Venezuela's Maduro says Colombia's Uribe plotting to kill him

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Friday said Colombian ex-president Alvaro Uribe was plotting to kill him, adding to a deluge of accusations by the former bus driver in recent months.

"Uribe is behind a plot to kill me," Maduro said in a televised speech. "Uribe is a killer. I have enough evidence of who is conspiring, and there are sectors of the Venezuelan right that are involved."

He did not provide details.

The Venezuelan president, who was elected in April by a narrow margin, earlier this year accused the United States of seeking to kill opposition leader Henrique Capriles to stir chaos and spark a coup.

He later said he himself was the target of an assassination plot by mercenaries from El Salvador who had entered Venezuela.

The leftist, former President Hugo Chavez frequently clashed with Uribe while the two were both in office over issues ranging from border security to free trade agreements and military cooperation with the United States.

Chavez died in March after a two-year battle with cancer
   
Just hours before his death, Maduro alleged "imperialist" conspirators had infected the former president with the disease.

Like the late Chavez, Maduro has frequently denounced assassination attempts but rarely presented proof or demonstrated who was responsible for them.
 

REUTERS