Posted on 04/23/2002 12:53:07 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - A Venezuelan congressman accused the U.S. ambassador to Caracas and two U.S. Embassy military attaches on Tuesday of being involved in the short-lived coup against President Hugo Chavez.
The U.S. Embassy immediately denied as "ridiculous" and "absolutely untrue" the allegations made by Roger Rondon, a pro-Chavez National Assembly deputy from the small Movement Toward Socialism party.
President Bush's government has been accused by domestic opponents of being slow to criticize the April 11-14 military coup that briefly toppled Chavez and replaced him with an interim government.
U.S. officials have repeatedly denied media reports that Washington encouraged and supported the coup in Venezuela, which is a major supplier of oil to the United States.
Chavez, a left-wing former paratrooper who has irritated the United States by befriending Cuba and Iraq, was returned to power by loyal troops early April 14 following widespread protests by his supporters in the streets of the capital.
In statements at a news conference and to local radio, Rondon said two U.S. military officers attached to the embassy, whose surnames he gave as Rogers and MacCammon, had been present at Fuerte Tiuna military headquarters with the leaders of the coup during the night of April 11 and 12.
"That is absolutely untrue," a U.S. Embassy spokesman told Reuters.
Rondon also accused U.S. Ambassador Charles Shapiro of involvement in the coup, saying he had met with businessman Pedro Carmona, the interim president who briefly replaced Chavez, at the Miraflores presidential palace April 12.
"We saw him leaving Miraflores Palace, all smiles and embraces, with the dictator Pedro Carmona Estanga," Rondon told reporters.
"(His) satisfaction was obvious. Shapiro's participation in the coup d'etat in Venezuela is evident," he later said on state-run Radio Nacional.
"That's ridiculous," the U.S. Embassy spokesman said on condition of anonymity. He also dismissed allegations by the Venezuelan legislator that Shapiro had served as a U.S. military attache in Chile, El Salvador and Nicaragua.
FOREIGN GUNMEN
Since his reinstatement, Chavez has said his government is evaluating the U.S. position during the coup, but he has stressed he wants to maintain good relations and that Venezuela will continue to supply oil to the U.S. market.
Rondon said Venezuela should ask that the United States recall Shapiro from his post, which he took up last month.
The U.S. ambassador has acknowledged that he met with Carmona April 12.
He said he had recommended to the interim president that he restore the National Assembly, which Carmona abolished when he took office the previous day. He also urged him to welcome a mission from the Organization of American States.
Rondon told reporters that two foreign gunmen, one American and the other Salvadoran, were detained by security police during a huge anti-Chavez protest march April 11 in which 17 people were killed, many of them by unidentified snipers firing from rooftops.
The MAS deputy described the two men as "sharpshooters" but did not name them or say who reported the arrests.
"They haven't appeared anywhere. They were handed over to the (political police). We presume these two gentlemen were given some kind of safe-conduct and could have left the country," Rondon told Radio Nacional.
The U.S. Embassy spokesman said there were no U.S. military personnel from the embassy at Fuerte Tiuna military headquarters from 5.30 p.m. Thursday, April 11, until approximately 2:15 p.m. Saturday, April 13.
He added two members of the embassy's defense attache's office, one a Lt. Col. James Rogers, drove in a jeep around Fuerte Tiuna Thursday afternoon to check reports that the base was closed. They did this after members of the U.S. military cooperation mission there had closed down their office.
He added no embassy defense attache personnel set foot on the Fuerte Tiuna base again until approximately 2:15 p.m. Saturday, when a Lt.-Col. Ronald MacCammon went to a news conference by the then Venezuelan armed forces chief Gen. Efrain Vasquez.
Military support for the coup against Chavez was by then crumbling and Carmona resigned a few hours later. Vasquez is currently facing rebellion charges for his involvement.
Read: Christopher "I-never-met-a-commie-I-didn't-love" Dodd.
You can jack with the clergy and jack with the army. Heck you can even jack with the politicians.
But never ever jack with the oil company.
Got that, good. click. out.
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