Word: coups
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Venezuela's officers bungle a coup...
...proving they face reprisals, even death, back home is rarely easy. Those seeking a better life pose one of the more painful questions for a nation philosophically committed to an open door. While Administration officials acknowledge that the | political climate in Haiti has worsened since the Sept. 30 coup that deposed democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, they maintain that most of the boat people are economic migrants whose free-floating fears of persecution are not grounds enough for asylum. Backed by a Jan. 31 Supreme Court decision, little can now deter the Administration's plan to empty the detention...
Meanwhile, the Administration strove to create the impression that it was taking humanitarian steps to alleviate Haitians' suffering. Officials spoke of "redirecting" the economic embargo imposed by the Organization of American States, to relieve pressure on ordinary Haitians and target the assets of individuals connected with the coup. Yet in the four months since the trade ban was imposed Bush has taken no steps to implement such a "scalpel embargo," giving coup sympathizers time to clear their assets out of the U.S. An official acknowledged that the Administration had bowed to domestic business interests after complaints that the embargo...
...target of the coup had already left his house and slipped through a secret tunnel into the white, hilltop Miraflores palace in the center of the city. Miraflores offered him no security, however, for tanks lined the surrounding streets and the rebels opened fire with mortars and machine guns. Perez and an aide dashed back through the tunnel and drove to a private television station, where the President made several tapes denouncing the rebellion. As they were being broadcast to the nation, he telephoned his Defense Minister. "No negotiations," he ordered. "Give them lead...
Perez was able to return to his office a few hours later. Most of the armed forces had remained loyal, and air force F-16 jets strafed rebel positions, blocking their movements and disrupting their communications. The coup leader, Lieut. Colonel Hugo Chavez Frias, 37, dressed in combat gear and a red paratrooper's beret, turned himself in 12 hours after the shooting began, but warned that the military might find "another occasion." More than 1,200 rebel soldiers surrendered, including 136 officers. Officials said as many as 7,000 of the 73,000 troops in the armed forces...