by the international news media. Meanwhile Chávez supporters claimed that unknown snipers were responsible for most, if not all, of the deaths.[citation needed] The mainstream of Venezuelan media outlets are privately owned, and which side they were on was made abundantly clear in the way events were covered. The privately owned yet "public" media played a key role in the coup, providing continuous coverage of the general strike leading up to it, as well as having supported the dangerous rerouting of coup supporters to Miraflores Palace where pro-Chávez supporters were assembled that same day. Venevisión, owned by Gustavo Cisneros, played a key role, with pro-coup leaders meeting there after the 11 April march and appealing to the military to intervene on their behalf. It was also Venevisión that claimed to have filmed "Chavistas" firing from the bridge. This footage was edited by Venevisión in a way that suggested a planned ambush of opposition marchers by pro-Chávez gunmen. The private media refused to interview pro-government officials after the march, and once protests broke out following news of Chávez's detention, declined to give any coverage to that. Attempts by Chávez supporters to disclose that Chávez had not resigned, and was being held prisoner, were ignored or cut off. A key military division's attempt to publicize its rejection of the coup was ignored and reported only by CNN. After Chávez supporters retook Miraflores, the major networks stopped providing news reports altogether, with two of the three major newspapers cancelling the Sunday edition, claiming "safety concerns" for the lack of will. After the coup, the Organization of American States (OAS) established a "mesa" dialogue process, as it had in Peru following the May 2000 elections. At Chávez's request, the Carter Center and UNDP were also involved. In order to facilitate participation in this process, the anti-Chávez opposition created the Coordinadora Democrática (CD); however, the CD continued to pursue non-electoral means to overthrow what is undoubtedly a democratically elected Chávez government. CD became involved in organizing the Venezuelan general strike of 2002–2003. After the collapse of that effort, the CD began organizing the Venezuelan recall referendum, 2004.
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