Qatar Welcomes the Return of Elected President of Venezuela to Power; *Cuba Says Chavez Return is a Defeat to USA Polices; * Chavez Wants House in Order (Read Photo caption within)__

CARACAS, Venezuela (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Qatar and a number of other friendly countries to Venezuela have welcomed the return to power of Hug Chavez to power on Sunday. The fiery Venezuelan populist Hugo Chavez returned to the presidency in a conciliatory mood on Sunday after a failed military coup, but hundreds of his supporters celebrated by looting shops and attacking an opposition-dominated town hall.

He called for his supporters to calm down after a turbulent Saturday in which mass street protests by his mainly poor supporters and mutinies by military units rebelling against their generals forced interim President Pedro Carmona to resign.
Carmona, a mild-mannered businessman, took over the country's top job with military backing for less than two days, after generals arrested Chavez early on Friday.

They said he was responsible for gunmen killing at least 11 people at a massive anti-Chavez demonstration on Thursday.
Chavez, a former paratrooper turned politician who first came to prominence as leader of a failed coup in 1992 and won election six years later, flew back from the Venezuelan island of La Orchila, where he had been held under arrest.

VENEZUELANS FEAR DIVIDED NATION

But his triumphant return raised many questions about the future in a nation rich in oil but plagued with poverty and unemployment and riven with deep social divisions.

State prosecutors were interviewing Carmona and Chavez's Vice President Diosdado Cabello said many of the populist's opponents had fled abroad in the past few hours. The government also said it would investigate major private television stations, which they accused of complicity in the coup.

Chavez's fierce denunciations of corruption and the wealthy infuriate the rich and delight the poor.

Dozens of looters were still dragging away the few remaining goods of shops on a street in the middle-class eastern neighborhood of La Florida on Sunday.

Police and National Guard troops stood by helplessly, not risking more serious disturbances by making arrests.
The United States, which did not condemn the coup against Chavez, greeted his return with a stern message that his policies were not working and he should be more responsive to his people.

A slogan on a wall expressed the reaction of many poor Venezuelans to the U.S. position. "Yankees, game over. Yours lost," it said.

Communist Cuba, whose veteran president Fidel Castro has, to Washington's chagrin, become a close friend of Chavez, hailed his swift return to power as a "revolutionary victory" over a "fascist and reactionary counterrevolutionary coup."
Chavez's career had seemed to be finished early on Friday but the officers who ousted him apparently did not have command of key active combat units around the country, and one by one these came out in favor of Chavez, tipping the balance in favor of the counter-rebellion that restored him.

PHOTO CAPTION:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez waves to supporters as he returns to the presidential palace April 14, 2002. Fiery populist Chavez returned to his palace after a government set up following a military coup collapsed in the face of a rebellion by loyalists troops and massive protests. (Kimberly White/Reuters)