BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
  jtamayo@herald.com

  Two Venezuelan businessmen allegedly involved in a failed coup attempt against President Hugo Chávez have sought
  refuge in Miami because they fear retaliation, friends and business partners said.

  Isaac Pérez Recao, 32, identified in Venezuelan media reports as a key financial and political backer of efforts to topple
  Chávez and establish an interim government, is living in a condo in Key Biscayne, friends in South Florida said.

  Venezuelan military investigators raided his Caracas home Wednesday and seized several guns and boxes of
  ammunition in a basement shooting range. It was not clear if the guns were illegal or part of a Pérez Recao-owned firm
  that sells Israeli weapons in Venezuela.

  Roberto Carmona Borjas, 35, who helped draft some of the decrees issued by the interim government, arrived in Miami
  last week but has not been heard from since, partners in the capital of Caracas added.

  ON THE MOVE

  Thousands of wealthy and middle-class Venezuelans opposed to the leftist populist Chávez have moved to Miami since
  he launched his ''peaceful revolution'' on behalf of the country's poor after his 1998 election -- a program that critics say
  amounts to a Marxist dictatorship.

  Venezuelan prosecutors said no arrest warrants have been issued for Pérez Recao or Carmona Borjas. U.S. government
  officials in Washington said they can take no action on their presence in Miami until they receive an official complaint
  from Caracas or hard evidence of their roles in the coup.

  The State Department has the authority to revoke the visas or green cards of foreigners involved in activities such as
  drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption or coup plots.

  ''There are people we're looking at [to determine] whether some laws were broken that would cause the United States
  to change their visa status,'' Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Otto Reich told The Herald
  Thursday.

  But the Immigration and Naturalization Service can also grant asylum to foreigners who can prove a legitimate fear of
  political persecution if they return to their home countries.

  U.S.-Venezuelan relations have been tense under Chávez, a close friend and ally of Cuban President Fidel Castro. The
  Bush administration expressed little grief during the coup attempt, although it later joined an Organization of American
  States condemnation.

  Rebellious military officers detained Chávez April 11 after his supporters allegedly opened fire on an opposition march,
  but the revolt quickly unraveled and the president was returned to power April 13.

  PAID OFFICERS

  Pérez Recao, scion of a wealthy family that owns a majority stake in the Venoco oil industry firm, was reported by the
  Caracas newspaper El Nuevo País to have paid large sums of money to several armed forces officers who were fired
  after they spoke out against Chávez.

  He was also a prime mover behind interim President Pedro Carmona's brief regime, shoehorning friends into his
  Cabinet, providing him with bodyguards and joining him in meetings April 12-13 with leaders of the military rebellion, the
  newspaper added.

  Venezuelans in South Florida said they know Pérez Recao as a staunch Chávez critic who had openly bragged that he
  was plotting to remove the president from power, by force if necessary, and told friends on April 8 in Miami Beach that a
  coup was imminent.

  The Pérez Recao family owns four luxury apartments in Key Biscayne, according to Antonio O. Fraga, who said his Miami
  firm, FIRC Inc., manages the condos.

  The Herald could not reach Pérez Recao, but friends of his said they had seen him several times in Miami since shortly
  after the coup failed.

  Carmona Borjas, who is not related to the interim president, is a lawyer who owns an import firm in Caracas, Novo
  Perfil, and has taught management courses at several Venezuelan armed forces schools, according to friends in
  Caracas.

  His role in the coup attempt appears to have been limited to organizing a group of lawyers that drafted decrees issued
  by the interim president.

  Herald staff writer Andres Oppenheimer contributed to this report.