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| Latin America |
| Hugo sez Coup Attempt Was Not Coup Attempt |
| 2003-02-07 |
| Marking the anniversary of his failed putsch, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said here Tuesday that his effort in 1992, when he was an army paratroop colonel, to overthrow the government by force of arms was not a coup attempt. "Nope. Nope. It was, ummm... something else." Chavez, who decries his current political opponents as "coup-mongers," sought Tuesday to draw a fine distinction. "The coupmakers of 2002 had no moral code; they are enemies of the homeland. The 1992 rebels have a moral code and are patriots," Chavez emphasized at a ceremony where he bestowed land titles on certain citizens in the western Caracas neighborhood of 23 de Enero. "I'm in charge now, so it's wrong to have a coup against me. I wasn't in charge then, so it was okay. Simple, huh?" The Venezuelan leader said that the 1992 coup attempt was "a volcano that came out of the military youth which revealed itself to be against the military elite of that time, which was in the service of political interests." He added that, however, last year's brief coup "was a conspiracy of economic, political and corrupt elites." The president said that there was no comparison between the 2002 military and the 1992 armed forces. "Just because it walked like a duck, quacked like a duck, and laid and egg doesn't mean it was a duck." |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |