Illustrators: David Bocquelet, Tom Cooper, Paul Hewitt, and Anderson Subtil
This is the first volume of the 1992 coup d'état attempts in Venezuela, focusing on the causes and the opening moves of the February 1992 coup. Author José Daniel Fernández Dugarte’s original manuscript was too large for the @War series, so the editors decided rather than break the book in two, leaving the volumes unbalanced, the book was partitioned part way through. This first volume focuses on the background and history of the Venezuelan armed forces and the beginning of the first coup. As the editors note, “We recognize this leaves the reader with something of a cliff hanger ending to this volume and hope that you will understand this decision and pick up the story and discover the conclusion presented in Volume 2.” The author did a great job relating this complex story, and while the volume does end abruptly, I will be looking forward to the second volume to find out the details of the first coup, and the more important second coup, and its aftermath.