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Fear of Embargo Behind US Move Against Populist President
by Greg Palast
The Guardian (UK), Monday May 13, 2002
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was warned of the likely coup against him in advance
by the Secretary General of OPEC, Ali Rodriguez, allowing Chavez to prepare an
extraordinary plan which spared both his government and his life, an investigation has
revealed.
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Newsnight will broadcast and webcast Palast’s report from Caracas tonight, Monday,
during the programme which begins at 10:30pm. Meirion Jones, Producer. See
www.bbc.co.uk/Newsnight/ or www.GregPalast.com. The webcast remains accessible for at
least 24 hours.
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Mr. Rodriguez, a former leftist guerrilla, called Chavez from OPEC headquarters in
Vienna several days before the attempted overthrow in April. He tipped off his ally
that OPEC had advance word that some Arab nations, later revealed as Libya and Iraq,
planned to call for a new oil embargo against the United States over Palestine.
OPEC's chief warned Chavez that the US would have to prod a long-simmering coup into
action to break the back of any embargo threat, likely April 11, start of a general
strike. It was Venezuela which shattered the first oil embargo of 1973 by replacing
Arab oil with its own huge reserves.
The warning - revealed by an investigation for BBC2's Newsnight to be shown tonight -
explains the oddly swift and safe return of Chavez to power within two days of his
April 12 capture by military officers under the direction of coup leader Pedro
Carmona. Until now, there remained a mystery as to why Carmona, who declared himself
president, and Venezuela's military chiefs, most of whom backed the coup, simply
surrendered without firing a shot.
The answer, Newsnight was told by a Chavez insider, is that several hundred pro-Chavez
troops were hidden in secret corridors under and leading into Miraflores, the
Presidential Palace. Juan Barreto, a leader of Chavez' party in the National
Assembly, was with Chavez when he was under siege. Barreto said that Jose Baduel,
chief of the paratroop division loyal to Chavez, waited until Carmona was inside
Miraflores. Baduel then called Carmona and informed him that, with troops virtually
under his chair, Carmona was as much a hostage as Chavez. He gave Carmona twenty-four
hours to return Chavez alive.
Escape from Miraflores was impossible for Carmona. The building was surrounded by
hundreds of thousands of Chavista demonstrators who, alerted by Chavez' Minister of
Foreign Affairs, had marched on Miraflores from The Ranchos, the poorest barrios.
Despite the warning and his preparations, Chavez was forced to surrender to coup
leaders on April 12 because his first line of defense, "Plan Avila," failed. Under
Plan Avila, made public shortly after the coup, the Presidential Palace would be
surrounded with tanks. However, the tank battalion commander stunned Chavez by
refusing the president's orders to act.
Chavez himself told Newsnight that upon receiving the warning from OPEC, he hoped to
stave off a coup entirely by issuing a statement meant to mollify the Bush
Administration. Chavez pledged that Venezuela would never join, nor tolerate, a
renewed oil embargo. But Chavez had already incurred America's wrath by slashing
Venezuelan oil output and rebuilding OPEC, causing oil prices to nearly double to over
$20 a barrel.
Chavez opponents made clear they would not abide by OPEC production limits and would
reverse Chavez' plan to double the royalties charged foreign oil companies in
Venezuela, principally, US petroleum giant Exxon-Mobil.
The American government's panic over the looming calls for an oil embargo, made public
by Iraq and Libya on April 8 and 9, also explains the US State Department's
ill-concealed and clumsy support for the coup attempt. Chavez told Newsnight, "I have
written proof of the time of the entries and exits of two US military officers into
the headquarters of the coup plotters - their names, whom they met with, what they
said - proof on video and on still photographs. "Last month the Guardian reported a
former US intelligence officer claims that the US had been considering a coup to
overthrow the elected Venezuelan president for nearly a year. Wayne Madsen, a former
intelligence officer with the US navy, told the Guardian that American military
attaches had been in touch with members of the Venezuelan military to examine the
possibility of a coup.
Trying to restore diplomatic channels to the US, Chavez has played down the importance
of the American meddling which nearly ended in his death. But Guillermo Garcia Ponce,
a key Chavez advisor, charges that US funding was behind three simultaneous plots to
assassinate Chavez. Garcia Ponce, who holds the title of Political Coordinator for
the Defense of the Revolution, says the United States provided sophisticated technical
equipment for "tracking" Chavez' movements. The assassination, he charged, planned
before the coup, was to be carried out by Venezuelans trained by the US and Colombian
paramilitaries.
The US Embassy in Caracas refused to respond directly to accusations regarding the US
military personnel nor the assassination plots.
© Guardian Newspapers
Pluto Press has just released Palast's book, "THE BEST DEMOCRACY MONEY CAN BUY: An
Investigative Reporter Exposes the Truth about Globalization, Corporate Cons and High
Finance Fraudsters,” a New York Times Bestseller. “Courageous reporting .... read
this book!” - Michael Moore, author, Stupid White Men.
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