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CARACAS-Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez attacked his enemies on Thursday, spicing up an election campaign with assassination plot charges, a cut in U.S. flights and a pledge to confront would-be coupsters in ally Bolivia.Chavez, whose followers face tough campaigns for local offices in November, vowed to defeat what he said were a slew of U.S.-backed efforts to oust him that showed the opposition's election desperation.Chavez, a socialist ally of Cuba and declared enemy of the Bush administration, played a taped conversation live on TV between retired military officials apparently planning to kill him in a putsch he said the United States supported.His government also ordered U.S. airlines to scale back their Venezuelan flights in retaliation for a Bush administration warning to American travelers that questioned the OPEC nation's airport security.And Chavez threatened to support armed groups in Bolivia to restore President Evo Morales to power should violent protests end up ousting his leftist ally.Morales expelled the U.S. ambassador on Wednesday, saying the envoy supported the opposition rallies. The United States responded by ejecting Bolivia's ambassador to Washington.Chavez typically seeks to fire up his majority poor political base before national votes by lashing out at foreign powers and denouncing the opposition as undemocratic coupsters who aim to rule over some of the world's largest oil reserves.He adapted his vote strategy on Thursday by launching the attacks at the start of the campaign-instead of the end.To read more go to:
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