Venezuelan intelligence agents have foiled a plot for a sniper attack on the opposition's leading presidential candidate ahead of tomorrow's election, President Hugo Chavez said.
Chavez said on Thursday that "fascist" militants had planned to use a rifle with a telescopic sight to shoot Manuel Rosales during a speech and then blame it on Chavez's government in hopes of derailing tomorrow's election.
"It was to say that Chavez sent them to kill him, and generate chaos," Chavez told reporters at the presidential palace.
The Venezuelan leader during the three-and-a-half-hour news conference also quoted analysts from major foreign banks as saying the most dangerous scenario for this politically polarized country would be a Chavez election loss.
Chavez later said in a late-night TV appearance that if the opposition tries to contest the election results -- by claiming fraud, provoking disturbances, taking the matter to an international court or any other manner -- he will immediately call a national referendum on whether to change the constitution to end presidential term limits.
"I already have the decree ready to convoke a referendum because it would be my response to such an irresponsible opposition, it would be my political counterattack," he said.
"Immediately, on Feb. 2, I will convoke a referendum to ask the country if they want to change the constitution to allow indefinite re-election," he said in a joint interview with state and private TV channels in the final hours of campaigning.
The current constitution would bar Chavez, in office since 1998, from running again in 2012.
Campaigning ended on Thursday with red-clad Chavez supporters parading through downtown Caracas chanting: "Chavez isn't going anywhere!"
Rosales supporters cite polls showing tomorrow's ballot will be tight, although an independent Associated Press-Ipsos survey and other recent polls found Chavez with a large lead.
Venezuela has become increasingly polarized along class lines, with the wealthy supporting Rosales, the poor backing Chavez and a fractured middle class.
Rosales has called the vote a choice between democracy and an increasingly authoritarian Cuba-style system. Chavez, who was swept into power on popular discontent with a corrupt political class, calls Rosales a US lackey and has won the support of the poor through oil-funded social programs that provide everything from subsidized food to free health care and education.
On the alleged assassination plot, Chavez said authorities had seized the rifle from a vehicle. In answer to a reporter's question later, he said that a military officer had been arrested for meeting with civilian plotters. He did not offer further details.
A high-ranking military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to reporters, confirmed that a naval officer was under investigation.
Rosales' campaign said it had no knowledge of the plan.
"This is a smoke screen. It's to manipulate the people, but nobody believes that," said Timoteao Zambrano, one of Rosales' campaign managers.
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