Venezuela's acting president said on Wednesday that "far right" figures in the US were plotting to kill opposition leader Henrique Capriles in an increasingly volatile atmosphere ahead of an April 14 election.
Accusations have flown and emotions run high in the South American nation of 29 million people since the death last week of former socialist leader Hugo Chavez. "We have detected plans by the far right, linked to the groups of (former Bush administration officials) Roger Noriega and Otto Reich, to make an attempt against the opposition presidential candidate," Nicolas Maduro said.
He gave no more details, but said in a televised speech that the government had sent a senior general to meet with aides of Capriles.
The State Department in Washington declined any immediate comment and there was no immediate response from Capriles' camp.
Noriega, an assistant secretary of state for Latin America under former president George W. Bush, denied Maduro's accusation. "It's absolute nonsense," Noriega said.
"They call you what they are and they accuse you of doing what they do. That is the way they operate," Noriega said.
Reich was not immediately available to comment. Noriega left the Bush administration in 2005.
Maduro did not explain why right-wing foreigners would want to bring down the business-friendly Capriles.
During the Chavez era, there were frequent claims of US plots aimed at discrediting his self-styled revolution. Critics said they were a smokescreen to create a sense of "imperialist" threat and distract Venezuelans from daily problems.
The upcoming vote will pit Maduro, Chavez's heir apparent, against Capriles, a centrist state governor who lost an election to Chavez in October.
Earlier this week, Capriles' team said the opposition candidate had not registered his candidacy in person on Monday because they had received information that an attack against him was planned. Aides delivered his papers instead.
In January, Maduro said unidentified groups had entered the country to assassinate him and the head of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello.
This week, Maduro also said Venezuela will set up a formal inquiry into claims that Chavez's cancer was the result of poisoning by his enemies abroad.
In another surprising statement on Wednesday, Maduro said Chavez may even be wielding influence in heaven and have pulled strings to secure the first Pope for Latin America in Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio.
"We know that our commander ascended to the heights and is face to face with Christ," he said at a Caracas book fair.
"Something influenced the choice of a South American pope, someone new arrived at Christ's side and said to him, 'Well, it seems to us South America's time has come.'"
Reuters