U.S. Cautioned Leader of Plot Against Chavez.

Reports that the administration of United States President George W. Bush has acknowledged that it was in contact with Pedro Carmona, the leader of a plot to overthrow Hugo Chávez as president of Venezuela. Why Otto Reich, U.S. assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, cautioned Carmona not to dissolve the National Assembly; How Carmona ignored Reich's advice, and Chávez was restored to office; Denial by the Bush administration that it had any advance knowledge of the planned coup.