More on U.S. Interference

Here is a very recent interview with Eva Golinger, a human rights lawyer and author, who has done a lot of work investigating the U.S. involvement in the coup in 2002 using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

An interview with Eva Golinger

The most conclusive facts and evidence includes a series of documents classified Top Secret by the CIA, dating from March 5, 2002 to April 17, 2002, which clearly refer to plans for a coup against Chávez—who, how, where and when—everything laid out in detail. One in particular, dated April 6, 2002—five days before the coup—emphasizes how the opposition sectors, the CTV, Fedecámaras (the country's main business federation), dissident soldiers, the private media, and even the Catholic Church were going to march through the streets in those first weeks of April and the coup conspirators would provoke violence with snipers in the street, causing deaths, and then they would arrest President Chávez and other important members of his cabinet.

What's more interesting though is some of her comments on things that are still happening in the country.

The U.S. embassy in Venezuela is very active. These days, its main strategy is subversion. This is manifested by USAID, NED, IRI, Freedom House, CIPE, etc. funding opposition groups, but there is also an attempt to penetrate pro-Chávez sectors and communities. This last tactic is one of the most dangerous and effective.

and a bit more...

The CIA and the State Department maintain various fronts in the country, as they always do. There is Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI), a U.S. corporation based in the El Rosal sector in Caracas, which functions as a filter for funding from USAID to opposition NGOs and groups. Then there is the Press and Society Institute, part of the Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) network, which receives funds from the NED, USAID, the CIA, etc., to execute its pro-U.S. policy and to accuse the Venezuelan government of being repressive and of violating the rights of free expression and a free press. Freedom House and USAID are also financing right-wing student leaders and movements, sending them to Belgrade to train with experts in the Orange Revolution (Ukraine) and other so-called processes for "overthrowing dictators." Recently, the neoliberal right-wing Cato Institute, which advises Bush and receives funding from Exxon Mobile and Philip Morris, awarded a "prize" worth $500,000 to an opposition Venezuelan student.