Posted on 04/19/2002 3:21:12 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
WASHINGTON -- President Bush shrugged off suggestions Thursday that his administration welcomed a short-lived Venezuelan coup, and told the nation's embattled president to respect democratic values such as freedom of the press.
"If there are lessons to be learned, it's important that he learn them," Bush said of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Last week, hours after Chavez appeared to have been deposed during a mass protest, the State Department and the White House said Chavez was to blame for his fate. The administration showed no remorse about the interruption of democratic procedures.
The next day, however, the United States joined with other Organization of American States countries in condemning an attempt to install a successor government outside constitutional rules. Chavez was reinstated Sunday.
"The administration was very clear when there were troubles on the streets in Venezuela that we support democracy and did not support any extraconstitutional action. My administration spoke with a very clear voice about our strong support of democracy," Bush said.
"It's very important for President Chavez to do what he said he was going to do -- to address the reasons why there was so much turmoil on the streets. It's very important for him to embrace the institutions that are fundamental to democracy, such as freedom of the press, freedom of the opposition to speak out.
"When things got hot in Venezuela, he shut the press down," Bush said.
Bush made the remarks as hemispheric nations began looking for ways to avoid future coups in the oil-rich country.
Foreign ministers of the Organization of American States were to hear a report late Thursday from the secretary-general, Cesar Gaviria, on his fact-finding mission this week in Venezuela.
With the meeting scheduled on short notice, most foreign ministers from the 34-nation group will not attend but will be represented by subordinates. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Luis Alfonso Davila is expected to participate, officials said.
Meanwhile Thursday, the Pentagon said it had suspended counterdrug training and is assessing what to do about other military-to-military programs with Venezuela.
The U.S. Southern Command said two dozen U.S. Army trainers who were supposed to have gone to Venezuela April 12 as the coup was unfolding were first put on hold, then told Sunday the trip was off for the time being.
The two countries also have joint annual exercises in navy and coast guard maneuvers. The Pentagon is watching how the situation in Venezuela develops day to day, defense officials said.
"We are postponing military-to-military activities there until the situation on the ground stabilizes," said Capt. Riccoh Player, a Pentagon spokesman for hemisphere issues.
More than 40 years of uninterrupted democratic rule almost came to an end April 12 when, in the aftermath of a popular uprising, the military took Chavez into custody.
An attempt by businessman Pedro Carmona to form a replacement government collapsed, and Chavez was reinstated Sunday.
As Gaviria ended his two-day visit to Venezuela, he said, "This country has to learn from the traumatic events of last week."
"Episodes such as those that occurred have enormous risks in human lives and in the preservation of institutions," said Gaviria, a Colombian, pleading with Chavez's foes to "take the president at his word" and give him a chance to practice forgiveness and correct past errors.
Otto Reich, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, welcomed Chavez's recent expression of interest in improved relations with Washington.
"If President Chavez is sincere, and I have no reason to doubt his sincerity, I think he's going to find a cooperative U.S.," Reich told reporters.
Chavez irritated the United States by refusing to allow U.S. anti-drug planes to use Venezuelan airspace. Chavez also is seen as sympathetic to leftist guerrillas operating in neighboring Colombia, some of whom reportedly have been given sanctuary on Venezuelan territory from time to time.
In another development, U.S. officials said the Bush administration tried in vain to persuade Carmona, leader of the short-lived post-Chavez government, not to dissolve the National Assembly. The United States considered the assembly essential because only it could appoint a new president when the office is vacated.
Carmona ignored the appeal, dissolved the assembly and had himself sworn in as Chavez's replacement.
[Full Text] Julian Borger in Washington and Alex Bellos, South America correspondent Guardian Wednesday April 17, 2002
The Bush administration was under intense scrutiny yesterday for its role in last weekend's abortive coup in Venezuela, after admitting that US officials had held a series of meetings in recent months with Venezuelan military officers and opposition activists.
The White House yesterday confirmed that a few weeks before the coup attempt, administration officials met Pedro Carmona, the business leader who took over the interim government after President Hugo Chavez was arrested on Friday. But the White House press secretary, Ari Fleischer, denied that the US had offered any support for a putsch.
