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AP. 20 April 2002. Hugo Chavez's fractured armed forces: loyalists blame plot with outside help. CARACAS --Army officers brought to court for their role in the coup against President Hugo Chavez called the decision a humanitarian act to prevent the slaughter of civilians by soldiers acting on Chavez's orders. Chavez's defenders sharply disputed the account Friday, depicting the coup as a carefully planned plot backed by anti-Chavez interests abroad and headed by opposition leaders willing to kill their own followers to get rid of the president. The battle of words bodes ill for Venezuela's goal of reconciliation. A poll published Friday suggested Caracas residents believe they'll never know who was responsible for the bloodshed at an April 11 anti-Chavez march hours before the coup. At least 16 people died that day. In all, more than 100 people died and hundreds more were wounded during subsequent riots and looting. A military judge on Friday ordered five high-ranking officers to indefinite house arrest pending formal charges of rebellion. The decision could deepen rifts within the armed forces. "We still consider this to be an illegitimate government," said Rear Admiral Carlos Molina Tamayo as he was whisked away by military police. Chavez's chief ideologue -- Guillermo Garcia Ponce, whose official title is director of the Revolutionary Political Command -- insists that dissident generals, local media and anti-Chavez groups in the United States [N.B.] plotted his overthrow. He claims they even hired sharpshooters to fire on the anti-Chavez demonstrators. [N.B.] "The most reactionary sectors in the United States were also implicated in the conspiracy," Garcia Ponce told Globovision television on Friday. Asked to explain the April 11 shooting of opposition protesters, purportedly by Chavez's own activists, Garcia Ponce blamed provocateurs. [N.B.] "The people planning it placed sharpshooters at strategic points to open fire on pro-Chavez and anti-Chavez marches," Garcia Ponce said. "It was a provocation, part of the coup, to create this massacre to justify the coup." Comar, a private survey firm, said 56 percent of Caracas residents polled said they'll never know what happened; 33 percent said they will; and 11 percent were uncertain. The poll of 500 people had a 5 percent margin of error and was published by El Universal newspaper. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
