U.S. aware of Venezuelan coup plot in '02, CIA documents show

http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=venezuela24&date=20041124&query=CIA


U.S. aware of Venezuelan coup plot in '02, CIA documents show
By Bart Jones and Letta Tayler
Newsday
The U.S. government knew of a plot to oust Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chávez, in the weeks before a 2002 military coup that briefly unseated him, newly released CIA documents show, despite White House claims to the contrary a week after the coup .

Yet the United States, which depends on Venezuela for nearly one-sixth of its oil, never warned Chávez, Venezuelan officials said.
The Bush administration has denied it was involved in the coup or knew one was being planned.

"This is substantive evidence that the CIA knew in advance about the coup, and it is clear that this intelligence was distributed to dozens of members of the Bush administration, giving them knowledge of coup plotting," said Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst at the National Security Archive in Washington, D.C.

However, he said that while the documents show U.S. officials knew a coup was coming, perhaps implying tacit approval, they do not constitute definitive proof the U.S. was involved in ousting Chávez.
The Bush administration and Chávez, a fiery former paratrooper, have clashed repeatedly, with Chávez accusing the United States of backing the coup against him......more


http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=venezuela24&date=20041124&query=CIA

:toast:

"perhaps implying tacit approval, they do not constitute definitive proof the U.S. was involved in ousting Chávez."
...

Oh realy ?

Or should I say Oh'Reilly ? I think I'll start using this response when I catch freepers fibbing, which isn't very hard to do.

of evidence of WMD's, etc. before cheerleading the Iraq war? Ari said we don't need proof to establish a link between two parties (Al Qaeda--Saddam)to take action. Sounds like a good idea. Let's charge Bush with sponsoring terrorism.

BTW. Poppy Bush is good friends with the ex-head of the media company Venevision named Cisnaros.


George Bush senior to spend luxury holiday with Gustavo Cisneros
more coup plotting against the democratically elected Chavez. Round three coming up, sad to say.
Check those Fanjul brothers, Alfi and Jose. Throw their names into Google for some more information about how foreign citizen control US politics.
<clips>
Former US President George P. Bush is heading to the Dominican Republic for a luxury holiday, where he will spend quality time with anti-government Venezuelan media tycoon Gustavo Cisneros, who President Hugo Chavez Frias accuses of leading a push for a coup d'etat to have him forcibly removed from office.
The Venezuelan leader has threatened to take action against many privately-owned media companies ... particularly the four privately-owned TV stations ... for broadcasting "seditious opposition propaganda" and a series of advertisements urging Venezuelans to support the work stoppage, which has had devastating effects on the country's economy.
Bush is set to arrive on the Caribbean island next Tuesday, where he will stay at the Casa de Campo resort owned by the Fanjul brothers, Alfi and Jose ... he will then join the Venezuelan media tycoon in several rounds of golf in the town of La Romana.
There are strong indications that Bush will also meet secretly with corruption-impeached former Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez.
This will be Cisneros' second meeting with a former US President in less than a month, after holding talks with Jimmy Carter in Caracas several weeks ago. Carter returned to Venezuela to break the political deadlock following a direct invitation from Cisneros to do so.
<http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=2092>

that damn endowment for so called democracy that they fund never saw a democratically elected independent they havent tried to undermine or overthrow.

puppet masters they are and if you dont dance they dont like it.

and that fact gets even less media attention. The National Endowment for Democracy had its budget increased by 30% in the latest pork omnibus bill. Overthrowing governments is expensive.

:hi:

sponsor terrorism, even train them in the Florida swamps, and nobody in the Press questions it? I wonder if the Venezuelan authorities could at least contact law enforcement in Florida and then make an issue of it.

hment???George will have to kill a baby on a church altar videotaped by the foreign media and MAYBE someone would have a thought about it.....this is ridiculous.

Right on.
:hi:

Sure hope we hear a lot more about it. I'll bet somewhere the lovely Otto Reich is grinding his tiny teeth right down to the gumline!

