The Guacamaya

The Coup: From the Ashes

Episode 8  |  How did Hugo Chávez return to power after the 2002 coup? In this episode, we follow the chaotic hours after Chávez was removed from power, the rise of Pedro Carmona’s short-lived interim government, the disastrous Carmona Decree, and the reversal that brought Chávez back to power less than 48 hours later.  April 2002 would become one of the great founding myths of Chavismo.  But the real story is more complicated.  This is the story of how Hugo Chávez rose from the ashes.

The Coup: Chávez Falls

Episode 7  |  How was Hugo Chávez removed from power in 2002?  On April 11, 2002, more than half a million Venezuelans marched through Caracas toward Miraflores Palace. By nightfall, people were dead in the streets—and Chávez had fallen.  But the president's dramatic fall didn't come out of nowhere.  In this episode, we trace the months of escalating confrontation that pushed Venezuela to the brink. As Chávez moved to impose his will on the institutions he did not control, both he and his opponents grew more radical, more organized, and more desperate.  The pressure was building—and in April 2002... Venezuela exploded.

Revolution? What Revolution?

Episode 6  |  Was Hugo Chávez always a socialist?  Not exactly. When Chávez first came to power, he rejected socialism and communism—but embraced another label: revolutionary. In this episode, we trace the ideological roots of Chávez’s "Bolivarian Revolution," from Simón Bolívar and Ezequiel Zamora to Fidel Castro and Norberto Ceresole. We look at how Chávez’s vision evolved, and how it began shaping Venezuela. We also revisit one of the earliest warnings against Chávez’s authoritarian turn: Jorge Olavarría’s dramatic 1999 speech denouncing the president to his face. By 2001, Venezuela was not yet the authoritarian state it would later become. But the logic was already there: the enemies, the language, and the revolutionary fervor. This is the story of what Chávez’s “revolution” really meant—before the world came to know it as "socialist."

Supreme Court Suicide

Episode 5  |  Why didn’t the Supreme Court stop Hugo Chávez?  In this episode, we trace the moment when Venezuela’s democracy began to unravel—not through tanks or coups, but through legal decisions, political strategy, and the quiet collapse of institutional power. We follow Chávez’s first months in office: his push for a Constituent Assembly, the Supreme Court’s fateful rulings, and the electoral system that allowed him to dominate the body that would rewrite the Constitution. What emerged was not just a new legal order, but a transformation of how power was exercised in Venezuela.

Dancing with the Devils

Episode 4  |  In 1998, Hugo Chávez was a former coup leader fresh out of prison, polling at just five percent and dismissed by nearly everyone in Venezuela. But within a year, he would become president. In this episode, we trace how Chávez made that extraordinary rise: from his release by Rafael Caldera, to his decision to abandon armed struggle and run for office. We follow the collapse of Venezuela’s old political order, the other candidates, and the behind-the-scenes battle between Venezuela’s economic elites. Because the man who promised to destroy the oligarchy did not reach power alone—he got there with its help.