El Caracazo "The Wave of Protests"

It was Monday, February 27, 1989.

Venezuela was hit by protest and rioting wave of the disturbances that have spread across the countries. Security forces killed more than 300 Venezuelans and many of them innocent bystanders. the protesters and looters were on the street of Caracas (Capital of Venezuela).

Many of Venezuelans residents of the poorest neighborhoods that surround the capital are venting their anger at a raft of new government economic measures.

But, What was the Reason for Protest and Riot?

Carlos Andrés Pérez Rodríguez (Click for Large View)

It happens when Carlos Andrés Pérez Rodríguez once again become President of Venezuela on 2nd of February 1989 (term till 21 May 1993).

Previously, he was the president of Venezuela from 12 March 1974 to 12 March 1979. Carlos Andrés Pérez Rodríguez also known as CAP and often referred to as El Gocho.

On Monday, February 27, 1989 and over the weekend Carlos Andrés Pérez liberalization of petroleum prices had kicked in, the first stage of which was an immediate 100% increase in the price of consumer gasoline. While the government had attempted to force small transporters to absorb the majority of the increase, convincing the National Transport Federation to pass on only 30% of the increase to passengers, many smaller federations and individuals refused to respect this agreement. Since their gas costs had doubled overnight, one can hardly blame them.

Then the Protests kicked off during the early commute of informal workers into Caracas. Upon discovering that prices had doubled, many refused to pay. Resistance, rioting, and the burning of buses was reported from a number of suburbs and in cities across the country in early morning. Demonstrations in the eastern suburb of Guarenas (where looting was reported as early as 7:30 O'clock morning), sparked off broader resistance in the region. By 6 O'clock in morning, students had occupied Nuevo Circo station in Caracas, at the other end of the Guarenas-Caracas line, and were publicly denouncing the drivers.

The armed forces massacred thousands of people on February 27th 1989 (Archives United Socialist Party of Venezuela) - (Click for enlarge view)

Joined by informal workers, the crowd at Nuevo Circo moved to north onto Avenida Bolívar, building barricades to block traffic on this major artery. By noon, blockades had spread eastward to Plaza Venezuela and the Central University, southward to the Francisco Fajardo highway, and westward to Avenida Fuerzas Armadas. Revolutionary ferment united students, informal workers, and hardened revolutionaries, and the initial anger at increased transport prices (an anger directed predominantly at individual drivers) was successfully generalized to encompass the entire neoliberal economic package (thereby directing anger directly at the president).

The structure of the informal economy provided more than the constituents of the rebellion: it provided the means of coordination and communication as well, with motorcycle taxis zipping back and forth across the city, drawing the spontaneous rebellion into a broader coordinated picture which more closely resembles what we would consider a revolutionary situation.

The Venezuelan government deployed military personnel to the streets to repress the popular rebellion that began on February 27th, 1989

Meanwhile, a similar pattern was appearing spontaneously in every major Venezuelan city: protests emerged early in the morning in San Cristóbal, Barquisimeto, Maracay, Barcelona, and Puerto la Cruz, and Mérida, and later in the afternoon in other major cities like Maracaibo and Valencia. Some have argued, and rightly so, that the common moniker "Caracazo" is misleading, concealing as it does the generalized and national nature of the rebellion.

Deaths were reported in Caracas as early as the afternoon of the 27th, as police opened fire on students near Central Park. As night fell, sacking and looting became widespread (often aided by the police), touching even the generally untouchable sectors of wealthy eastern Caracas, and more than 1,000 stores were burned in Caracas alone. While many were looting necessities (most video evidence shows people hauling away household products and food, especially large sides of beef) luxuries were not exempt, and as a result many barrios enjoyed a taste of the life so habitually denied, celebrating with fine food and imported whiskey and champagne.

Click for large view

The morning of February 28th saw a mixed picture: in some areas, the police fired indiscriminately with automatic weapons, while in others like the Antimano district of southwestern Caracas, police agreed to permit controlled looting. The government's first attempt to control the rebellion was a spectacular failure: the minister of the interior appeared on live television calling for calm, only to faint on live television thereby forcing the suspension of the broadcast.

At 6 O'clock evening, Pérez appeared on television himself, to announce the fateful decision to suspend constitutional guarantees and establish a state of siege. The simultaneous claim that the country was experiencing a situation of "complete normality" was hardly credible given the decision. This marked both a green light for government repression and the beginning of the end for the rebellion. A curfew was imposed, and those violating it were treated harshly.

Dead Bodies Carried in coffin on truck

Repression was worst in Caracas' largest barrios: Catia in the west and Petare in the east. Police directed their attention to the former, and especially the neighborhood of 23 de Enero, as the organizational brain of the rebellion. Known organizers were dragged from their homes and either executed or "disappeared," and when security forces met resistance from snipers, they opened fire on the apartment blocks themselves (the bulletholes are visible to this day). In Petare, the largest and most violent of Caracas' slums, up to twenty were killed in a single incident, when on March 1st the army opened fire on the Mesuca stairway.

Much of the country was "pacified" within three days, while Caracas saw rioting for more than five days. The human toll of the rebellion has never been entirely clear, especially since the Pérez government obstructed any and all efforts to investigate the events. Subsequent government investigations set the number killed around 300, while the popular imaginary places it around 3,000. Rumors of mass killings led to the 1990 excavation of a mass grave in a sector of the public cemetery called, perhaps not coincidentally, "The New Plague." There, 68 bodies in plastic bags were unearthed, and no one knows how many more deaths were concealed by government forces.

Article by Sandeep Wasnik | Latin America & the Caribbean Countries Expert

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