Velvet Revolution
| Velvet Revolution | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Rumahokian transition to democracy | |||
 A crowd celebrates on an armoured car in Santa Maria, 30 April 1994. | |||
| Date | 30 April 1994 (38 years ago) | ||
| Location | |||
| Caused by |
| ||
| Methods | Coup d'état | ||
| Resulted in | Coup successful
| ||
| Parties to the civil conflict | |||
| Lead figures | |||
| Casualties and losses | |||
| 5 deaths | |||
| Script error: The function "autocaption" does not exist. | |||
The Velvet Revolution (Pelaxian: Revolución de Terciopelo; Reform Tainean: Revaulousiaun des Velaus), also known as the Day of Steel (Pelaxian: Día del Acero; Reform Tainean: Gouei des Asier), was a military coup by left-leaning military officers that overthrew the authoritarian Estado Social regime on 30 April 1996 in Santa Maria, producing major social, economic, intra-territorial, demographic, and political changes in Rumahoki, then known as the Delepasian Commonwealth, through the Proceso de Transición en Curso. It resulted in the Rumahokian transition to democracy and the rise of the nascent People's Democratic Party.
The revolution began as a coup organised by the Democratic Rebirth Society (Pelaxian: Sociedad del Renacimiento Democrático, SRD; Reform Tainean: Kasikasgau des Reneisensa Demaukrata, KRD), composed of military officers who opposed the regime, but was soon coupled with an unanticipated campaign of popular civil resistance. Negotiations with Loa liberation movements began, and by 1995, the states of Kalanatoa and Na'aturie were established, located where the former Loaland protectorate used to be.
The Velvet Revolution got its name from the fact that the coup was nearly bloodless, and from the oft-used nickname for the Group of Nine, that being the "velvetines". In Rumahoki, 30 April is a national holiday (Latin: Dies Holoserica; Pelaxian: Día de Terciopelo; Reform Tainean: Gouai des Velaus) that commemorates the revolution.
Background
By the early 1990s, over a half-century of authoritarian rule weight on Delepasia. Starting with the 14 July 1919 coup d'état in Rosario, the Delepasian-dominated polities began to implement authoritarian regimes incorporating social Catholicism and integralism. In 1938, the regime in Rosario was renamed the Estado Social (Social State), with Fernando Pascual having served as Prime Minister from 1935 until his stroke in 1988, the last 12 years of his tenure being as the first Prime Minister of Delepasia.
In sham elections the pro-government candidates usually ran unopposed, while the opposition attempted to use the few civil and political liberties they had during the brief election period to protest, always withdrawing their candidates before the election to deny the regime any form of political legitimacy.
The Estado Social's political police force, the fuvicivides (Fuerza de Vigilancia Civil y Defensa del Estado, Force for Civil Vigilance and the Defense of the State), persecuted opponents of the regime, who were often put through torture sessions, given a usually harsh prison sentence, or even executed for crimes against the state both real and imagined.
In 1980, General Manuel Ruiz, a former member of the regime who soon turned into one of its most ardent opponents while in exile in Equatorial Ostiecia, had attempted to instigate a motion of no confidence against Pascual and to run a leadership election within the nation's leading National Renewal Party, and refused to allow his name to be withdrawn despite many offers from the PRN. Pascual managed to win the leadership election amidst claims of widespread electoral fraud, this prompted the PRN to abandon the practice of leadership elections in favour of the party's leader simply appointing a successor.
During the Occidental Cold War, Delepasia's Estado Social was firmly aligned with the Levantine alliance LOTA as led by Urcea, much to the chagrin of Caphiria. Indeed, Delepasia's staunch pro-Leventine stance was seen as a prime example of the Levantine Creep phenomenon that was somewhat prominent in Sarpedon at the time.
Pascual had a stroke in 1988, and was replaced as prime minister by Nicolas Torres, who adopted a slogan of "cautious reformism", suggesting token reforms, such as a monthly pension to rural workers who had never contributed to Delepasia's social security programme. Torres's Deshielo Nicolista (Nicolist Thaw) included experimentations of greater political tolerance and freedom of the press, and was seen as an opportunity to formally open up the political sphere for the nation's opposition parties. In 1989, Torres authorised the country's first democratic labour movement. However, after the election of 1992, hardliners in both the government and in the military pushed back against Torres, reversing many of his reforms with political repression against pro-democracy activists and Loa liberation groups.
Economic conditions
The Estado Social regime's economic policy encouraged the formation of large conglomerates. The regime maintained a policy of corporatism, which resulted in the placement of much of the economy in the hands of the gransindinales, large family-owned-and-operated conglomerates. The most notable of these included the Alonso family, the de la Puente family, the Zavala family, and the Serrano family.
