Hardened cynics who harbor doubts about the alleged plot because they've heard it all before say it probably won't be the last time, either. Chávez has repeatedly claimed that shadowy officers in the Bush Administration were plotting to kill him, overthrow the government, invade Venezuela and seize its oil riches.
At first, Washington strongly denied any such thing, but later opted for a studious silence as if it wasn't worth the breath responding to so much nonsense. In the meantime, Chávez broke military cooperation with the United States, ordered its military officers out of the country, and turned to Russia for arms supplies.
The issue at stake in the legislature was a parliamentary report on the supposed assassination plot. Led by Deputy Mario Isea, chief of the PSUV bloc in the chamber and head of a special committee that drew up the report, legislators duly nodded it through – but not without some hiccups on the way.
Deputy Wilmer Azuaje, who represents the president's home state, Barinas, and has made a string of allegations about property deals linked to the Chávez family or frontmen known colloquially as testaferros, wasn't impressed.
"My children could have done a better report than this," he remarked. "I don't know where this committee is trying to get to this Christmas. Is it that they don't want to leave the Venezuelan people in peace to eat their hallacas?" he asked out loud in a reference to a traditional food served during the festivities. Was it, he pondered, that somebody wanted to distract attention by talking of coups?
The most stinging reaction came from Deputy Ismael García, Secretary General of Podemos, the social democratic party that used to belong to the governing coalition but crossed to opposition in protest against Chávez' failed bid to change the constitution, including removing a ban on more than two successive presidential terms.
García dismissed both the report and the debate out of hand, saying only two of its nine pages had been discussed. Emphasizing that Podemos condemned any attempt against an elected head of state, he claimed the evidence provided to the chamber constituted a "retaliation against those who think differently" to the government.
The aim, he continued, was to incriminate "some media directors and owners." Chávez has threatened to close down several radio and television stations, most notably Globovisión, which doesn't disguise its disapproval of the government.
Deputy Luis Tascón, a Chávez loyalist who walked out of the PSUV to form his own little party after raising allegations about corruption at the Infrastructure Ministry, also joined the attack. He'd wanted the report held back while investigations continued, but to no avail.
The furor over the supposed plot was sparked when a pro-Chávez radio station broadcast what purported to be a recording of three retired senior military officers plotting against the president.
What Tascón wanted to know was why the "fundamental evidence" of the oficers' names had not been written into the report. For his part, García was up in arms about the recording, claiming that an investigation by the scientific and investigative police, Cicpc, had deemed it a forgery.
Tascón also warned that the report, as it stood, would be used as a "weapon" against parliament, other sorts of enemies and in the international orbit. He went on to accuse a string of business and media executives critical of the government of conspiring against "the peace and the institutions and the fundamental rights of the people."
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