(Part I) The days after April 11 as I lived them

I already told my story about the events of April, 11, 2002; but didn't said a word about what happened afterwards.On the comments of the previous entry I found myself in a discussion with a foreigner- Chavez supporter who accuses me of being a Carmona supporter (the man who was named president by the opposition during the days of 11,12 and 13 April, 2002). If he knew some Spanish he could also call me "golpista"(a “couper”), a favorite revolutionary insult. He made those accusations without really knowing my stances and experiences on the topic, of whom I’m ready to show now.
We almost didn't sleep during the night of April 11, 2002. We heard people celebrating that Chavez wasn't the president anymore; we were hearing stories about such a horrible day that seemed to end up not so bad.
First the demonstration and the killings, we still don't know how many people were killed that day, from whatever political side, doesn't matter to me. Then, those mystery hours without opposition TV Channels. Then, Chavez resignation. A few military, and the general Lucas Rincón saying on TV "Se le solicitó al presidente Hugo Chávez Frías su renuncia, la cual aceptó" ("We asked to the president Hugo Chávez Frías his resign, and he accepted"). Then the celebration / remembrance that we attended on the streets. And then the rumors.
We didn't quite understand the events then, and I still don't understand them now. The night of April 11, 2002 was the night of the rumors. The night that the phone in my house rang without stopping, and it brought the craziest stories ever and I will never know how many of them were true, part of the truth, or just plain rumors. "Chavez it’s in jail in La Tortuga" (La Tortuga is a small island of Venezuela), "He is trying to escape to Cuba" and so on.
The day after my mom and I, in one of our sometimes crazy and dangerous acts of curiosity, took the car and went to Caracas downtown just to see how the "situation" was. We heard on the news that you could still see bodies on the streets but we didn't saw a thing. Unusual empty streets and nothing else.
"Maybe we should approach to Miraflores palace" - She said (Miraflores is the government palace). When we were just a few blocks away we heard on the radio the famous "Decreto Carmona". That paper in short words, changed the official name of Venezuela (República Bolivariana de Venezuela) to the old name, the one the country had before Chavez constitution on 1999 (which was República de Venezuela); took the power out of the assembly and so on. Many, many things against democracy, against constitution. A radical anti-revolution act.
My mom and I first smiled, specially when we heard that we went back to our old name, was a quick flashback when we felt for the first time in three years by then that our old identity was being restored. But then, after 10 or 11 points of that paper, my mom and I decided to drive back home: something there just didn't sound right.

A conflictive star

Today, on the way back home after class, a friend asked me the following question: "So, How do you feel about knowing that today isn't "the day of the flag" for the first time?" - I didn’t even thought about it until he brought it up, so I answered a little bit sad and astonished - "I feel... out of place".One year ago, our president asked to the assembly to add an eight star to our seven star flag.
The assembly (witch its totally red, as you know) accepted and on March 12, 2006, our flag changed and because of that, last year was the last "day of the flag" we had on the traditional date: March 12. If you don't look at it carefully, you can't hardly see the difference:
(On the left is the old flag, and the right, is the new one; colors should be the same, notice the difference only by the number of stars in the blue part and of course there's another difference: the horse of the shield, but I won't discuss that difference on this entry).
That different amount of stars doesn't mean a thing for many people. You can usually hear comments like: "Is just one more star" but for me that star makes the difference between the Venezuela where I was born and grow up and this new Venezuela in witch one I almost cannot recognize myself. "I'm proud to say that I wasn't in the country when he decided to change our flag, so the only flag I respect as my own is the one who has 7 stars"- I added as some stupid honor point (I was in Mexico on that day, taking part of an academic event). I wasn't surprised, when I returned to my country, that no one said a thing about the flag: people tend to think that symbols doesn't matter. If they only knew...
As the days passed by; the old 7 star flag became an opposition icon so for that you cannot find the official 8 star flag among the millions of flags on any political demonstration against Chavez; witch on government demonstrations is completely different of course. And that only makes me think that we don't even fight for the same country. Or at least, not the same nation. This definitely has serious implications that I have mention (barely, I know) on previous entries.
A few months ago, a foreigner asked me what was the big deal about putting an extra star to the flag. I explained him that Venezuela before the independence had 9 provinces; only 7 were agree about the independence process and signed, Coro and Guayana stayed with the Spanish. After the patriots won over the resistance in Guayana, the last province on being liberated, Simon Bolívar, our liberator, designed a new flag that had 8 stars instead of 7, including in that way the province of Guayana. But for me, and many others, Guayana joined the independence process by war, by guns and not by pens putting a signature. So lets just say that is not exactly a democratic star. That's why is so important.
While I was giving to the foreigner that explanation, another girl who's not even pro- Chavez (but is not a friend of the opposition either), interrupted me and screamed saying: "Noooo... that's not what happen" and she started explaining another story: About Páez betrayal to Bolivar ideals and how he didn't allowed that 8th star to be included. The foreigner looked at my face witch was probably red and filled with anger and he immediately understood why a simple flag means such a huge distance between the ones who once were just Venezuelans.
"So when is "the day of the flag" now?" - I asked to my friend - "Some day in august I think... No one is going to remember it" - He laughed and then we saw an apartment building with one unusual detail: a flag showed in one of the balconies. Of course it was too far away and we couldn't count how many stars that flag had but yet, we have strong and obvious reasons to suspect it was a 7 star flag - "Hmmm, look! someone still don't know that the 12 of March isn't "the day of the flag" anymore"- He said pointing the flag.
I smiled and thought - "No... what a relief! , someone still resist...".