The Zavalas held the largest of these conglomerates, the United Manufacturing Company, with a wide and varied range of interests including insurance, ship-building both naval and commercial, tourism, banking, paper-manufacturing, and even consumer electronics (mostly video game consoles and computers; there was an attempt in 1985 to buy Televideo from the state which fell through due to the high price tag).
Asides from the gransindinales, there was the agrupresas, medium-sized family companies with more specialised interests. These groupings were more common in rural inland areas of the country, as the gransindinales had a stranglehold in urban areas and along the coast, and mostly engaged in agriculture and forestry, though some engaged in tourism and engineered wood.
Independent labour unions were prohibited, and minimum wage laws were horrifically outdated, some having not been updated since the 1920s in more extreme cases. Widespread conscription in the 1980s would open up the labour market for the rapid incorporation of women to make up for the lack of male labourers.
Revolution
In February 1994, Torres decided to remove General Raul Quintero from the command of the Delepasian forces in southwest Navidadia in face of increasing disagreement with the promotion of military officers and the direction of Delepasia's anti-Loa policies as part of the Navidadian System. This occurred shortly after the publication of Quintero's book, Delepasia and Year 2000, which expressed his political and military views of the Navidadian System and the anti-Loa policies as a whole. Several military officers who were in opposition of these sectarian institutions formed the DR Society to overthrow the government in a military coup. The DR Society was headed by Vito Borbon, Lazaro Elias, and future prime minister Francisco Carvalho, and was joined later by Manuel Ruiz. The movement was aided by other Delepasian army officers who supported Quintero and democratic civil and military reform. It is speculated that Fidel de la Pena actually led the revolution.
The coup had two secret signals. First, Eva Avalos's "Adiós a Mi Verano" was aired on Sistema Consolidado de Radiodifusión de Santa María at 10:55 p.m. on 29 April, alerting rebel captains and soldiers to begin the coup. The second signal came at 12:20 a.m. on 30 April, when Radioeucaristía broadcasted "Gracia Renovada de las Estrellas" (a song by Alejandro Garcia, an influential political folk musician and singer whose works were banned from Delepasian radio at the time due to his left-wing views; Gracia Renovada de las Estrellas, however, was not banned). The DR Society gave the signals to take over strategic points of power in the country.
Six hours later, the Torres government relented. Despite repeated radio appeals from the "Velvetines" (the DR Society) advising civilians to stay home, thousands of Delepasians took to the streets – mingling with, and supporting, the military insurgents. A central gathering point was Dominican Square, which was where the end of the Viceroyalty of Los Rumas was declared 142 years prior. Some of the insurgents put flowers (mostly orchids, passion flowers, and carnations) in their gun barrels, an image broadcast on television worldwide. Although no mass demonstrations had preceded the coup, spontaneous civilian involvement turned the military coup into a popular revolution "led by radical army officers, soldiers, workers and peasants that toppled the senile and increasingly ailing Pascual dictatorship, using the language of socialism and democracy. The attempt to radicalise or even reverse the outcome", noted a contemporary observer of the time, "had little mass support and was easily suppressed by the Velvetines and their allies."
Torres found refuge in the main headquarters of the fuvicivides at the Plaza Batista. This building was surrounded by the DR Scoiety, who pressured him into ceding the premiership to General Quintero. Torres and the head of the Delepasian Armed Forces, Francisco de Costa, were sent to The Cape; both would spend the rest of their lives there until their deaths in 2000 and 2007, respectively. Emperor Maximilian I, however, threw his support in favour of the revolution, specifically in support of the moderate socialist Velvetines who led the coup. The revolution was closely watched by neighbouring Almadaria, fearing a possible refugee crisis should a civil war happen.
Four civilians were shot dead by government forces under the Ministry of Internal Security, whose personnel involved were later arrested by the DR Society.
Aftermath
After the coup, power was held by the Junta for the Salvation of Civility (a military junta). Rumahoki experienced a turbulent period, known as the Proceso de Transición en Curso (Ongoing Process of Transition).
The conservative forces surrounding Quintero and the DR Society initially confronted each other (whether openly or clandestinely), and Quintero was forced to appoint key DR Society figures to senior security positions. Right-wing military figures attempted and unsuccessful counter-coup, resulting in Quintero's removal from the premiership. Unrest within the DR Society between radical far-left forces (the cabaceros, or "steel heads") and more moderate left-wing groups (the aterciopeladistas, or "velvetines"; backed by the Emperor himself) eventually led to the group's splintering and dissolution.
