Word: coups
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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ONCE AGAIN, President Bush has responded swiftly and decisively to an international crisis. To the leaders of an illegitimate coup in Haiti, the heirs of the Duvaliers and the brutal tontons-macoutes, he has quietly acquiesced. But to thousands of fleeing Haitians, Bush has again sent his fighting message: This will not stand...
...Coups fail more often than they succeed, and this one barely got rolling before it was halted. It was organized by a tightly knit group of middle-level officers -- lieutenant colonels, majors and captains -- and it gained no significant support from the generals or civilian power brokers. The big surprise was that it took place in Venezuela, where multiparty democracy has been the rule for more than 30 years. The last serious coup attempt was in 1962, and most observers thought the country had overcome the old habit of military intervention...
President Perez thought so himself. "There will not be a coup here," he said when rumors of rebellion swirled last December. "It is an offense to Venezuelan society to mention such a thing." But danger warnings had been increasingly visible since Perez introduced an austerity program two years ago to bring the overheated economy under control...
...coup makers, the shock was that their move generated so little support. The military high command stood with the government; and the Venezuelan people showed that despite their unhappiness with the economy, they were not ready to give up on democracy. Still, some Venezuelans were concerned that the people did not turn out to demonstrate their support for the government or at least their rejection of military coups. In a straw poll taken after the coup, the opposition paper El Nacional found that most citizens rejected the idea of a dictatorship -- but thought the country's democratic system has lost...
Those who know Perez well say he will continue with his austerity program to show he is not intimidated. He might encourage Congress to raise army pay, but to counter fears that the coup attempt left him entirely too beholden to loyalist officers, he will not concede the military a role in politics. If the threat of a coup has ended, Perez's real test will probably come in next year's presidential elections. After showing their passive commitment to democracy, Venezuelans will be entitled to register their active discontent with their government at the ballot...