Politics

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Monday said allegations linking his government with the armed Basque group ETA and Colombian rebels were part of an orchestrated plot against Venezuela.

Speaking in Uruguay, Chavez said the United States was likely to be behind the accusations, coming days after a 300-page report released by the Organisation of American States'' (OAS) human rights body cited widespread human rights violations in Venezuela.

The socialist leader said Monday''s accusations, following last week''s report published in Washington, were "no coincidence" and was likely orchestrated by the "Yankee empire."

Chavez was reacting to allegations made by Spanish judge, Eloy Velasco, who accused Venezuela of collaborating with the Basque group ETA and Colombian leftist rebel group FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), and said the two groups plotted to assassinate Colombia''s president while he visited Spain.

Judge Velasco made the allegations in a 26-page indictment in which he charged six members of ETA, most of them exiled in Latin America, and seven members of FARC with a variety of crimes including "terrorism" and conspiracy to commit murder.

Velasco wrote that a Spanish probe launched in 2008 had turned up evidence "that demonstrates Venezuelan governmental cooperation in the illicit collaboration between FARC and ETA."

Cubillas Fontan

He identified a suspected ETA member, Arturo Cubillas Fontan, as a key figure in links between the two groups.The man lives in Venezuela, has held a job in the Chavez government and may still have one, the judge wrote.

Velasco said ETA members had received training or taught in FARC rebel camps, and FARC members had travelled to Spain to try to kill former Colombian President Andres Pastrana and the current leader, Alvaro Uribe, with help from ETA.

Velasco did not say when an attack on Uribe was to have taken place.

Spain''s Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has asked the Venezuelan government for an explanation.

In a statement released on Monday, Venezuela''s Foreign Ministry rejected the claims, calling them "unacceptable" and suggested the allegations formed part of a "politically motivated" smear campaign against Chavez''s government.

Chavez defiantly rejected the claims, telling reporters in Montevideo: "We don''t care what the empire does against us."

The Venezuelan leader was in Uruguay for the inauguration of President Jose Mujica, the former guerrilla leader, which was also attended by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

Mujica urged reconciliation between Uribe and Chavez, whose bitter spat at a summit in Mexico last week marred efforts to create a new Latin American political bloc.