Venezuela president owes life to Indian bishop-elect

March 13, 2012: If Venezuela President Hugo Chavez thanks anyone for being alive today, it would be the newly-appointed bishop of Faridabad diocese in northern India.

Archbishop-Bishop Kuriakose Bharanikulangara was the charge d’affairs of the Apostolic Nunciature in Caracas when the Venezuelan president faced a coup that threatened his life ten years ago.

"It was the most striking experience in my career," said Archbishop Bharanikulangara recalling the night of April 11, 2002 when he attended a frantic call from Chavez.

The prelate said it took some time for him to realize the person on the other side was embattled Chavez.

On that day the president and his wife were held hostage in a room in the presidential palace when he pleaded to speak to the Vatican ambassador.

Chavez, a former Lieutenant-Colonel, was first elected in 1998, but four years later the general’s took over in a coup.

The Indian prelate’s mediation and help from Rome helped Chavez to leave the presidential palace safely.

The president was guaranteed a passage to a remote island and representatives of the Church acted as personal custodians.

"I had to mediate with the military generals to help Chavez," said the archbishop-elect.

The coup lasted only for just 47 hours because pro-Chavez protests broke out across the country as soon as the generals took over.

On the first day, the military rulers shot dead as many as 60 people, triggering an upheaval that forced the new government to recall Chavez.

"Sometimes you can really make a difference. Timely responsible decisions by the Church prevented the crisis from getting out of hand,” Archbishop Bharanikulangara said and added even now the Venezuelan president acknowledges that the Vatican embassy people helped him to survive.

The prelate said that he has lived outside India for more than 24 years and witnessed how communities grow in a migrant background.

He has spent the past 18 years as a Vatican diplomat in places as disparate as Iraq, Congo and the UN.

His Episcopal ordination has been fixed for May 26. He would be in charge of Syro-Malabar Catholics in Delhi and surrounding states.