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30-468: The movement's first members were Chávez and his fellow military officers Felipe Acosta Carles and Jesús Urdaneta Hernández . On 17 December 1982, as Chávez biographer Richard Gott reports, The three revolutionary officers swore an oath underneath the great tree at Samán de Güere, near Maracay, repeating the words of the pledge that Simón Bolívar had made in Rome in 1805, when he swore to devote his life to

60-594: A connection to Che Guevara . Gott resigned from The Guardian in 1994, after senior KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky accused him of having been a Soviet " agent of influence ", a tag Gott at the time denied. Gott was born in Aston Tirrold in the Berkshire Downs in South East England, and is the son of Constance Mary Moon and Arthur Francis Evelyn Gott. From the years 1952 to 1957, Gott

90-414: A date that they considered soon enough. Yet Chávez refused to budge on a December 1991 attempt. He stated that nothing was to be attempted without his involvement. The captains thus waited for Chávez's chosen date. Yet one aspect of the planned coup remained clear throughout: Chávez's demand that it maintain a primarily military focus and character. The leftist ex-guerrilla leader Douglas Bravo —who fought in

120-545: A political study circle than as a subversive conspiracy," but soon its members "began thinking in terms of some kind of coup d'état." Chávez and his friends soon recruited more members, including Francisco Arias Cárdenas , in March 1985. Weeks after the Caracazo , Chávez returned to work at Miraflores. Chávez recalled that the presidential palace's guards stopped and questioned him. They reportedly asked him: "[l]ook here, major,

150-574: A seemingly dull and minor posting was beneath him. Thereafter, from 1991 to 4 February 1992, Chávez was again given his own command—the Maracay-based Colonel Antonio Nicolas Briceño 421st Airborne Battalion, 42nd Airborne Brigade, of the Venezuelan Army's 4th Armored Division (then the 4th Infantry Division). Such troops proved key in facilitating Chávez's various political ambitions. Chávez received

180-656: Is it true about the Bolivarian Movement? We'd like to hear more about it; we're not prepared to go on killing people". Chávez took this as a sign that his plan to overthrow the government was gaining momentum. By late 1989, the first civilians joined the EBR-200's ranks. The EBR-200 thus changed its name to the Movimiento Bolivariano Revolucionario-200 (MBR-200—the "Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200"). The supplanting of

210-624: The Partido de la Revolución Venezolana (PRV) (Party of Venezuelan Revolution). Bravo was a fervent anti-imperialist. He had contacts with Che Guevara , and was ideologically opposed to the policies of the Soviet Union . As part of his plan to foment a successful revolution in Venezuela, Bravo recruited military officers sympathetic to his cause within the ranks of the Army. One such officer

240-592: The 1966 Kingston upon Hull North by-election for the " Radical Alliance ", running on a platform which stressed opposition to the Vietnam War ; he polled only 253 votes. In November 1963, working as a freelance journalist for The Guardian in Cuba , Gott was invited to a celebration of the revolution party at the Soviet Union embassy in Havana . During the evening, a group of invited journalists who were chatting in

270-506: The KGB , claims which he rejected, arguing that "Like many other journalists, diplomats and politicians, I lunched with Russians during the cold war". He asserted that his resignation was "a debt of honour to my paper, not an admission of guilt", because his failure to inform his editor of three trips abroad to meet with KGB officials at their expense had caused embarrassment to the paper during its investigation of Jonathan Aitken . The source of

300-568: The 1960s and 1970s—also regularly met Chávez. These meetings took place during the years leading up to the coup and without the knowledge of other key MBR-200 officers. Bravo recounted that Chávez did not trust civilians enough to afford them a role in his bloody intrigue. According to him, it was for this reason that what was initially planned as a civilian-military rebellion was pared down by Chávez to one fought solely by soldiers; Bravo and his leftist civilian cohorts were turfed out of logistical considerations, preparations, and planning just days before

330-661: The José Leonardo Chirino Front along the lines of the movement that had successfully taken control in Cuba. Before long he became a key figure in the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN) (" Armed Forces of National Liberation ") although this put him on a collision course with the PCV, which was moving away from armed insurgency. Bravo secured the support of Fidel Castro for his activity but this

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360-463: The KGB agent Kim Philby , highlighted the limited value of outsider Gott as compared to insider Aldrich Ames ; Knightley concluded that Gott would have been lucky to get his bus fare back. Rupert Allason pointed out valuable activities such as talent-spotting and finding people who did have highly classified access. Douglas Bravo Douglas Ignacio Bravo Mora (11 March 1932 – 31 January 2021)

390-611: The Ranger Brigade headquartered in the area. Chávez was later allowed to matriculate at the Universidad Simón Bolívar ("Simón Bolívar University") in Caracas, where he did graduate work in political science. He left without a degree. Chávez took courses until August 1991. Chávez re-entered military service with an initial re-posting to Cumaná, where a desk job awaited him. Chávez recalled feeling that such

420-456: The allegation that Gott had been an agent was KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky . In his resignation letter, Gott admitted: "I took red gold, even if it was only in the form of expenses for myself and my partner. That, in the circumstances, was culpable stupidity, though at the time it seemed more like an enjoyable joke". One issue was whether during the 1980s, the KGB would have thought Gott's information worth £10,000. Phillip Knightley , biographer of

450-615: The coup. In the early years after his release, Chávez considered the possibility of another coup attempt, but with the prospects appearing slim, some advisers, notably Luis Miquilena , urged him to reconsider his scepticism of the elections. In July 1997 Chávez registered the new Fifth Republic Movement with the National Electoral Council. In 2001, Chávez accused the Fifth Republic Movement of bureaucratization under Luis Miquilena and proposed

