MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chavez says opponents planning coup attempt

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez yesterday said he has uncovered a plot to topple his government, blaming his political opponents and calling them ??lackeys'' of the United States.

??I have reports that the counter-revolutionary opposition has a plan to overthrow me in a coup,'' Chavez told a crowd of supporters in downtown Caracas. He gave no other details and did not identify any of the alleged conspirators, but he accused his enemies of planning to repeat a 2002 coup led by dissident generals that briefly drove him from power.

Chavez, who was briefly driven from power by military dissidents on April 12, 2002, has warned of numerous purported plots against him, though in recent months he has not mentioned any specific reports of a conspiracy.

Yesterday, thousands of supporters gave Chavez a hero's welcome as he returned from a foreign tour with new backing for his bid to win a seat on the UN Security Council. Chavez was returning from visits to China, Malaysia and Syria ? whose governments promised to support Venezuela's bid for a seat on the Security Council despite US opposition.

Chavez also visited Angola on Thursday, where he offered his country's oil expertise to Angola, one of Africa's fastest growing producers, in a strategy to boost ties with what he calls "Mother Africa" and counter US influence.

At the presidential palace in Luanda, Chavez witnessed the signing of a bilateral oil cooperation accord which will allow Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA to work for the first time in Africa, where US and European oil companies have dominated for years. (BAH)