Venezuelan general arrested over plot to topple president, officials say

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/13/venezuelan-plot-topple-president-maduro

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Venezuelan officials say a retired air force general has been arrested and 13 other people are implicated in a plot to overthrow President Nicolás Maduro.

President Maduro said the plan was to attack his presidential palace and other government buildings on Thursday.

The president of Congress, Diosdado Cabello, said in a television broadcast late Thursday evening that 11 soldiers were among those implicated, including a retired general, and he said several have been arrested. He also named two opposition politicians and a businessman as plotters.

Cabello showed photos of weaponry and other items he said had been seized from those implicated.

Allegations of a coup come one day after Venezuelan security forces faced off with stone-wielding protesters, as supporters of Maduro also rallied on the anniversary of last year’s fatal unrest. The flare-ups, in the volatile western city of San Cristóbal and the capital Caracas, recalled four months of protests and violence in 2014 killing 43 people and underlined just how tense the South American Opec country remains.

Maduro says opposition radicals sought to carry out a coup in 2014, and still harbour the same ambition.

Venezuela’s government has frequently alleged coup plots. Last year three air force officers were arrested, but there has been no word on developments in their case.