The Venezuelan coup try of 2002 was a failed coup d'état on eleven April 2002 that saw President Hugo Chavez ousted from workplace for forty seven hours, being restored by a mixture of military force and mass demonstration of fashionable support. Chavez was detained by the military, and Venezuelan Federation of Chambers of Commerce President Pedro Carmona was put in as interim president. Carmona's transient rule saw the National Assembly and therefore the Supreme Court dissolved, and therefore the country's 1999 Constitution declared void. In Caracas, the coup led to a pro-Chavez uprising that the Metropolitan Police tried to suppress. Key sectors of the military and components of the anti-Chavez movement refused to back Carmona. The pro-Chavez Presidential Guard eventually retook the Miraflores presidential palace while not firing an attempt, resulting in the collapse of the Carmona government and therefore the re-installation of Chavez as president. The coup was publicly condemned by Latin yank nations and international organizations. The us and Spain quickly acknowledged the de facto pro-US Carmona government, however ended up condemning the coup when it had been defeated.

The coup had been planned for 6 to 9 months, and came when Chavez had passed variety of controversial laws in November 2001, and tried to strengthen government management over the state oil company, PDVSA. A general strike happened in December 2001, and early 2002 saw public needs Chavez' resignation return from variety of leading military figures. By early April the ability struggle between the govt. and PDVSA saw an escalating strike at PDVSA that became a general strike from nine April, with the support of the country's leading trade union federation and business cluster. The strike was extended for many days, and on eleven April an opposition march was rerouted to the presidential palace. Government efforts to stay the march aloof from the palace, where a Chavista rally was already going down, were thwarted by coup supporters, and because the sides neared one another, shots began to be fired; by the top of the afternoon, nineteen folks were dead, and lots of wounded. The opposition blamed the deaths on variety of Chavistas filmed firing pistols from a bridge, a narrative that was initially largely accepted by the international media and provided justification for the coup. Later proof urged that unknown snipers were chargeable for most if not all of the deaths, during a manner in step with longstanding plans to justify a coup, however the problem remains controversial.

The mainstream Venezuelan non-public media played a key role within the coup, providing continuous coverage of the final strike that led up to it, and supporting the rerouting to Miraflores of the eleven April march. Venevisión, owned by Gustavo Cisneros, played a selected role, with opposition leaders meeting there when the eleven April march and appealing to the military to intervene; and it had been Venevisión that filmed the Chavistas firing from the bridge, and edited the footage to create the case for a planned ambush. The non-public media refused to interview government officers when the march, and when protests broke out following Chavez' detention, declined to hide them. Makes an attempt by Chavez supporters to disclose that Chavez had not resigned, and was being held prisoner, were ignored or bring to an end. A key military division's plan to publicize its rejection of the coup was ignored, and reported solely by CNN. When Chavez supporters retook Miraflores, the foremost networks stopped providing news reports, and 2 of the 3 major newspapers cancelled their Sunday editions, claiming safety considerations Autovermietung Dresden.

After the coup the Organization of Yankee States (OAS) established a "mesa" dialogue method, because it had in Peru following the could 2000 elections. At Chavez' request, the Carter Center and UNDP were conjointly concerned. So as to facilitate participation during this method, the anti-Chavez opposition created the Coordinator Democratic (CD) but, the CD continued to pursue non-electoral suggests that to overthrow the govt., and was concerned in organizing the Venezuelan general strike of 2002–2003. When the February 2003 collapse of that strike, the CD was concerned in organizing the Venezuelan recall referendum, 2004.