The ‘newspaper of record’, the NY Times, reported today that high-level Bush administration officials had met several times in recent months with the leaders of the failed coup against Hugo Chavez. The Bush administration admitted today that they did meet with the coup leaders and agreed with them that Chavez should be removed, tacitly providing the go ahead for the coup d’etat.
We were not discouraging people,” the official said. “We were sending informal, subtle signals that we don’t like this guy. We didn’t say, `No, don’t you dare,’ and we weren’t advocates saying, `Here’s some arms; we’ll help you overthrow this guy.’ We were not doing that.”
The disclosures come as rights advocates, Latin American diplomats and others accuse the administration of having turned a blind eye to coup plotting activities, or even encouraged the people who temporarily removed Mr. Chávez. Such actions would place the United States at odds with its fellow members of the Organization of American States, whose charter condemns the overthrow of democratically elected governments.
In the immediate aftermath of the ouster, the White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, suggested that the administration was pleased that Mr. Chávez was gone. “The government suppressed what was a peaceful demonstration of the people,” Mr. Fleischer said, which “led very quickly to a combustible situation in which Chávez resigned.”
I was amazed with how fast the coup failed. didnt it only last about 48 hours. i would be glad about hugo chavez being back in power, but im pretty sure that since the coup didnt work, the us will try to kill him off. thats how it always seems to happen.
Yeah, it did happen so quickly. I remember feeling bummed on friday because it was pretty clear what was happening and then completely surprised the following day. I think the US will be a lot more careful in the near future. They really fucked this up by being so arrogant. It really came off as a black eye for them. I think what they’re hoping is that Chavez will get the message and will behave a little more like the US wants. He seems to be eager to avoid the full ire of the Bush administration. Looking back at the many attempts by the US to assassinate Fidel Castro this might seem like a good idea. If I were Chavez I would make some other friends in the region asap like Mexico, Peru, etc.