Ex-officers to be arrested as presidential vote nears

CARACAS, Venezuela – Two weeks before a presidential recall referendum, a Venezuelan judge ordered the arrests of 59 former military officers on suspicion of plotting against President Hugo Chavez’s government, the state-run press agency said Saturday.

The arrests were announced a day after Interior Minister Luis Rincon charged that anti-government groups were plotting to attack Chavez and disrupt the Aug. 15 presidential recall vote using stolen explosives.

The arrests were ordered Friday, Venpres reported, the same day Rincon discussed the alleged plot. Most of the officers have gone into hiding, Venpres said.

Also Saturday, Chavez threatened to intervene if the country’s largest telephone company, Cantv, were to be involved in any fraud relating to the recall referendum. Cantv, owned by the U.S. company Verizon Communications, is part of a consortium operating the voting machines. Chavez did not elaborate on how he would intervene.

Cantv’s president, Gustavo Roosen, has denied that fraud could affect transmission of the results, saying the system is strictly controlled.

Venezuela is deeply divided between those who see Chavez as a champion of the poor and those who accuse him of becoming increasingly authoritarian. In order for Chavez to be recalled, more citizens must vote against him than the nearly 3.8 million who re-elected him in 2000.

The officers whose arrests were ordered were among a group of more than 100 officers who declared themselves in rebellion of the government in 2003. Most of them moved into the basement of a public square in eastern Caracas, where the opposition gathered to protest.

The officers whose arrests were ordered included three army generals involved in a short-lived coup against Chavez in April 2002.

Friday’s arrest order came about two weeks after 138 pounds of C-4 plastic explosive and 80 detonators were stolen from a navy base. C-4, a common military explosive, was used in the bombings of the Colombian and Spanish embassies in Caracas in 2003. Chavez blamed the attacks on the dissident military officers.

Most of the officers being sought also are accused of involvement in the embassy bombings. The officers have denied any involvement.