Chavez Warns of Campaign to Divide Military, Assassination Plot

[cal04]

President Hugo Chavez warned soldiers that government adversaries were trying to provoke divisions within the military and plotting to assassinate him. Speaking at a Caracas military base Tuesday, Chavez said that a military parade held annually on June 24 had been canceled because radical government opponents were planning an attempt on his life that day. "An assassination plot in the Carabobo Field has been detected," Chavez said, referring to the parade site. "The evidence is strong, the risk is very high."

Opposition leaders have scoffed at the president's repeated allegations of assassination plots. Critics claim he makes them up to draw attention away from this South American nation's most pressing problems, including a nationwide housing shortage, widespread poverty and high crime. Chavez said the latest purported plot did not involve active military personnel, which he purged of suspected opponents following a short-lived coup in 2002. "It's not from within the armed forces that are planning an assassination," said Chavez, who did not identify the alleged plotters.

The president warned soldiers to be alert and ignore a campaign by forces inside and outside Venezuela aimed at "generating confusion" and "dividing the unity of the armed forces." Earlier Tuesday, Venezuela's information minister denied that discontent existed within the military due to an investigation into alleged insubordination by National Guard officers. Andres Izarra told a press conference that no "discomfort, anger or conflict exists" within the armed forces due to the deployment of army soldiers in eastern Bolivar state, where an undisclosed number of National Guard troops have been placed under investigation.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBL8VZXY9E.html

In view of a potential plot to assassinate the president (Hugo Chávez), the army parade on June 24th in Carabobo Battlefield has been called off."
Defense Minister Jorge García C.

[Ouabache]

1. I just hope Chavez doesn't begin to insulate himself too much

but in S. America military coups have to be watched for if you are in his position.


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