Posted on Sun, Apr. 13, 2008
Did CIA back Chávez coup?
BY GERARDO REYES
AND CASTO OCANDO
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has been the subject of all kinds of conspiracy theories. But this one was unforeseen: A retired U.S. Coast Guard officer alleges that the CIA supported Chávez's coup against President Carlos Andrés Pérez in 1992.
Ret. Captain Ed Geary wrote his daring version of history in a self-published book -- The Venezuelan Conspiracy: The True Story of the CIA and U.S. Coast Guard's Covert Mission to Overthrow the Government of Venezuela.
Geary, who was a goodwill advisor to the Venezuelan Coast Guard, told El Nuevo Herald that the CIA's intention was to install a puppet government in Caracas to ensure the flow of Venezuelan oil to the United States. Somehow, said Geary, the intelligence agency thought Chávez -- then an already self-avowed socialist -- would follow Washington's agenda.
In the book published late last year, Geary alleges that in November 1993 he held a meeting at Roosevelt Roads Military Base in Puerto Rico with Joseph J. Vellin, then commercial attaché with the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela.
Geary says Vellin identified himself as a CIA operative and told him the United States was backing Chávez's conspiracy to overthrow the Venezuelan government. Vellin asked Geary to provide personal information about high-ranking Venezuelan military officials, with whom Geary had developed good relationships.
More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/494033.html