Protests erupt against Venezuela's new government; new foreign minister seeks close US ties

CARACAS, Venezuela - The businessman chosen by army commanders to lead Venezuela postponed the swearing-in of his new Cabinet on Saturday as protesters in some cities demanded the return of ousted leader Hugo Chavez and soldiers in one city rebelled against the new government.

A high-ranking official in the new government said talks to quell a rebellion in the central city of Maracay were "difficult." Venezuela's armed forces, including its air force, are concentrated in Maracay. One of the rebelling officers was identified as Air Force Gen. Raul Baduel, who commands the F-16 air base, the official said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity, moments before journalists were expelled from the presidential palace and interim President Pedro Carmona's Cabinet inauguration was postponed.

Another military commander, army Gen. Julio Garcia Montoya, said in a telephone interview with Cuban television that the constitution must be followed.

"We don't recognize de facto juntas," Garcia said. He said Chavez's Vice President Diosdado Cabello should be named interim president and that elections should be held within one month.

Venezuelan TV and many radio stations did not carry his comments, and have not reported on Saturday's disturbances.

"We want to see Chavez. The Venezuelan people don't buy it that he has resigned," shouted Maria Brito, a 36-year-old demonstrator.

Chavez was ousted and arrested by Venezuela's military Friday, a day after National Guard troops and pro-Chavez gunmen clashed with opposition protesters. At least 16 people were killed and some 350 wounded, authorities said Saturday.

Chavez's exact whereabouts weren't known. He had been held at the army's Fort Tiuna and a military source said Chavez would be moved to an undisclosed location.

His daughter, Ana Gabriela Chavez, told Cuban television in a telephone interview that Chavez may have been taken to the Venezuelan island of La Orchila in the Caribbean and that he had been mistreated by his captors.

Chavez's family, supporters and former government officials insisted he never resigned as president, as Carmona and Venezuela's high command claimed.

The Organization of American States said it was sending a delegation to Venezuela on Sunday to assess the situation and that the OAS General Assembly will meet Wednesday on the matter.

Carmona was sworn in on Friday and abolished Venezuela's Constitution, the Congress, the Supreme Court, the attorney general's office and the comptroller's office. He said general elections would be held within a year.

Mexico, Argentina and Paraguay are among the Latin American countries that have denounced Venezuela's new government as illegitimate.

In an interview with The Associated Press, foreign minister-designate Jose Rodriguez said the swearing in of Carmona was not a coup in disguise.

"What we need to explain before our colleagues in the continent is that this is not a coup, although the situation is obviously not normal, legally and constitutionally, as we would wish," Rodriguez said in the interview in Caracas' century-old presidential palace.

Rodriguez said he wants tight relations with Washington, a contrast to Chavez's strained relations with the United States.

He said Venezuela would accept U.S. assistance in tracking and forcing down drug-smuggling flights, which Chavez had refused, saying it was a violation of national sovereignty. He said there must be "open cooperation" with the United States as well as on the subject of Colombian guerrillas.

Chavez had declared himself "neutral" in Colombia's civil war, and some officers had accused him of sympathizing with the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, who are widely known to use the Venezuelan border region as a refuge and who shared Chavez's vision of a unified South American republic.

U.S. President George W. Bush wants to increase military aid to Colombia to fight the rebels, and Venezuela's cooperation would be key.

The United States blamed Chavez for his own ouster because of attempts to violently suppress Thursday's demonstration against him.

Chavez had ordered National Guard troops and civilian gunmen, including rooftop snipers, to fire on the marchers, military officers said.

A pathologist at the Caracas morgue said 30 bodies had been brought to the morgue overnight and into Saturday, most with bullet wounds. How the people were killed was not immediately clear.

Government security forces continued searching for members of "Bolivarian Circles" - Chavez supporters who allegedly are armed - and for more than 1,000 rifles that were stolen earlier from a police station.

"There is an undeclared state of emergency in Venezuela," said Willian Lara, president of the Congress abolished Friday. "All legal norms have been violated, public institutions dissolved."

Lara told the AP that police were searching homes of Chavez administration officials and detaining former government officials without warrants.

Opposition resentment toward Chavez, a former paratrooper who in 1992 led a botched coup attempt and who was elected in 1998 on an anti-poverty platform, had been building for months. His term was to end in 2006.

Six weeks ago, managers at the state oil monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela began protesting a reshuffle of the company board by Chavez. The protests eventually triggered a general strike last week and Thursday's march, and they severely disrupted exports from the world's No. 4 oil producer.

Carmona, the 60-year-old head of Venezuela's largest business chamber, played a key role in the general strike. After becoming interim president, he suspended 48 laws decreed by Chavez that increased the state's role in the economy. He also named an interim Cabinet of politicians previously allied with the opposition.

"We don't recognize de facto juntas," Garcia said. He said Chavez's Vice President Diosdado Cabello should be named interim president and that elections should be held within one month.

