Allende redux?

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION didn't seem too sad to see Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez face a 48-hour attempted coup last month. The leftist leader is tight with Cuba, Iraq, and Libya. He has bad-mouthed the U.S. war on terrorism. And with his country ranking as the third-largest supplier of oil to the United States, Chávez has America by the balls – and he's proved he's not afraid to hike oil prices.

Now evidence is emerging that the U.S. military was involved in the aborted April 11 overthrow.

The U.K. Guardian broke the story – which has been denied by U.S. officials – late last month (www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4403366,00.html). But so far the U.S. press has shown little interest.

Former U.S. intelligence officer Wayne Madsen claims the U.S. Navy may have aided the insurgents with intelligence on troop movements gathered by American ships stationed off Venezuela's coast. The vessels "have National Security Agency equipment and personnel on board that can do listening and jamming," explains Madsen, who says he's gotten his information from well-placed government sources.

The allegations call to mind the United States' role in the bloody 1973 overthrow of Chilean socialist Salvador Allende. "This represents a return to gunship diplomacy," says Madsen, now a senior fellow at the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

Madsen's story is backed by statements made by Roger Rondón, a Venezuelan congressperson. In an interview with the U.K. Guardian, Rondón said that two U.S. embassy military attachés were holed up with the coup leaders on the night of the takeover and that Charles Shapiro, the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela, was seen leaving the presidential palace with interim dictator Pedro Carmona the following day. According to the Guardian and other British papers, Iran-Contra veterans now heading Latin American policy for the Bush administration met with central plotters of the coup, including Carmona and Venezuelan army chief of staff Gen. Lucas Romero Rincón, on several occasions during the months leading up to April 11.

Chávez has told the press he saw an American plane flying overhead while he was detained at a Venezuelan island prison during the 48-hour takeover, and he has ordered an independent truth commission to look into the events of April 11-14.