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Military Coup in Venezuela Ousted Chavez, Attorney General
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Venezuelan interim Vice President Pedro Carmona copy
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WASHINGTON, April 12 (News Agencies) -Venezuela's comptroller general and attorney general Friday declared that President Hugo Chavez was pressured out of power in a coup d'etat.
"We are in a situation of a coup d'etat that has taken place in Venezuela. Constitutional order has been interrupted," comptroller Clodosvaldo Russian, still on the job, told reporters at a press conference in his office.
Under the country's constitution, if the president resigns, he is supposed to be replaced by the vice president or if that is impossible, the speaker of the National Assembly, which has not taken place.
Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez said "the president has not resigned, we have not seen any clear evidence of any such resignation, and President Chavez continues to be the president of Venezuela."
Rodriguez complained that Chavex was being held incommunicado and that his office has not been permitted to contact Chavez.
"This is a situation in which there is a total and absolute violation of the inter-American Human Rights Convention," he said.
"If he is being deprived of his personal freedom, what crimes did he commit? Is the resignation a crime... and if he resigned, and that is a crime, why is it that my office is not being permitted to interview him," in violation of his civil rights, the Attorney General asked.
The military maintains Chavez resigned after bloody street fighting Thursday that left 11 people dead and another 95 injured.
Chavez "told the military staff he was not resigning, that they could go ahead with their coup and take responsibility for it," said Aristobulo Isturiz, the Education Minister who was with Chavez at the Miraflores presidential palace until he was taken to Fort Tiuna base, just hours after his government collapsed.
"They took him away under arrest," Isturiz said, denying press reports the elected leftist former paratrooper was in hiding and that authorities were searching for him.
Chavez's daughter, Maria Gabriela Chavez, told Cuban television from Caracas that her father "at no time has resigned, at no time has he signed a presidential decree dismissing vice president Diosdado Cabello, much less resigned himself; some military staff simply went and arrested him."
Meanwhile, the leader of Venezuela's interim government, Pedro Carmona, announced Friday that a new presidential election would be held in a year, and legislative elections in an unspecified shorter period of time.
Carmona, leader of Venezuela's big business confederation Fedecamaracas, called the strike against Chavez, which Thursday led to street protests in which 11 people were killed and 95 wounded. Military leaders abandoned Chavez and he was forced out.
"We have a maximum period of 365 days to hold a [presidential] vote and a shorter time frame for congressional elections," said Carmona, 60, who was expected to be sworn in with his transition team at 2100 GMT.
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