Chavez had advance warning of coup [Greg Palast, The Guardian]

Greg Palast reports in the Guardian (Monday, May 13th 2002) that Hugo Chavez, the democratically elected president of Venezuela, was warned by an OPEC official in advance of the US-supported coup attempt.

The Venezuelan OPEC official warned Chavez that Arab states were planning an OPEC boycott of the USA and that this would stimulate the coup attempt.

The wily Chavez secreted loyal troops into the building which housed Carmona, the central coup plotter, and then when the coup was revealed informed Carmona that if anyone was getting killed then he would be sure to be included.

Greg Palast is the reporter/investigator that drives BBC Newsnight and wrote (among many other things "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy").