Editing Hugo Chávez (section)

====Opposition and the Coordinadora Democrática====
Much of Chávez's opposition originated from the response to the "cubanization" of Venezuela.<ref name="Nelson1"/> Chávez's popularity dropped due to his relationship with Fidel Castro and Cuba, with Chávez attempting to make Venezuela in Cuba's image.<ref name=Nelson1/> Chávez, following Castro's example, consolidated the country's [[bicameral legislature]] into a single [[National Assembly (Venezuela)|National Assembly]] that gave him more power<ref name=CONS/> and created community groups of loyal supporters allegedly trained as paramilitaries.<ref name=Nelson1/> Such actions created great fear among Venezuelans who felt like they were tricked and that Chávez had dictatorial goals.<ref name=Nelson1/>

The first organized protest against the Bolivarian government occurred in January 2001, when the Chávez administration tried to implement educational reforms through the proposed Resolution 259 and Decree 1.011, which would have seen the publication of textbooks with a heavy Bolivarian bias. Parents noticed that such textbooks were really Cuban books filled with [[Bolivarian propaganda|revolutionary propaganda]] outfitted with different covers. The protest movement, which was primarily by middle-class parents whose children went to privately run schools, marched to central Caracas shouting out the slogan ''Con mis hijos no te metas'' ("Don't mess with my children"). Although the protesters were denounced by Chávez, who called them "selfish and individualistic", the protest was successful enough for the government to retract the proposed education reforms and instead enter into a consensus-based educational program with the opposition.<ref name=Nelson1/><ref>[[#Mar07|Marcano and Tyszka 2007]]. pp. 143–45.</ref>

Later into 2001, an organization known as the ''{{lang|es|[[Coordinadora Democrática (Venezuela)|Coordinadora Democrática de Acción Cívica]]}}'' (Democratic Coordinator, CD) was founded, under which the Venezuelan opposition political parties, corporate powers, most of the country's media, the [[Venezuelan Federation of Chambers of Commerce]], the Institutional Military Front and the [[Central Workers Union]] all united to oppose Chávez's regime.<ref name="InternationalCrisisGroup07">[[#Int07|International Crisis Group 2007]]. p. 7.</ref><ref>[[#Ram05|Ramírez 2005]]. p. 80.</ref> The prominent businessman [[Pedro Carmona]] (1941–) was chosen as the CD's leader.<ref name="InternationalCrisisGroup07"/> [[File:Hugo Chávez on USS Yorktown.jpg|thumb|right|Chávez visiting the [[USS Yorktown (CG-48)|USS ''Yorktown'']], a U.S. Navy ship docked at [[Curaçao]] in the [[Netherlands Antilles]], in 2002]] The Coordinadora Democrática and other opponents of Chávez's Bolivarian government accused it of trying to turn Venezuela from a democracy into a dictatorship by centralising power among its supporters in the Constituent Assembly and granting Chávez increasingly autocratic powers. Many of them pointed to Chávez's personal friendship with Cuba's Fidel Castro and the [[Politics in Cuba|one-party socialist government in Cuba]] as a sign of where the Bolivarian government was taking Venezuela.<ref name="InternationalCrisisGroup07"/>