BY KAREN FLETCHER
HAVANA — In a welcome interruption to the April 13 Saturday night movie, Cuban TV viewers were able to witness the dramatic uprising in Venezuela live via Venezuela's state-owned Venezolana de Television (VT).
Venezolana de Television had been shut down by the coup plotters on April 12 and was liberated the following night by the supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
From the first appearance of the breathless VT commentators to the singing of the final, hoarse chorus of Venezuela's national anthem in Milaflores presidential palace in the early hours of April 14, it was a drama more gut-wrenching than anything Hollywood could produce.
Judging by the sounds coming from the houses in my street, I was not the only one glued to the screen until Chavez appeared by helicopter to deliver his victory speech.
On April 13, the popular mood here was one of outrage, disbelief and defiance. While CNN and the BBC World Service were crowing over the "fall" of Chavez, Cubans, in typical fashion, refused to accept the defeat or to believe that Chavez had resigned.
Chavez's daughter appeared on Cuban TV to deny that her father had resigned. "It's all lies", she said. Foreign minister Felipe Perez announced that Cuba had refused to accept that Chavez had resigned and expected him to be returned to the presidency — "pronto!".
That morning, 30,000 people gathered in Guira de Melena, west of Havana, to show their solidarity with the "Bolivarian Revolution" in Venezuela. Bruno Rodriguez, the Cuban ambassador to the United Nations, spoke of the links between the architects of the coup — the Venezuelan business elite, its media and the trade union federation associated with the corrupt and discredited Democratic Action Party — and the anti-Cuba mafia in Miami.
Simultaneous telecasts of Venezuelan TV have continued here in the days following the defeat of the US-backed coup. Venezuelan students at the Latin American School of Medicine, schools of social work and sports, and various universities have ridden triumphantly through the streets in buses, flags streaming and voices belting out the songs of their revolution.
In Venezuela, there are thousands of Cuban doctors and other workers, working to support the Venezuelan people.
Cuba often feels quite alone in its mammoth struggle against US imperialism and the counter-revolutionary forces it sponsors, but on the April 13-14 weekend the sisterhood of Cuba and Venezuela, in the face of the massive forces ranged against them, has been palpable and powerful.
From Green Left Weekly, April 24, 2002.
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