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Venezuela us military U.S. MILITARY, INTEL ASSISTED IN VENEZUELAN COUP By Wayne Madsen Washington, DC - Apr. 12, 2002 -- Pentagon sources revealed the United States provided critical military and intelligence support to the Venezuelan military coup against President Hugo Chavez. Using the cover of two training exercises in the Caribbean -- COMPTUEX and a Joint Task Force Exercise (JTFEX) -- the U.S. Navy provided signals intelligence and communications jamming support to the Venezuelan military. Particular focus by U.S. Navy ship-basedintercept units was on communications to and from the Cuban, Libyan, Iranian, and Iraqi diplomatic missions in Caracas. All four countries supported Chavez. The plans for U.S. military and intelligence support for the coup sped up shortly after President Bush's March visit to Peru and El Salvador. The National Security Agency (NSA) supported the coup using personnel attached to the U.S. Southern Command's Joint Interagency Task Force East (JIATF-E), in Key West, Florida. NSA's Spanish-language linguists and signals intercept operators in Key West; Sabana Seca, Puerto Rico; and the Regional Security Operating Center (RSOC) in Medina, Texas also assisted in providing communications intelligence to U.S. military and national command authorities on the progress of the coup d'etat. From eastern Colombia, CIA and U.S. private military personnel, ostensibly used for counter-narcotics operations, stood by to provide logistics support for the coup plotters. Their activities were centered at the Marandua airfield and along the border with Venezuela. Patrol aircraft operating from the U.S. Forward Operating Location (FOL) in Manta, Ecuador also provided intelligence support for the military move against Chavez. U.S. Navy ships on the training exercise in the Outer Range of the U.S. Navy's Southern Puerto Rican Operating Area also stood by in the event the coup against Chavez faltered, thus requiring a U.S. military evacuation of U.S. citizens. The ships included the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, and destroyers USS Barry, Laboon, Mahan, and Arthur W. Radford. Some of the destroyers reportedly had NSA Direct Support Units aboard to provide signals intelligence support to U.S. Special Operations and intelligence personnel deployed on the ground in Venezuela and along the Colombian side of the border. For its part, the CIA provided Special Operations Group personnel, headed by a lieutenant colonel on loan from the US Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to help organize the coup against Chavez. They had been in the country since the summer of 2001. Consisting of US Special Operations Intelligence Support Activity (ISA) personnel, the group reportedly made contact with senior, pro-U.S. military officers, including armed forces chief Gen. Lucas Rincon, Deputy Security minister Gen. Luis Camacho Kairuz, and business and union leaders, especially those with the state-owned oil company, PDVSA, and the Venezuelan Workers' Confederation (CTV). Last summer, the CIA lieutenant colonel began meeting with corporate and labor leaders at the PDVSA refinery in Maracaibo to lay plans for the coup against Chavez. One of those tapped early on by the CIA for support was the new interim Venezuelan President, Pedro Carmona, the head of the Fedecamaras business syndicate. The coup was also supported by Special Operations psychological warfare (PSYOPs) personnel deployed from Fort Bragg, North Carolina. They put together Spanish-language television announcements, purportedly from Venezuelan political and business leaders and aired by Venezuelan television and radio stations, saying Chavez "provoked" the crisis by ordering his supporters to fire on peaceful protestors in Caracas. U.S. communications technicians also helped to jam cell phone and radio frequencies in Caracas and other major cities.

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