For Now and Forever! Volume 2

Rich in oil, Venezuela should, in theory, have been one of the wealthiest nations in Latin America if not the world, yet in the 1980s its economy collapsed. In 1992 elements of the armed forces of Venezuela twice attempted to overthrow the nation’s government. These coup attempts saw the army, navy and air force fighting one another, and the other security forces, on the streets and in skies of Venezuela in what would ultimately prove, in 1992 at least, to be futile attempts at revolution. For Now and Forever examines the 1992 coup attempts.

Like many South American countries, Venezuela has had something of a tumultuous history, the modern independent state being born in 1830 following a series of revolutions and wars against Spain and breaking away from Gran Columbia, with further civil wars and confrontation with European powers continuing into the early twentieth century. Politically, the country veered between various forms of democracy and dictatorship marred by occasion violence, and an attempted left wing revolutionary guerilla movement in the 1960s failed.

Oil had been discovered in Venezuela in the early twentieth century and for a while brought prosperity to the country. Following the global oil crisis of 1973 oil prices soared and Venezuela borrowed heavily on this basis; when in the 1980s oil prices crashed, so did Venezuela’s economy. Growing discontent led to the Caracazo riots in 1989 that were brutally put down by the security forces leaving hundreds of dead protesters.

Many junior officers in the military had long sought reform and revolution. Cultivated by future president Hugo Chávez and the MBR-200 (Bolivarian Revolutionary Movement-200), the events of 1989 provided a spark to action that would lead to two attempts to conduct military coups in 1992 to overthrow President Carlos Andrés Pérez Rodríguez.

For Now and Forever provides a detailed two-volume military history of the 1992 coup attempts. This second volume picks up the story of the February 1992 coup attempt from Volume 1 and examines the failure and consequences of that attempt, and moves on to examine the second coup attempt in November of the same year. This volume is illustrated throughout with original photographs of the events and includes the @War series’ signature colour artworks and includes appendices detailing the aircraft of the contemporary Venezuelan Air Force.