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TEHRAN, August 15 -Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has accused former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe of plotting to assassinate him.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) -During a state television broadcast on Wednesday evening, Maduro said Uribe, Colombia’s US ambassador Francisco Santos, and exiled Venezuelan opposition figure Lester Toledo had plotted to assassinate him from “a bunker” in a house belonging to Uribe.
“It is a plan for 32 mercenaries to enter to try to assassinate me and leaders of the revolution,” Maduro said. “But we are here, protected by God.”
Colombian Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes denied the allegation in a post on Twitter.
There was no immediate reaction from Uribe and Toledo.
This is not the first time Maduro accuses politicians from neighboring Colombia of plotting against him. The relations between the two South American neighbors have deteriorated amid an economic crisis in Venezuela that has prompted more than one million migrants to settle in Colombia.
Maduro has accused Colombia and the United States of being behind an attempted drone attack against him last year while he was giving a speech at a military event in Caracas.
Maduro’s government says the United States, which has imposed sanctions against Venezuela, is orchestrating the attempts to topple him as part of a wider offensive against Latin American leaders defying US hegemony.
The United States has been attempting to replace Maduro with opposition figure Juan Guaido. Washington has threatened military force against Caracas as well.
Earlier, the White House ordered a freeze on all Venezuelan state assets in America.
Venezuelans are suffering from a lack of basic necessities under US sanctions. According to United Nations statistics, a quarter of Venezuela’s 30-million-strong population is in need of humanitarian aid. At least 3.3 million people have left the country since the end of 2015, the data shows.
Guaido orchestrated a failed coup against Maduro on April 30 — with backing from Washington.
Source: Press TV
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