Venezuela says it thwarted plot to assassinate President Maduro

Venezuela's socialist government said Wednesday it had derailed a coup bid, claiming the United States, Colombia and Chile colluded in a plot to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro and install a general and former defence minister in his place.

Maduro warned that he would be "ruthless in a revolutionary counter-offensive against an attempted fascist coup -- ruthless!"

In a speech broadcast nationwide on radio and television, an agitated Maduro denounced a "fascist attempt to assassinate me" -- and lashed out at Colombian President Ivan Duque saying his "complicity" was "evident."

Add WION as a Preferred Source

Venezuelan Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez earlier said the alleged coup involved active duty and retired military officers, and was to have been executed between Sunday and Monday this past weekend.

"We were in all the meetings to plan the coup d'Etat. We were in all the conferences," he said, suggesting informers had infiltrated the alleged plotters -- at least six of whom had been detained.

In his televised speech, Rodriguez also accused opposition leader Juan Guaido of planning "a bloodbath."

Guaido for his part dismissed the coup claims as fiction, saying the media had "lost count" of how many times the same accusations had been repeated.

Recognized by the United States and more than 50 countries as the country's interim president, Guaido said he would continue to call on the armed forces to abandon Maduro.

Moles among the plotters?
Rodriguez accused Colombia's Duque of being closely involved in the alleged plot, and implicated Chilean President Sebastian Pinera and US National Security Advisor John Bolton.

Without referring directly to the charge, Colombia's foreign minister, Carlos Holmes Trujillo, said his country would "continue to act through political and diplomatic means" in Venezuela.