{{Venezuelan officials arrested three air force generals ‘in contact with the opposition’ on charges of plotting a coup, President Nicolas Maduro said on Tuesday.}}<\/p>\n
Maduro told a meeting of South American foreign ministers that the three generals, who were not identified, “were trying to rise up against the legitimately constituted government.”<\/p>\n
“This group that was captured has direct links with sectors of the opposition and they were saying that this week was the decisive week,” Maduro said.<\/p>\n
He said the generals had already been summoned before a court martial, adding that the plot was discovered because other officers had come forward to say they were being recruited.<\/p>\n
Maduro has routinely accused opponents of plotting a coup like the one that briefly ousted his predecessor, former president Hugo Chavez, in 2002. He has rarely given details and few arrests have been reported.<\/p>\n
His latest disclosure comes amid a broadening government crackdown against Maduro’s opponents after weeks of street protests that have left at least 34 dead.<\/p>\n
On Monday, National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello announced that a prominent opposition deputy, Maria Corina Machado, had lost her seat and parliamentary immunity, and could be arrested at any moment.<\/p>\n
At a news conference in Lima, a defiant Machado said she would return to Caracas on Wednesday, adding she feared she would be arrested on her arrival.<\/p>\n
She said she was returning “because I am a Venezuelan deputy and I will enter Venezuela as such to continue fighting in the streets without rest until we achieve democracy and freedom.”<\/p>\n
Machado angered the government by going before the Organization of American States last week as a guest of Panama to discuss the crisis in Venezuela.<\/p>\n
Panama’s representative to the OAS, Arturo Vallarino, said the move to take away Machado’s seat was “proof of the arbitrary acts being committed in Venezuela.”<\/p>\n
Last week, two opposition mayors were also arrested, and another prominent opposition leader has been in jailed for a month, accused of inciting violence.<\/p>\n
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