Another version of what really happened in the Cuban Embassy during the coup in Venezuela (apr 2002)
Reminder: for the hardcore PSUV faction, Capriles invaded te Cuban Embassy with an angry anti-chavista mob who was behind him, in order to prevent important chavista officials from fleeing the country. That's one of the reasons for the homophobic Nicolas Maduro, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, to call the opposition politicians "big fags" very recently, during a meeting. The other one being the chavista "accusation-supported-by-police-repports" that Capriles was caught with another man in a car 12 years ago having sex... it's worth noting that this accusation popped out all of a sudden in Chavez TV the day after Capriles won the primary (last february).
Anyway, according to Capriles, it is the Cuban Ambassador that asked him to intervene with the purpose of calming the mob down (Capriles was the mayor of that area at the time and the mob had already cut the electricity and the water supply to the Embassy).
The judge who jailed Capriles accused him of invadind the Embassy and put him in jail. However, after 4 months, Capriles was released from prison and declared innocent by the court, while the judge who had previously ordered his detention was arrested and jailed for corruption.
This is what the ex-Norwegian Ambassador who was in function in april 2002 and took a part in this problem had to say last week about those events. It's repported by Bocaranda, the journalist who revealed that Chavez had cancer a year ago and was almost put in jail by the hardcore chavista faction for diffusing false information, before Chavez had to recognize it was the truth.
------------------------
Here in Oslo, I had breakfast with the ex Norwegian ambassador to Venezuela during the days of the coup d'état of April 2002. Dag Mork Ulnes went into retirement and now farms a plot of land in his country of origin. From the outset of President Hugo Chávez's government, he held an excellent relationship with then Vice-Minister of Energy and Mines Bernardo Álvarez. Remember that Norway is an oil-producing country and long ago, well in advance to the so-called Fifth Republic, the state-run oil companies of both countries, Statoil and Pdvsa, had made business. The Norwegian ambassador and Álvarez held plenty of meetings. In this way, they got to know each other and made friends.
Upon the arrival of April 12, amidst the official uncertainty, with Chávez surrendered in Fuerte Tiuna Fort, it occurred to Bernardo to ask Mork Ulnes to shelter him in his residency, as he, as an officer of the Norwegian Embassy, enjoyed diplomatic immunity. Álvarez came with a friend of him and was welcome by the Norwegian diplomat. On that day of April 12, they watched on TV the Embassy of Cuba under siege of a mob that yelled at Fidel Castro's government. The crowd sought "pro-Chávez officials who were in there." Álvarez requested Dag to call Cuban Ambassador Germán Sánchez Otero "to help him under these circumstances." He himself dialed on his cell phone the cell phone number of the Cuban ambassador, who had Baruta mayor (and current opposition presidential candidate) Henrique Capriles Radonski beside him. Their talk was recorded on TV, cameras and cell phones that were inside the Cuban embassy.
Mork Ulnes repeated what he told daily newspaper El Universal on that year: "I spoke with the ambassador of Cuba in Spanish. I apprised him of the purpose of my call. And he answered to me in very few words: 'Many thanks, Mr. Ambassador. I highly appreciate your offer to help. However, everything is quiet here. I mean, everything is O.K. here. The two of us are having a chat; there is no need of your mediation. Very kind of you. Thank you very much.' That was the end of the talk with him, which lasted about 25 seconds or so. That was all that happened that day and I can attest to it." For his part, Sánchez Otero subsequently related to others that he received a phone call; that everything was OK and Mayor Capriles had helped him relax the existent strain, and he was very grateful for it. Closed chapter; both Sánchez Otero and his embassy were doing well.
In the early hours of April 13, when the shoe was on the other's foot in the coup attempt, Bernardo Álvarez thanked the Norwegian for having hid him and left together with his friend. Later on, on April 14, Álvarez called the Norwegian ambassador. "Bernardo told me: 'Dag, you have made a terrible mistake because of your comments to the press. We need you to rectify as soon as possible and say that your remarks were misleading. We can put (state-owned TV channel) VTV cameras wherever you want and broadcast live at the earliest. You have all the time on air you want for you to rectify.' That last word still rings in my ears. I replied him that I could not do that; I was not to lie. Besides, all that was recorded and had been watched by the audience. I apprised my Foreign Office of all the events as they occurred and all that it is in my government's official records."
-------------------------
http://www.eluniversal.com/opinion/120510/excerpts-of-column-runrunes-rumors-released-on-may-10
