First of all, I do recall myself explicitly saying "more active". "More", as in being more active than it is today, namely "keeping a close eye". I usually pick up my words very carefully, and for a reason.
That said, apart from the recent Wikileaks, ehm, leak that casts some light on the subject, there's also this:
http://southoftheborderdoc.com/declassified/ "Declassified CIA and other U.S. government documents that show the U.S. funded groups involved in the coup, and attempted to help the coup succeed."
Apart from that, you must've heard of WHINSEC at some point, which is the so-called "School of the Americas" which is essentially a training ground for US puppets throughout "America's backyard" that is Latin America. In 2004 Venezuela stopped sending soldiers to train there, fearing that those would be used by the US to undermine the regime. In 2006, Argentina followed suit (Uruguay has already stopped sending trainees there for quite a while).
Still, the US found other ways to support the anti-Chávez elements in Venezuela:
http://www.oig.state.gov/documents/organization/13682.pdf "…it is clear that NED [the National Endowment for Democracy], Department of Defense (DOD), and other U.S. assistance programs provided training, institution building, and other support to individuals and organizations understood to be actively involved in the brief ouster of the Chavez government."
The then WP foreign editor Scott Wilson describes the US involvement in the coup:
"Yes, the United States was hosting people involved in the coup before it happened. There was involvement of U.S.-sponsored NGOs in training some of the people that were involved in the coup. And in the immediate aftermath of the coup, the United States government said that it was a resignation, not a coup, effectively recognizing the government that took office very briefly until President Chavez returned."
A rarely-seen post-coup CIA document from April 17, 2002 describes a “U.S. backed initiative to send an OAS [Organization of American States] democracy mission to Venezuela…” described later on as “OAS efforts that might legitimize the coup plotters” and “an OAS mission to constrain his [Chavez’s] ability to retaliate against his foreign or domestic opponents.”
Further, http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1124-02.htm "The U.S. government knew of an imminent plot to oust Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chávez, in the weeks prior to a 2002 military coup that briefly unseated him, newly released CIA documents show, despite White House claims to the contrary a week after the putsch. Yet the United States, which depends on Venezuela for nearly one-sixth of its oil, never warned the Chávez government."
The "institution building" etc was largely helping to organize and fund elections in those institutions, hardly the stuff coups are made of.
I went through the Wikileaks story above in another response, it was really underwhelming. There were a few quotes that really seem to affirm that the US didn't like Chavez and was trying to limit his influence in the region and some hard evidence that other countries also wanted his influence limited.
The Commondreams article, not exactly a pro-Bush source, even states:
Asked to comment on the CIA documents, a U.S. State Department spokesman would say only, "As we've stated before, there is no basis to claims the United States was involved in the events of April 12-14 in Venezuela."
One of the CIA documents filed just five days before the coup would appear to support that statement. It notes that "repeated warnings that the U.S. will not support any extraconstitutional moves to oust Chávez probably have given pause to the plotters."
There is certainly a lot of stuff here, it's missing any sort of highlight. I'm not expecting a smoking gun, but just saying that the folks involved in the coup visited DC and that the US supported some Venezuelan NGOs is a long way from being involved in, much less sponsoring, a coup.
That said, apart from the recent Wikileaks, ehm, leak that casts some light on the subject, there's also this:
http://southoftheborderdoc.com/declassified/
"Declassified CIA and other U.S. government documents that show the U.S. funded groups involved in the coup, and attempted to help the coup succeed."
Apart from that, you must've heard of WHINSEC at some point, which is the so-called "School of the Americas" which is essentially a training ground for US puppets throughout "America's backyard" that is Latin America. In 2004 Venezuela stopped sending soldiers to train there, fearing that those would be used by the US to undermine the regime. In 2006, Argentina followed suit (Uruguay has already stopped sending trainees there for quite a while).
Still, the US found other ways to support the anti-Chávez elements in Venezuela:
http://www.oig.state.gov/documents/organization/13682.pdf
"…it is clear that NED [the National Endowment for Democracy], Department of Defense (DOD), and other U.S. assistance programs provided training, institution building, and other support to individuals and organizations understood to be actively involved in the brief ouster of the Chavez government."
The then WP foreign editor Scott Wilson describes the US involvement in the coup:
"Yes, the United States was hosting people involved in the coup before it happened. There was involvement of U.S.-sponsored NGOs in training some of the people that were involved in the coup. And in the immediate aftermath of the coup, the United States government said that it was a resignation, not a coup, effectively recognizing the government that took office very briefly until President Chavez returned."
A rarely-seen post-coup CIA document from April 17, 2002 describes a “U.S. backed initiative to send an OAS [Organization of American States] democracy mission to Venezuela…” described later on as “OAS efforts that might legitimize the coup plotters” and “an OAS mission to constrain his [Chavez’s] ability to retaliate against his foreign or domestic opponents.”
Further,
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1124-02.htm
"The U.S. government knew of an imminent plot to oust Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chávez, in the weeks prior to a 2002 military coup that briefly unseated him, newly released CIA documents show, despite White House claims to the contrary a week after the putsch. Yet the United States, which depends on Venezuela for nearly one-sixth of its oil, never warned the Chávez government."
Some more on the subject: http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/800
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I went through the Wikileaks story above in another response, it was really underwhelming. There were a few quotes that really seem to affirm that the US didn't like Chavez and was trying to limit his influence in the region and some hard evidence that other countries also wanted his influence limited.
The Commondreams article, not exactly a pro-Bush source, even states:
Asked to comment on the CIA documents, a U.S. State Department spokesman would say only, "As we've stated before, there is no basis to claims the United States was involved in the events of April 12-14 in Venezuela."
One of the CIA documents filed just five days before the coup would appear to support that statement. It notes that "repeated warnings that the U.S. will not support any extraconstitutional moves to oust Chávez probably have given pause to the plotters."
There is certainly a lot of stuff here, it's missing any sort of highlight. I'm not expecting a smoking gun, but just saying that the folks involved in the coup visited DC and that the US supported some Venezuelan NGOs is a long way from being involved in, much less sponsoring, a coup.
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