(Jan 13, 2002) - Venezuela's Chavez Names Coup Plotter as VP

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Outside the presidential palace, police used tear gas to push back hundreds of Chavez supporters rallying outside the palace, chanting, "Chavez will be back!" and "Democracy, not dictatorship." Gunshots were heard coming from Catia slum near the presidential palace……. Government security forces continued searching for members of "Bolivarian Circles" - Chavez supporters who allegedly are armed - and for more than 1,000 rifles that were stolen earlier from a police station.

Chavistas: Venezuelan street toughs****CARACAS, Venezuela - From her bed in a Caracas military hospital, the wiry, chain-smoking prisoner vowed to continue a hunger strike and risk becoming the first death in Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's "revolution." "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. She was arrested after leading a violent pro-Chavez counter-protest against demonstrating university students. Thousands follow her lead in Venezuela and they have increasingly quashed dissent, breaking up anti-government protests, intimidating journalists and alarming the president's critics.****

Venezuelan youths who are studying in Cuba gather outside the Venezuelan Embassy in Havana, Saturday, April 13, 2002, as they rally in support of ousted Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. At center is Kerman Figueroa, Venezuela's military attache in Cuba. Staff memers at the embassy signed a letter condemning the ouster of Chavez. (AP Photo/Cristobal Herrera)

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Venezuela's Power Shift Condemned****Carmona dissolved the formerly Chavez-controlled congress, Supreme Court, attorney general's and comptroller's offices, and he declared a 1999 Constitution sponsored by Chavez null and void. Venezuela will return to a bicameral legislature under the previous constitution, he said. Carmona also suspended 48 laws decreed by Chavez in November that generally increased the state's role in the economy. A 25-member advisory council was appointed. ****

AFP via Babelfish -

The temporary president taken refuge at the height Tiuna

Saturday April 13, 2002 - 20h52 GMT
CARACAS, 13 avr (AFP) - the temporary president of Venezuela, Pedro Carmona, took refuge at the height Tiuna, the principal military base of Caracas, whereas thousands of people expressed in favour of the head of the State reversed Hugo Chavez.
Pedro Carmona "is taken refuge at the height Tiuna", declared with radio operator the Minister for the Secretariat of the presidency of the provisional government, the vice-admiral Jesus Briceno, who called the population with calms.
Thousands of people expressed at the same time in front of Fort Tiuna, requiring, according to witnesses', the "release" of the former president Hugo Chavez, who had been held on this basis after his renversemet in the night of Thursday to Friday.
Thousands of other people were also gathered in middle of afternoon in front of the palate presidential of Miraflores, in the center of Caracas, demanding that their the text of the resignation of Mr. Chavez is shown.
A little earlier, Mr. Carmona had left the presidential palate by leaving several of its ministers there, had declared with the AFP the lieutenant-colonel Antonio Rivero Gonzalez, saying to ensure the safety of the places.
Pedro Carmona "left itself and we ensure the safety of the people who are there because the population in the street is exacerbated", added the Gonzalez lieutenant-colonel, while refusing to specify if it were honest to Mr. Carmona or to Mr. Chavez.

Chavez resigned and must leave Venezuela for the foreigner (minister)

Saturday April 13, 2002 - 21h02 GMT
CARACAS, 13 avr (AFP) - the former president vénézuélien Hugo Chavez "resigned verbally, we have the recording, and it will be sent abroad when it signs his resignation", affirmed Saturday the Minister for the Secretariat to the presidency, the vice-admiral Jesus Briceno, at Radio the Union station.
This advertisement intervened not very front 17H00 local (21H00 GMT), at the moment when the temporary president of Venezuela, Pedro Carmona, took refuge at the height Tiuna, the principal military base of Caracas, whereas thousands of people expressed in favour of the head of the State reversed Hugo Chavez in front of the presidential palate of Miraflores, in the center of Caracas.
The demonstrators require that their the text of the resignation of Mr. Chavez be shown. This document was still not published by the new mode, more than 24 hours after the coup d'etat of Friday.

Hugo Chavez transferred on the island vénézuélienne from Orchila, according to his/her daughter

Saturday April 13, 2002 - 21h07 GMT
Havana, 13 avr (AFP) - the former president vénézuélien Hugo Chavez, reversed by a coup d'etat, was transferred on the island vénézuélienne from Orchila, at sea of the Caribbean, to 150 km of Caracas, declared Saturday his daughter Maria Gabriela Chavez in a telephone interview with cuban television. Questioned from Venezuela, the girl of Mr. Chavez, who said to be based on "very good sources", affirmed that his/her father "had been maltreated".
She moreover has indicated not to have been able to speak with her father for Friday, when he had affirmed to him that he had not at all resigned but that it had been stopped.
The mother of the reversed president, Elena Frias, joined by telephone by cuban television, in addition asked "all those which have to see with the humans right" that they "do not allow that they holds his/her son".
"I do not know what they did with Mo wire, it added. Please, made something, do not allow that they assassinate it. Renez counts to you in the way in which they took it along by helicopter and one does not know towards where ".
The soldiers and diplomatic vénézuéliens in station in Cuba in addition refused reconnaitre the new "government de facto" of the country, indicated the military attaché to Havana, colonel Kerman Rodriguez, which qualified "illegal" "provisional junta of extreme right-hand side" and the government of Pedro Carmona which seized the power in Venezuela.

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