Energy Tribune
Hugo Chavez hasn’t always hated the U.S. And here’s photographic proof – in the form of a snapshot that’s readily available on the U.S. Department of Defense’s media Web-site.
This photo, taken on March 2, 2002, shows Chavez listening to U.S. Navy Commander Robert S. Kerno while aboard the cruiser USS Yorktown at Willemstad, Curacao, in the Netherlands Antilles. The photo was taken during UNITAS, a multi-national naval exercise. Yes, Chavez was somewhat anti-American – and certainly a fiery populist – back in 2002 and in earlier years. But since that time, he has accelerated his verbal attacks on George W. Bush and the U.S. Why? Well, some of his vitriol can be explained by the Bush administration’s support for the short-lived coup de tat that took place about six weeks after this photo was taken. That coup was first backed and later defeated by the Venezuelan military.
The Bush administration provided training and other support to groups that were involved in the coup attempt against Chavez. That’s the conclusion of the U.S. State Department’s Office of Inspector General, which in its report of July 2002 said, “It is clear that NED [the National Endowment for Democracy], Department of Defense (DOD), and other U.S. assistance programs provided training, institution building, and other support to individuals and organizations understood to be actively involved in the brief ouster of the Chavez government.”
It also appears that the Bush administration had been warned at least a month ahead of time that the coup was going to occur. A British newspaper, the Guardian, has even alleged that the coup was approved by the White House through Elliot Abrams, a neoconservative who was a senior director on the National Security Council. (Abrams pled guilty to two counts of unlawfully withholding information from Congress during the Iran-Contra scandal.)
Rather than oppose the coup, which briefly ousted Chavez, the Bush administration blamed Chavez for the overthrow. On April 12, 2002, one day after the coup, the White House’s press secretary, Ari Fleischer, said, “The Chavez government provoked this crisis. According to the best information available, the Chavez government suppressed peaceful demonstrations. The results of these events are now that President Chavez has resigned the presidency. Before resigning, he dismissed the vice president and the cabinet, and a transitional civilian government has been installed.”
That same day, a State Department spokesman said that “undemocratic actions committed or encouraged by the Chavez administration provoked yesterday’s crisis in Venezuela.”
Further, the Bush administration worked to get other countries to recognize the new government, which was led by businessman Pedro Carmona, immediately after the coup occurred. In December 2004, the New York Times reported that the Bush administration, along with Spain, tried to get four other countries – Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and France – to immediately recognize the coup. Those allegations came from Jorge Castaneda, the former foreign minister from Mexico. The Times wrote that Colombia and El Salvador were also involved in the effort to recognize Carmona’s government but that Chile and Mexico resisted the push.
Given that history, is it any wonder that Chavez has made his living over the past four years by bashing the U.S.? Regardless of what Chavez thinks or says, he’s going to be in power for another six years. And that means that George W. Bush and the U.S. are going to have to get used to him.
