Coup Atlas Research Database
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10104122002SuccessfulMilitary coup

Venezuela, 2002 — military coup

Venezuela (VEN)South America, AmericasApril 12, 2002

Event Summary

On 12 April 2002 President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela was removed from office and the businessman Pedro Carmona, head of the Fedecamaras business federation, was installed as interim president after military officers detained Chavez the night before. The crisis grew from an opposition general strike and a huge anti-Chavez march on 11 April that ended in bloodshed when gunmen opened fire near the Miraflores palace, killing around 18 to 19 people amid disputed accounts of who was responsible. Chavez ordered a military plan to defend the palace, but the high command refused and demanded his resignation, and he was arrested and taken to a military base.

Carmona was sworn in and immediately issued a decree dissolving the National Assembly and the Supreme Court, suspending the 1999 constitution, and removing elected officials, actions that alienated much of the public and parts of the military. Chavez maintained he never signed a resignation and said he had been kidnapped. The takeover lasted roughly two days before collapsing.

The United States recognized the Carmona government within hours, a stance it later had to walk back.

Films & Footage

Pedro Carmona is sworn in as interim president during the April 2002 coup, Caracas.
Pedro Carmona is sworn in as interim president during the April 2002 coup, Caracas. Photo: Ministerio del Poder Popular para la Comunicación e Información
Hugo Chávez, official presidential portrait.
Hugo Chávez, official presidential portrait. Photo: Presidency of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

Archival media is credited to its holding collection and license. Media sourcing policy →

Researched Details

Researched

Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.

Target identified in Coup Atlas research: President Hugo Chavez, detained by the military and held at a military base; placed under military custody before being restored
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Hugo Chavez (deposed president, detained)
Pedro Carmona (Fedecamaras head installed as interim president)
Lucas Rincon (military commander who announced Chavez had resigned)
Carlos Ortega (labor federation leader in the opposition)

Sources

Military high command refused to carry out Chavez's palace defense plan and demanded he resign, after which Chavez was arrested by the military, his request for asylum in Cuba was denied, he was ordered tried in a Venezuelan court, and Fedecamaras president Pedro Carmona was declared interim president.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, 2002 Venezuelan coup attempt open source ↗
The 2002 coup attempt on 11 April saw Chavez ousted from office for 47 hours before being restored, with Chavez initially detained by members of the military and by pro-business elites represented by Fedecamaras president Pedro Carmona, who was declared interim president.
SOURCE REVIEWED Military Wiki (citing BBC and academic sources) open source ↗
Carmona entered Miraflores palace on 12 April 2002 at the invitation of dissident officers who had detained Chavez the previous day, was sworn in as head of an interim government, and issued a decree that dissolved the National Assembly and the Supreme Court while suspending the 1999 constitution.
SOURCE REVIEWED Grokipedia, 2002 Venezuelan coup attempt open source ↗
A US diplomat's account describes military high command briefly ousting Chavez, Carmona being declared interim president, and the coup collapsing within 47 hours after his dissolution of the National Assembly and Supreme Court drew great opposition and Chavistas surrounded the palace.
SOURCE REVIEWED Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training open source ↗

Editorial Note

This is the first of a paired two day sequence: 04-12 records Chavez's removal and Carmona's installation, and 04-13 records the counter-coup restoring Chavez. Coded fate house arrest fits Chavez's military detention. Chavez maintained he never resigned and was kidnapped; accounts of the 11 April shootings are disputed and are recorded neutrally. Note: the project's Venezuela gold standard page is a different, later event (id 10101032026), not this record. Contested subject handled with balanced sourcing including opposition, government aligned, and neutral outlets.

How It Unfolded

Hand-coded by Coup Atlas from the sources on this page, using a fixed list of tactics. Only events we have read through carry this coding, so most records do not have it yet.

Led by
Military
How long it took
Under a day — resolved within 24 hours
  • Detention or expulsion of the incumbent leader
  • Seizure of broadcasters / coup declaration on state media
  • Mass mobilization of civilians (for or against)

Cross-Reference

Datasets agree. At least two of the three reference datasets we check against carry this event, and none of them disagrees about its date or its result.

Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:

Cline Center id
10104122002
Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-101-2002-04-12

How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.

Outcome and Target

Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Hugo Chavez, detained by the military and held at a military base; placed under military custody before being restored.

Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; placed under house arrest. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.

Baseline Dataset Citation
Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
Open dataset DOI ↗
⚑ This citation establishes the coded baseline record; use the claim-level sources above for the researched narrative.

Baseline Source-Document Entries

CSP

Named in the baseline source document; no article citation was recorded.

Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Venezuelan_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat_attempt

New York Times

“Questions Linger in Calm but Scarred Caracas,” April 16, 2002

This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →

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Related Records

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