NOTES: Source OPEC Annual Statistical Bulletin 2001
-------------------------------------
OPEC Members Listed by Proven Crude Oil Reserves:

1. Saudi Arabia: Under increasing pressure by the U. S.
***Proven crude oil reserves - 262,697,000,000 barrels

2. Iraq: Occupied by the U. S. & UK
***Proven crude oil reserves - 112,500,000,000 barrels

3. Iran: Threatened by the U. S.
***Proven crude oil reserves - 99,080,000,000 barrels

4. United Arab Emirates: Controlled by the U. S.
***Proven crude oil reserves - 97,800,000,000 barrels

5. Kuwait: Controlled by the U. S.
***Proven crude oil reserves - 96,500,000,000 barrels

6. Venezuela: Coup attempts backed by U. S. have failed to date
***Proven crude oil reserves - 77,685,000,000 barrels

7. Libya: Has recently settled with survivors of PanAm 103
***Proven crude oil reserves - 36,000,000,000 barrels

8. Nigeria: In an area that is becoming increasingly more unstable
***Proven crude oil reserves - 31,506,000,000 barrels

9. Qatar: Controlled by the U. S.
***Proven crude oil reserves - 15,204,000,000 barrels

10. Algeria:
***Proven crude oil reserves - 11,314,000 barrels

11. Indonesia:
***Proven crude oil reserves - 5,123,000,000 barrels


Two of these things are not like the others

having a soggy brain, i could find all sorts of associations and disassociations. what two are different ?

from my friend Tinoire


The Revolution will NOT be Televised. Required Viewing
Required viewing for all Progressive DUers!!!! (yeah, yeah, so sayeth I for the first time ever!))

Absolutely amazing from a cinematographic/artistic point of view and the story! -I just can't say enough! You MUST see it!

On April 12th 2002 the world awoke ((Remember Older DUers??)) to the news that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had been removed from office and had been replaced by a new interim government. What had in fact taken place was the first Latin American coup of the 21st century, and the world's first media coup...
The violence was sparked by a Supreme Court decision
---


The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Documentary Feature
Screening in Special Screenings
US Premiere
"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" is a feature length documentary on Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela. Over the course of 7 months, from January to July 2002, the filmmakers secured unprecedented access to film Chavez in his daily life. During this time, there was a coup and the filmmakers were the only crew inside the presidential palace at the time. They were also the first there for his triumphant return some 48 hours later. On the 11th April 2002, the world awoke to the news that President Hugo Chavez had been removed from office and had been replaced by a new self-appointed "interim" government. News report after news report carried stories of the mayhem in Caracas, where 11 people had been killed in what were alleged to have been bloody street battles between Chavez supporters and an opposition march. Viewers all over the world were led to believe that Chavez had ordered the killings, and had therefore been forced to resign. What had in fact took place was the first coup of the twenty first century, and the world's first media coup. "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" is a thrilling insight into President Chavez and the power of globalized media.

Total program length: 74 mins
http://www.sxsw.com/film/screenings/index.php?dvsearch=...




SYNOPSIS

IN THEATRES: NOVEMBER 5, 2003 (NY)

"Don't be poisoned by their lies," says Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez in the last line of THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED, referring to the way that the media corrupts the truth for the purpose of political persuasion. And thus the immediacy of this documentary--which consists of fast-moving footage captured during a two-day period in April 2002 when Chavez was kidnapped from the presidential palace in Caracas and the media announced a successful coup--serves simply as a good example of media manipulation. Using television news clips, the film shows how the privately owned Venezuelan media attacks Chavez, comparing him to Fidel Castro and accusing him of mental instability. Washington chimes in, accusing Chavez of being in cahoots with Columbian narco-terrorists. But the documentary also establishes Chavez's position as the people's president. He put in place a democratic constitution and promised to redistribute the nation's significant wealth--Venezuela is the world's fourth largest exporter of oil--to benefit the poor, who represent 80 percent of the population. And from there, the media reports against him sound like cards being played in the oil game.

The Irish filmmakers, Kim Bartley and Donnacha O'Brian, were inside the palace making a routine documentary about Chavez when the coup began. Meanwhile, a million Chavez supporters gathered in the streets outside demanding that their leader be restored. Within 48 hours, their pleas were answered and Chavez was president again. THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED offers a fascinating inside perspective on both Chavez's popularity and the way that media can bastardize the truth for political gain.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/revolution_will_not_be_televised/about.php?rtp=1

The Banff Rockie Awards 2003 were announced in Canada last night and the Global Television Grand Prize / Grand Prix Global was awarded to Chavez - Inside the Coup, Power Pictures Ltd. in association with RTÉ/ The Irish Film Board/BBC/ZDF/ARTE/NPS/CoBo/ YLE.


