I have asked these questions to more than a dozen well-placed regional diplomats in recent days, after Chávez said he had learned a ''major lesson'' from the bloody events that shook his country April 12 and that he would set up a national reconciliation commission to seek an understanding with his political opponents.
Judging from what I heard, Chávez -- a former coup plotter who was elected in 1998 and vowed to stay in power until 2021 -- may go in any of the following directions.***
Also killed were Gens. Pedro Torres Finol, Julio Ochoa Omana and Rafael Quintana Bello, as well as a captain, three lieutenants and two sergeants. Two other helicopters carrying army Commander in Chief Lucas Rincon and National Guard commander Gen. Francisco Belisario Landis were also forced to land, but none were injured in those craft.
The officers had attended a ceremony installing a new Navy chief, Vice Admiral Fernando Camejo Arenas. Chavez reshuffled the high command after he was ousted in a coup April 12 and reinstated on Sunday.***