Source: The Militant, Vol. 12 No. 49, 6 December 1948, p. 1.
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Totalitarianism scored another triumph in the Western Hemisphere when a clique of Army officers in Venezuela staged a coup d’etat in Caracas Nov. 24.
The program of the new Brass Hat regime can be judged from the decree they issued the following day suspending all sections of the Constitution “relative to the inviolability of correspondence, of the home, of liberty of thought, of travel, of charging address, of leaving the country and returning to it, of public assembly and of individual security.”
On the same day, Lieut. Col. C. Delgado Chalbaud, who appears to be the central conspirator, hastened to assure American Big Business that his military regime would continue “to maintain cordial relations with the United States as always and that all foreign investments in Venezuela would be duly safeguarded and protected.”
Most of the heads of the elected government have been jailed and a man hunt is on for those who went into hiding.
The Romulo Gallegos government, which was overthrown, took office only last February when it won more than 70 percent of the vote in a free election. The Democratic Action party polled 871,000 votes against 262,000 for the Conservative party, the “Copei,” while the Democratic Republican Union party and the Stalinist party received some 50,000 votes each.
It appeared at the time that Venezuela might be granted a breathing spell from the succession of dictatorial regimes that have flourished there under the protecting wing of American imperialism. The Gallegos government even seemed to have won Wall Street’s toleration if not its good will.
But the military clique, shaped in the mold of the former Gomez dictatorship – one of the most brutal and ruthless the world has seen anywhere – saw how quickly Truman recognized the military conspirators who overthrew the legally elected government, in Peru. They drew their own conclusions and acted.
Since the end of World War II, the Truman Administration has fostered and strengthened militarism throughout Latin America thus giving the military cliques even more power and political prominence than they formerly enjoyed. Significantly enough, one of the main conspirators in Venezuela is Lt. Col. Jorge Marcano, a graduate of Kelly Field, Texas, and former military attaché in Washington.
The Truman Administration as well as the capitalist press, shouting about the lack of democracy in Eastern Europe, have taken the establishment of another totalitarian regime in Wall Street’s backyard with complete cynicism. The State Department merely announced that it was still “too early” to discuss formal recognition of the military conspirators although the property of U.S. investors in Venezuela is “safe.”
American capitalists hold about two billion dollars worth of oil property in Venezuela. Standard Oil and Royal Dutch Shell are the principal companies. Bethlehem Steel has a big iron ore concession and U.S. Steel is exploring six concessions.
Last updated on: 29 March 2023