US Says Met Venezuelans but Denies Encouraging Coup
Tue Apr 16,10:45 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration said on Tuesday it met opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in recent months but denied it had encouraged a coup in the Latin American country.

"Our message has been consistent. The political situation in Venezuela is one for the Venezuelans to resolve peacefully, democratically and constitutionally ... and we explicitly told opposition leaders that the United States would not support a coup," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) told reporters.

The New York Times reported on Tuesday that senior Bush administration officials met several times in recent months with leaders of a coalition that ousted Chavez for two days over the weekend but gave conflicting accounts of the meeting. Chavez returned to office in triumph on Sunday when loyalist troops ended the coup after tens of thousands of his supporters from the poor slums took to the streets to demand his return.

One unidentified senior official quoted by the newspaper insisted the Venezuelans use constitutional means to remove Chavez while a Defense Department official said the message was less categorical, saying U.S. officials sent "informal, subtle signals" that the Bush administration did not like Chavez.

Asked if U.S. officials offered a wink and a nudge to the coup plotters, Fleischer said he was unaware of such signals but did not categorically rule them out. A U.S. official, who insisted on anonymity, rejected the notion, saying, "The implication that the United States somehow explicitly or implicitly encouraged a coup could not be more wrong."