Chavez says there's evidence U.S. wanted him dead

Houston Chronicle ^ | May 5, 2002 | SCOTT WILSON

[Cincinatus' Wife]

CARACAS, Venezuela -- President Hugo Chavez, who is settling back into governing this oil-rich but socially divided country, raised questions in an interview about a possible U.S. role in a coup last month that he says was an attempt on his life.

Chavez has begun his own investigation into the four days that saw him toppled, then returned to power, in a spate of political violence that left more than 60 people dead. In an interview late Friday, Chavez said "worrying details" have emerged that point to a foreign hand behind his temporary ouster -- perhaps, he suggested, one guided by the United States.

Chavez said the evidence includes information collected from a coastal radar installation that tracked a foreign military ship and aircraft operating in and over Venezuelan waters a day after his ouster. The ship, helicopter and plane -- identified by their transponder codes as military -- disappeared from the radar the morning he returned from his imprisonment on the island of La Orchila, he said.

In addition, Chavez said, an American was involved in what he characterized as an assassination plot against him uncovered in Costa Rica four months ago. He said the details of the plan revealed at the time essentially predicted what transpired April 11, when a protest march on the presidential palace turned violent and led to his arrest by senior military officers.

"I am being objective about this. I can't be launching accusations, and I want to believe that a government that has stood so strongly behind democracy is not involved in this tyrannical, macabre coup," Chavez said during a one-hour interview at the presidential palace. "It is very important to clarify these matters as soon as possible."

Those concerns are the most pointed comments Chavez has made on the subject.

The Bush administration, which denies any role in a coup, stood nearly alone in blaming Chavez for provoking his own removal April 12. There have been no conciliatory phone calls from Washington, and the State Department has never shown much tolerance for his leftist leanings.

Seventeen people were killed during the April 11 protest march, and the Bush administration echoed opposition members who accused Chavez of provoking the violence. Chavez called the march on the palace illegal in the Friday interview, and said it was the culmination of a plot hatched last year with the help of foreign sponsors to end his three-year presidency.

As evidence, the president talked for the first time about an alleged plan to assassinate him. Chavez said he was vacationing with his family in Barinas province in western Venezuela when he received a phone call from his foreign minister, Luis Alfonso Davila, on Jan. 1 telling him to return to Caracas immediately.

When he arrived, Chavez said, Davila told him that a man from a Central American country had appeared at the Venezuelan Embassy in San Jose, Costa Rica. Chavez said the man told Venezuelan officials that he was a mercenary who had been training with perhaps a dozen other men in a Central American country for a mission scheduled for this year. The men had gathered in San Jose to await an American member of the team, who over drinks on New Year's Eve said, "Chavez is done. He doesn't know what's coming."

Chavez refused to provide further details of the alleged assassination plot, including what country the informant was from or where he is now. He said he did not know whether the American was a government official or a private mercenary.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Chavez is trying to deflect attention from the deep hatred and mistrust the people of Venezuela have for him. He wants to give the LIBERAL media an anti-American platform on which they can slam the U.S. instead of covering the long standing problems between Chavez and the people, unions, church and media in Venezuela for his hijacking of their constitution in order to morph it into his communist ideal and revolution.

April 2002 - "Comandante" Lina Ron, who considers herself a modern version of "Tania," a woman who fought alongside Cuban revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara, says she is a willing martyr for Chavez's cause. ….Ron and her followers burned a U.S. flag in Caracas' central Plaza Bolivar just after the September terrorist attacks in the United States. The anti-Washington demonstration appalled many Venezuelans. More recently, Ron's followers threatened journalists at El Nacional newspaper in Caracas. Chavez has called Ron a political prisoner. "We salute Lina Ron, a female soldier who deserves the respect of all Venezuelans," he said recently.

U.S. on the spot for failure to condemn brief anti-Chavez coup - (You're damned if you do and...)

Hugo Chavez, left, is embraced by Fidel Castro in this Dec. 14, 1994 , file photo at the University of Havana, Cuba, during Chavez's visit to Cuba at Castro's invitation.

Hugo Chavez - Venezuela

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Chavez Raises Idea Of U.S. Role in Coup ***After being accused of orchestrating the April 11 violence himself, Chavez has a clear motive for presenting an alternate theory for what caused the deaths that day. The results of the criminal investigation into who opened fire and the hearings by the National Assembly on how the coup unfolded will have a bearing on his administration's legitimacy, which many opposition members say was lost when the shooting broke out. Some Chavez supporters have been identified as being among those participating in the gunfight on the streets near the national palace.

But Chavez said members of the military unit responsible for guarding the president arrested four foreigners who were firing on the crowd from the Hotel Ausonia, less than a block from the presidential palace. Chavez said the men, who were found with high-powered rifles, were released the next day by the provisional government. Police have said that at least five of those killed were shot in the head from above. "I have no doubt that I would have been killed had I gone out into the streets that day -- Chavez killed by a bullet from the people," he said. "That was the idea behind this. This march was looking for deaths."

