Caracas: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has once again accused the opposition of planning coups against his leftist government with the backing of foreign governments.
"Enough of so much war against the people, I will defend and protect our country with absolute firmness, irrespective of the protests of the foreigners. The big guns and the petty officials must know that the `double-band` game is over and that those who continue resorting to devious methods will end up in the hands of justice," tweeted the leader Sunday.
Maduro has accused more than a dozen people of wanting to overthrow his government since assuming power nearly two years ago.
Just this month, an unknown number of military officials, including seven air force officers, were arrested for alleged involvement in coup attempts by the radical opposition with US funding.
"They include the military in their conspiracies, with foreign support, and later leave them to their fate(...)," said the president in reference to the calls for the release of arrested opposition figures such as Leopoldo Lopez, of the Popular Will party, and Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma of the Fearless People`s Alliance.
"They want to impose lies on us and blackmail us with `oligarchic immunity` that they have always enjoyed to plunder the country, but now justice will be applied to them," thundered Maduro.
The president also accused opposition members who, while denouncing unconstitutional attacks, have maintained their silence on the subject especially in relation to the "Jericho Plan", or what Maduro called a failed coup attempt.
The plan included bombing of the presidential palace and other government institutions by foreign military aircraft, asserted the head of state who has offered to produce evidence of the plot later this week.
"The injured right is silent about the coup attempt that I have exposed and that we are dismantling, it is a silence full of complicity," Maduro added on Twitter.
