HomeNewsBriefChavez Warns of Plans to Murder Opposition Candidate Capriles
BRIEF

Chavez Warns of Plans to Murder Opposition Candidate Capriles

VENEZUELA / 20 MAR 2012 BY HANNAH STONE EN

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has warned of a murder plot against his main rival in the upcoming elections, Henrique Capriles Radonski, and indeed there are many groups who might wish to stop a handover of power.

The president said on state television that he had information about a plan to kill Capriles, candidate of the opposition Coalition for Democratic Unity (MUD).

Chavez emphatically denied that his government was behind the alleged plot. "There is information that they want to attack him, but it is not the government, no way. Quite the contrary," he insisted. Chavez said that the intelligence agency was investigating the reports.

Capriles responded via Twitter that Chavez's comments "bordered on irresponsible," and said that he didn't know if they were a "warning" or a "threat."

InSight Crime Analysis

The president did not say who might be behind the plan, but state news agency AVN published the story under the headline; "Sectors of the right plan attack against opposition candidate."

Rather than reflecting the existence of a credible plot, Chavez's assertion could be part of an attempt to link Capriles the threat of instability, which is one of the top concerns for voters in the October election. Venezuela saw a record number of murders last year, making it the most violent country in South America. Chavez may be trying to present Capriles as a candidate who would not be able to combat crime -- he said when announcing the threats that the government was the guarantor of stability, while the opposition was the guarantor of violence.

However, it is not unlikely that there are people who want Capriles dead. Earlier this month the candidate and his entourage were attacked while campaigning in the Caracas neighborhood of Cotiza. Shots were fired, wounding one of the group. Capriles attributed the attack to activists from Chavez's party.

In addition to the pro-government armed groups active in various Caracas neighborhoods, who could have been behind the Cotiza attack, there are other, more powerful, criminal organizations who benefit from the status quo and might want to stop Capriles taking the presidency. During Chavez's time in office, the country has been used as a haven by Colombian groups from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to the Urabeños, while, under Chavez, it has become the biggest transit point for Colombian cocaine. Elements in the military are enmeshed with the drug trade, and would strongly resist any effort to crack down on it. It could be that Chavez leaving power, and Capriles taking over, is seen as a serious enough threat to encourage one of these groups to try to stop it.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Tags

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

GOLD / 5 JUL 2023

Illegal mining is one of Venezuela's most well-entrenched criminal economies. Are there any legal solutions to the ecocide it causes?…

CONTRABAND / 12 APR 2023

Zulia's gasoline black market has disappeared as government policies and supply increases take effect. But will it soon return?…

VENEZUELA / 2 MAY 2022

The arrests of three people in Venezuela for Facebook Marketplace posts in which they allegedly offered kidneys for sale have…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…