[Cincinatus' Wife]

Human rights groups demand autonomy to investigate shootings at anti-Chavez rally *** Allies and adversaries of Chavez have spent weeks arguing who is responsible for the violence. Opposition leaders claim Chavez loyalists urged supporters to fire at unarmed marchers, who were calling for the president's resignation. Government spokesmen argue conspirators orchestrated the shootout to prompt a military uprising against the president.

"The government doesn't want the truth to come out, that's why ruling party lawmakers are stalling on the approval the proposed law," said Ramon Medina, a member of the First Justice opposition party. Tarek Saab, a pro-Chavez lawmaker, denied the ruling party is dragging its feet or standing in the way of an investigation.***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Chavez says there's evidence U.S. wanted him dead*** Chavez said the evidence includes information collected from a coastal radar installation that tracked a foreign military ship and aircraft operating in and over Venezuelan waters a day after his ouster. The ship, helicopter and plane -- identified by their transponder codes as military -- disappeared from the radar the morning he returned from his imprisonment on the island of La Orchila, he said.

In addition, Chavez said, an American was involved in what he characterized as an assassination plot against him uncovered in Costa Rica four months ago. He said the details of the plan revealed at the time essentially predicted what transpired April 11, when a protest march on the presidential palace turned violent and led to his arrest by senior military officers.

"I am being objective about this. I can't be launching accusations, and I want to believe that a government that has stood so strongly behind democracy is not involved in this tyrannical, macabre coup," Chavez said during a one-hour interview at the presidential palace. "It is very important to clarify these matters as soon as possible."

...As evidence, the president talked for the first time about an alleged plan to assassinate him. Chavez said he was vacationing with his family in Barinas province in western Venezuela when he received a phone call from his foreign minister, Luis Alfonso Davila, on Jan. 1 telling him to return to Caracas immediately. When he arrived, Chavez said, Davila told him that a man from a Central American country had appeared at the Venezuelan Embassy in San Jose, Costa Rica. Chavez said the man told Venezuelan officials that he was a mercenary who had been training with perhaps a dozen other men in a Central American country for a mission scheduled for this year. The men had gathered in San Jose to await an American member of the team, who over drinks on New Year's Eve said, "Chavez is done. He doesn't know what's coming."

Chavez refused to provide further details of the alleged assassination plot, including what country the informant was from or where he is now. He said he did not know whether the American was a government official or a private mercenary.***