President Chavez fears assassination plots
04/03/2007 - 23:29:01
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said his government is redoubling efforts to detect assassination plots, calling US diplomat John Negroponte a “professional killer” and saying he believes enemies – including the CIA – are out to kill him.
Chavez said Venezuelan officials have intelligence that associates of jailed Cuban anti-communist militant Luis Posada Carriles are also involved in plotting to assassinate him.
He said the death plot idea has “gained weight” due to various factors, including the recent appointment of Negroponte, the former director of national intelligence, as deputy to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
“Who did they swear in ... there at the White House as deputy secretary of state? A professional killer: John Negroponte,” Chavez said.
Chavez’s government has accused Negroponte of playing a key role in the Contra war against the leftist Sandinista government of Nicaragua when he served as US ambassador to Honduras – a haven for clandestine Contra bases – from 1981 to 1985.
US Embassy officials could not immediately be reached for comment today, but in the past US officials have denied Chavez’s repeated accusations that they are plotting to oust him.
Chavez was asked about reports of assassination plots during a televised interview today with his longtime confidant Jose Vicente Rangel, who has returned to his old job of hosting a talk show on the channel Televen since he was replaced as Chavez’s vice president in January.
“They have assigned special units of the CIA, true assassins, who go around not only here in Venezuela, in Central America, in South America,” Chavez said.
He added that while Posada Carriles, a former CIA operative, remains jailed in the US on immigration charges, “Posada Carriles’ people are very active in Central America and searching for contacts in Venezuela... They are going around searching for explosives in large quantities, thinking about a sort of car bombing or searching for ground-to-air missiles, thinking about the presidential plane.”
Chavez’ government has demanded that the US extradite Posada Carriles, a naturalised Venezuelan, to stand trial for allegedly masterminding the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. Posada Carriles denies involvement in that incident.
To detect any assassination plot, Chavez said he has ordered top officials to launch “an offensive because we have been on the defensive on that issue.”
Chavez said there have been plenty of cases to suggest plots on his life are a possibility, recalling the 2004 capture of more than 100 alleged paramilitary fighters from Colombia on a Venezuelan ranch.
A military court later sentenced three former Venezuelan military officers and 27 Colombians to prison terms ranging from two to nine years for the alleged plot. Others were acquitted.
Chavez said officials suspect the right wing in Colombia, along with members of that country’s DAS intelligence agency and the Venezuelan military, still are plotting against him.
Chavez, who was first elected in 1998, said that during a visit to Colombia early in his presidency, he attended a reception with then-Colombian President Andres Pastrana where a man was arrested in a bathroom while picking up a loaded handgun.
According to Chavez, the man identified himself as a rebel with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia who was sent to kill Pastrana, on Chavez’s orders.
“No, they were going to kill me that night in Bogota, and behind that was the DAS without a doubt,” Chavez said.
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=212299848&p=zyz3xx554
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