![Caracazo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Caracazo.jpg)
The ''Caracazo'' is the name given to the wave of protests, riots and looting
[.] that started on 27 February 1989 in
Guarenas
Guarenas is a city in Miranda, Venezuela. It was established in 1621 as ''Nuestra Señora de Copacabana de los Guarenas''. It is part of the Guarenas-Guatire conurbation
On February 27, 1989, a morning protest in this city over the recent nati ...
, spreading to
Caracas
Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...
and surrounding towns. The weeklong clashes resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people, thousands by some accounts, mostly at the hands of security forces and the military.
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
, March 1990, Reports of Arbitrary Killings and Torture:, February/March 1989, AI Index: AMR 53/02/90, https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr53/002/1991/en/ The riots and the protests began mainly in response to the government's economic reforms and the resulting increase in the price of gasoline and transportation.
Etymology
The term, “Caracazo,” stems from the city’s name,
Caracas
Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...
, and “-azo,” which stems from another historic event, the
Bogotazo
El Bogotazo (from "Bogotá" and the ''-azo'' suffix of violent augmentation) refers to the massive riots that followed the assassination in Bogotá, Colombia of Liberal leader and presidential candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán on 9 April 19 ...
, was a massive riot in
Bogotá
Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...
, recognized as having a crucial role in Colombia’s history. “Caracazo” is technically defined as the “Caracas smash” or “the big one in Caracas” based on Spanish dialect.
Background
A fall in oil prices in the mid-1980s caused an economic crisis to take hold in Venezuela, and the country had accrued significant levels of debt. Nevertheless, the administration of President
Jaime Lusinchi
Jaime Ramón Lusinchi (27 May 1924 – 21 May 2014) was a Venezuelan politician who was the president of Venezuela from 1984 to 1989. His term was characterized by an economic crisis, growth of the external debt, populist policies, currency dep ...
was able to restructure the country's debt repayments and offset an economic crisis but allow for the continuation of the government's policies of social spending and state-sponsored subsidies.
Lusinchi's political party, the
Democratic Action, was able to remain in power following the
1988 election of
Carlos Andrés Pérez
Carlos Andrés Pérez Rodríguez (27 October 1922 – 25 December 2010) also known as CAP and often referred to as '' El Gocho'' (due to his Andean origins), was a Venezuelan politician and the president of Venezuela from 12 March 1974 to 12 M ...
as president. Pérez based his campaign in his legacy of abundance during his
first presidential period and initially rejected liberalization policies;
he received 53% of the vote, while the others gained at least 40%. At the time his election, Venezuela's international reserves were only $300 million USD; Pérez decided to respond to the debt, public spending, economic restrictions and
rentier state
In current political-science and international-relations theory, a rentier state is a state which derives all or a substantial portion of its national revenues from the rent paid by foreign individuals, concerns or governments.Mahdavy 1970, p. ...
by liberalizing the economy.
He announced a
technocratic
Technocracy is a form of government in which the decision-maker or makers are selected based on their expertise in a given area of responsibility, particularly with regard to scientific or technical knowledge. This system explicitly contrasts wi ...
cabinet and a group of economic policies recommended by the
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster globa ...
(IMF) to fix macroeconomic imbalances known as ' ( en, The Great Turn), called by detractors as ''El Paquetazo Económico'' ( en, The Economic Package). Among the policies there was the reduction of fuel subsidies and the increase of public transportation fares by thirty percent.
[Margarita López Maya, 2003. "The Venezuelan Caracazo of 1989: Popular Protest and Institutional Weakness", ''Journal of Latin American Studies'', Vol.35, No.1 (2003), pp 120-121 (See #Further reading).]
Measures taken by Pérez included privatizing state companies, tax reform, reducing customs duties, and diminishing the role of the state in the economy. He also took measures to decentralize and modernize the Venezuelan political system by the direct election of state governors, who had previously been appointed by the president. The most controversial part of the economic reform package was the reduction of the gasoline subsidies, which had long maintained domestic gasoline prices far beneath international levels and even the production costs. The economic adjustment program was announced by the government on 16 February and on the weekend of 25–26 February 1989, gasoline prices rose 100 per cent and the fuel price increase in turn needed an increase in public transportation fares of 30 per cent officially, and more in practice as some carriers refused to limit their prices to the official rate.
The increase was supposed to be implemented on 1 March 1989, but bus drivers decided to apply the price rise on 27 February, a day before payday in Venezuela.
According to retired Venezuelan General Carlos Julio Peñaloza Zambrano, Cuban agents might have entered Venezuela during Carlos Andrés Pérez's inauguration ceremony, which was attended by
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 200 ...
, and may have waited for unrest to occur in Venezuela so they could exacerbate political tensions.
