May 9, 2004 - 11:30 PM

Chavez says Colombians seized in 'plot'

By Pascal Fletcher

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says his security forces have
captured a large force of Colombian paramilitaries who were being trained by his foes to overthrow him, but
opposition leaders dismissed the charge as a crude attempt to smear them.

"We've delivered a body blow to the coup-plotters and the terrorists," the left-wing leader said on Sunday
in a television broadcast that seemed to herald an imminent crackdown against opponents he often
accuses of trying to topple him.

Chavez said 80 Colombians dressed in Venezuelan military uniforms were seized in a raid early on
Sunday on a ranch owned by a Cuban exile among hills on the southern outskirts of Caracas.

Security officials said the operation netted 56 Colombians inside the camp. They gave up without a fight
and a further 24 were captured later.

The only weapon found so far was one pistol, they added.

Chavez said the group was recruited, trained and led by leaders of Venezuela's opposition, including
dissident military officers, whom he said were seeking to oust and even kill him.

None of the alleged Venezuelan ringleaders were found at the camp, but Chavez said they would be
brought to justice.

Venezuela's opposition, campaigning to trigger an August referendum on Chavez's rule, dismissed the
operation as a crude government ploy to discredit them, torpedo the referendum bid and justify police
persecution.

"If these are paramilitaries, then they are pacifist paramilitaries because they don't have any guns,"
scoffed anti-Chavez mayor Henrique Capriles, in whose Baruta district the men were arrested.

Chavez's security officials said the Colombian group would have received arms next week to carry out an
attack against a military installation in Caracas.

'PUBLICITY SHOW'

"We reject all this. ... We think it's a publicity show by the government to impose an agenda of violence
on the democratic will of Venezuelans," Jesus Torrealba of the opposition Democratic Coordinator coalition,
told Reuters.

The subdued young prisoners, dressed in brand-new camouflage uniforms and with their hands tied,
were taken to military headquarters in Caracas. They were shown to foreign reporters, who were not
allowed to question them.

Security officials described the men as Colombian army reservists and members of right-wing
paramilitary groups.

Colombia's government, which has along with Washington accused Chavez of supporting Marxist
Colombian guerrillas, called for a full report.

"We categorically reject any suggestion Colombia might be involved in any kind of destabilisation in
Venezuela," said Colombian Ambassador to Venezuela Maria Angela Hoguin.

Chavez, a firebrand populist who was elected in 1998 and survived a coup in 2002, has denounced
numerous vague plots against him, often offering only flimsy evidence.

He accuses the United States of backing opposition efforts to overthrow him, a charge denied by
Washington.

Chavez said the ranch raided Sunday belonged to a Cuban exile, Roberto Alonso, linked to Venezuela's
opposition and to Cuban exile groups in Miami opposed to Cuba's Communist President Fidel Castro.

Chavez and Castro are close allies, much to the annoyance of the United States, which is a big buyer of
Venezuelan oil.

One of the prisoners told state television they had initially thought they were being hired to work on a
farm "planting bananas and yucca."