Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro Assassination Plot Foiled, Say Officials

Venezuelan Interior Minister Miguel Rodríguez Torres told state television Venezolana de Televisión (VTV) on Monday that the Venezuelan government had foiled an assassination attempt on Nicolás Maduro by two paramilitary groups comprised of nine Colombian citizens. Rodríguez said the nine Colombians were arrested on Sunday in the northwestern Venezuela state of Táchira before they were able to enter the capital of Caracas with heavy weapons. The minister added that Venezuelan intelligence is currently tracking a third group and that the plan was meant to kill Maduro and destabilize the country.

Maduro also made reference to the arrests on Sunday through Twitter, saying, "We've captured two paramilitary groups who were coming to attack our Venezuela, one in Táchira and another in Portuguesa."

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"These two groups captured on our territory belong to two well-known gangs of Colombian paramilitaries. One of them even belongs to the gang of one of Colombia's most wanted, Chepe Barrera, who must have settled in our territory," said Rodríguez. Chepe Barrera is the alias of José María Barrera, a Colombian paramilitary chief who for almost 20 years used drug money to fund his crimes on 11 northeastern Colombian municipalities suspected of aiding the FARC and other leftist guerrilla groups. Barrera was arrested in 2004 by Colombian government police but went free in 2006 and is currently considered a fugitive from justice.

Rodríguez said that the first group, captured in Táchira, was composed of six members who had in their possession an AK-47, two pistols, a revolver, a 12-caliber shotgun, two grenades, various-caliber cartridges, cash and a motorcycle. The group from Portuguesa state, three members strong, had weapons, cartridges and even Venezuelan military uniforms.

As the successor of Hugo Chávez, Nicolás Maduro inherited a contentious relationship with the leaders of Venezuela's neighbors - especially with former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe - and Maduro has kept in line with his predecessor's habit of denouncing them for their close relationship with the United States. At the end of May, after current Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos met with Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles, Maduro gave an impassioned denouncement, booming before a crowd of supporters that his efforts in aiding the peace process in Colombia had been repaid with "betrayal". He also called Uribe a "killer" and accused him of a plot to kill him. An attorney for Uribe responded by calling Maduro a "desperate person who holds power illegitimately".