Protests and rioting
![Caracazo looting 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Caracazo_looting_2.png)
The protests and rioting began on the morning of 27 February 1989 in
Guarenas
Guarenas is a city in Miranda, Venezuela. It was established in 1621 as ''Nuestra Señora de Copacabana de los Guarenas''. It is part of the Guarenas-Guatire conurbation
On February 27, 1989, a morning protest in this city over the recent nati ...
, a town in
Miranda State
Miranda State ( es, link=no, Estado Miranda, ) is one of the 23 States of Venezuela, states of Venezuela and the second most populous after Zulia State. As of the 2011 census, it had a population of 2,675,165 residents. It also has the greatest Hu ...
about east of Caracas, due to the increase in public transportation prices.
[El Caracazo Case, Judgment of 11 November 1999]
Inter-American Court of Human Rights, accessed 1 May 2007 A lack of timely intervention by authorities, as the was on a
labour strike
Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to Labor (economics), work. A strike usually takes place in response to grievance (labour), employee grievance ...
, led the protests and rioting quickly spread to the capital and other towns across the country.
Despite initial debate within the government over how to manage the situation, a heavy-handed approach was implemented as a
state of emergency
A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to be able to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state du ...
and
martial law
Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory.
Use
Marti ...
were imposed.
On February 28, Pérez suspended a number of articles of the Constitution, including Article 60 (right to individual liberty and security), Article 62 (inviolability of the home), Article 66 (freedom of expression), Article 71 (right to gather publicly and privately), and Article 115 (right to peaceful protest).
[Crisp, Brian F. (1998),]
Presidential Decree Authority in Venezuela
, in John M. Carey and Matthew Soberg Shugart (eds, 1998), ''Executive decree authority'', Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press
A university press is an academic publishing hou ...
. p150 The rights were not completely restored until March 22, and in the interim, there was no official decree or resolution to define how government authority would be exercised in the absence of those constitutional rights.
[
]
By the time authorities encountered the scenes of rioting, citizens began firing weapons at officers, with the ensuing firefights resulting in many bystanders being killed by "bullets from army troops and from sniping protesters." In many poor areas, citizens destroyed their own local commercial facilities, with food markets so damaged that their food distribution system was ruined. Much of the rioters destroyed properties indiscriminately, with no motives related to initial protests. According to Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
, tactics used by security forces included "disappearances," the use of torture, and extrajudicial killings. As part of the government's security forces, members of Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, except for a brief period in 2002. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Republ ...
's MBR-200
The Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 (Movimiento Bolivariano Revolucionario 200 or MBR-200) was the political and social movement that the later Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez founded in 1982. It eventually planned and executed the Febr ...
allegedly participated in the crackdown. Chávez himself was sick that day with measles
Measles is a highly contagious infectious disease caused by measles virus. Symptoms usually develop 10–12 days after exposure to an infected person and last 7–10 days. Initial symptoms typically include fever, often greater than , cough, ...
. As tensions eased, troops began to sweep through neighborhoods collecting appliances and cash registers and informing citizens that if they provided a certificate of purchase, the items would be returned.
The initial official pronouncements stated that 276 people had died[ but many estimates put the number at above 2,000.][Crisp, Brian F. (1998),]
Presidential Decree Authority in Venezuela
, in John M. Carey and Matthew Soberg Shugart (eds, 1998), ''Executive decree authority'', Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press
A university press is an academic publishing hou ...
. p157 Shortages of coffins were reported and many Venezuelans had to line up at government food distribution centers since markets were destroyed by rioters. Insurance estimates of damage caused during the rioting were $90 million USD ($120 million CAD).
Aftermath and consequences
On March 3, 1989, President Carlos Andres Pérez spoke with U.S. President George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...
. President Bush offered Pérez a US$450 million emergency loan. Pérez thanked Bush and asked him to support a change in debt policy toward Latin America: "I want to tell you if there is no change in nternationaldebt policy then whatever we may do here may be useless." Pérez told Bush that he had sent him a letter several days earlier and that he would appreciate it if he would read it.[Bush Presidential Library, 3 March 1989, Memcons and Telcons, https://bush41library.tamu.edu/files/Press--Meetings%20with%20Foreigners%201989.pdf] Pérez also visited Bush in Washington on April 1, 1989.
Political instability
The clearest consequence of the ''Caracazo'' was political instability. The following February, the army was called to contain similar riots in Puerto La Cruz and Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
and again in June, when rising of transportation costs ended in riots in Maracaibo
)
, motto = "''Muy noble y leal''"(English: "Very noble and loyal")
, anthem =
, image_map =
, mapsize =
, map_alt = ...
and other cities. The reforms were modified.
The MBR-200
The Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 (Movimiento Bolivariano Revolucionario 200 or MBR-200) was the political and social movement that the later Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez founded in 1982. It eventually planned and executed the Febr ...
