- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The
United States on Friday accused the Venezuelan government of ousted
President
Hugo Chavez of provoking a crisis by ordering Chavez supporters to fire
on peaceful demonstrators.
-
- The White House clearly was pleased by the Venezuelan
military's toppling from power of Chavez, whose anti-American rhetoric
increasingly angered the U.S. government. U.S. officials insisted, however,
that they did not know in advance of the chain of events that led to
Chavez's
departure.
-
- Chavez resigned under pressure from military leaders
early on Friday after a huge protest march in Caracas in which at least
10 people were killed and 100 wounded. A transitional government was put
in place to lead the country to new elections.
-
- "Details are still unclear, but what we do know
is that the actions encouraged by the Chavez government provoked a crisis.
According to the best information we have, the government suppressed what
was a peaceful demonstration of the people," said White House
spokesman
Ari Fleischer.
-
- Fleischer said the Chavez government directed its
supporters
to fire on unarmed, peaceful protesters, and that the military and police
refused to go along with the order to fire "and refused to support
the government's role in such human rights violations."
-
- The United States expressed solidarity with the
Venezuelan
people and looked forward to working with democratic forces in Venezuela
to "restore the essential elements of democracy," Fleischer
said.
-
- Asked if the United States was saddened by the ouster
of Chavez, Fleischer replied: "The president is saddened by the loss
of life."
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- AN IMPORTANT OIL SUPPLIER TO U.S.
-
- Venezuela supplies the United States with 1.5 million
barrels of oil a day and has the largest reserves outside the Middle
East.
-
- Washington long ago was irritated by Chavez and lost
patience with him after he criticized the United States for bombing
innocent
civilians in Afghanistan in its war on terrorism. He did not endear himself
either by traveling to Cuba, Libya and Iraq.
-
- "We are concerned about Venezuela," President
Bush had said on March 19 ahead of a trip to Mexico, Peru and El Salvador.
"This man was elected by the people. We respect democracy in our
country,
and we hope he respects the democratic institutions within his
country."
-
- The United States has frequently extolled the fact that
democracy has swept through Latin America, until now leaving only one
nation
in the Western Hemisphere, Cuba, out of step with the trend.
-
- One U.S. official who asked not to be named said he saw
no sign that what happened in Venezuela overnight would qualify as a coup
or would require sanctions under section 508 of the U.S. Foreign Assistance
Act.
-
- "There is nothing to indicate that. The act speaks
of deposing a government by decree and this does not appear to be that.
That's the preliminary thought. The president of Venezuela resigned and
there is a provisional government," he said.
-
- Describing the change of government as a coup also would
require action under the Organization of American States' Democracy
Charter,
signed in Lima on Sept. 11 last year, of which the United States is a
strong
supporter.
-
- Steve Johnson, policy analyst for Latin America at the
Heritage Foundation think tank, said that rather than open relief, there
was "muted optimism" in Washington, given uncertainty over who
will govern.
-
- "Obviously somebody who is a thorn in the side,
not only of the United States, but the neighboring countries, has finally
been disarmed and rendered harmless," Johnson said.
-
- "But the problem is that it did not happen in a
way that makes it easy to deal with, because it did not follow the
constitutional
order, which creates some problems," he said.
-
- Johnson said the problem now is how to staff a transition
government, how to deal with Chavez loyalists peppered throughout the civil
service, the Supreme Court and the National Assembly, how to set up
elections
and deal with expectations about what the transition government should
do.
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