resulted mainly from Pérez's drive to increase investments in the oil industry. Yet, other indicators suffered. Sharp declines in measures of human well-being exacerbated a growing social crisis. Much hardship was thus generated among Venezuela's poor majority. Incidences of hunger, prostitution, murder, and other ills rose sharply, while continuing surges in Venezuela's national debt and flagging foreign direct investment inflows continued to hammer the Venezuelan economy. Further, the neoliberal reforms failed to lower high poverty rates of the 1990s. This continuing poverty complemented Latin American economies' general skewing towards satiating elite consumptive interests while simultaneously relieving upper classes from substantial taxes that would subsidize the poor. Discontent with the general socioeconomic decline erupted in the tumultuous 27 February 1989 Caracazo riots; they were the most destructive and deadly such disturbances in Venezuelan history, (2005). Officially, 372 deaths occurred—although some critics of the government claim that the actual total is well in excess of two thousand. Outraged mobs engaged in mass arson against whole city blocks. Several days passed before troops restored full order. At the time, Chávez was ill. Thus, he was not ordered to help suppress the riots that were breaking out in primarily poor neighborhoods. Yet, Chávez recalls observing the unfolding events—and realizing that he had missed his "strategic minute" to launch his coup. Thus unable for the moment to capitalize on the popular anger and unrest, Chávez refined his critique of what he saw as an irredeemably corrupt traditional two-party puntofijismo system. Subsequently, Chávez's political rhetoric would dramatically mature; after these Caracazo riots, Chávez always chose to refer to the type of neoliberalism practiced by Pérez as so-called "savage" neoliberalism. He saw such economic reform packages—including the ten-point "Washington Consensus" reform program advanced by former International Monetary Fund advisor John Williamson—as forcibly imposed upon the unwilling populations of Latin America by the U.S. government and allied leaders. In response, Chávez intensified preparations for the Bolivarian military-civilian coup. Final coup preparations (1989–1992) Weeks after the Caracazo, Chávez returned to work at Miraflores. Chávez recalled that the presidential palace's guards stopped and questioned him. They reportedly asked him: "[l]ook here, major, is it true about the Bolivarian Movement? We'd like to hear more about it; we're not prepared to go on killing people". Chávez took this as a sign that his plan to overthrow the government was gaining momentum. By late 1989, the first civilians joined the EBR-200's ranks.