19 Reported Dead in Failed Venezuela Coup Attempt

Rebels on Friday tried to overthrow President Carlos Andres Perez for the second time this year, claiming to act on behalf of the growing legions of poor in this oil-rich nation wracked by corruption.

At least 19 people died in the uprising when rebels, flying commandeered warplanes, attacked the presidential palace and a military base that contains the air force command.

Twelve hours after the insurrection began, Interior Minister Luis Pinerua announced the surrender of the rebels. But at least one bomb went off a short while later near the palace, forcing the president to flee to an underground shelter.

Venezuela, the third-largest producer in the OPEC oil cartel, has been beset by unrest because critics accuse the government of not distributing oil riches to the public and fostering corruption. On Feb. 4, a group of mid-level military officers tried to depose the unpopular Perez, who heads South America’s longest-enduring democracy.

Friday’s coup attempt was announced around midnight after rebels seized a television station and key airfield. The coup forces were believed to be a union of leftists, veterans of the February revolt and other renegade military officers.

Rebel bombs blasted a 60-foot-wide hole in the front of the white, colonial-style palace and left craters in surrounding streets. Smoke billowed from areas near the palace and the airbase in the nearby La Carlota neighborhood, where rebel aircraft strafed government fighter planes on the ground.

Skirmishes shut down major thoroughfares in Caracas, and the few buses that operated in the capital were mobbed by frantic residents.

Among the dead were presidential guards and intelligence officers, according to the government news agency Venpres. About 100 rebel soldiers were arrested, Venpres said.

At least six people were killed in a 3 1/2-hour battle for the government television station, according to media reports.

Loyalist troops in tanks gained control from about 25 rebels who stormed the building, the station president, Manuel Felipe Sierra, said.

An editor at the Daily Journal, Venezuela’s English-language newspaper, said three bullets pierced the window of his home across the street.

“I could hear bullets, but I didn’t think they were for me--until the window exploded,” said editor John Fegan.

In Caracas, two soldiers drove through town in a car equipped with a loudspeaker and urged residents to help the rebels.

“We believe in a better Venezuela without corruption,” said 2nd Lt. Oneiver Herrera, 34, the driver.

“For all, for the poor,” blared the message from the loudspeaker.

Constitutional guarantees were suspended in an effort to put down the rebellion, and a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew was announced.