The documentary, which depicted the overthrow and return to power of President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela in a coup in 2002, was directed by Kim Bartley and Donnacha Ó Briain and produced by David Power of the Galway-based independent company. The company had secured unique access to President Chavez for an observational documentary and were with him in the Presidential Palace in Caracas when the coup took place.
http://www.chavezthefilm.com/html/film/banff_release.htm

----
<snip / good info re oil & Venezuela>

Washington's hostility towards Venezuela became more pronounced, with senior officials questioning President Chavez' 'commitment to democracy' – this from a US administration that required the intervention of the Supreme Court to enjoy 'electoral' success!


Nonetheless, President Chavez' domestic opponents - driven by the kleptocracy that ran PDVSA - had found new friends abroad.
After the coup, it would emerge that the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an agency of the US government, had quadrupled its funding for Venezuelan 'democrats' (the opposition) in the year leading up to the coup. NED funding of the opposition totalled $877,000.

<snip / oil>

US Oil Supply Threatened
But it was events in the Middle East that may well have compelled the coup plotters to act when they did. Israeli actions in Occupied Palestine, during the early months of 2002, resulted in widespread international condemnation and anger. Attention focused on the United States – Israel's chief source of financial and political support.

<snip / oil>

http://www.chavezthefilm.com/html/backgrd/oil.htm


US officials have been glaringly faint in their praise for Chavez's triumphant return. Condoleezza Rice, US national security adviser, expressed her hope that Chavez "takes this opportunity to right his own ship which has, quite frankly, been moving in the wrong direction for some time."
http://www.mediamonitors.net/gamal15.html


---

Of course, a US state department official is trained to hear the sound of an oil well tap turning from several thousand miles away. Chavez is no friend to the US. He went on television to denounce the US bombing of civilians in Afghanistan, brandishing pictures of dead children. He is a public friend to Fidel Castro. It wasn't mentioned here, but he has had his meetings with Saddam Hussein and Gadafy. In Bush's list of those "either with us or against us", he's with the axis of irritants. "We are concerned with some of the things said by President Chavez, and his understanding of what a democratic system is about," said Colin Powell, with the hemmed in anger of a boss who has an employee he wants to sack, but the union won't let him.

<snip>

The world's press carried reports that could have been written by the coup leaders themselves, and, because they were based on these pictures, to a certain extent they were. This film punctured every lie. The world accused the pro-Chavez crowd of carrying out the shootings; O'Briain and Bartley's camera proved it wasn't so, filming the victims almost before they hit the ground. The coup leader Pedro Carmona's speech about this "profoundly democratic process" and Colin Powell's parroting of Carmona's lie was inter-cut with film of the police shooting at protestors. As Carmona was on CNN declaring that the "the country is in a state of total normality", the camera was in the palace from which he had just been ousted. It followed the palace guard as they moved to strategic positions, took the building back and reinstated Chavez.

<snip>

http://www.chavezthefilm.com/html/film/review.htm

Hours after Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez had been ushered from his office into military detention, his successor, Pedor Carmona Estanga, a former oil executive and head of the country’s largest business organization, committed a series of monumentally authoritarian acts. With the stroke of a pen, without a mandate from the public, backed only by the authority vested in him by the country’s generals, Carmona dissolved the congress, disbanded the Supreme Court, closed the Attorney-General’s and comptroller's offices, repealed 48 laws that shifted some of the country’s wealth from the elite and oligarchs to the country’s poor, and ripped up the constitution. Were there ever a model for autocratic rule, this was it.
President George W. Bush remarked, "Now the situation will be one of tranquility and democracy." The New York Times, doing its best to mimic the Newspeak of George Orwell’s 1984, declared, "With yesterday’s resignation of President Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan democracy is no longer threatened by a would-be-dictator."

