Posted on 05/09/2002 3:23:28 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who survived a coup last month, is purging the senior ranks of the armed forces and placing loyalists in command posts to prevent another rebellion, military analysts and officers said Wednesday.
But the purge, aimed at shoring up support for the populist leader in the world's No. 5 oil exporter, may be inflaming rather than reducing discontent in the divided military, who were key players in Chavez's brief removal from power and surprise reinstatement.
In the latest of a series of high-level changes affecting all branches of the armed forces, a general commanding an elite tank unit at Valencia west of Caracas was replaced Tuesday night by a colonel known to be loyal to Chavez.
Since the April 11-14 coup bid, in which Chavez was briefly deposed by dissident officers and then restored by loyal troops, the president has fired almost every officer in his military high command, some of whom were involved in the coup.
Chavez has also ordered changes in other key command and oversight posts, such as the head of military intelligence.
In Tuesday's command change in Valencia, Col. Pedro Ruiz Rondon took over the 41st Armored Brigade, based 90 miles from the capital, from Gen. Guillermo Rangel Lopez, as civilian opponents and supporters of the president faced off in noisy rival demonstrations outside the unit.
The handover, which was originally scheduled for Wednesday, was hurriedly moved up because of the demonstrations.
Some analysts said this unorthodox command change, in which a lower ranking officer replaced a general, revealed the extent to which the coup had split the military, leaving a legacy of suspicion and mistrust.
"There is definitely a purge in progress and what we have is a very precarious situation," said Alberto Garrido, an analyst and author of several books about Chavez, who staged a botched coup in 1992 six years before winning elections.
"Putting a colonel in place of a general shows there is a lack of trusted figures among the generals," he told Reuters.
Garrido said that up to 100 officers, including many generals and admirals, were under investigation for their possible role in last month's coup. But only six so far have been formally notified that they face charges.
Chavez's Defense Minister Gen. Lucas Rincon, who was sworn in this week, Wednesday admitted there was "certain discontent," especially in the high ranks of the armed forces.
"The reason we have so many changes in the armed forces is because the situation we experienced (last month) requires that we make them, it's as simple as that," Rincon told reporters.
Even before the coup bid, opposition to the brash president had been growing in the armed services. Dissident officers had criticized his politicized leadership, leftist policies and ties with anti-U.S. states like Cuba, Libya and Iraq.
During the coup, several senior officers who had been thought loyal to Chavez appeared among the plotters, who refused to obey an order from the president to deploy tanks and troops during a huge anti-government protest April 11.
At least 17 people were shot dead during the march. Chavez's critics blamed him and his backers for the killings after television footage showed a group of known pro-government militants firing pistols. For their part, Chavez and his aides have accused anti-government gunmen of starting the shooting.
More than 60 people, mostly civilians but including some police, were killed in street protests and rioting during the coup. No members of the armed forces were killed.
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