Operation Anti-Chavez

The lingering question on everyone's mind at the end of Venezuela's 48-hour coup is: Did the US have a hand in it?

The answer is "yes." In spite of Bush administration denials, the sordid facts have leaked out. US government personnel met repeatedly over a period of several months with the coup leaders, gave them encouragement, and, on the day of the coup itself, gave them advice and support.

First, the meetings: Assistant Secretary of Defense Roger Pardo-Maurer met at least once with one of the main generals behind the coup, Lucas Romero Rincon. Pardo-Maurer served during the Reagan administration as chief of staff to the representative of the Nicaraguan Contras, the US' very own death squad in Latin America (which at that time was engaged in efforts to overthrow the democratically-elected government of Nicaragua).

People in the Defense Department also admit meeting several times with coup leaders: "We were not discouraging people. We were sending informal, subtle signals that we don't like this guy [Hugo Chavez]. We didn't say, 'No, don't you dare,' and we weren't advocates saying, 'Here's some arms; we'll help you overthrow this guy.' We were not doing that." ("US denies backing Chavez plotters," BBC News Online, 4/16/02.)

It all smells of a denial after the fact. Giving arms to coup plotters is not the only way the US can provide material support. For example, on the day of the coup, Pedro Carmona, who declared himself de facto President, was on the phone with Otto Reich, US assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs. Reich, a Cuban exile, was giving Carmona instructions on how to hang onto power. Unfortunately, Carmona didn't follow those instructions and the rest is, well, history. Reich has also been the loudest voice trumpeting the absurd notion that it was nasty Cuban commies at Chavez's behest who were high up on top of buildings shooting down at the Caracas demonstrators (and killing mostly Chavez supporters).

Lest you think it a comedy, Chavez surely was not laughing when he spotted a US plane at the military base where the coup plotters had stashed him. It obviously wasn't a private plane; he didn't get a close look, so he couldn't tell if it was a military or government plane, but US it was.

He probably spent a fitful night, wondering what would happen to him once the coup leaders decided his fate, and if that US plane would be taking him somewhere ... and where exactly that place would be. Some open-air cage at Guantanamo, perhaps?

And then there's the USS George Washington, on maneuvers just offshore. Wayne Madsen, a former US National Security Agency officer who now works for a Paris-based business service called Intelligence Online, agrees with several other intelligence analysts who say that the CIA was clearly involved.

They say that US ships in the area, including the USS George Washington, were busy jamming cell phone signals, pagers, taxi radios, and military communications on the first day of the coup. Notably, Venezuela has the highest rate of cell phone use in Latin America, and Chavez supporters often use cell phones and pagers to get the message out about rallies and demonstrations. This may be why it took a full day for Chavez supporters to hit the streets.

Most important and most embarrassing for the Bush administration, was its hasty public announcement to support Pedro Carmona in the name of democracy. The Bushies, who practice the cult of isolationism, have fallen out of touch with Latin America and so could not whip Vicente Fox of Mexico or the leaders of Argentina, Paraguay, Ecuador, Bolivia, and a host of other nations into line to support the coup. By recognizing Carmona so quickly, the Bushies showed their hand too soon, and proved that they support not democracy, but plutocracy in Latin America.

Some sources for this article: "US Details Talks With Opposition," Washington Post, 4/17/02, A8; "US Cautioned Leader of Plot Against Chavez," New York Times, 4/17/02; "US denies backing Chavez plotters," BBC Online, 4/16/02; "After the coup, Venezuelan president ponders the mystery of American plane," Reuters in Caracas, reprinted by The Guardian Unlimited, 4/16/02; and "US reaction to coup is sharply criticized," Boston Globe, reprinted in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 4/17/02, A4.