RHC on Failed Coup in Venezuela-17 Apr 2002 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 17 April 2002 . *TV ROUNDTABLE EXAMINES FAILED RIGHT-WING COUP IN VENEZUELA *WASHINGTON DUCKS FALLOUT OVER ATTEMPTED RIGHT-WING COUP IN VENEZUELA *ANOTHER JUDGE WANTS TO QUESTION KISSINGER ON CRIMES COMMITTED BY LATIN AMERICAN DICTATORSHIPS . *TV ROUNDTABLE EXAMINES FAILED RIGHT-WING COUP IN VENEZUELA Havana, April 17 (RHC)-- During Tuesday evening's special roundtable discussion -- broadcast live on Cuban radio and television -- experts examined the recent attempt by right-wing forces to overthrow Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and destroy the revolutionary process in that country. For the third consecutive day, panelists took a look at events in Venezuela, noting that daily activities have returned to normal. Statements aired on Venezuelan television by Defense Minister Jose Vicente Rangel were re-broadcast as part of the roundtable discussion. Rangel said that people in the capital, Caracas, and other Venezuelan cities are going about their daily affairs and that there are no shortages of food or other necessities. Analysts discussed the support given by officials from several Latin American countries to the coup leaders. A journalist with Trabajadores newspaper, Lazaro Barredo, referred to recent accusations made in Lima by former Peruvian President Alan Garcia against the current president, Alejandro Toledo. Over the weekend, while Hugo Chavez was being held by military officers, Toledo commented that Chavez was never one of his idols. The former Peruvian president, along with others, is calling on Alejandro Toledo to apologize to his Venezuelan counterpart. Panelists also criticized the position assumed by many Venezuelan private media outlets and international television networks -- such as CNN en Espanol and Miami's Channel 51 -- which distorted the events in Venezuela and announced that Hugo Chavez had resigned as the country's president, instead of reporting that he had been detained after refusing to resign. Last night's roundtable discussion ended with coverage of a special ceremony held at the Cuban embassy in Caracas on Tuesday. Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque traveled to the Venezuelan capital to personally bestow the Calixto Garcia Medal of Courage on 28 Cuban diplomats and members of the embassy staff. They held out against a right-wing mob of hundreds who threatened to storm the diplomatic mission on Friday and into Saturday morning. According to the Cuban foreign minister, speaking at the ceremony yesterday afternoon, the mob destroyed seven cars used by diplomatic personnel and even threw molotov cocktails against the building. The Cuban Council of State decided to honor the embassy's staff for heroically resisting the attacks and vowing to defend a small piece of Cuban territory, even at the cost of their own lives. *WASHINGTON DUCKS FALLOUT OVER ATTEMPTED RIGHT-WING COUP IN VENEZUELA Washington, April 17 (RHC) -- Despite desperate denials, Washington has continued ducking the fallout from its anti-democratic role in the attempted right wing coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The New York Times reported Wednesday that the White House has been forced to admit that a senior administration official was in contact with the Venezuelan coup leader, Pedro Carmona, the very day he took over. Otto Reich, the controversial assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, reportedly called Carmona to advise him not to dissolve the National Assembly - though without condemning his de facto rule. The Times asserted that though administration officials cited the call as evidence that they had sought to uphold the democratic process in Venezuela, the disclosure raised questions as to whether Reich or other officials were stage-managing Carmona's takeover. The news daily also affirmed that Reich's advice to Carmona on the very day that military officers took Chavez into custody at an army base suggests an early and urgent administration interest in the success of a plot against a constitutionally-elected president, noting that the United States did not condemn the action against Chavez until Saturday evening after angry protesters forced Carmona to resign. On Capitol Hill, Democratic majority leader, Senator Tom Daschle, said he was very concerned about what message Washington's role in the coup sends concerning US support for democracy in Venezuela and around the world. Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd expressed dismay that the Bush administration had been slow to criticize Chavez's ouster. Democratic Representative William Delahunt said Washington's reaction badly damaged a country that preaches democracy, asking whether the US is again opening itself to criticism of having double standards and being hypocritical. *ANOTHER JUDGE WANTS TO QUESTION KISSINGER ON CRIMES COMMITTED BY LATIN AMERICAN DICTATORSHIPS Madrid, April 17 (RHC) -- Another judge investigating crimes committed by Latin American dictatorships wants to question former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon, who in 1998 engineered former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet's arrest in London, has filed a request with British authorities to allow him to question Kissinger when the American arrives in the British capital next week to attend a convention of business leaders. Garzon's petition was sent Tuesday and is based on the European Convention on Terrorism, which requires signatories to cooperate with each other's judicial processes relating to terrorism. Besides investigating crimes of the Pinochet regime, Garzon is also probing the disappearance of hundreds of Spanish citizens in Argentina during that country's last military rule. The Spanish judge reportedly wants to question Kissinger over his suspected involvement in Operation Condor, a concerted plot by former military dictatorships in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay to persecute and eliminate their opponents during the 1970s and 80s. Garzon now joins judges in Chile, Argentina and France who also want to question the former secretary of state about his ties with regimes that committed crimes against humanity. And Kissinger faces two civil action lawsuits in the United States for two Pinochet regime assassinations believed to have been supported by the CIA. The US's former top diplomat recently canceled a visit to Sao Paulo, Brazil - invited by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso - due to planned protests against his presence there and to possible legal complications that could arise in criminal charges that have been filed against him by victims of torture and the family members of the forcibly disappeared. (c) 2002 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. 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