April 11th, 2002
April 11, 2002...
...was a special day in the history of Venezuela. In the middle of difficulties, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans, of all different groups and sectors of the country, men and women, young people and adults, everyone decided to unite spontaneously to demand the respect of our rights. That march came from several points of Caracas city with the sole purpose of peacefully concentrating on PDVSA Chuao and from there demanding the respect of our rights.
The overflowed crowd grouped...
...and marched along with leaders of the political parties and of the different national sectors, ready, mainly to arrive at the headquarters of PDVSA in Chuao and then, for the recklessness of an irresponsible political leader that history should Condemn, they decided to get to Miraflores, without counting the ambush that terrorist groups were mounting at that time in the vicinity of the Palace.
Venezuelans from all sectors...
...political and social groups, civil and military, joined that historic day to support the resignation of Hugo Chavez and the beginning of the path towards democracy in the country, an illusion that brought frustration after reality and despair.
Civilians and soldiers of both tendencies played to obtain the power which led to the (then) designated to lead the country in a moment of transition, to make blunders that led to the end of an attempt that would give more strength to the Chavez regime and that would allow it to survive until now.
After meetings and conversations...
...with many of the active participants, I joined the march, next to General Guaicaipuro Lameda, a man who generated confidence then, a man who had impacted public opinion for his unimpeachable public management and his critical stance on the Chavez government, who at that time faced enormous unpopularity. General Lameda and I were very concerned that the call to the concentration had become a march to the Miraflores Palace, with the risks that this entailed and for that reason we decided to double the pace of the march to reach the peak of it.
The peacefulness stopped existing there...
...before the savage attack of dozens of snipers and paramilitary groups, as well as the National Guards themselves, throwing stones and bottles as the graph shows, creating terror in the surroundings of the Miraflores Palace.
Esta fotografía muestra el momento....
...en que el empresario Pedro Carmona Estanga, ofrece una rueda de prensa el 13 de abril de 2002 en el antiguo despacho del Ministro de la Defensa en el Fuerte Tiuna, en la que primero daba lectura al decreto que anunciaba la restitución de todos los poderes del Estado que arbitraria e ilegalmente éste había disuelto el día anterior y luego presentaba su renuncia a la Presidencia de la República asumida después que el General en Jefe Lucas Rincón Romero le anunciara al país que al Presidente Hugo Chávez se le había pedido la renuncia
"LA CUAL ACEPTÓ".
Escoltaron en este acto a Pedro Carmona Estanga, el Prof. Robert Carmona-Borjas de la Universidad Simón Bolívar quien fue la persona que redactó dicho decreto de restitución de poderes y garantías constitucionales y con el apoyo del General de Brigada Guaicaipuro Lameda lograron persuadir a Carmona Estanga para que lo oficializara a través de los medios de comunicación en esa rueda de prensa. Momentos después de esta rueda de prensa Pedro Carmona Estanga fue detenido.
MORE PICTURES
"Protagonists found into the people, valuable men who led the way, General Lameda present, with whom I shared not only the first rows in the most hopeful moments, later distressing, but in the Miraflores Palace amid confusion and the struggle of Interests among some who still played to the return of Chavez to power, sought to occupy positions in what would be the nefarious Government of Pedro Carmona Estanga, puppet of the economic interests of the group of La Colina. Carmona Estanga was a serene and even friendly man. However, he could not control the appetite of one of the most powerful economic groups in Venezuela, which was seeking machiavellianically to install itself in power."