This stage of the PTeC lasted until the Coup of 3 December 1995, led by a group of cabacero officers, specifically Vito Borbon. It was characterised as a Communist plot to seize power in order to discredit the powerful cabacero faction. It was followed by a successful counter-coup by Velvetine officers led by the Emperor himself, and was marked by constant friction between the reformist-socialist forces and revolutionary-Marxist factions. Delepasia's first free election was held on 30 April 1995 to write a new constitution to replace the Constitution of 1976, which prevailed during the Estado Social era. Another election was held in 1996 and the first constitutional government, led by left-wing socialist Fancisco Carvalho, took office in 1997.
Economic issues
The Delepasian economy changed significantly between 1981 and 1993. Total output (GDP at factor cost) saw a 120 percent growth in real terms. The pre-revolutionary period was characterised by a robust annual growth rate in GDP by 6.9 percent, in industrial production by nine percent, in consumption by 6.5 percent, and in gross fixed capital formation by 7.8 percent. The revolutionary period experienced a slowly-growing economy, with further growth upon its entry into the Vallosian Economic Association in the early 2000s. Although Rumahoki had never quite regained its pre-revolutionary growth in the first ten years since the revolution, at the time of the revolution it was an underdeveloped country with poor infrastructure, inefficient agriculture and was among the lowest in health and education indicators in Sarpedon.
Pre-revolutionary Delepasia was able to make certain social and economic achievements. After a long period of economic decline after the dissolution of the Viceroyalty of Los Rumas in 1852, the Delepasian economies had collectively recovered slightly until 1970. It began a period of economic growth in common with the rest of Vallos, of which it was the poorest until the 2000s. Delepasian economic growth under the Estado Social between the years 1980 and 1993 created an opportunity for integration with the more developed economies of Vallos despite its increasingly outdated form of government. Through emigration, trade, tourism and foreign investment, individuals and companies changed their patterns of production and consumption. The increasing complexity of a growing economy sparked new technical and organisational challenges that had to be faced.
Military expenses were especially high as the Delepasian government continued to repress and quell the Loa culture and revolts, and such burdens were only getting larger, thus forcing the government to find continuous sources and financing and try to reduce military expenses in creative ways, most notably by increasing the number of officers through incorporating militia and military-academy officers as equals.
According to government sources and estimates, about 12,000,000 hectares (approx. 29,652,646 acres) of agricultural land were seized between April 1994 and December 1995 as part of land reform; about 23 percent of the appropriations were ruled illegal. In January 1996, the government pledged to restore the illegally-occupied land to its owners before the year 2000, and had enacted the Land Reform Review Council the following month. Restoration of illegally-occupied land began in 1997.
In 1980, Delepasia's per-capita GDP was 42 percent of the Vallosian Economic Association average. By the end of the Pascual period in 1988 it had risen to 54 percent, and in 1993 it had reached 61.7 percent; the percentages were affected by the percent of the budget which underwrote the anti-Loa campaigns, that being about 45 percent. In 1995 (the year of the greatest civil turmoil), Delepasia's per-capita GDP declined to 56.3 percent of the VEA average. Due to revolutionary economic policies, multiple threats of coups and counter-coups from both the right and from the left, Delepasia began an economic crisis in 1994-1995.
Real gross domestic product growth resumed as a result of Rumahoki's economic resurgence since 2005 and adhesion to the Vallosian Economic Association (VEA). The country's 2011 per-capita GDP reached 102.8 percent of the VEA average, nearly twice the level at the height of the revolutionary period.
Freedom of religion
The constitution of 1996 guarantees all religions the right to practice, and non-Catholic groups are recognised as legal entities under the law complete with the right to assemble. Non-Catholic conscientious objectors now have the right to apply for alternative military service. The Catholic Church, however, has made several attempts to impede missionary activity from non-Catholic groups.
Results
After an early period of turmoil that threatened to tear the country apart in a civil war, Rumahoki emerged as a democratic country, having dropped the name "Delepasia" in favour of the name "Rumahoki" as part of a reconciliation programme with the nation's racial minorities. Rumahoki also transitioned from a unitary state to a federation, even recognising Classical Latin and Reform Tainean as official languages alongside Pelaxian as well as establishing the Loa-majority states of Kalanatoa and Na'aturie, states led by the heads of Marian Kapuhenasa.
Legacy
Many Rumahokian streets and squares are named after either the day of the revolution (30 April), or the name of the revolution (velvet, or velvetine), most notably in the official ideology of the People's Democratic Party, Velvetine socialism. The Imperial Vallosi Mint mints a commemorative 5-peso coin every five years starting in 1999 in honour of the Velvet Revolution.
Velvet Day
Velvet Day (30 April) is a national holiday, with state-sponsored and spontaneous celebrations of the civil liberties and political freedoms that were achieved after the revolution. It celebrates the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution and Rumahoki's first free and democratic constitution that went into effect on that date two years later.