Encourage your captors and send them to the presidential desk in the Miraflores Palace. This is how the Peruvian writer presents himself Jamie Bayly (Lima, 1965) to Hugo Chávez in his latest book Putschists (Galaxy Gutenberg, 2026).
It was on April 11, 2002, before the Venezuelan dictator, who three years ago and between two failed military attempts, had with power at the ballot box, entered Generals Efraín Velásquez, Manuel Rosado and Lucas Rondón. Members of the military are willing to derogate Chávez after which this mandate shoots the demonstrators who are fighting outside the seat of the executive in full social and political crisis.
With impeccable prose, Bayly talks about the achievements of April 2002 with the background of the founder, from his childhood to his passion for powerperfiling conditions that took him out of the military school of Caracas hasta Miraflores.
Presented by Jaime Bayly this Tuesday, October 17th Putschists at the Wellington Hotel in Madrid. “My life is so happy, so happy, that I find nothing in my own life to tell. Happiness does not come from good literature. Therefore I decide to attack other lives like a corsair.”
Antes de PutschistsBayly also published in Galaxia Gutenberg Geniuses. A novel that also investigates a coup, in this case the story given by Mario Vargas Llosa to Gabriel García Márquez for reasons that are never fully explained. “The previous story was based on a simple question: ‘Why did Mario ask Gabo for a blow? It’s not usual for two nobles to be beaten. Putschists I addressed another questioner’s answer: “Why did the 2002 coup against Chávez collapse two days after it initially worked?”.
“That one soldier during a coup d’état and the exception of a democratically elected government is common in Latin America.” However, those who have committed an underlift will stop within the next 72 hours and it is a Rare avisaccording to a Peruvian writer. “They were coup plotters amateurs. They hope that if power is given to her, she will treat it kindly. They are not ready to exercise power. These generals were many people. So it crashed on the third day.”
For Bayly, Fidel Castro and Chávez were truly professionals in the face of insurgency. “They will know what they have been asking for from the beginning. They must have absolutely ossifying cruelty to hold on to power and keep it that way. The putschists in 2002 did not find enough leaders. Castro and Chávez did.”
And this is how Fidel Castro holds up a series of dramatic interventions in Bayly’s novel. One of them is a phone call to subordinates in 2002. “Jokes with matarlos to ellos ya family mataban to Chávez. And surprisingly it worked. Those generals submitted and took the lead from Castro’s sprinklers.”
The second remarkable moment of the Cuban dictator occurs in an interview with the late Chávez. “Fidel says something very strange to Chávez: the people are a shadow. You are macho. You have to seduce, you have to sing, you have to penetrate.”
In his novel, Bayly describes on various occasions the more beautiful figure of the swords, which temporarily deterred Chávez. He believes his appearance represents his attitude during the coup: “They broke up because they were happy, stiff, comfortable. They didn’t know how to move. They weren’t doing it all wrong.”
But the torpedo does not serve to explain the exhaustion of the military insurrection by itself. The hybris of those involved, the power play that is lost on them, ends up removing it all. “If they have fun with each other and have concerns, as the little hearts of power tell us, which is no less important from the present. Without this happening, we can talk about a democratic Venezuela in the present.”
WITH PutschistsBayly wants to explain the uncertainty as to why Chávez was not killed or exiled in Cuba, at which point he returned to Miraflores three days later. A question that no one could dispute: “There was no answer to the question of what is the reason for the coup. In this case, truth is in fiction. If you were a historian, it was impossible to write this book. It was impossible to build a story without embodying imagination.”
At the moment, Bayly is not worried about what is coming to Venezuela: Every day I feel more discouraged. Trump is honeymooning with the Venezuelan dictatorship. Delcy Rodríguez is a dictator like Chávez. The legitimate president of the country is Edmundo González Urrutia, but no one invited him to Casablanca. Yes, they invited Delcy and I’m sure they’ll give her a red shade. María Corina Machado received hidden cases”.
The Peruvian writer has a good impression of the Venezuelan activist honored with the Nobel Peace Prize, but says that “I made a mistake when I gave her the Nobel Prize to Trump.” In return, realize that it would be even better to accept a medal that fell into the hands of the President of the United States: “It could be sold for thousands of dollars and given to Venezuelan development”.
Bayly, found in Miami since the last decade, thinks of the American leader: “He filled the streets of the United States. The men who attacked the capital were pardoned. One of these rioters now works in Congress. Trump was the intellectual author of this self-coup. He was the only arquitecto, y fracasó”.
However, I appreciate the intervention in Caracas that took place with Nicolás Maduro, achieved by the power of the United States. “After so much time and so much damage, this was the only good way. Although I think Trump only saw the green light because he didn’t like Maduro’s enforcer. I thought he was making fun of him and there’s something Trump shouldn’t attack, it’s his ego.” Bayly wants similar action in Cuba and Venezuela, which I see as the only way to oust the Castros. “They’ll be cojonudo if Delta Force visits Havana”.
It will be produced by Jaime Bayly Putschists a book of failed uprisings and men who in their ambition arrastran with them in their nations. For all these reasons, the writer criticizes him for his ineffectiveness on some occasions, his incompetence on others, and his inhumanity at all times. However, if you applaud the coup, the last and definitive one that Chávez established: “The disease entered her ass and she enjoyed it well, as she enjoyed it so many times before. If she did not hope for it, I could not do anything against it, so much so that she would turn into a pious man who does not have the parable of a king.”
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