Thread:

I was a young reporter when Hugo Chavez attempted his failed coup in 1992. While that failed, he was pardoned two years later and elected in 1998. After that it was an autogolpe/self coup and he stayed in power till his death in 2013.

Jan 6 reminds me of that.

I keep thinking how often I have heard Chavez's name and always from the US far right. The whole voting fraud thing pushed by the Schmuck has been constantly connected to him.

And the one thing we do know...the Cheeto has a habit of saying the quiet part out loud AND get his facts garbled.

To me, this suggests that somewhere somebody told him about the self-coup by Chavez

Throw that together with autocratic habit of fake voting and it's catnip to the Tangerine Slimeball in the White House.

And throw enough disjointed, baseless, illogical references together and he and his base have a nicely baked conspiracy theory to push as rationalisation for their attempted coup

I increasingly think they had not expected to fail on Jan 6. There is enough evidence to suggest that US avoided mass murder of its political establishment by the skin of (all) our (global) teeth that day

Why do I think that? In part because the Schmuck and his immediate enablers have been careful about naming corporations powerful enough to take legal action. And yet they happily defamed a voting company.

So either they didn't imagine failure (which frankly they never have been able to do) and figured it would not matter after the coup succeeded. Or the Schmuck said (again) the quiet part out loud and the enablers got stuck with it (he's used this tactic repeatedly)

But the major lesson from Chavez was do NOT let the golpistas (the coup leaders and enablers) off the hook. Do not pardon them. Don't make 'peace.' Hold them accountable. Get them AS FAR AWAY FROM POWER AS POSSIBLE!

It doesn't matter how polite they are, or how suave or well educated. It doesn't matter that they went to the same school or their kid is on the baseball team with yours. It doesn't matter when they talk unity and moving on....

Without accountability, without being removed from corridors of power, all they shall do is bide their time and strike again. And again. And harder if they grow in strength.

And they will not stop till they succeed. Till the coup succeeds. Even years later.

Another thing I learned from Chavez (and other autocrats), it doesn't matter if they went to school with you, that their kid is on the same baseball team. Once their coup succeeds, every bit of resistance is fair target for violence.

And bloody hell, autocrats keep bitter-poisoned lists of everyone they think opposed them. And it doesn't matter how long their coup takes to succeed, they will be brutal to those who resisted them, to those who they think resisted them.

And that's not just a lesson from Chavez but way too many autocratic regimes (many funded, armed and supported by the USA).

For the sake of us all, for the planet, please DO hold the coup leaders and enablers accountable. Because the alternative is too nightmarish to imagine!

More on self-coup, autogolpe: https://twitter.com/mediaperuana/status/1347613211659538434?s=20

A bit grim to see this: https://twitter.com/jpolga/status/1346910803614580737?s=20

And more here on the Us self-coup or autogolpe attempt: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-election-coup/2021/01/05/26afcfc0-4f6c-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html?tid=ss_tw