YANKEE INTRIGUE IN SOUTH AMERICA

The following is a dispatch from AM, a correspondent in Trinidad, about the failed, attempted coup in Venezuela by which US president Bush hoped to change the regime to one more to his liking by undemocratic processes. He was unsuccessful because the people of Venezuela had the courage to stand up for democracy and their right to choose their own political leaders without kow-towing to the evil empire in the north.

VENEZUELA POLITICAL PANORAMA

Surprising Video Rocks Venezuelan Political Scene

Caracas, Sept 10, 2002 (PL)

The Venezuelan political panorama continued to tremble today from the impact of an appalling video accusation of the authors of the April 11 coup.

The film is by journalist Otto Neustadt, CNN TV correspondent during the days of protest and witness to a proclamation read by soldiers opposed to President Hugo Chavez.

Neustadt recorded the moment Vice Admiral Hector Ramirez, later the de facto government's defence minister, announced the death of six people by snipers near the Presidential Palace before it happened!

In this proclamation, the accusation that Chavez had ordered the massacre was used to justify the coup, but it was made before the first shot had been fired, proving the coup leaders' role in preparing the incidents.

On that day, after an opposition march, 18 people died and over 100 were injured by coup supporting snipers on buildings near the Government House.

The impact of this video has provoked nervous responses from its protagonists, beginning with Ramirez, who declared he was a victim of "political persecution" by the left wing, democratically elected Chavez government, although he could not clear up his earlier statements.

Neustadt, whose wife is a newsreader at "Globovision", the principal opposition TV channel, also stammered replies to a reporter questioning the time contradiction.

"We know that followers of the coup leaders have threatened the journalist and if he requests protection from the government, it will be given", announced the Republic's Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel.

The importance of this, after the controversial decision by the right-wing biased Supreme Court acquitting Ramirez, among others, caused Rangel to research the film and the Attorney to summon those who appear in it.

The People's Defence Counsel considers the recording to be evidence "of a criminal action, which includes the murder of Venezuelans to provoke a confrontation".

And so, the nation is once again focused on yet another dark episode while in Washington Bush will have to find another way to change the regime.