on 11 april, just hours before an operation to take over the pdvsa by force was to begin, general rosendo, knowing the consequences of such an action, talked chávez out of the plan. later that day, hundreds of thousands to millions of venezuelans marched to the pdvsa headquarters later that day in defense of its recently dismissed management board. chants of "miraflores! miraflores! miraflores!" could be heard throughout the march with participants calling for a march to the miraflores palace. the organizers of the march had planned to announce a "spontaneous" decision to reroute the march and "descend on miraflores presidential palace to force the president to resign". by late morning, speakers at the rally at pdvsa headquarters called for a march to miraflores, and the crowd approved and began the six-mile march. the march was re-routed without consultation with the police, who legally had to approve the changed route. the government, upon seeing how events were unfolding on television, called for a halt in the progress of demonstrators so that the very real possibility of a violent confrontation taking place between the marchers and thousands of chavistas already gathered there at the palace might be avoided.