VENEZUELAN REVOLT

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5328, 14 February 1947, Page 2

VENEZUELAN REVOLT

t GOVERlNtMENT STANiDS DESPITE RIGHTIST UPRISING Venezuela's leftist Government under Provisional President Betancourt finds itself intact to-day after an umsuccessful counterr.evolution linked by Senor Betancourt to his two conservative predecessors'. In keeping with Latin-American | traditions of plot and1 counterplot, the j .ivilian regime which seized power by , similar but successful methods 14 i rnonths ago withstood a major chalj lenge of armed revolt. The Betanjourt party had won recent elections, .vhich paved the way to a Constitulional Asselmbly schediuled to meet on December 16. That the abortive ■ attempt to 0vei-throw the revolution- | ary Cabinet was quelled in 12 hours j with ofRcial assurance of no f atalities is widely interpreted as. proof of Senor Betancourt's strength and support by most of the armed forces as well as by the civil population. | "All is olcay," said the civilian executive in United Btates idiom in his l eport to newsmen in Carcas „in reporting the situation under control. | Many insurgents who had attemp'tecl to flee by plane isoon ranout of gasoline and were captured by loyal forces when they made forced landings. The insurgents had1 captured the Maracay Airport to bring the plot into the cpen. Two "fftanes succeeded in Teaching Columbia, but the occupants surrendered to authorities there. One tions. The rdbels were definitely linked described as leader of the revolt. "The leaders of the rebellion will get jail sentences," the President promised. "There, will be no executioins. The rebels were definitely linked with the faction of. Lopez Contreras and (Gen. Isaias) Medina Angarita, both former Presidents and leaders of the party overthrown in the revolution of October 18, 1945.". Civil giiarantees througout the repiublic were suspended by the Betancourt junta. as a precautionary measure. Also, for protective custody, leaders of - the conservative COPEI party and the left-of-centre Demo eratic Republican Union, were put under arrest, but no offilcial connec-

tion with the revolt was voiced. Ringleaders of the revolt were regarded as the same Army officers Avho rebelled last October. After the rebels, under Major Pena, a subinspector of the Air Foree, seized the Maracay Airport two planes were dispatched. One flew over the Presidential Palace in Caracas, and dropped a small bomb which missed. Injured totalled about 200. The attempted coup occurred a day after graduation exercises at the Maracay Air School. The President and high aids, originally schediuled. to appear at the last minute, refused to attend, sending deputies. Resistance centred in Maracay and Valeneia. A radio station at the latter urged "all eonservatives to arise." Pan American newsmen on a tour sponsoi'ed by a Venezuelan air line,. Linea A^ropostale Venezolana, had a ring-side seat by being at the Jardin hotel when the attaclc came,