By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
 

The Bush administration acknowledged yesterday that senior U.S. officials had met with a number of Venezuelan opposition
figures in recent months, including key leaders of last Friday's abortive coup, but insisted it had never encouraged them to
mount a coup against President Hugo Chavez.

"United States officials explicitly made clear repeatedly to opposition leaders that the United States would not support a coup,"
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

Under fire for what turned out to be premature public acceptance of Chavez's ouster Friday, the administration made an
energetic effort to insist it had known no more of the coup plans than was publicly visible once a major anti-Chavez strike
began early last week. U.S. officials were simply reacting "as events unfolded," Fleischer said.

Fleischer noted that the United States had been part of an emergency meeting Saturday of the Organization of American States,
which unanimously resolved that night to condemn the "alteration of constitutional order in Venezuela." By Sunday morning, the
coup had dissolved and Chavez had returned to power.

But critics recalled that the administration, which had made no secret of its dislike for Chavez, had implied for most of Friday
that it approved of Chavez's overthrow and had waited to express misgivings until much of Latin America had denounced the
coup and it was clearly about to fail.

"To stand silent while the illegal ouster of a government is occurring is deeply troubling and will have profound implications for
hemispheric democracy," Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) said yesterday. "I know Secretary [of State Colin L.] Powell is
extremely preoccupied with events in the Middle East, but I would hope that in the future there would be more adult
supervision of the policy formulation as it related to our own hemisphere."

The administration revealed considerably more information about its thoughts and activities regarding Venezuela than it had
previously. Officials also offered minute-by-minute comparisons of their statements at the end of last week with what they said
they knew about what was happening in Venezuela. They also continued to say that Chavez had resigned, despite his own
denial, and debated whether the overthrow of an elected president could really be called a "coup" if military forces hadn't taken
power.

Officials emphasized that dissatisfaction with Chavez was increasingly widespread in Venezuela in recent months. The country
was engulfed in strikes earlier this year, and a number of senior military officials had publicly criticized Chavez. The upheaval,
and Chavez's plunge in popularity after being recently reelected by a wide majority, were widely documented in the hemispheric
media and were the subjects of extensive conversation among regional governments. Many of Chavez's most prominent
opponents traveled to Washington.

A Pentagon official said that Venezuela's military chief of staff, Gen. Lucas Romero Rincon, the man who refused Chavez's
order to send tanks to protect the presidential palace and announced the president's resignation, had met here Dec. 18 with
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Roger Pardo-Maurer. Romero Rincon was "unequivocally told" that the United States
would "actively oppose coups or unconstitutional actions."

In his White House briefing, Fleischer said U.S. officials had also met with Pedro Carmona, the businessman who was installed
as Venezuelan president Friday. Fleischer did not say when the meeting took place, or with whom, but said talking with a
broad spectrum of foreigners was "a normal part of what diplomats do."

Much of the administration's assertion that it acted in good faith Friday rests on its contention that Chavez was not removed
from office but resigned when he realized that much of the Venezuelan military and popular opinion had turned against him.

When he announced at midday Friday that Chavez had left office voluntarily and been replaced by Carmona, Fleischer said, he
was reflecting the best U.S. information at the moment. Chavez, who was taken to a military base on an offshore island, has
insisted he never resigned, and no proof of his resignation has emerged. But a senior administration official said yesterday that
the United States remains convinced the resignation took place.

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