Zeenews Bureau
Caracas: Venezuela`s acting President Nicolas Maduro has blamed the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency for plotting to kill his opposition rival, Henrique Capriles.
Maduro has further urged US President Barack Obama to stop the "plot" to prompt a coup ahead of an April 14 poll.
According to Maduro, the US plans to blame the murder on the Venezuelan government and to "fill Venezuelans with hate".
The OPEC nation is set to go to the polls in the wake of the death of socialist leader Hugo Chavez.
“I’m addressing President Obama and former Bush administration officials Roger Noriega and Otto Reich, Pentagon officials and the CIA. They are behind a plan to kill the presidential candidate of the Venezuelan right wing, to create chaos in Venezuela,” said Maduro in a TV interview broadcast on Sunday.
The United States has denied the allegation. "We categorically reject allegations of US government involvement in any plot to harm anyone in Venezuela," a State Department spokesman said.
In the past, the Venezuelan government, notably, had vilified Capriles as a "fascist" conspiring with US putschists against the homeland.
