MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Former US ambassador warned about plot to kill Chavez

Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel revealed in an interview published Sunday in a Peruvian newspaper that former U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela Charles Shapiro warned him of a possible plot to kill President Hugo Chavez.

"Former (U.S.) Ambassador Charles Shapiro told me that he had information about a possible attempt against President Chavez," Rangel told Peruvian daily El Comercio. However according to Mr. Rangel, the former U.S. ambassador "did not provide more details" about the possible attack but pointed out that "having such information, for legal reasons the United States was forced to tell us". "But you know that's why he was later recalled" by President George W. Bush's administration, Rangel added.

Last February 21, during his weekly radio and television show, President Chavez said that he was convinced the U.S. government was planning to kill him.

"I'm sure that in Washington they are planning my death ... and that's not going to stay that way Mr. Bush" Chavez said. The Venezuelan president has since reiterated the claim on several occasions both at home and overseas, the latest in Montevideo and New Delhi.

U.S. State Department called Mr. Chavez's statements "ridiculous and false".

The Venezuelan leader said several high ranking U.S. officials have spoken out against him recently and anyone looking at "how imperialism conducts itself" can discover that "it is preparing the groundwork" to kill him and invade Venezuela.

At her Senate confirmation hearing January 18, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described Venezuela as "a negative force in the region," criticizing Mr. Chavez for his close ties to the Fidel Castro regime in Cuba and for suppressing domestic opposition.

Last month Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Ali Rodriguez also told the Organization of American States (OAS) that the Bush administration has launched a string of "absurd" charges against President Chavez that anticipate "a possible attack on Venezuela".

"When such statements are consistently made, it's because sooner or later the attack is coming", recalled Mr. Rodriguez adding "that's what happened with the encouragement of the (anti-Chavez) coup of April 2002", the overthrow of Chilean President Salvador Allende in 1973 and other U.S. actions in Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, Panama in the 20th century.

Relations between Washington and Caracas have been strained since shortly after Mr. Chavez a former paratrooper and failed coup plotter, was first elected president in late 1998.

Mr. Castro also joined the bandwagon and charged last February that United States was planning to kill President Chavez.

Since surviving a recall referendum in August 2004, the Venezuelan leader has tried to improve relations with countries such as Iran, Russia and China, and has been involved in an arms shopping spree plus truing to diversify the country's oil clients. Venezuela is the world's fifth oil exporter and one of the main suppliers of United States.