VENEZUELA - Chavez Blames Dissident generals blamed for attack

CARACAS - The head of Venezuela's intelligence police said two prominent dissident generals were behind the bombing of the Spanish Embassy in Caracas earlier this year, according to a news report Monday.

Army Gen. Néstor González González and National Guard Gen. Felipe Rodríguez helped plan the Feb. 25 explosion, said Miguel Rodríguez Torres, director of the Disip intelligence police, in comments published Monday in El Nacional newspaper.

Rodríguez Torres didn't provide evidence to back his allegations. The officers were not arrested or formally charged. The Disip chief was not available for further comment, though a spokeswoman confirmed his remarks.

The two generals belong to a group of about 100 dissident officers who occupied a Caracas plaza almost a year ago and urged Venezuela's armed forces to rebel against President Hugo Chávez's leftist government. Their calls were ignored, but the rebels continue to occupy Plaza Francia. Most sleep at home but spend the day haranguing a smattering of civilians who visit the square. The government has ignored the situation.

Rodríguez Torres said a civilian named Luis Chacín, who coordinates security for the rebel officers, also helped plan the bomb attack.

Rebel leader army Gen. Enrique Medina Gómez denied the two officers had anything to do with the explosions. In comments to Unión Radio, Medina Gómez said he understood the Disip had arrested someone named Luis Chacín but denied the man had anything to do with security at Plaza Francia.

Another explosion on Feb. 25 damaged the Colombian Consulate in Caracas and injured three people, but Rodríguez Torres did not mention that bomb. The blasts came days after Chávez rebuked the Spanish and Colombian governments for commenting on Venezuela's political crisis.

The country is sharply divided between Venezuelans who believe Chávez is the first leader to fight for the poor and those who accuse him of trying to accumulate power.

In recent weeks, explosions have damaged a presidential guard house, a military airfield, an army base and a government agency that had confiscated broadcasting equipment from an opposition TV station. Both sides blame each other for the blasts.

The violence has kept Venezuela on edge as Chávez opponents prepare a signature drive to demand a referendum on ending his six-year term, which runs until 2007. Chávez insists his opponents lack the popular support to gather the required 2.4 million signatures.

On Sunday, Interior Minister Lucas Rincón said seven people have been arrested in connection with the bombings but did not identify them or provide details.

Also Monday, Prosecutor Américo Gloria revealed there were two explosions at the Fuerte Tiuna military base Oct. 5 -- not one as authorities originally said

Chavez is purging people who signed on to the first recall. If they say their signatures were forged they can stay.

California recall tame compared with Venezuela's*** Vanessa Roca, a 31-year-old secretary from the eastern state of Monagas, says she lost her job at a state-owned transport company after signing a petition calling for a recall referendum to remove Chavez from office. She traveled seven hours by bus to ask officials at the National Electoral Commission (CNE) to remove her name from the petition.

"A friend who had the same thing happen to him told me this might help me get my job back," she said. "I understand it happened to a lot of us."

As the Chavez government tries to remain in office, state employees and students who signed the petition, or who are suspected of sympathizing with the political opposition, are being purged from jobs, internships and grants, according to dozens of interviews with trade unionists, students, state workers, lawyers and human rights activists.

And in an effort to discredit the recall movement, state workers whose names appear on the petition are being encouraged by the government to sign legal complaints alleging that their signatures were forged.

Former President Carlos Andres Perez predicts Chavez "will not have a peaceful exit" and will be forced out of office if he refuses to accept the recall vote. "Violence is bad, and we don't promote it," he recently told Colombia's daily newspaper, El Tiempo, "but no other option is possible." ***

Chavez is a member of a dying species.

Unfortunately he's managed to bring state power under his control and direction, and his anti-American language is spreading across Latin America. His support of terrorists, like FARC (who currently have a strangle hold on Colombia's elections), has created an atmosphere for Marxist insurgency.

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