Llaguno Overpass events

The Llaguno Overpass (Puente Llaguno in Spanish), also known as the Llaguno Bridge, is a bridge in central Caracas, Venezuela, near the Miraflores Palace, made infamous by the events of 11 April 2002, when a shootout took place between the Caracas Metropolitan Police and the pro-government Bolivarian Circles, also known as El Silencio Massacre, causing 19 deaths and 127 injured people.

Llaguno Overpass events
View from the Llaguno Overpass down to Baralt Avenue.
Lead figures
 • Pro-government demonstrators

 • National Guard

 • Bolivarian Circles		  • Anti-government demonstrators  • Metropolitan Police
Casualties and losses
19 dead
127 injured

Background

11 April march

The crisis came when "workers and business leaders," infuriated by Chávez's "meddling in the state oil company," as the Chicago Tribune put it, joined in "calling for a general strike that cut exports" in support of striking oil workers.[1] The strike began, according to The Washington Post, "as a managerial protest at the state-run oil company, but evolved into a broad effort supported by the country's largest business and labor groups to force Chávez from power."[2] After days of general strikes and protests involving thousands of Venezuelans, on 10 April, a speech was held at the CTV headquarters, where CTV and Fedecámaras held speeches that involved a Brigadier General denouncing Chávez's alleged involvement with FARC, and the announcement of a march the next day with the possibility of an indefinite strike.[3] The march on 11 April was to begin at 9:00am, starting at Parque del Este and ending at the PDVSA headquarters.[3]

On 11 April, just hours before an operation to take over the PDVSA by force was to begin, General Rosendo, knowing the consequences of such an action, talked Chávez out of the plan.[4] Later that day, hundreds of thousands to millions of Venezuelans marched to the PDVSA headquarters later that day in defense of its recently dismissed management board.[5][6] Chants of "Miraflores! Miraflores! Miraflores!" could be heard throughout the march with participants calling for a march to the Miraflores Palace.[7] The organizers of the march announced the decision to reroute the march and "descend on Miraflores presidential palace to force the president to resign".[8] By late morning, speakers at the rally at PDVSA headquarters called for a march to Miraflores, and the crowd approved and began the six-mile march.[9] The march was re-routed without consultation with the police, who legally had to approve the changed route.[10] The government, upon seeing how events were unfolding on television, called for a halt in the progress of demonstrators so that the very real possibility of a violent confrontation taking place between the marchers and thousands of Chavistas already gathered there at the palace might be avoided.[11]

Shootout

By 12:30 pm, thousands of government supporters were gathered around the palace blocking all routes to Miraflores except for the Llaguno Overpass, which was where the Bolivarian Circles had gathered to overlook the route.[12] As the march turned a corner and began to approach the Miraflores at about 2:00 pm, the National Guard fired about 12 tear gas canisters from behind the palace walls and the protesters fled back down the road.[13][14] As more marchers pressed toward Miraflores, the leaders of the protest, Guaicaipuro Lameda and Rear Admiral Molina Tamayo, "kept calling on them to surge forward for a direct assault on the palace about two hundred yards away" and urged the crowd to advance through the tear gas about 20 minutes after the initial confrontation.[14] The protesters made it closer to Miraflores and the Presidential Guard responded with more tear gas, about 20 gas canisters causing panic and dispersion of the demonstrators to areas surrounding the palace.[13]

Since other routes were blocked by the National Guard, many marchers began to head down Baralt Avenue in order to reach Miraflores.[15] On Baralt Avenue, near the Llaguno Overpass as the march inched closer hundreds of Chávez supporters gathered and began throwing large rocks, Molotov cocktails and even tear gas at the demonstrators.[15][16][17] As marchers and Chavistas clashed, the Metropolitan Police attempted to separate both sides from further confrontation with two trucks with water cannons.[15] Police motorcycles pushed the opposition towards the Chavistas, and as a police tank turned onto the main street, gunfire broke out shortly after 3:00pm.[13][14] By that time, Lameda, Molina Tamayo, Carmona, and CTV leader Carlos Ortega had already left the area.[18]

