Editor's Comment:  The following article describes The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, the film documentary of the 2002 Coup d'etat against Hugo Chavez Frias, President of Venezuela.  This description was written and translated into English by Siv O'Neall, Lyon, France who sent it to us with correspondence. 

Ms. O'Neall points out the flagrant attempts by the U.S. corporate media to hide from the U.S. population the facts about what happened that rueful day in Caracas when the U.S. funded Venezuelan minority of very wealthy people conducted stormed the presidential palace and kidnapped President Chavez, taking him to a prison in the Carribean in a plane registered in the United States. 

The opposition to the democratically-elected President Chavez is funded by the National Endowment for Democracy and the Carnegie Institute for International Peace, - both located in Washington, D.C.  European populations viewed the extraordinary documentary on television stations, while the United States corporate media executed a successful blackout of the film.  Now the film has been mysteriously taken out of circulation.  However, if you would like a copy of the film in DVD, free of charge, please contact us at Axis of Logic in the United States or Andy Goodall, Editor of Venezuelan Solidarity in the U.K. 

We thank Siv O'Neall for her incisive media-scalpel that exposes the cancer of suppression that infects the U.S. corporate press today - a western media monopoly that has surrendered all pretense of journalist integrity in service to the corporate global empire. - Les Blough, Editor

ARTE (French/German tv channel)
by Siv O'Neall in Lyon, France

April 29, 2003

"Coup d'etat against Hugo Chavez"

Documentary by Kim Bartley and Donnacha O'Brien (Ireland, 2003) Unpublished

”At the origin of this documentary, Kim Bartley and Donnacha O'Brien were preparing a portrait of Hugo Chavez, the former lieutenant colonel elected president of Venezuela in 1998, reelected in 2000, adored by the people but detested by the middle class, the business community, the oil industry, the privately owned media and the Bush administration. Their documentary, begun in September 2001, is starting out with this picture. It centers in on the charisma, the popularity and the populism of the person who promises the 80% of Venezuelans who live below the poverty level a just sharing-out of the manna from the oil industry. It also shows the aggravation of the anti-Chavez campaign by the privately owned TV channels. Up to this point, nothing very unusual. The documentary changes abruptly on April 11, 2002 when a coup d'etat - stirred up by the business community - overthrows Chavez. The two moviemakers were then in the front row, even inside the presidential palace. Forty-eight perfectly crazy hours follow (arrest of Chavez, the power taken over by the business leader Pedro Carmona, intervention by the presidential guard, the rout of the putschistas and the triumphal return of the deposed president) all of which we watch intently throughout this extremely engrossing documentary.”

Laurent Thévenin     (translated from blurb in Telerama, cultural television magazine)

Three programs on French TV on April 29, 2003 (ARTE,  French-German, mainly cultural channel) about South America ("L'Amérique latine dans la tourmente" - "Latin America in turmoil"). The first 70-minute program about Venezuela - "Coup d'etat against Hugo Chavez" by Kim Bartley and Donnacha O'Brien (for BBC) was a cliff-hanger. All the CIA back-stage manipulations were shown up in clear daylight. The Venezuela bougeoisie manipulated by the CIA, the bold lies published on the four private TV channels. Only one channel left for Chavez to counter the bourgeois propaganda.

During the short-lived coup, last April 11-13, even that channel (called Channel 8) was taken over by the CIA-supported group, the bourgeoisie and the business community, who claimed of course that they were 'reinstalling democracy'. The sheer love of the people for Chavez personally and their enthusiastic support of his political goals was showing up very clearly, extremely moving. You had a feeling you were watching an extremely well made movie - only it was real.

The suspense was incredible, even though you knew the outcome. When the army decided to go with Chavez, the game was over for the putschistas. There were scenes from inside the palace when the army decides to take over the premises and make the coup backfire.  The documentary moviemakers happened to be making the documentary when the coup started and they were inside the presidential palace at the very time. The biggest scoop you can possibly imagine.

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