What was remarkable about the events of 11-13 April in Caracas was not so much the downfall of the President as his precipitate reinstatement - a reversal of fortune that took everybody, not least Chávez himself, completely by surprise. Though he has always claimed that when he assumed power in 1998 he was initiating a 'Bolivarian Revolution', nobody was less prepared than its prime beneficiary when something like a revolution finally happened.

LRB 9 May 2002 | PDF Download