Coup leader, cronies arrested; joy in streets

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CARACAS -- Interim Venezuelan president Pedro Carmona, who took office after Hugo Chavez was ousted from power, announced late Saturday that the legislature had named Chavez's vice president Diosdado Cabello as the country's new president.

[N.B.] Carmona was then arrested, along with his top ministers and top military supporters.

Moments before, Carmona had resigned in an address broadcast on RCR radio in Caracas.

Caracas television stations immediately showed jubilant crowds, many of which had moments before threatened violence.

Police sirens wailed in the streets as citizens set off fireworks.

General Lucas Rincon was returned to his post as commander of the armed forces, which he held under Chavez, said Vice Rear Admiral Hector Ramirez, who had been named defense minister under the provisional government.

Former Chavez ministers said that the entire Chavez cabinet, with the exception of Chavez himself, had met at the Miraflores palace, during a hurried message they delivered over the state-owned television network.

"We are retaking control of the nation's institutions, reestablishing constitutional order. We have spent many difficult hours but the rightist dictatorship has been defeated," said legislator Juan Bareto.

"We are going to reconcile the country."

Vargas told AFP that a group of Chavez supporters was on its way to Venezuela's Orchila island in the Caribbean sea to bring Chavez back to Caracas.