Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos has rebounded from attacks launched by former Spanish President Jose Maria Aznar and confirmed that the latter did indeed support the coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias.

Maracaibo broadsheet Panorama has published secret documents that Moratinos presented to the Spanish Congress during a parliamentary debate on the April 11, 2002 coup in Venezuela.

Spanish Ambassador to Venezuela, Manuel Viturro wrote on April 8, 2002 of "rumors of different opposition sectors linked mostly to Bandera Roja (BR) receiving weapons to create chaos at the right moment and right place to provoke the intervention  of the Army to restore peace and set up a patriotic Junta with full support from opposition parties."

On April 9, Ambassador Viturro sent a telegram to Spain, reporting rumors of a coup ... "confirmed by the presence in Caracas of Army General Enrique Medina Gomez (military attache in Washington), who enjoys great prestige among the Armed Forces and who, it is said, could lead a civilian-military coup in union with Army C-i-C, Efrain Vazquez Velasco."

At 1.00 am. April 12, Viturro writes "the opposition strategy aimed at ousting President Chavez Frias through army pressure is having results ... The Confederation of Trade Unions (CTV)  has taken advantage of the Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) conflict to convene a mass mobilization in Caracas that has provided the deaths needed 

Dictator-for-a-Day Pedro Carmona Estanga

to provoke the intervention of the army, the only force in this country, given the weakness of opposition political parties, to end the government of President Chavez Frias."

On April 13, Viturro and US Ambassador Shapiro were received by Dictator-for-a-Day Pedro Carmona.  "The meeting (with Carmona) allowed us to underline our surprise about the dissolution of the (National) Assembly and to tell him that such attitudes could make it difficult for us in the future to express our friendship towards him and our understanding of the announced program of consolidation of democratic institutions in Venezuela."

• Carmona's Foreign Minister, World Christian Democrat hierarch Jose Rodriguez Iturbe was present at the meeting.

Moratinos insists that the Aznar administration supported a US declaration, expressing the desire to full democratic normalization and consolidation of democratic institutions with the help of the Organization of American states (OAS) . No question was asked about the illegality of the Carmona presidency or the fate of President Chavez Frias.

Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Brazil refused to sign and promoted a Rio Group declaration, condemning the attack on Venezuela's democratic institutions. Minister Moratinos concludes that Aznar's government did not condemn the coup but rather endorsed it and gave it international legitimacy.

Photography: Santiago Padilla