SOLDIERS FAIL IN VENEZUELAN COUP TRY

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 5, 1992                   TAG: 9202050156
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CARACAS, VENEZUELA                                LENGTH: Medium
SOLDIERS FAIL IN VENEZUELAN COUP TRY
Loyal soldiers repulsed attacks by rebel troops and tanks on the presidential palace and in three other cities Tuesday, crushing an attempt to topple one of Latin America's most stable democracies.
Seventeen soldiers died and 51 were injured in Caracas, the government said. Morgue officials counted an additional 42 bodies - all civilians killed in cross fire. At least eight people, including a soldier, were killed in the industrial city of Valencia, the government said. The El Nacional newspaper reported 70 dead in Caracas alone.
By Tuesday afternoon, Ochoa said loyal troops had "completely suffocated" the rebels, who had earlier abducted a state governor and staged attacks in the western cities of Maracay, Valencia and Maracaibo. He later said 133 officers and 953 enlisted men had been arrested.
One detained coup leader, Lt. Col. Francisco Arias, said the rebels sought to "rescue the Venezuelan people from politicians, from demagoguery and bureaucracy."
In a speech late Tuesday, President Carlos Andres Perez called the coup "a shameful action conducted by ambitious officers" but he said he was proud "an immense majority" had remained loyal.
The coup attempt followed violent protests and labor unrest arising from a growing disparity between rich and poor in Venezuela.
The government of this oil-producing nation, an OPEC member, has admitted that just 57 percent of Venezuelans can afford more than one meal a day.
A border dispute with Colombia has created tension between Perez and the military, which opposes giving Colombia rights to the oil-and mineral-rich Gulf of Venezuela.
Soldiers, like many others, have seen their wages shrink dramatically because of inflation.
Arias said rebels chose Feb. 4 for the uprising to mark the birthday of Venezuelan hero Antonio Jose de Sucre, the second-in-command in Simon Bolivar's war against Spanish rule in the early 19th century.
Sen. David Morales Bello said three of Perez's bodyguards were killed in the palace attack. According to an account in El Nacional, Perez escaped to a private television station. From there, Perez phoned Ochoa and told him: "No negotiations. Give them bullets."

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB