One of the
biggest mysteries of what happened on April 11th. 2002, was the role
played by General Lucas Rincon. Rincon was not only the Chief of Staff, but was
also the highest ranking General in the Venezuelan Armed Forces, the only one
to receive three stars in decades. Rincon was also the man the set in motion
the so called “coup” against Hugo Chavez by appearing on a nationwide telecast
that evening, surrounded by the Chiefs of Staff and said: “ We asked the
President for his resignation, which he accepted”.
The rest
is of course history. Chavez claims he never resigned, Carmona came along, Chavez
came back in what was probably a sequence of coups rather than a single one as
Chavez likes to make believe. To compound the mystery even further, Rincon
showed up again only months later in Chavez’ Cabinet where he occupied
important positions for a couple of years.
The final
mystery is how come, despite the incredibly significant role he played, the
Prosecutor’s office has never called Rincon to testify or even charged him with
anything. After all, it was Rincon who set in motion everything that happened
that night. Had he not shown up on TV that night history would have been much
different. Despite this, Rincon has never been called and his role remains a
mystery
Today (El
Nacional, page A-2), the Prosecutor himself, Isaias Rodriguez attempts to shed
light on it and his explanation is so laughable, implausible and improbable
that nobody will ever believe it. Moreover, it is not the Prosecutor’s role to
decide whether Rincon was or not involved or not, his role is to have him
testify and let others decide.
According
to Rodriguez, Chavez sent Rincon that day to negotiate with the Generals that
wanted Chavez out. When Rincon gets there, he is surprised that absolutely all
of them are against the President and they “forced” him.
Now, I
find it hard to believe that they would force him take their side! Even more, I
just can’t believe that if all of the Generals were on the opposite side, that
he would be forced to speak to the nation and announce Chavez resignation.
Even more
laughable is that Rodriguez then says: “I have information that a Colonel had the
intention of assassinating Lucas (Rincon) of shooting him up close”. When asked
who he was, the Attorney General says: “I can’t remember, but he must have been
identified because I am talking about something that happened. Lucas found himself
in a very complex situation, difficult, because he finds a de facto situation. At
that moment he called the President and tells him there is no possibility of negotiations.
Te President tells him: You know what we have talked handle the situation in the
terms that we have talked about…Rincon decides on his own in terms of what the
President said…he tried to gain time”
I see,
very logical, in order to gain time Lucas Rincon decided to announce to the
country that Chavez had resigned!
Rodriguez
then proceeds to talk about Rincon as having to deal with a situation he was
not accustomed to. He then toots his won horn, saying that he was, because he
has been a politician all his life. I see, a mediocre politician who only rose
in power because he rode Chavez’ coattails has more abilities than a guy who
became the only three star General in decades and Chief of Staff! This guy
really thinks the world is truly stupid.
But in the
end the Prosecutor/Attorney General fails to explain why Lucas Rincon’s role has
never been investigated, why he has never been called to testify. As the
Attorney General, it is unacceptable for him to first say that someone almost
killed Rincon, but he has failed in these last three years to even look into
that. This is the same man that is in charge of upholding the law in Venezuela! He
has had his people look at videos to charge the people seeing in them for just
going to the Presidential Palace on April 12th., but has not bothered
to look into who forced Rincon to say he was against Chávez?
Everything
Rodriguez says is so implausible and inconsistent that anywhere else, he would
be forced to resign because his statements simply show he has not performed his
duties and has instead devoted his time to persecute the opposition.
This guy
must really take us for fools, but in the end, maybe we are anyway.
The Devil's Excrement 
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