Bush says US will defend Taiwan if China starts a war 3220

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Sydney Morning Herald AU.

Washington channelled funds to groups that opposed Chavez By Christopher Marquis in Washington April 26 2002

In the past year the United States channelled hundreds of thousands of dollars to bodies opposed to the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, including the labour group whose protests led to his brief removal this month. The funds were provided by the National Endowment for Democracy, a non-profit agency created and financed by Congress. As conditions deteriorated in Venezuela and Mr Chavez clashed with various business, union and media groups, the endowment quadrupled its budget for the country to more than $US877,000 ($1.6million). --------

Here is more news about US military involvement against Chavez: American Navy 'Helped Venezuelan Coup' Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles The Guardian April 29, 2002 The United States had been considering a coup to overthrow the elected Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, since last June, a former US intelligence officer claimed yesterday. It is also alleged that the US navy aided the abortive coup which took place in Venezuela on April 11 with intelligence from its vessels in the Caribbean. Evidence is also emerging of US financial backing for key participants in the coup. Both sides in Venezuela have blamed the other for the violence surrounding the coup. Wayne Madsen, a former intelligence officer with the US navy, told the Guardian yesterday that American military attaches had been in touch with members of the Venezuelan military to examine the possibility of a coup. "I first heard of Lieutenant Colonel James Rogers the buttistant military attache now based at the US embbutty in Caracas going down there last June to set the ground," Mr Madsen, an intelligence analyst, said yesterday. "Some of our counter-narcotics agents were also involved." He said that the navy was in the area for operations unconnected to the coup, but that he understood they had buttisted with signals intelligence as the coup was played out. Mr Madsen also said that the navy helped with communications jamming support to the Venezuelan military, focusing on communications to and from the diplomatic missions in Caracas belonging to Cuba, Libya, Iran and Iraq - the four countries which had expressed support for Mr Chavez. Navy vessels on a training exercise in the area were supposedly put on stand-by in case evacuation of US citizens in Venezuela was required. In Caracas, a congressman has accused the US ambbuttador to Venezuela, Charles Shapiro, and two US embbutty military attaches of involvement in the coup. Roger Rondon claimed that the military officers, whom he named as (James) Rogers and (Ronald) MacCammon, had been at the Fuerte Tiuna military headquarters with the coup leaders during the night of April 11-12. And referring to Mr Shapiro, Mr Rondon said: "We saw him leaving Miraflores palace, all smiles and embraces, with the dictator Pedro Carmona Estanga who was installed by the military for a day ... His satisfaction was obvious. Shapiro's participation in the coup d'Ztat in Venezuela is evident." The US embbutty dismissed the allegations as "ridiculous". Mr Shapiro admitted meeting Mr Carmona the day after the coup, but said he urged him to restore the national buttembly, which had been dissolved. Mr Carmona told the Guardian that no such advice was given, although he agreed that a meeting took place. A US embbutty spokesman said there were no US military personnel from the embbutty at Fuerte Tiuna during the crucial periods from April 11 to 13, al though two members of the embbutty's defence attache's office, one of them Lt Col Rogers, drove around the base on the afternoon of April 11 to check reports that it was closed. Mr Rondon has also claimed that two foreign gunmen, one American and the other Salvadorean, were detained by security police during the anti-Chavez protest on April 11 in which around 19 people were end, many by unidentified snipers firing from rooftops. "They haven't appeared anywhere. We presume these two gentlemen were given some kind of safe-conduct and could have left the country," he said. The members of the military who coordinated the coup have claimed that they did so because they feared that Mr Chavez was intending to attack the civilian protesters who opposed him. Mr Chavez's opponents claim pro-Chavez gunmen shot protesters while his supporters say the shots were fired by agents provocateurs . In the past year, the United States has channeled hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to US and Venezuelan groups opposed to Mr Chavez, including the labour group whose protests sparked off the coup. The funds were provided by the National Endowment for Democracy, a nonprofit agency created and financed by the US Congress. The state department's human rights bureau is now examining whether one or more recipients of the money may have actively plotted against Mr Chavez.

Washington post By Scott Wilson Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, April 15, 2002; Page A01

The political violence of the past week, which left at least 23 people dead and more than 100 injured, was the worst in Venezuela since Chavez, a former army colonel, launched a failed coup a decade ago. It came as threats have grown to U.S. interests in the troubled Andean region, where Chavez's ambiguous policy toward Colombia's Marxist guerrilla insurgency has angered regional leaders and the Bush administration.

A delegation from the Organization of American States arrived today to investigate the events surrounding Chavez's ouster. After Chavez was forced from office early Friday, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer blamed him for violence during a march on the presidential palace and suggested that it justified the military's intervention. That position put Washington at odds with 19 Latin American leaders, who condemned the "consbreastutional interruption in Venezuela."

Chavez's return suggests the extent of support for him within the military and among Venezuela's 24 million citizens. His overwhelming victory in the election in 1998 smashed a lock on power by two parties that have dominated Venezuelan politics for four decades. But since taking office, his clbutt rhetoric and attacks on opponents of his "social revolution" mobilized labor groups, business leaders, the national media and the Catholic Church against him.

"We overestimated the extent of popular resentment toward Chavez, and we also had the wrong impression about the true situation within the military," said Anibal Romero, a political science professor at Simon Bolivar University here.

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