The April, 2002 Coup against Chavez

Eleven months after Operation Balboa was staged on Curacao, on April 11, 2002, a coup d’etat led primarily by the white-collar bureaucrats in charge of Venezuela’s labor unions and the Venezuelan Chamber of Commerce, supported by the Caracas Metropolitan Police, took control of the capital for two days. After confused fighting between the police and the National Guard (controlled by Chavez), and even more confused negotiations between Chavez and the coup leadership, Chavez resumed control of the government, on April 13.

Pro-Chavez Venezuelans have accused the U.S. of having been involved in the coup. According to these sources:

*An American Navy Captain, David Cazares, approached a Venezuelan general, whom he had mistaken for someone else he was conspiring with in a hotel lobby in Caracas on April 8, and asked him why he had not stayed in contact with a U.S. submarine and two war ships deployed in Venezuelan waters.

*On April 12, US Colonel Donald F. MacCarty requested authorization to fly US Galaxy C-17 and Hercules C-130 warplanes over Venezuela. Sixteen of these craft were stationed on the Venezuelan coastal island of Curacao at the time.
*On April 12, near the town of Falcon, a U.S. helicopter flew in circles near Orchila Island, where Hugo Chavez was being held prisoner by the temporarily ascendant opposition.

*US Colonel J. Rodgers was photographed driving a small truck at Fort Tiuna, where he was stationed on April 11, 12, and 13, almost always hanging out on the fifth floor of the fort’s main building, headquarters of the Army Command, command center for the coup.

In addition, apparent U.S. interference in Venezuelan affairs appears ongoing. In May of 2004, Venezuelan forces arrested 126 Colombians near Venezuela’s western border with that country, accusing them of paramilitary activity. The men were operating near the properties of a couple of Cuban exiles who are also anti-Chavez activists.

Clearly, an Operation Balboa-type operation is less a danger to President Chavez and the present Venezuelan government than a U.S.-sponsored, C.I.A.- and Pentagon-fomented coup d’etat.