480-441: The document was ignored by military intelligence. The major who had compiled it was ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluation. By 1991, Chávez and other MBR-200 leaders activated the coup plan codenamed after one of Chávez's heroes, Ezequiel Zamora— Plan Zamora . Yet despite planning for the coup's execution, Chávez and other MBR-200 leaders made precious little plans about what their putative future rebel government would do after

510-546: The garden were joined by Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara for a few hours, who answered their questions. In Bolivia in 1967, Gott identified Guevara's dead body after the failure of Guevara's Bolivian campaign. He was the only one in the country who had met Guevara. In 1981 the BBC's Alasdair Milne and Aubrey Singer sought to appoint Gott to the position of editor of its cultural magazine, The Listener , but as Gott failed to obtain security clearance from MI5 , his file

540-504: The job when the battalion's former commander retired from the army; Chávez was his replacement as commanding officer. With a posting in Maracay, a city that is relatively near the national power structures in Caracas, Chávez's coup plans were no longer hindered by his own geographic isolation. Later, reports emerged of a dossier detailing all of Chávez's subversive activities. It had been produced just prior to Chávez's new Maracay posting—yet,

570-483: The liberation of Venezuela from Spanish yoke: "I swear before you, and I swear before the God of my fathers, that I will not allow my arm to relax, nor my soul to rest, until I have broken the chains that oppress us..." Gott further explains that the suffix "200" was added to the group's name the following year, in 1983, on the 200th anniversary of South American liberator Simon Bolívar 's birth. The movement began "more as

600-419: The officers were eventually released—due to lack of evidence. The government was reluctant to prosecute officers who were recognized in the military as among the best in their respective armed services. Nevertheless, all—including Chávez—were thereafter sent to posts far from the federal government in Caracas. Chávez was sent in 1990 to Maturín, where he was appointed the official in charge of civilian matters with

630-613: The re-launching of the original MBR-200. This would eventually lead to the consolidation of his movement under the United Socialist Party of Venezuela label in 2007. Richard Gott Richard Willoughby Gott (born 28 October 1938) is a British journalist and historian. A former Latin America correspondent and features editor for the British newspaper The Guardian , he is known for his radical politics and

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660-463: The rebellion. Their future governing structure thus remained vague until the end of 1991, when Chávez and others decided to delineate an initial legal framework for their government's operation. Several assorted coup dates were proposed by Chávez's associates. Indeed, many junior captains threatened to launch their own early coup, which would be independent of that waged by their higher ranked commanders. They threatened this action if Chávez refused to pick

690-415: The regime of Marcos Pérez Jiménez , Bravo played a role in planning the 1958 coup d'etat that ousted the dictator. Emerging as the leader of the militant tendency of the PCV, he encouraged the party to resist the government of Rómulo Betancourt and decamped to the hills to organise armed guerrilla resistance. He was arrested in 1961 but escaped custody the following year and in his home state established

720-434: The word "Army" ( Ejército ) with "Movement" ( Movimiento ) was intended to punctuate this shift. However, on 6 December 1989, Chávez along with other senior officers were abruptly arrested. They were brought before army command on charges of plotting a coup that was suspected by the government as planned for Christmas Day. They were accused of planning the assassination of high government officials, including President Pérez. Yet

750-564: Was Igor Titov, who was expelled by the UK in 1983 for "activities incompatible with his diplomatic status" (espionage), but who left while still denying that he was a spy. After his period as features editor, Gott became literary editor of The Guardian , but resigned from the latter post in December 1994 after it was alleged in The Spectator that he had been an "agent of influence" for

780-600: Was a Venezuelan politician and guerrilla fighter. A native of the village of Cabure in Falcón , he became involved in the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) at an early age, establishing a party youth group in his home village in 1946. He took a key role in trade union agitation, actively supporting strikes by oil workers in 1950 and students in 1952, being imprisoned briefly on both occasions. He enrolled at University of Zulia in 1953. Involved in agitation against

810-613: Was a young Hugo Chávez , whom Bravo met in 1980 in Mérida through his brother, Adán Chávez . Chávez later became the President of Venezuela through free democratic elections, which Bravo rejected for not being "revolutionary" enough. Bravo participated in the 1992 Venezuelan coup d'état attempts , and was arrested; he was pardoned the following year. Bravo was the leader of the Third Road Movement , which criticized

840-654: Was educated at Winchester College . Then, from 1958 to 1961, he attended Corpus Christi College, Oxford , as an Exhibitioner , obtaining a B.A. in Modern History . After university, Gott worked at the Royal Institute of International Affairs . In the 1960s he worked at the University of Chile , where he wrote Guerrilla Movements in Latin America . In January 1966, Gott was a candidate in

870-494: Was marked and Russell Twisk was appointed instead. Gott was then appointed features editor for The Guardian . In 1994, Gott admitted KGB contacts beginning in 1964 (while working for the Royal Institute of International Affairs ), and to having taken Soviet gifts, which he called "red gold". Contact with the KGB resumed in the 1970s under the codename RON, when he accepted Soviet-paid trips to Vienna , Nicosia and Athens, and lunched with Russians. One of his handlers

900-537: Was not enough and he was expelled from the Communist Party in 1967. In 1969 the Copei offered an amnesty deal and as a result many guerrillas gave up violence although Bravo and a small band of followers continued their insurgency until September 1979 when he accepted the offer of a second amnesty. He was later exiled to France, but returned. Bravo turned to party politics in the early 1980s by establishing in

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