A few minutes after Chávez's broadcast at 3:45 pm, gunfire erupted again and the march began to disperse slightly.[19] As the demonstrators marched closer to the Llaguno Overpass, they could see Chavistas heavily armed, some with pistols.[19] Police began to disperse the Chavista gunmen returning fire and few demonstrators began to follow behind them with pings of gunfire heard on the police armored vehicles, though the marchers fled shortly after as the violence grew.[19] According to the medical staff at the Vargas Hospital, the first to arrive at the hospital were opposition marchers.[20] According to surgeons, the marchers had been shot in the back with handgun fire while fleeing and others were severely injured from 7.62×51mm NATO military rounds from Fal rifles, the standard equipment of the National Guard defending Chávez.[20] Later after police responded to the pro-Chávez shooting, Chávez supporters then began being seen injured in the hospitals.[20] As a result of the confrontations, between 17 and 19 were left dead[21][22] and around 60 injured,[23] most killed between 3:20 pm and 3:55 pm.[22]

Responsibility
External media
Images
Gallery of the violence and other images related to the coup.
Video
The shooting of opposition marcher Jesús Orlando Arellano, resulting in the first fatality of the day.
Photographer Jorge Tortoza being shot and killed followed by protester Malvina Pesate being shot in the face from the pro-Chávez crowd.
Pro-Chávez gunman Erasmo Sánchez being carried away after being shot. He was reportedly the first pro-Chávez fatality of the day.

The majority of the violence that took place on 11 April 2002 was near the Llaguno Overpass. There is no consensus as to who was responsible for the deaths on that day, and this remains a very controversial issue. The opposition version of events puts the blame on Chávez, or at least on his supporters. Many groups of the Bolivarian Circles gathered near the Llagano Overpass before the march reached the area.[24] A Venevisión camera positioned on a rooftop that afternoon captured images of people using handguns to shoot from the pro-Chávez counter-march being held on the Llagano Overpass, an overpass that crosses one of central Caracas's busiest avenues; it is unclear who they are shooting at, but the opposition argues that they were shooting at the opposition march and responsible for the deaths.[25]

Supporters of Chávez have alleged that the opposition conspired to cause casualties during the incident with Chávez allies such as Jorge García Carneiro and Lucas Rincón Romero claiming that[26] CNN correspondent Otto Neustald said that on the morning of 11 April he recorded a video message from a number of high-ranking military officers, led by Vice Admiral Héctor Ramírez, which was broadcast later in the day. The message held Chávez responsible for massacring innocent people using snipers, referring to at least six dead and dozens wounded.[27][28] According to Neustald, the message was recorded at least two hours before the killings started. However, this claim has never been proven and is contested by the rest of the reporters present, such as Javier Ignacio Mayorca, Mayela León, and Adrián Criscaut, who affirmed that the military officers were informed of the death of Tortoza during the filming of the message.[29] The Chavista gunmen that were seen shooting off the bridge argue that they were, in fact, returning fire at unknown snipers and Metropolitan Police firing towards them. There are reports that claim seven were arrested at the Hotel Ausonia and that they were later freed in the chaos of the coup while there were also empty shells found at the Hotel Edén.[30] According to Chávez supporter Gregory Wilpert, video and audio recordings were allegedly provided at the trial of Metropolitan Police leaders which suggested plainclothes police had infiltrated the La Nacional building and were allegedly sniping on the opposition marchers and police below.[23] The La Nacional building housed the offices of pro-Chávez mayor Freddy Bernal.[31] Bernal, a Chávez supporter and former leader of an elite police force, was accused by a Venezuelan military officer of complying with orders from the Defense Ministry to shoot opposition demonstrators.[31] It was also reported that the National Guard, which was firing tear gas and combatting the opposition protesters, did not pay any attention to the gunmen on the La Nacional building and that it was the Metropolitan Police who had attempted to go to the building.[32] Bernal dismissed the allegations as "totally false".[31]

