The caracazo or sacudón is the name given to the wave of protests, riots and looting that occurred on 27 February 1989 in the Venezuelan capital Caracas and surrounding towns. The riots — the worst in Venezuelan history — resulted in over 3000 deaths, mostly at the hands of security forces. February 27 is the 58th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Nickname: La Sultana del Avila (English:The Avilas Sultan) La Sucursal del Cielo (English:Branch of Heaven) Motto: Ave María Santísima, sin pecado concebida, en el primer instante de su ser natural. ...

The word caracazo is the name of the city plus the suffix -azo, which implies a blow and/or magnitude. It could therefore be translated as something like "the Caracas smash" or "the big one in Caracas". Sacudón is from sacudir "to shake", and therefore means something along the lines of "the day that shook the country". (See Spanish nouns: Other suffixes.) The Spanish language has nouns that express concrete objects, groups and classes of objects, qualities, feelings and other abstractions. ...

The words are pronounced IPA: [kaɾa'kaso] (American Spanish) or /kaɾa'kaθo/ (European) and IPA: [saku'ðon], respectively. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words see here. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words see here. ...

Lead-up

In the context of the economic crisis that Venezuela had been going through since the early 1980s, President Carlos Andrés Pérez proposed to implement free-market "reforms" in his second presidential term (1989–1993), following the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Pérez belonged to the Acción Democrática (AD) party (social-democrat). This programme was known as the paquete — the "package". The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... List of Presidents of Venezuela José Antonio Páez (1830-1835) José María Vargas (1835-1837) Carlos Soublette (1837-1839) José Antonio Páez (1839-1843) Carlos Soublette (1843-1847) José Tadeo Monagas (1847-1851) José Gregorio Monagas (1851-1855) José Tadeo Monagas (1855-1858) Julián Castro (1858... Perez during his first presidency Carlos Andrés Pérez Rodríguez (born October 27, 1922), best known as CAP was President of Venezuela from 1974 to 1979 and again from 1989 to 1993. ... The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an international organization that oversees the global financial system by observing exchange rates and balance of payments, as well as offering financial and technical assistance when requested. ... The Democratic Action(Acción Democrática or AD) is a Venezuelan social democratic political party. ...

Measures taken by Pérez included privatising state companies, tax reform, reducing customs duties, and diminishing the role of the state in the economy. He also took measures to decentralize and modernise the Venezuelan political system, by instituting the direct election of state governors (previously appointed by the President).

Protests and rioting

The protests and rioting began in Guarenas (a town in Miranda State, some 30 km east of Caracas) on the morning of 27 February 1989. They quickly spread to the capital and other towns across the country. By the afternoon, there were disturbances in almost all districts of Caracas, with shops shut and public transport not running. Satellite image of Guarenas (left) and Guatire (right) Guarenas is a city in Miranda, Venezuela. ... Estado Miranda is one of the 23 states (estados) into which Venezuela is divided. ... February 27 is the 58th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In the days that followed, the media showed images of the looting and damage caused. For many months, there was discussion about how something so violent could occur in Venezuela.

Overwhelmed by the looting, the government declared a state of emergency, put the city under martial law and restored order albeit with the use of force. Some people used firearms for self-defence, to attack other civilians and/or to attack the military, but the number of dead soldiers and police came nowhere near the number of civilian deaths. The repression was particularly harsh in the cerros — the poor neighbourhoods of the capital.

The initial official pronouncements said 276 people had died; however, the subsequent discovery that the government had buried civilians in mass graves and not counted those deaths raised the estimates. Unofficial estimates of the death toll go as high as 3000. Grave in Sarajevo during the siege in 1992-1993. ...

Congress suspended constitutional rights, and there were several days during which the city was in chaos, with restrictions, food shortages, militarisation, burglaries, and the persecution and murder of innocent people. The National Assembly (Spanish Asamblea Nacional) is the current legislative branch of the Venezuelan government. ...

Consequences

The clearest consequence of the caracazo was political instability. The free-market reforms programme was modified. In 1992 there were two attempted coups d'état, in February and November. Carlos Andrés Pérez was accused of corruption and removed from the presidency. Hugo Chávez, 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, and went on to be elected president after him. A coup détat (pronounced ), or simply coup, is the sudden overthrow of a government through unconstitutional means by a part of the state establishment — mostly replacing just the high-level figures. ... Hugo Chávez meets with fellow conspirator Francisco Arias Cárdenas prior to the February 4, 1992 coup attempt. ... Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (IPA: ) (born July 28, 1954) is the 53rd[1] and current President of Venezuela. ... Rafael Caldera Rodríguez (born 24 January 1916) was president of Venezuela from 1969 to 1974 and again from 1994 to 1999. ...

In 1998, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights condemned the government's action, and referred the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. In 1999, the Court heard the case and found that the government had committed violations of human rights, 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. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (the IACHR or, in Spanish, CIDH) is one of the two bodies that comprise the inter-American system for the promotion and protection of human rights. ... The Inter-American Court of Human Rights is an autonomous judicial institution based in the city of San José, Costa Rica. ... Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ...

References

The original draft of this article was translated from the corresponding article on the Spanish Wikipedia, written by es:Usuario:Jdiazch and accessed 1 June 2005.

External links

• Gallery of Caracazo photos
• Judgement of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (PDF)