<snip>

In November, the US foreign policy establishment convoked a meeting to decide what to do about Chavez. He had chastised Washington for fighting terrorism with terrorism, cozied up to Cuba, refused to cooperate in the US war on Colombian guerillas, and committed a monumental heresy: He resisted the IMF, and wondered why a country with the Western hemisphere’s largest oil reserves, should be teeming with poor. The IMF let it be known that it would support a transitional government.

<snip>

With the stroke of a pen, Carmona, a man no one elected, cancelled land reform, cancelled free health care and education up to university, and cancelled a constitution that had taken away the oligarchs’ power to dominate the country at the expense of the majority, 80 percent of whom live in poverty, the country’s massive oil wealth beyond their reach.
<snip>

Before the generals ousted Chavez, US Secretary of State Colin Powell demanded Chavez correct "his understanding of what a democracy is." Apparently, democracy isn’t rule by the people.
http://www.mediamonitors.net/gowans49.html

<snip>

Venezuela is the fourth largest producer of oil, and the corporate elites whose political power runs unfettered in the Bush/Cheney oligarchy appear interested in privatizing Venezuela's oil industry. Furthermore, the establishment might be concerned that Chavez's `barter deals' with 12 Latin American countries and Cuba are effectively cutting the U.S. dollar out of the vital oil transaction currency cycle. Commodities are being traded among these countries in exchange for Venezuela's oil, thereby reducing reliance on fiat dollars. If these unique oil transactions proliferate, they could create more devaluation pressure on the dollar. Continuing attempts by the CIA to remove Hugo Chavez appear likely.

<snip of really excellent article>

http://www.mediamonitors.net/williamclark1.html

Here is a list of BBC articles from that period:

http://www.fightthebias.com/Resources/Rec_Read/Dictator_In_The_Making.htm

For the past few years, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has been meeting with the enemies of the United States including Libya and Iraq. His behavior otherwise is disturbing as well. Below is a small timeline of recent events in Venezuela.


Here is a complete, albeit Anglo, rendition of the happening…..

For the past few years, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has been meeting with the enemies of the United States including Libya and Iraq. His behavior otherwise is disturbing as well. Below is a small timeline of recent events in Venezuela.





Hugo Chavez
2003

01/04/2003 Two shot dead in Venezuela clashes
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2625997.stm
01/04/2003 In pictures: Venezuela strike chaos
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2555283.stm
01/03/2003 Country profile: Venezuela
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/country_profiles/1229345.stm

2002
12/24/2002 Venezuela strikers reject \'truce\' offer
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2602777.stm
12/21/2002 Britons warned to leave Venezuela
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2597371.stm
12/16/2002 Violence flares in Venezuela protests
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2581805.stm
12/15/2002 Chavez opponents mass on streets
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2576561.stm
12/12/2002 Venezuelans living on the brink
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2568267.stm
12/11/2002 In pictures: Venezuela panic
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2565727.stm
12/11/2002 Venezuela crisis deepens
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2563981.stm
12/06/2002 Strikes threaten to cripple Venezuela
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2548509.stm
12/05/2002 In pictures: Venezuela on strike
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2547619.stm
11/30/2002 Venezuelan dissident generals sacked
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2529905.stm
11/19/2002 Troops disperse Venezuela protest
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2493171.stm
11/07/2002 Chavez fights referendum plans
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2413563.stm
11/05/2002 Dozens injured in Caracas clashes
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2402717.stm
10/23/2002 Army officers urge Venezuela rebellion
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2348217.stm
10/20/2002 Chavez \'foils assassination plot\'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2344973.stm
10/06/2002 Another Venezuela coup attempt \'foiled\'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2303199.stm
09/08/2002 Chavez pushes through oil for Cuba
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2245333.stm
08/19/2002 Chavez vows to fight opposition
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2204144.stm
08/03/2002 Street clashes engulf Venezuela\'s capital
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2169623.stm
07/10/2002 Carter\'s Venezuela bid fails
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2120064.stm
06/25/2002 Chavez warns against more coup plots
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2061680.stm
06/21/2002 Chavez defiant in face of protests
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2056090.stm
05/27/2002 Venezuelan coup leader given asylum
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2009907.stm
05/12/2002 Venezuelans march against Chavez
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1982275.stm
05/07/2002 Rift in Venezuelan society
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/1939986.stm
05/06/2002 Venezuela president names new cabinet
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1970022.stm
05/03/2002 Venezuela minister warns of new coup
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1965230.stm
04/20/2002 New boss for Venezuela\'s oil giant
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1940672.stm
04/17/2002 Chavez opposition sceptical of change
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1934304.stm
04/15/2002 Currency plunges on Chavez return
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1930481.stm
04/14/2002 Analysis: After the would-be coup
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1929498.stm
04/14/2002 Analysis: Venezuela\'s crippled economy
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1925514.stm
04/14/2002 In pictures: Chavez defies opponents
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1925248.stm
04/14/2002 Chavez poised for comeback
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1928700.stm
04/14/2002 Venezuela interim president resigns
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1928700.stm
04/13/2002 Latin America ambivalent over ouster
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1927390.stm
04/12/2002 Venezuela press condemns \'autocrat\' Chavez
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/monitoring/media_reports/1926176.stm
04/12/2002 Venezuela\'s political disarray
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1926185.stm
04/12/2002 Analysis: Venezuela\'s crippled economy
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_1925000/1925514.stm/
04/12/2002 Venezuela president forced out
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1925161.stm
04/12/2002 Venezuela military challenge president
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1924864.stm
04/07/2002 Venezuela president sacks oil executives
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1916181.stm
03/21/2002 Clashes erupt on Venezuela streets
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1884700.stm
02/27/2002 Venezuela divided over Chavez
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1845680.stm
02/14/2002 Venezuela\'s currency in freefall
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1818558.stm