The 2003 documentary titled The Revolution Will Not Be Televised shows footage captured from another angle by an amateur cameraman of the gunmen firing while the street below is portrayed to be empty; although another documentary, X-Ray of a Lie and American academic Brian Nelson argue the former's footage is manipulated and obscures Metropolitan Police on the street below.[33]

The 2004 documentary Puente Llaguno: Claves de una Masacre claimed that the Chavistas on the bridge did not begin shooting until 4:38 pm, by which time most of the opposition deaths had already occurred.[22] Some of the victims, both opposition and Chavistas, were claimed to be shot in locations not reachable from the bridge, being around corners from the main street[22] with an eyewitness with military experience, who was shot himself, reported most victims being killed with precise head shots.[34] Most of the opposition deaths were at least 300 yards away from the bridge; according to some, too far to be killed by the Chavistas' pistols.[22] According to Nelson, such claims are false showing that opposition demonstrator Jesús Arellano was killed just before 2:30 pm, with photos showing Chavistas further up the street brandishing firearms and closer than purported by the earlier sources.[33]

Within the next 15 minutes, two other opposition demonstrators were shot at 2:45 and 4:30 pm, the Metropolitan Police responded to the Chavista gunfire by going between the marchers and the Chavistas. The Chavistas responded to the Metropolitan Police by moving further up the street and at around 4:35 pm, began firing down from Llagano Bridge onto Baralt Avenue below. Police responded to the Chavista gunfire, with one Chavista who was laying on the bridge being shot in the face, with his body positioning of lying down and facing the Metropolitan Police below possibly resulting in the headshot. Ricochets were also possible from Chavistas ranks firing through the spokes of the railing on the bridge. After 5:30 pm when most of the gunfire concluded, the filmmakers of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised used manipulated footage in order to show an empty Baralt Avenue that Chavistas was overlooking.[33] A vehicle used by the Metropolitan Police later showed that approximately 600 bullets impacted the vehicle's side that was facing north toward the Puente Llaguno bridge.[35]

In 2012, Nelson concluded after a five-year investigation that sharpshooters were not involved in the conflict and that the day's violence began when several Chávez supporters standing at street level fired handguns into a crowd of protestors; opposition-led Metropolitan Police later returned fire, leading to injuries and deaths among both government opponents and supporters.[36]

Criminal investigation

The people filmed shooting from the Puente Llaguno bridge were initially identified as being pro-Chávez political activists Rafael Caprices, Richard Peñalver, Henry Atencio, and Nicolás Rivera. They were captured by the police and jailed for one year as they awaited trial, but charges were dropped before the trial began. Rafael Cabrices died from a heart attack three years later, in August 2005.[37]

