- CARACAS (AFP) - Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez said in a television interview that he has proof
of US contacts with military officers who launched a coup last month, but
it is not clear what was said in those contacts.
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- "I have proofs and I have them in writing. I have
the hour they entered and the hour in which two military officers of the
United States left the seat of the coup participants," Chavez told
the BBC, referring to military attaches assigned to the US embassy here.
-
- He did not identify the officers in the interview broadcast
on Saturday, but said he knew who they were and whom they spoke with, while
admitting it was unclear whether they aided the coup or opposed it.
-
- Sources close to an investigation of the coup have previously
identified the officers as army Colonel Ronald MacCammon and Lieutenant
Colonel James Rodgers.
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- Washington has consistently denied any involvement in
the coup April 12, in which Chavez was ousted following a three-day general
strike, that included street marches and protesters killed by unknown rooftop
sharpshooters.
-
- Business leader Pedro Carmona took over as interim president
with military backing.
-
- But after further unrest, and a switch in allegiance
in the military -- apparently angered at the interim government's dissolving
of the country's congress and supreme court -- Chavez was back in power
a mere 48 hours later.
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