2002 Venezuelan Coup
Reich held the post of Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the time of the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt on April 11, 2002 against Hugo Chávez. On the day Pedro Carmona was installed as president, Otto Reich summoned ambassadors from Latin America and the Caribbean to his office to express their support and that of the US administration for the new government.
Administration officials acknowledged that U.S. officials, including officials at the Embassy in Caracas, met with opposition leaders throughout this period. Meanwhile, the U.S. government denied encouraging the coup, saying they insisted any change in government must take place through constitutional means. Because of these allegations, Sen. Christopher Dodd requested a review of US activities leading up to and during the coup attempt. The OIG report found no wrongdoing by US officials either in the State Department or in the US Embassy.
According to a report in The New York Times, Reich warned Congressional aides there was more at stake in Venezuela than simply the success or failure of Hugo Chávez. He accused Chávez of meddling with the historically independent state oil company, providing haven to Colombian guerrillas and bailing out Cuba with preferential rates on oil. He also said the administration had received reports that "foreign paramilitary forces" were involved in the bloody suppression of anti-Chávez demonstrators, in which at least fourteen people were killed.
The United States, which had acknowledged the de facto government, did not condemn the coup until Chávez had already been restored to power by the Venezuelan military, acting on behalf of a massive popular movement. The majority of Latin American presidents, meeting at a conference in Central America, refused to recognize coup leaders' chosen replacement, Pedro Carmona, pressuring them to promptly undo the coup and reinstate elected president Hugo Chávez to Venezuela's presidential palace, Miraflores - on live TV.
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