Documentary proof of CIA involvement in Venezuela coup

2004-12-09

Richard Moore

--------------------------------------------------------
From: William Bowles <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Documentary proof of CIA involvement  coup d'etat against Venezuela

http://www.williambowles.info/venezuela/ven_cia.html

 News and opinions on situation in Venezuela

21/11/04

US Central Intelligence Agency: Documentary proof of CIA
involvement in the April 2002 coup d'etat against Venezuela's
President Hugo Chavez Frias

by Eva Golinger


www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=23621

Venezuelafoia.info's  reports: On April 12, 2002, White House
spokesperson Ari Fleischer stated:

    Let me share with you the administration's thoughts about
    what's taking place in Venezuela. It remains a somewhat fluid
    situation. But yesterday's events in Venezuela resulted in a
    change in the government and the assumption of a transitional
    authority until new elections can be held.
    
    The details still are unclear. We know that the action
    encouraged by the Chavez government provoked this crisis.
    According to the best information available, the Chavez
    government suppressed peaceful demonstrations. Government
    supporters, on orders from the Chavez government, fired on
    unarmed, peaceful protestors, resulting in 10 killed and 100
    wounded. The Venezuelan military and the police refused to
    fire on the peaceful demonstrators and refused to support the
    government's role in such human rights violations. The
    government also tried to prevent independent news media from
    reporting on these events.
    
    The results of these events are now that President Chavez has
    resigned the presidency. Before resigning, he dismissed the
    vice president and the cabinet, and a transitional civilian
    government has been installed. This government has promised
    early elections.
    
    The United States will continue to monitor events. That is
    what took place, and the Venezuelan people expressed their
    right to peaceful protest. It was a very large protest that
    turned out. And the protest was met with violence.

On that same day, U.S. Department of State spokesperson Philip
T. Reeker, claimed:

    In recent days, we expressed our hopes that all parties in
    Venezuela, but especially the Chavez administration, would act
    with restraint and show full respect for the peaceful
    expression of political opinion. We are saddened at the loss
    of life. We wish to express our solidarity with the Venezuelan
    people and look forward to working with all democratic forces
    in Venezuela to ensure the full exercise of democratic rights.
    The Venezuelan military commendably refused to fire on
    peaceful demonstrators, and the media valiantly kept the
    Venezuelan public informed.
    
    Yesterday's events in Venezuela resulted in a transitional
    government until new elections can be held. Though details are
    still unclear, undemocratic actions committed or encouraged by
    the Chavez administration provoked yesterday's crisis in
    Venezuela. According to the best information available, at
    this time: Yesterday, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans
    gathered peacefully to seek redress of their grievances. The
    Chavez Government attempted to suppress peaceful
    demonstrations. Chavez supporters, on orders, fired on
    unarmed, peaceful protestors, resulting in more than 100
    wounded or killed. Venezuelan military and police refused
    orders to fire on peaceful demonstrators and refused to
    support the government's role in such human rights violations.
    The government prevented five independent television stations
    from reporting on events. The results of these provocations
    are: Chavez resigned the presidency. Before resigning, he
    dismissed the Vice President and the Cabinet. A transition
    civilian government has prmised early elections.
    
    We have every expectation that this situation will be resolved
    peacefully and democratically by the Venezuelan people in
    accord with the principles of the Inter-American Democratic
    Charter. The essential elements of democracy, which have been
    weakened in recent months, must be restored fully. We will be
    consulting with our hemispheric partners, within the framework
    of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, to assist Venezuela.

Why do I recite these statements here?

These statements from the highest levels of the US government
show the prepared version of the events that took place during
the April 11-12 coup d'etat against Venezuelan President
Chavez Frias.

Moreover, these revealing statements now prove, in light of
documents recently obtained from the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA) under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), that
this prepared version of events was knowingly false and made
with the intention of deceiving the international community in
order to justify a violent overthrow of a democratic
government.

The White House and the US State Department both claimed that
the Chavez government had provoked violence and actions that
resulted in the President's alleged resignation. They also
asserted that the Chavez government had fired on unarmed,
peaceful protesters and that the Venezuelan military and
police had refused orders to "support the government's role in
human rights violations". The US government referred to the
protests and actions of that day as though they were
spontaneous, unplanned events. The US government has also
continued to deny to this day any involvement whatsoever in
the April 2002 coup d'etat.

However, there is a vast amount of evidence that has surfaced
since the coup demonstrating that the events on April 11,
2002, were entirely premeditated by a sector of the opposition
intent on overthrowing the Chavez government.

Furthermore, my own investigations have provided a plethora of
evidence proving the US involvement in the coup on various
levels.

Most revealing on the Venezuelan front was a news program on
Saturday morning, April 12, 2002, "24 Horas" with host
Napoleon Bravo. On that program, Bravo interviewed Vice
Admiral Carlos Molina Tamayo Š a professed coup leader Š and
Victor Manuel Garcia, director of the polling company CIFRA,
who claimed to have represented the "civil society" during the
coup.

Both Molina Tamayo and Garcia gave a jaw-dropping, detailed
account of the events leading up to the coup and those key
Venezuelans involved, including crediting the private
televisions stations for their complicity and aide.

Their testimony, along with Chacao municipal mayor Leopoldo
Lopez of the Primero Justicia political party and Napoleon
Bravo's own admissions of complicity in the coup, provided
plenty of proof that the overthrow of Chavez was a
premeditated event.

Later, an extraordinary and award-winning documentary by
filmmaker Angel Palacios, "Puente Llaguno: Claves de un
Masacre," revealed how the Venezuelan private media had
manipulated and distorted the events that unfolded on April
11, 2002 in the opposition march, which resulted in widespread
violence and death. The documentary also provided sufficient
proof that snipers unrelated to the Chavez government had
provoked the violence in the opposition march that justified
the forced removal of Chavez from office. Furthermore, the
documentary succeeded in proving that a well-planned
military-civilian coup d'etat had taken place that day and
that those involved were connected to the highest levels of
the US government.

But the evidence of actual US involvement in the coup itself
remained scarce up until recently.

On www.venezuelafoia.info/ I have posted hundreds of documents
that evidence the intricate financing scheme the US government
has been carrying out in Venezuela since 2001, that includes
financing well over twenty million dollars to opposition
sectors.

The funding of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) Š a
quasi-governmental entity in the US financed entirely by the
US Congress and established by congressional legislation in
1983 Š has provided more than US$3 million since late 2001 to
opposition groups, many of which were key participants in the
April 2002 coup.

And in June 2002, the US Agency for International Development
(USAID), set up an Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) in
the US Embassy in Caracas, allegedly for the purposing of
helping Venezuela to resolve its political crisis. The OTI in
Caracas has counted on more than US$15 million in funding from
Congress since June 2002 and has recently requested five
million more for 2005, despite the fact that it was only
supposed to be a two-year endeavor.

All evidence obtained to date shows that the OTI has primarily
funded opposition groups and projects in Venezuela Š
particularly those that were focused on the August 15, 2004
recall referendum against President Chavez.

I have written other articles explaining the intervention
model applied through NED and USAID in Venezuela. This method
of intervention is very sophisticated and complex, as it
penetrates civil society and social organizations in a very
subtle way and is often either undetectable or flimsily
justified by the concept of "promoting democracy," which is
what the NED claims to do around the world, despite evidence
to the contrary. The mere fact in Venezuela that the NED has
financed exclusively anti-Chávez groups and those very same
organizations that were involved in the April 2002 coup shows
that "democracy" is far from the NED's intention.

But the CIA intervention in Venezuela is of the crudest,
simplest kind. Top secret documents recently obtained and
posted on www.venezuelafoia.info/ show that in the weeks prior
to the April 2002 coup against President Chavez, the CIA had
full knowledge of the events to occur and, in fact, even had
the detailed plans in their possession.

An April 6, 2002, top secret intelligence brief headlining
"Venezuela: Conditions Ripening for Coup Attempt," states:
"Dissident military factions, including some disgruntled
senior officers and a group of radical junior officers, are
stepping up efforts to organize a coup against President
Chávez, possible as early as this month, [CENSORED]. The level
of detail in the reported plans - [CENSORED] targets Chavez
and ten other senior officers for arrest…" The document
further states "to provoke military action, the plotters may
try to exploit unrest stemming from opposition demonstrations
slated for later this month…"

So the CIA knew that a coup attempt would take place soon
after April 6, 2002, and moreover, they knew the plan would
include Chavez' arrest and an exploitation of violence in the
opposition march. In other words, they knew the plans before
the coup occurred and surely they knew the actors involved,
many of whose names are probably in the censored parts of the
top-secret documents.

One could assume that if the CIA had the detailed plans in
their possession in the weeks prior to the coup it was because
they were associating and conspiring with the coup plotters.

So, when Ari Fleischer and Philip Reeker made those statements
on April 12, 2002, on behalf of the US government, they did so
with full knowledge that a coup had taken place, Chavez had
been arrested and the violence in the opposition march, which
they attributed to Chavez, had actually been a premeditated
part of the coup plot. The top secret documents that prove
this information show they were sent to the US State
Department and the National Security Agency Š which means
frankly, the White House knew what was happening all along.

Furthermore, the CIA documents make no mention of any attempts
to have Chavez forcibly resign from office. The CIA warnings
indicated as early as March 5, 2002 (which is the date of the
earliest document provided) that a coup was on the rise and
even hinted that prospects for a successful coup were limited.

The CIA, rightfully, felt the opposition was too disperse and
divided to successfully overthrow Chavez.

But the concept that Chavez had "resigned" as the White House
and State Department "confirmed" on April 12, 2002, was merely
a set-up, a false claim made with the intention of deceiving
the US public and the international community.

Remember that the US stood practically alone in the world in
its endorsement of the coup-implemented Carmona government ..
which it later, weakly, condemned but only after the coup came
tumbling down and the US realized it needed to save face
quickly.

A top secret CIA document from April 14, 2002, shows concern
that Latin American governments will view US foreign policy as
"hypocritical" because of its sole endorsement of the Carmona
coup government.

The CIA also seems surprised that the region of Latin America
so quickly rejected the coup in Venezuela and that the Carmona
government "stunningly collapsed," which demonstrates a
possible out-of-date view of the hemisphere and a failure in
intelligence gathering and analysis.

In fact, the CIA never imagined the coup would buckle because
of support for Chavez - their analysis all along showed
possible failure due to lack of opposition unity and hasty
actions.

This is a very important point, because it demonstrates that
although the CIA was involved in the coup plotting and the
collaborations with dissident military factions and opposition
leaders, it was fairly detached from the reality of Venezuelan
society.

The CIA's intelligence failures in Venezuela were apparently
repeated during the oil industry strike later in 2002 and the
guarimba destabilization attempt, an old-school CIA tactic
applied in Chile and Nicaragua. Both of these harsh actions
injured the Venezuelan economy and affected the government's
international image, but failed in their goal to oust
President Chavez.

The NED's and USAID's tens of millions of dollars in financing
to build and maintain the opposition movement and finance the
recall referendum campaign against President Chávez also
failed to achieve their mission.

In fact, all of these bungled attempts by the US government
and its marionette opposition movement have served to
strengthen Chavez' support within Venezuela and paint him as a
strong and solid international leader.

Now that some of the top-secret documents have surfaced that
show the CIA's complicity and involvement in the April 2002
coup, it leaves one to wonder what is next on the agenda. In
September 2001, shortly after the attacks on the World Trade
Center in New York, President Bush unconditionally authorized
former CIA Director George Tenet's "Worldwide Attack Matrix,"
which targets leaders and prominent figures in 80 countries
around the world for assassination.

The authorization of the Worldwide Attack Matrix provided the
CIA with a virtual carte blanche to conduct political
assassinations abroad, justified under the "war against
terrorism." The "Attack Matrix" Š a top secret CIA document Š
authorizes an array of covert CIA anti-terror actions that
range from "routine propaganda to lethal covert action in
preparation for military attacks."

The plans give the CIA the broadest and most lethal authority
in history. Some analysts have indicated that Venezuela is
possibly included in the plans.

The recent assassination of Venezuelan prosecutor Danilo
Anderson Š conducted in a style reminiscent of CIA operations
Š could be setting the stage for future political murders.

History shows that when the CIA fails to remove a target via
non-lethal means, more desperate measures are taken.

Despite the fact that the Venezuelan government and its
supporters appear to have foiled the CIA numerous times
already over the past few years, vigilance, intelligence and
increased security measures should become a priority.

Eva Golinger: •••@••.•••
-- 

============================================================
If you find this material useful, you might want to check out our website
(http://cyberjournal.org) or try out our low-traffic, moderated email 
list by sending a message to:
      •••@••.•••

You are encouraged to forward any material from the lists or the website,
provided it is for non-commercial use and you include the source and
this disclaimer.

Richard Moore (rkm)
Wexford, Ireland

"Escaping The Matrix - 
Global Transformation: 
WHY WE NEED IT, AND HOW WE CAN ACHIEVE IT ", current draft:
    http://www.ratical.org/co-globalize/rkmGlblTrans.html
_____________________________
    "...the Patriot Act followed 9-11 as smoothly as the
      suspension of the Weimar constitution followed the
      Reichstag fire."  
      - Srdja Trifkovic

    There is not a problem with the system.
    The system is the problem.

    Faith in ourselves - not gods, ideologies, leaders, or programs.
_____________________________
"Zen of Global Transformation" home page: 
    http://www.QuayLargo.com/Transformation/

QuayLargo discussion forum:
    http://www.QuayLargo.com/Transformation/ShowChat/?ScreenName=ShowThreads

cj list archives:
    http://cyberjournal.org/cj/show_archives/?lists=cj

newslog list archives:
    http://cyberjournal.org/cj/show_archives/?lists=newslog
_____________________________
Informative links:
    http://www.indymedia.org/
    http://www.globalresearch.ca/
    http://www.MiddleEast.org
    http://www.rachel.org
    http://www.truthout.org
    http://www.williambowles.info/monthly_index/
    http://www.zmag.org
    http://www.co-intelligence.org
============================================================