The president's accusations suggest that some of the old, strident Chavez is replacing the recently chastened one. In the days after his jubilant return, the former army paratrooper who waged his own unsuccessful coup against a democratic government a decade ago had the look of a chronic speeder who had narrowly averted a fatal collision. He pledged to go slower in the future. Chavez has made minor changes in his cabinet, and major changes at the state oil company where managerial unrest spawned the national strike that led to his ouster. And he has invited local governments, business groups and the Roman Catholic church -- institutions long ignored by his government -- to participate in a "national dialogue." But Chavez continues to argue that his ouster was organized by a tiny group of powerful Venezuelans, and that his return on a tide of popular protest and a change of heart within the military is a truer expression of the public's will. As a result, he said, he plans to change -- in tone and style, at least.***

[BlackElk]

We ought to be very disappointed in the return to power of this anti-American thug, disappointed that he lived to return to power and I, for one, would be very disappointed if the administration I voted for was not involved in past and future efforts to see to it that Chavez is permanently removed from the misery of the people of Venezuela so that his final chapter directly parallels that of Salvador Allende. If he is married, maybe his widow can write poetry to titillate our chattering classes and feed their fantasies. We do not need a new Castro on the mainland of South America and neither do Venezuelans.

[TiaS]

Maybe someone should call Kissinger ... very similar to the General Pinochet story.

[mgc1122]

Say, Chavez - that's clearly a "Duh!" don't ya think? You're funding terrorism.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

We do not need a new Castro on the mainland of South America and neither do Venezuelans.

You are absolutly correct! The people of Venezuela know it too and they don't need the U.S. to tell them this guy needs to go. I know we certainly won't shed any false tears once he's gone. He's stated he wants to be the anti-American staging ground in this hemisphere.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

A Chavez's admirer.

[cricket]

"We do not need a new Castro on the mainland of South America and neither do Venezuelans."

bump for truth. . .

. . .and as the threat of a communist dictator asserts itself in the name of Chavez; the Venezuelans who can do something about it are. . .they are fleeing to America. . .

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Chavez's citizens group, "political army," is fueling tensions

FARC connections: Colombia 'Worried' FARC Crossing Into Venezuela

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Yes they are fleeing they don't want to become prisoners in their own country.

[MadRobotArtist]

This guy is totally right. There are people in America who probably want him dead. They're called Venezuelan Refugees. For Christ's sake, there are more people who are unarmed who want him dead in their own country than he could possibly believe. I just wish one of them would get around to taking care of business. How is it that our country tolerates leaders like this of other countries who are petty dictators? Oh wait, that stupid law about knocking off leaders and stuff... Nevermind.

[ex-Texan]

I believe we will see Chazez go into full retribution mode in a few months. There will be arrests of opposition leaders and Chazev will be saying that another coup attempt was in the works. Heads will role ..... more shootings in the streets. We have seen it all before.

Chavez's problems have arisen because of his oil policies. Under this Casro clone, Venezuela joined OPEC to show solidarity with Arab oil producing nations. There has been a huge cut back in oil produciton and the price of Venezuelan crude rocketed from $ 5 a barrel to $ 26 a barrel. So far, only the state owned Venezuelan oil company is participating in OPEC's slow down .... but Chavez may decide that he wants to blame foreign oil companies for the coup attempt. Right now there are 33 foreign oil companies producing oil in Venevuela .... trouble is coming.

Wait and see.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Bump!

[IVote2]

Someone notify Chris Dodd, he's looking to stir the pot according to Robert Novak.

Good Morning Cincinatus' Wife, and a BTTT

[Cincinatus' Wife]

... trouble is coming.

Correct. Chavez wants the oil pumped so he can collect his cut but then he wants to store it, to drive the price up. Castro's pulling a lot of Chavez's strings and is supplying him with personnel to guide, assist and protect his revolution. In return, Castro is getting free oil, exporting terrorism and expanding communism.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Goodmorning IVote2.

Chris Dodd's vendetta*** WASHINGTON -- Venezuela's agony under a leftist demagogue elected by the people has enabled Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd to revive his vendetta against Assistant Secretary of State Otto Reich. Dodd blames Reich for approving the 48-hour removal of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The problem is that the aborted coup was not approved by Reich or anybody in the U.S. government.

Dodd has wisecracked that Reich, in charge of Western Hemisphere affairs, lacked "adult supervision" in handling the coup while Secretary of State Colin Powell was in the Middle East. In fact, Chavez's government holds the U.S. blameless, recognizing that Reich neither encouraged nor condoned the Venezuelan president's temporary removal.

Why, then, are Dodd and his allies in Congress elevating Chavez, who as an army officer once bungled a left-wing coup himself, as a symbol of Latin American democracy? Dodd, who appears to be gearing up for an investigation of Reich's performance and is reported to be contemplating a trip to Venezuela, never seemed exercised about Chavez trampling democratic practices in trying to model himself after Fidel Castro. Nor do Reich's critics mention that Chavez's brief fall from power came after his troops opened fire on unarmed demonstrators.***

[hchutch]

I cannot speak for this Administration, but personally, I want that f---ing punk D-E-A-D so we can cut FARC off and kill it.

[joesnuffy]

Chavez says There is evidence the US wants him dead.
Hmmm maybe he could consult with Zogby

[Free the USA]

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[montag813]

Expect Communist Traitor Sen. Chris Dodd to hold a hearing on this next week.