Today marks the anniversary of the short-lived 2002 coup attempt against the elected government of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.

In recent weeks, Venezuela's democratic and progressive revolution has again been faced with attempts to destabilise - and ultimately overthrow - the country's elected government.

Indeed, three air force generals were recently arrested for coup plotting, although reports suggest the military as a whole remains loyal to the government led by former trade union leader Nicolas Maduro.

While a narrative here in the West has reflected the line of the small, wealthy minority who lie behind this violent protest movement, the reality has been quite different. What then is the reality of what has happened in Venezuela in recent weeks?

This extreme right-wing political campaign called La Salida (The Ousting), launched at the end of January, has led to a wave of violence that had claimed the lives of 40 people up to April 5, according to Venezuelanalysis.com.

Its explicit aim is unconstitutional regime change and it's the latest in a long line of such attempts that includes the 2002 coup.

Venezuelan socialists have argued that, through a wave of violence and terror, the protagonists of "La Salida" have sought to create the conditions for a coup at home and increased intervention from abroad, especially by the US.

The violence has included attacks on ministry buildings, health clinics, public transport, buildings associated with government social programmes, offices of left-wing parties and parts of universities.

Energy Minister Jesse Chacon has stated that violent protesters have attacked electricity stations in Tachira, Aragua, Merida, Zulia, Bolivar, Anzoategui, Lara, Barinas and Caracas. There has also been a violent siege of the state TV station VTV.

To give some specific examples, in Merida state, someone was arrested for putting diesel in the water supply. And in the same state, according to the Venezuelan site Aporrea, "The governor of Merida, Alexis Ramirez, reported that [a] murder occurred on Avenida Cardenal Quintero of Merida. It culminated after [a] 'peaceful' protest by the opposition in the morning" with Jesus Orlando Labrador, an employee of the state-owned telecommunications company CANTV, being "the victim of snipers on the roofs of nearby buildings, who were caught on camera."

It goes on to say that the "governor reported that snipers are part of violent extremist opposition groups... [who] also vandalised public and private property, including the burning of a shuttle bus."

In San Cristobal in Tachira state, the communications minister reported that violent masked protesters attacked and set on fire the building of Venezuelan National Television (VTV).

And, in early April, protesters set the Chacao branch of the Ministry of Housing on fire. There were 1,200 employees working in the building whose lives were put at risk. The fire also endangered 89 children who were in the ministry's crèche. Thankfully, firefighters arrived on time.

In addition to these attacks, one prominent form of violent protest, which the opposition has also resorted to in the past, is the guarimba. These are road barricades aimed at causing maximum disruption, blocking traffic and preventing Venezuelans from going about their daily business.

Numerous eyewitness accounts say they are often staffed by masked men, some of whom are reported to have been charging tolls to cross them, and have created an atmosphere of fear and threat.

Latin American expert Dr Francisco Dominguez says that the guarimbas are "well-planned, well-funded, well-organised, well-synchronised and intensely media-supported," adding that "though the guarimbas and the violent protests have been dying down, their lethality seems to have increased."

In contrast to reports in Western media that implicate government supporters and police in the protest-related deaths, research from the Council for Economic Policy Research in the US and Ewan Robertson of Venezuelanalysis has shown that opponents of the government are behind most of the fatalities.

The deaths have by no means all been of opposition protesters at the hands of state forces. Violence at the barricades has led to 20 deaths, according to Robertson's analysis, while the majority of deaths can be said to be due to opposition violence, directly or indirectly.

An important further point to note about this unrest is it is not a mass movement. The campaign is led by politicians who represent a tiny minrity of even the right-wing opposition, with the political violence condemned by many mainstream leaders of the opposition.

The call for "La Salida" was led by extreme right-wing politicians Leopoldo Lopez and Maria Cochina Machado. Leopoldo Lopez's party got 6 per cent in the December 2013 municipal elections, while Machado obtained only 3.6 per cent of opposition voters' preferences in the 2012 opposition primaries to select a presidential candidate.

Polls indicate that over 80 per cent see this wing of the opposition as violent and even higher numbers back government calls for peace and
dialogue.

Furthermore, even at its peak, violent incidents were mainly focused in a small number of areas (18 out of 335 municipalities) rather than being nationwide as has been reported.

The Venezuelan Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez said fewer than 2,000 people were involved in the violence. With only a few barricades remaining, the numbers involved now are even smaller.

This extreme right-wing movement is also isolated regionally, with the Organisation of American States voting by 29 to three (the US, Canada and Panama) passing a motion of solidarity and support for the Venezuelan government.

However, the threat of US sanctions has been put on the table, further enabling those from the former ruling elite who would like to turn the clock back in Venezuela to days of subordination to the US and rampant neoliberalism.

Against this backdrop, the peace talks now underway in Venezuela are a tremendous step forward for all who wish to see an end to violence, and reflect the political support for the Venezuelan government's strategy by nearly every Latin American government.

However, those who called for La Salida remain committed to a different, destructive path. Responding to this week's news of peace talks - brokered with the assistance of the regional body Unasur (Union of South American Nations) - Leopaldo Lopez's party said, "We don't believe in a 'dialogue' which the regime is planning to be a political show... Our organisation will not endorse any dialogue with the regime while repression, imprisonment and persecution of our people continues."

With aggressive elements in the US also pushing for sanctions - and with the constant international media misrepresentation of reports from Venezuela - our ongoing solidarity and vigilance will remain vital in the weeks and months ahead.

Matt Willgress is Venezuela Solidarity Campaign's national co-ordinator