Then Venezuelan President-elect Hugo Chavez, left, listens to former President Jimmy Carter during their meeting in Caracas, Venezuela, in this Dec. 7, 1998 file photo. Chavez, the former army paratrooper who polarized Venezuela with his strongarm rule and whose friendship with Cuba and Iraq irritated the United States, resigned under military pressure Friday, April 12, 2002 after a massive opposition demonstration ended in a bloodbath. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, center right, and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein inspect an honor guard at Saddam airport in Baghdad, Iraq in this Aug. 11, 2000 file photo. Chavez, the former army paratrooper who polarized Venezuela with his strongarm rule and whose friendship with Cuba and Iraq irritated the United States, resigned under military pressure Friday, April 12, 2002 after a massive opposition demonstration ended in a bloodbath.(AP Photo/INA, Pool)
Cuba expresses concerns for Chavez's safety, calls ouster illegal - Sat Apr 13, 1:23 AM ET By ANITA SNOW, AP
[Full Text] HAVANA - Cuba's foreign minister expressed concern for the safety of the ousted Venezuelan president and said the Organization of American States should investigate what he called the illegal overthrow of a democratically elected leader.
"In this moment, Cuba considers (Chavez) to be the constitutional president of Venezuela," Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque told a news conference on Friday. "Cuba is worried about his physical integrity."
Chavez's ouster early Friday alarmed Cuban officials, who considered the Venezuelan leader their greatest regional ally. To Cuban President Fidel Castro, Chavez was a friend, a revolutionary heir, a surrogate son - Castro celebrated his 75th birthday with Chavez in Venezuela.
The foreign minister confirmed that Chavez had talked with Castro by telephone since the huge protests that led to his ouster, but declined to offer details.
Venezuelan military leaders who pressured Chavez to resign said they refused a request by him to take exile in Cuba.
The ousted president's daughter, Maria Gabriela Chavez, told Cuban television in a telephone interview from Venezuela on Friday that her father had not resigned.
She said her father told her in a telephone call to tell "the whole world ... that I am an imprisoned president and at no moment did I resign." She called her father's arrest "simply a coup, and they want to cover it up as a supposed resignation."
In a second interview with Cuban television aired in Havana early Saturday, Chavez's daughter said her family had received information that her father had been moved by helicopter late Friday from the military base where he had been held to an unknown location.
Chavez's ouster threw into doubt the budding trade relationship between the two countries. Venezuela is Cuba's No. 1 trade partner. Venezuela had been exporting 53,000 barrels of oil to Cuba daily at preferential terms.
CNN's Spanish language network showed Edgar Paredes of Venezuela's oil company saying on Friday, "We aren't going to send a single barrel more to Cuba."
When asked about the impact that could have on Cuba, Felipe Perez would only say that the Venezuelan oil authorities "answer to the coup leaders who at this moment are trying to consolidate power by illegal means." [End]
Castro, who once referred to Chavez as "a man worthy of admiration and support," has issued no public statements about his friend's ouster.