After the coup, Venezuelan president ponders mystery of American plane

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said yesterday he would investigate the mysterious presence of a US plane at the island prison where he was briefly detained during last week's abortive military coup.

The military high command took Mr Chavez and demanded his resignation last Friday, blaming him for the deaths of at least 11 unarmed protesters killed during a massive anti-government demonstration on Thursday.

But power slipped from the inexperienced grasp of a newly appointed civilian government over the weekend as Chavez supporters demanded his return and army units came out in favour of the colourful president.

Mr Chavez said he was fascinated by the presence of a plane with US markings on the Venezuelan Caribbean island of Orchila where he was held after Friday's coup. At the time the military were trying to persuade him to resign and fly into foreign exile.

"I saw the plane. It bore the markings of a private plane from the United States, not an official plane. This is being investigated. What was it doing there?" Mr Chavez asked at a news conference.

But Mr Chavez, who was democratically elected in 1998, said he was prepared to give Washington the benefit of the doubt over its ambiguous statements appearing to welcome his shortlived downfall.

"I think they were victims of misinformation," he said, adding that he guaranteed no interruption of Venezuelan oil supplies to the US.

American officials made it known they were not unhappy to see the back of Mr Chavez, a close friend of Cuba's Fidel Castro who is fond of anti-American rhetoric. They greeted his swift return to the helm of the world's fourth-largest oil exporter with reservation.

A US state department spokesman, Philip Reeker, said yesterday: "We want to see a return to democracy."