Following the collapse of the coup that briefly deposed Chavez, who was restored by loyal troops April 14, the three anti-Chavez military officers and their families went to the Bolivian Embassy and asked for political asylum. They had remained there as "guests", while negotiations took place for their departure, Fernandez said. "Through their own free will, these persons asked to be allowed to leave to a third country, and my government agreed after consultations with the Venezuelan government and that country," the Bolivian foreign minister added. "They left on the night of Saturday to Sunday and yesterday morning they made the connection from Santa Cruz to the United States," he added.
A U.S. Embassy spokesman told Reuters he had no information about the 10 Venezuelans or under what status they had traveled from Bolivia to the United States. The group included retired Air Force Col. Pedro Vicente Soto Fuentes, his wife and three children, and another retired Air Force colonel, Silvino Jose Bustillos, accompanied by his spouse and two children. The other member was a retired National Guard captain Luis Garcia Morales. All three of the officers had been forcibly retired by the Venezuelan president, himself a former paratroop officer, for speaking out in public against him before the April 11 coup that removed him from power for 48 hours.
Senior armed forces officers briefly deposed Chavez after refusing to obey his order to deploy tanks and troops during a huge anti-government march in which 17 people were killed after unidentified gunmen opened fire in central Caracas. Chavez has ordered an inquiry into the April 11 deaths and into the subsequent killings of several dozen more people during protests by Chavez supporters and widespread looting. The Bolivian foreign minister was in Caracas to fix a new date for a summit of leaders of the Andean Community (CAN) which was due to have been held May 3-4 in Venezuela but was suspended in the aftermath of the coup. [End]