- (AFP) - As questions remain over whether the United States
had a role in Venezuela's recent coup, an official investigation shows
some of the plotters believed they had a green light from Washington and
at least one changed his mind after consulting US officials, a source close
to the probe said.
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- The source, who declined to be identified, said Saturday
the investigation has shed light on the events surrounding the military's
April 12 ouster of Chavez and his return to power two days later. Results
of the investigation have not been made public.
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- Chavez, for his part, has refused to publicly address
concerns over US involvement in the coup, saying he would not conduct "microphone
diplomacy."
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- The source said US Army Lieutenant Colonel James Rodgers,
an aide to the US military attache "was present on the fifth floor
of the military command" before Chavez was brought to that installation,
Fort Tiuna in Caracas, and remained there until the self-proclaimed provisional
government fell apart.
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- Some Venezuelan military officers interpreted Rodgers'
presence as a green light from Washington to unseat Chavez, the source
said.
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- "In the course of the investigation, several Venezuelan
officers implicated in the coup mentioned the presence of the US soldier,"
the source said. "They were assured that the movement had the full
support of the United States and that was why they participated."
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- Washington has consistently denied any involvement in
the coup, and a US embassy spokesman Saturday repeated previous State Department
denials that Rodgers was at Fort Tiuna during that time.
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- "No member of our embassy's defense attache's office
or any other US official visited Fort Tiuna during the period between April
11 and the 13," the days that Chavez was placed under military detention,
released and returned to office, State Department spokesman Chip Barclay
said Friday in Washington.
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- The coup began to unravel after businessman Pedro Carmona,
the interim president, suspended the National Assembly and the Supreme
Court and moved against other elected bodies as well.
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- Carmona's actions prompted army commander General Efrain
Vasquez -- one of the first to turn against Chavez in the coup -- to withdraw
his support for Carmona, who quickly resigned. The source said the investigation
revealed Vasquez was "aided by American advice" in his decision.
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- US officials have worked to dispel persistent reports
that Washington knew of the coup through its contacts with the Venezuelan
opposition, but have been burdened by a failure to explicitly reject the
provisional government and a history of US support for military regimes
in Latin America.
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- Washington -- which had consistently opposed any coup
in Venezuela -- at first refused to call Chavez's ouster a coup, and said
he had brought it on himself by ordering his troops to fire on demonstrators
and by shutting down some television stations.
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- Later, in a joint statement with Spain, the White House
urged a return to democracy in Venezuela and supported a call for the Organization
of American States to invoke a charter requiring sanctions against a member
which abandons democracy.
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- It took until Thursday, four days after Chavez returned
to the presidential palace, for US Secretary of State Colin Powell to condemn
"the blows to constitutional order that Venezuela has suffered"
and to call for plotters to be punished.
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- "This is going to cost to the United States, because
it has lost a certain moral and political credibility in the continent,
and (it) also makes relations with Venezuela difficult," said Arturo
Valenzuela, a former Bill Clinton White House official and current director
of the Center for Latin American Studies at Georgetown University.
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- "(US officials) wanted it both ways. They did want
to influence the outcome so that Chavez would no longer be a thorn in their
side and yet be seen in alliance with the OAS as backers of democracy,"
added Carol Wise, professor at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced
International Studies.
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- Chavez, a 47-year-old ex-paratrooper who sports a trademark
red beret, is one of two Latin American presidents whose policies have
irritated Washington officials. The other is his hero and occasional baseball
opponent, Fidel Castro.
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