| http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-277341,00.html April 24, 2002 Venezuelan coup plotter 'in Miami' >From David Adams in Miami IN THE aftermath of Venezuela’s failed coup, the United States faces further potential embarrassment after the discovery that several alleged coup leaders fled to Miami. They include Isaac Pérez Recao, 32, a reputed arms-dealer and heir to a Venezuelan oil fortune. With a group of armed bodyguards, Señor Pérez Recao played a highly visible role in the April 12-13 coup, according to reports in Caracas. As the coup unraveled, he is said to have jumped into a private helicopter and escaped to the Caribbean island of Aruba. He and his brother and business partner, Vicente Pérez Recao, were seen later in Miami, where they own properties. They did not return telephone calls to their $500,000 beachfront flat in Key Biscayne, a wealthy island suburb of Miami. Under US law, the Secretary of State has the power to deny entry visas or revoke their issuance to persons deemed to have “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States”. This power has been used in recent cases against Haitian military officers and civilians alleged to have been involved in plotting a coup. It was also applied to President Chávez after he led an unsuccessful coup attempt in 1992. The Venezuelan Government has asked the US for clarification of its response to the failed coup, which Washington appeared at first to welcome, but it has yet to make any official comment about the presence of the Pérez Recao family on US soil. Close advisers to President Chávez have called on the US to take swift action. “They should be taking the same position with these people as they did with us,” Lieutenant- Colonel Wilmer Castro, a former air force officer who helped to restore Señor Chávez to power, said. US officials declined to discuss the involvement of Señor Pérez Recao, saying that they are still investigating what went on during the coup. |
