Gen. Luis Alfonso Acevedo, newly appointed air force chief, together with three other generals and other senior military figures died in a helicopter crash while returning to Caracas from the inauguration of a new naval chief, late on Friday.

Most news agencies bothering to cover the story are running a report from AP, which quotes military sources as saying the crash happened in bad weather. While accidents do happen, the timing and circumstances of this incident are suspicious to say the least.

As other IMC posters have pointed out, the US backed overthrow of Allende in Chile was not successful at the first attempt. The US, whose support for "democracy" in Latin Americ is newly emboldened by the "war on terrrorism", may view the failed Venezuela coup as a temporary setback, and there appears little reason to believe that those who supported it think differently.