Chavez says coup attempt thwarted

A plot against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been aborted and those responsible arrested ahead of a Sunday vote on a key constitutional amendment. 

The Venezuelan president said Wednesday that an attempted coup organized by a former army officer who was "on the run in the United States," had been thwarted and all the soldiers in the Venezuelan army who had been in contact with him arrested. 

"We've arrested some active duty soldiers who were in contact with a soldier on the run in the United States... sending messages about a so-called 'operation independence,'" Chavez said in a government-run television interview. 

Chavez, without mentioning the number of people under detention said everything was under control. 

"They're trying to infiltrate the Miraflores presidential palace, sending messages to military units located in some states governed by the opposition," he said. 

"The country must remain calm. It has a government that is alert and a good guardian and capable of stopping this outrage," he added, according to AFP. 

If approved, the amended constitution is going to give the Venezuelan president the right to continue to remain in office in order to see through his reform process aimed primarily at improving the plight of the country's majority disadvantaged say that, whether true or not, the specter of a foiled coup can fire up Chavez supporters, even if many Venezuelans suspect the alleged plot has been raised for political effect. 

Chavez, who has been in power a decade, gave no information about the timing of the plot, but said authorities had confiscated explosives and military weaponry. 

Pressed for details in the interview, he said, "Let us do our investigation ... We have everything under control." 

The president last September said there was a plot within the Venezuelan military to assassinate him and carry out a coup at the start of campaigning for state and city elections. 

Chavez, an ardent critic of US policy in Latin American and the world, has repeatedly blasted the opposition for trying to overthrow him. He survived a coup attempt in 2002. 

"The Venezuelan bourgeoisie will regret it," he said. "The conspirators against the government will regret their campaign of aggression, of violence."