"Venezuela's Chavez Warns Soldiers of Assassination Plot"

Christopher Toothaker, Associated Press

CARACAS — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned
soldiers on Tuesday that government adversaries were trying to provoke
divisions within the military and plotting to assassinate him.

Speaking at a Caracas military base, Chavez said that a military parade
held annually on June 24 was canceled this year due to intelligence
reports pointing to a purported plot to kill him.Every year, troops from all four branches of Venezuela's armed forces
— the Army, Air Force, Navy and National Guard — march through Carabobo
Field, a battlefield site where a soldiers led by independence hero
Simon Bolivar won a decisive battle against Spanish troops in 1821.

Chavez said the military parade had been canceled because radical
government opponents were planning an attempt on his life that day. He
said the purported plot did not involve active military personnel.

Opposition leaders have scoffed at the president's repeated allegations
that numerous assassination plots have been hatched by radical
government opponents, including ex-army officers.

Critics claim Chavez uses the allegations to draw public attention away
from this South American nation's most pressing problems, including a
nationwide housing shortage, widespread poverty and high crime.

Chavez purged the military of suspected opponents following a
short-lived 2002 coup.

"It's not from within the armed forces that are planning an
assassination," Chavez said.

Chavez did not identify specific groups opposed to his left-leaning rule
that might be behind the alleged campaign aimed at dividing the
military.