*Updated Mar. 19*Guadalajara - Less than two weeks after the death of Hugo Chávez, interim Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro says he is warning Barack Obama of a U.S. backed plot to assassinate an opposition candidate in the nation's upcoming April 14 election.
Chávez succumbed to cancer on Mar. 5 after a two year fight with the illness. Hugo Chávez is dead, Venezuela reports. Maduro, the country's vice president and long time lieutenant of Chávez, was hand picked by the firey leftist leader to succeed him and to continue the "Bolivarian socialist revolution."
The opposition candidate on the right is 40 year old attorney Henrique Capriles Radonski, who ran against Chávez in Venezuela's Oct. 7 presidential election. Chávez won handily with 55% of the vote. As Venezuelans head to the polls, Hugo Chávez proves all the prophets wrong.
Chávez' illness prevented him from taking the formal oath of office to begin a new term. He traveled to Havana in December, where Cuban physicians performed surgery on him and administered another round of chemotherapy. He returned to Caracas in grave condition several weeks ago, and was never sworn in. Capriles contends that Maduro has no legal authority to serve as interim president, but the Venezuelan Supreme Court ruled otherwise. Maduro, the sole leftist candidate, is heavily favored.
In a press interview today Maduro claimed that various U.S. officials are behind a plot to murder Capriles, to sow confusion in the country and promote violence in advance of next month's election. Maduro named Roger Noriega, a former U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States and fervent Chávez critic, as one of the ringleaders of the alleged conspiracy.
Noriega frequently writes about Venezuelan affairs on his personal website. He has been highly critical of what he calls American officials' "consciously averting attention from Venezuela for years, to avoid having to confront the growing threat posed by a decade of Chávez conspiring with (U.S) enemies and rivals."
In 2011 Noriega wrote, "U.S. planners must be prepared to deal with the short-term impact of unrest in a country where we import about 10 percent of our oil. Washington must develop a plan to help Venezuelans clean up the toxic waste of terrorists, narco traffickers, corruption and Cuban agents Chávez will leave behind."
Today Maduro told an interviewer, "I call upon president Barack Obama and the government of the United States to act responsibly. Roger Noriega, Otto Reich and other officials in the Pentagon and the CIA are behind plans to assassinate the presidential candidate on the right, in order to create chaos in Venezuela."
"I have solid information they intend to throw the blame on (my) government," added Maduro.
Reich, a Cuban born American citizen, was U.S. ambassador to Venezuela from 1986-1989. Maduro claimed in today's interview that Noriega and Reich are part of the "ultra right" in the United States. He promised firm counter measures.
"We're going to guarantee, in fact we've already ordered, complete protection for all our presidential candidates, particularly Capriles," he said. Before last October's presidential contest, Capriles had never lost a political race.
Today was not the first time Maduro has alleged that the U.S. is behind plots to topple Venezuela's leftist regime. The day before Chávez died, Maduro suggested that the deceased president had been given cancer by American agents. The president of Bolivia echoed those thoughts several days later, after returning from Chávez' funeral. On Mar. 4 Maduro expelled two U.S. military attachés from the country, contending they were agents provocateurs sent by Washington for "destabilizing projects." The U.S. retaliated several days later by expelling two Venezuelan diplomats. Hugo Chávez' cancer was caused by "imperialist poisoning."
Maduro said today the his government would decorate the two "dignified" diplomats expelled by the U.S. "They represent the voice of Venezuela," he added.
There was no immediate reaction by U.S. officials to Maduro's assassination conspiracy allegations.
Mar. 19 - Candidate Henrique Capriles is already campaigning boldly, showing not the slightest fear of the leftist government. Yesterday he told a cheering crowd, "No more Venezuelan oil to help prop up Fidel and Raul Castro!"
Apr. 25 - Venezuela arrests U.S. national Timothy Hallett Tracy, claiming he was sent to lead "right wing destabilization"
© MGRR 2013. All rights reserved. This article may be cited or briefly quoted with proper attribution or a hyperlink, but not reproduced without permission.
No comments:
Post a Comment