2001
12/16/2001 Chavez forces capitulation of banks
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1713761.stm
12/10/2001 Venezuela\'s Chavez faces labour wrath
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/1701778.stm
08/12/2001 Castro visits Venezuelan ally
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1486212.stm
08/11/2001 Castro visits Venezuela
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1486150.stm
05/25/2001 China urges stronger ties with Venezuela
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1349795.stm
04/17/2001 Venezuela backs China in US/China aircraft collision
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1280995.stm
04/16/2001 Venezuela supports China\'s human rights record
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1280094.stm
04/15/2001 Venezuela welcomes Chinese President Jiang
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1279440.stm

2000
12/05/2000 US looking into alleged Chavez mischief
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1056878.stm
10/26/2000 Castro arrives in Venezuela
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/991921.stm
10/15/2000 Army general named as head of Venezuelan federal oil company
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/973614.stm
09/29/2000 Iran-Iraq talks in Caracas
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/948985.stm
09/21/2000 Chavez seeks more power
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/935580.stm
09/03/2000 Chavez supports Bolivia against Chile
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/858999.stm
08/19/2000 Venezuela\'s Chavez sworn in again
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/885063.stm
07/31/2000 Cuba delighted at Chavez victory
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/860320.stm
07/15/2000 Chavez military critic arrested
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/834545.stm
03/01/2000 Retired Venezuelan military officers denounce Chavez\' political use of military forces
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/662871.stm
02/02/2000 Chavez demands international respect for Venezuela as a sovereign country
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/628687.stm
01/14/2000 Venezuela rejects US military aid after disaster
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/603235.stm

1999
12/23/1999 In pictures: Venezuela\'s devastation
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/576821.stm
12/19/1999 In pictures: Venezuela\'s flood chaos
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/571928.stm
12/16/1999 Venezuela backs new constitution. - Opponents say authoritarianism on it\'s way
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/566096.stm
12/13/1999 Venezuela Cardinal says Chavez is \'\'like Mussolini\'\'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/564002.stm
11/11/1999 Venezuela suspends scores of allegedly corrupt judges
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/515303.stm
11/05/1999 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/431320.stm
10/25/1999 Venezuela\'s Chavez defends his reforms. Critics say he is too powerful
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/505490.stm
08/27/1999 Venezuela\'s Congress vows defiance after being stripped of power
08/03/1999 Constitutional rewrite begins in Venezuela
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/411029.stm
07/12/1999 Cuban foreign minister visits Venezuela
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/392688.stm
02/05/1999 Venezuela\'s Chavez wants coup officers reinstated
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/272659.stm

1998
10/01/1998 Anti-Chavez alliance in Venezuela fails
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/183949.stm
06/17/1998 Venezuela jails are worst in world
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/114405.stm