The US defence department also confirmed that the Venezuelan army's chief of staff, General Lucas Romero Rincon, visited the Pentagon in December and met the assistant secretary of defence for western hemispheric affairs, Roger Pardo-Maurer.
The Pentagon said: "We made it very, very clear that the United States' intent was to support democracy and human rights, and that we would in no way support any coups or unconstitutional activity."
However, it was not made clear why the talks broached the subject of a coup, four months before the event. Mr Fleischer said the subject had been brought up at meetings with Venezuelan opposition leaders because US diplomats in Caracas had "for the past several months" been picking up coup rumours. "In the conversations they had they explicitly told opposition leaders the United States would not support a coup," he added.
However, a defence department official quoted by the New York Times yesterday said: "We were not discouraging people."
"We were sending informal, subtle signals that we don't like this guy. 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.'"
Mr Chavez yesterday hinted at the possibility of US involvement in the coup attempt, noting that only days before he was ousted, dozens of Venezuelan military personnel working in the country's Washington, Bogota and Brasilia embassies returned to Caracas with no explanation. The implication was that these were military staff sympathetic to the opposition whom he had sent abroad when he became president in 1999.
Mr Chavez had earlier said he would investigate the presence of what he said was an American plane on the island prison where he was detained by the Venezuelan military. Mr Fleischer said yesterday he did not know whether Washington had provided a plane to fly the Venezuelan president into exile. He thought that "the transportation was arranged after his resignation through the Venezuelan military".
A Latin American diplomat in Washington said that when Mr Carmona and other opposition leaders came to the US they met Otto Reich, the assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs.
As the crisis deepened, Mr Reich set the tone of US policy. According to one diplomat, Mr Reich told ambassadors on Friday that although the US did not support a coup, President Chavez had been the first to "disrupt Venezuela's constitutional order".
The same message was echoed on Saturday by the US ambassador to the Organisation of American States (OAS), Roger Noriega, at an emergency meeting in Washington.
One OAS diplomat said: "We were in that room for 14 hours, and for most of that 14 hours, Noriega was pushing the line that it was Chavez that had created the problem."
The OAS denounced the coup attempt, as did all Venezuela's neighbours. Washington, however, acknowledged the new government. "A transitional civilian government has been installed," Mr Fleischer said on Saturday. "This government has promised early elections."
Some of the key participants in US meetings with Venezuelan figures in the run-up to the coup were veterans of Reagan-era "dirty tricks" operations. Mr Pardo-Maurer served as the chief of staff to the Nicaraguan contras' representative in Washington between 1986 and 1989.
Mr Reich was the head of the office of public diplomacy in the state department, which was later found to have been involved in covert pro-contra propaganda. [End]
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Here is some more information to add to your understanding and possible explanation to military contacts and "sightings."
Bush encourages Chavez to respect democracy - 'learn' lessons *** The U.S. Southern Command said two dozen U.S. Army trainers who were supposed to have gone to Venezuela April 12 as the coup was unfolding were first put on hold, then told Sunday the trip was off for the time being. The two countries also have joint annual exercises in navy and coast guard maneuvers. The Pentagon is watching how the situation in Venezuela develops day to day, defense officials said. "We are postponing military-to-military activities there until the situation on the ground stabilizes," said Capt. Riccoh Player, a Pentagon spokesman for hemisphere issues.
More than 40 years of uninterrupted democratic rule almost came to an end April 12 when, in the aftermath of a popular uprising, the military took Chavez into custody. An attempt by businessman Pedro Carmona to form a replacement government collapsed, and Chavez was reinstated Sunday. ***
No doubt it will survive this brouhaha, and maybe even chalk it up to business as usual. But in fact it could have spared itself considerable grief had it not been so busy in the Middle East muddying signals about what its commitments in the War on Terrorism amount to. What seems to have escaped notice is that Hugo Chavez's survival and the huge embarrassment it has caused the administration mark an important setback in this war, particularly to U.S. credibility in dividing the post-9/11 world into those who choose to be with us, and those who risk annihilation if they choose not to be.***
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