See also

References
  1. Chicago Tribune, April 16, 2002, Tuesday, Military played crucial roles in Chavez's ouster, return, BYLINE: By Patrice M. Jones, Tribune Foreign Correspondent, SECTION: NEWS; ZONE: N; Pg. 3
  2. The Washington Post, April 13, 2002 Saturday, Leader of Venezuela Is Forced To Resign; Ex-Oil Executive Takes Office as Interim President, BYLINE: Scott Wilson, Washington Post Foreign Service, SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01
  3. ""PARO" UPDATE/GENERAL STRIKE ANNOUNCED" (PDF). United States Department of State. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 November 2010. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
  4. Nelson, Brian A. (2009). The silence and the scorpion : the coup against Chávez and the making of modern Venezuela (online ed.). New York: Nation Books. p. 51. ISBN 1568584180.
  5. Hawkins, Kirk A. (2010). Venezuela's Chavismo and populism in comparative perspective (1st publ. ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521765039.
  6. Newsweek, 29 April 2002, Hugo's Close Call
  7. Nelson, Brian A. (2009). The silence and the scorpion: the coup against Chávez and the making of modern Venezuela (online ed.). New York: Nation Books. p. 13. ISBN 1568584180.
  8. Jones (2008:317)
  9. Jones (2008:319–320)
  10. Espinoza, Ocarina (2005). "Sucesos de Abril de 2002: Tres días que marcaron la historia del país" (in Spanish). Unión Radio. Archived from the original on 22 August 2008. Retrieved 12 July 2007.
  11. Jones (2008:320)
  12. Nelson, Brian A. (2009). The silence and the scorpion: the coup against Chávez and the making of modern Venezuela (online ed.). New York: Nation Books. pp. 23–25. ISBN 1568584180.
  13. "TALE OF TWO CITIES – THE MARCH ON MIRAFLORES PALACE" (PDF). United States Department of State. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 November 2010. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
  14. Jones (2008:322–3)
  15. Nelson, Brian A. (2009). The silence and the scorpion : the coup against Chávez and the making of modern Venezuela (online ed.). New York: Nation Books. pp. 29–32. ISBN 1568584180.
  16. Nelson, Brian A. (2009). The silence and the scorpion : the coup against Chávez and the making of modern Venezuela (online ed.). New York: Nation Books. pp. 29–30. ISBN 1568584180.
  17. Nelson, Brian A. (2009). The silence and the scorpion : the coup against Chávez and the making of modern Venezuela (online ed.). New York: Nation Books. p. 34. ISBN 1568584180.
  18. Jones (2008:326)
  19. Nelson, Brian A. (2009). The silence and the scorpion : the coup against Chávez and the making of modern Venezuela (online ed.). New York: Nation Books. pp. 41–44. ISBN 1568584180.
  20. Nelson, Brian A. (2009). The silence and the scorpion: the coup against Chávez and the making of modern Venezuela (online ed.). New York: Nation Books. pp. 103–106. ISBN 1568584180.
  21. The Washington Times, April 25, 2002, Thursday, Final Edition, The fall and rise of Hugo Chavez, SECTION: EDITORIALS; Pg. A18, http://w3.nexis.com/new/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T17875073295&format=GNBFI&sort=BOOLEAN&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T17875094500&cisb=22_T17875073299&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=8176&docNo=8
  22. Bart Jones (2008), Hugo!, p. 328.
  23. Gregory Wilpert, NACLA, "The Venezuelan Coup Revisited: Silencing the Evidence", NACLA Report 42(4)
  24. Nelson, Brian A. (2009). The silence and the scorpion: the coup against Chávez and the making of modern Venezuela (online ed.). New York: Nation Books. p. 23. ISBN 1568584180.
  25. Jones (2008:327–8)
  26. Jones (2008:335)
  27. Jones (2008:326–7)
  28. Special Broadcasting Service, 11 November 2002, Venezuela – Anatomy of a Coup, Journeyman Pictures
  29. Meza, Alfredo; Lafuente, Sandra. "V". El acertijo de abril (in Spanish). La Hoja del Norte. p. 134. ISBN 978-980-7212-14-4.
  30. Bart Jones (2008), Hugo!, p. 329
  31. Rohter, Larry (25 June 2010). "Oliver Stone's Latin America". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  32. Nelson, Brian A. (2009). The silence and the scorpion : the coup against Chávez and the making of modern Venezuela (online ed.). New York: Nation Books. p. 59. ISBN 1568584180.
  33. Nelson, Brian Andrew. "A PHOTOGRAPHIC CHRONOLOGY OF THE VIOLENCE ON BARALT AVENUE". BrianAndrewNelson.com. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  34. Bart Jones (2008), Hugo!, pp. 323–324.
  35. "LOS POLICÍAS SENTENCIADOS". El Universal. 7 April 2013. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  36. Toro, Francisco (10 April 2012). "Remembering a Massacre". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 May 2014.
  37. "Falleció de un infarto Rafael Cabrices" (in Spanish). Radio Nacional de Venezuela. 30 August 2005. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 4 March 2007.

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