Contrary to statements made by the Bush administration and the US government, the Venezuela coup was planned in advance and was aided by US intelligence. The Bush administration must be nostalgic for the days when they could assassinate and depose elected governments with impunity. It turns out according to inside sources that the US provided military and intelligence support: (Source: Narconews, Three Days that Shook the Media.)
Narco News has learned that the CIA headquarters for organizing, distributing said cash, and engineering the attempted coup d’etat, was the office known as the MIL GROUP. That’s the name by which the US Military Liason staff in Embassies – “usually a repository for fixers and grafters pitching Department of Defense sponsored weapons sales to third world satrapies,” as one source colorfully explained to Narco News – had, according to another well-placed source, greatly increased its staff size in the weeks prior to the attempted coup.
We presume the increase in personnel – or individuals posing as personnel at the MIL GROUP – was not due to a sudden desire by Washington to sell more arms to the Chavez government.
Former National Security Agency officer Wayne Madsen, writing with Richard M. Bennett, reveal that the U.S. participation in the failed coup attempt was not only financial, but military. Reporting from the National Press Building in Washington, they have just blown the roof off of U.S. government denials of involvement in the coup with this Intelligence Report:
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Under the cover of the COMPTUEX and a Joint Task Force Exercise (JTFEX) training exercises in the Caribbean the US Navy provided signals intelligence and communications jamming support to the Venezuelan military. Particular focus by US Navy SIGINT vessels was on communications to and from the Cuban, Libyan, Iranian, and Iraqi diplomatic missions in Caracas. All four countries had expressed support for Chavez and the plans for US military and intelligence support for the coup d’etat were brought upto date following President Bush’s visit to Peru and El Salvador in March 2002. The National Security Agency (NSA) supported the coup using personnel attached to the US Southern Command’s Joint Interagency Task Force East (JIATF-E) in Key West, Florida. NSA’s Spanish-language linguists and signals interception operators in Key West; Sabana Seca on Puerto Rico and the Regional Security Operating Centre (RSOC) in Medina, Texas also assisted in providing communications intelligence to US military and national command authorities on the progress of the coup d’etat.
From eastern Colombia, CIA and US contract military personnel, ostensibly used for counter-narcotics operations, stood by to provide logistics support for the leading members of the coup. Their activities were centred at the Marandua airfield and along the border with Venezuela. Patrol aircraft operating from the US Forward Operating Location (FOL) in Manta, Ecuador also provided intelligence support for the military move against Chavez. Additional USN vessels on a training exercise in the Outer Range of the US Navy’s Southern Puerto Rican Operating Area also stood by in the event the coup against Chavez faltered, thus requiring a military evacuation of US citizens in Venezuela. The ships included the aircraft carrier USS George Washington and the destroyers USS Barry, Laboon, Mahan, and Arthur W. Radford. Some of the latter vessels reportedly had NSA Direct Support Units aboard to provide additional signals intelligence support to US Special Operations and intelligence personnel deployed on the ground in close co-operation with the Venezuelan Army and along the Colombian side of the border.
Does this mean that part of Plan Colombia involves aiding groups against Chavez? This is outrageous. The media in the US has given the false impression that the coup was an impromptu event. The evidence suggests an operation planned well in advance with the aid of the United States which has an obvious stake in the outcome. According to vheadline a colorful presidential sash had been ordered from Spain for the interim president, Carmona.
A colorful Presidential sash had been ordered specially from Spain to be worn by the Military-Civilian Junta’s interim President Pedro Carmona Estanga who was also to be given the fullest use of the newly-acquired Presidential jet…
Executive Vice President Diosdado Cabello has shown the newly-discovered trophy to a small group of journalists and says “it clearly shows that the coup had been planned and there was nothing spontaneous about it.”
Cabello reveals that an investigation into the April 11 killings will be undertaken … that he was meant to be the first victim … “we’re searching for TV footage from other angles other than the Televen shots of Bolivarian armed groups firing from the bridge.”