, which in 1982 had promised to depose the bipartisanship governments, repudiated the Caracazo and accelerated its preparation for a coup d'état
A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...
against the Perez government. In 1992, there were two attempted coups in February and November. Pérez was later accused of corruption and removed from the presidency. Chávez, a MBR-200
The Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 (Movimiento Bolivariano Revolucionario 200 or MBR-200) was the political and social movement that the later Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez founded in 1982. It eventually planned and executed the Febr ...
leader and an organiser of one of the coups, was found guilty of sedition and incarcerated. However, he was subsequently pardoned by Pérez's successor, Rafael Caldera
Rafael Antonio Caldera Rodríguez ( (); 24 January 1916 – 24 December 2009), twice elected the president of Venezuela, served for two five-year terms (1969–1974 and 1994–1999), becoming the longest serving democratically elected leade ...
, and he went on to be elected president after the latter."[
]
Investigations
A commission was established in the Venezuelan Congress with all its political parties to investigate the events during the Caracazo and unanimously voted for a report that concluded that 277 people were killed.
In 1998, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (the IACHR or, in the three other official languages Spanish, French, and Portuguese CIDH, ''Comisión Interamericana de los Derechos Humanos'', ''Commission Interaméricaine des Droits de l'Homme'', ...
condemned the government's action and referred the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR or IACtHR) is an international court based in San José, Costa Rica. Together with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, it was formed by the American Convention on Human Rights, a huma ...
. In 1999, the Court heard the case and found that the government had committed violations of human rights
Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...
, including extrajudicial killings. The Venezuelan government, by then headed by Chávez, did not contest the findings of the case and accepted full responsibility for the government's actions.
In August 2009, Defense Minister Italo del Valle Alliegro was charged in relation to the Caracazo. In July 2010, the Supreme Court overturned an appeal court ruling, which had declared the case covered by a statute of limitations
A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In m ...
.['']Latin American Herald Tribune
The ''Latin American Herald Tribune'' (''LAHT'') is an online-only newspaper with headquarters in Caracas, Venezuela. It is aimed at English-reading people who want to be informed about Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique La ...
'', 2 August 2010
Venezuela’s Ex-Defense Chief May Face Charges for ‘89 Repression
In popular culture
Román Chalbaud
Román Chalbaud (born 10 October 1931) is a Venezuelan film director and screenwriter, as well as a prominent playwright. Starting work in television after prestigious training, Chalbaud moved into making films before the industry took off i ...
's 2005 homonymous film, '' El Caracazo,'' features an account of the events.
The Venezuelan rock band La Vida Bohème
La Vida Bohème is a rock band from Caracas, Venezuela, formed by Rafael Perez, Daniel De Sousa, Sebastian Ayala, and Henry D'Arthenay in late 2006 and mid-2007. The band takes influence from late '80s punk, disco, funk, electronic music, jazz, s ...
also sings about the Caracazo.
See also
*Bogotazo
El Bogotazo (from "Bogotá" and the ''-azo'' suffix of violent augmentation) refers to the massive riots that followed the assassination in Bogotá, Colombia of Liberal leader and presidential candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán on 9 April 19 ...
*Cordobazo
The Cordobazo was a civil uprising in the city of Córdoba, Argentina, at the end of May 1969, during the military dictatorship of General Juan Carlos Onganía, which occurred a few days after the '' Rosariazo'', and a year after the global protes ...
*Rosariazo
The Rosariazo () was a protest movement that consisted in demonstrations and strikes, in Rosario, , between May and September 1969, during the military dictatorial rule of ''de facto'' President General Juan Carlos Onganía. The Rosariazo was ...
*Dakazo
''Dakazo'' refers to a set of actions taken by the Venezuelan government forcing consumer electronic retail stores, with Daka being the most prominent, to sell products at much lower prices on 8 November 2013, weeks before municipal elections. ...
* List of massacres in Venezuela
Further reading
* Margarita López Maya, "The Venezuelan Caracazo of 1989: Popular Protest and Institutional Weakness", ''Journal of Latin American Studies'', Vol.35, No.1 (2003
pp. 117–37
*
The President's Telephone Conversation with President Carlos Andres Perez of Venezuela on March 3, 1989.
George H.W. Bush Presidential Library Archives
Memcons and Telecons
Accessed October 26, 2011.
References
Bibliography
*
*
External links
*
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{{Authority control
Massacres in Venezuela
Riots and civil disorder in Venezuela
Protests in Venezuela
1989 in Venezuela
1989 riots
Carlos Andrés Pérez
Political riots
Political repression in Venezuela
Looting
February 1989 events in South America
Inter-American Court of Human Rights cases
March 1989 events in South America