"The opposition is apparently desperate: it is disposed to using violence and is calling for the results not to be accepted unless Chavez goes," the president said in the 200th broadcast of his popular television program.

The president again denounced the declarations of ex-president Carlos Andres Perez published in daily newspaper El Nacional last week, where Perez said that "Chavez should die like a dog." The President warned that, "sectors of the opposition supported by the empire will try to alter the progress of the recall referendum during these days before the 15th of August or during the 15th."

Chavez attributed Perez’ declaration to suspected destabilization plans of the opposition. Chavez warned that "the opposition backed by the empire could be preparing a Plan B."

Even though a large part of the opposition rejected Perez’ declarations, including Democratic Action (AD), one of the main opposition parties, to which Perez belong before he was expelled in 1993, which called the ex-president "decrepit," Chavez reinforced his Plan B theory by saying that other mainstream parties, including the opposition coalition Democratic Coordinator, have not rejected Perez’ statements. "The so-called ’Democratic Coordinator’ has not distanced itself from that [Perez’] speech and does not say if it will recognize the results" of the recall referendum, Chavez said.

The President said that his government is preparing to repel any destabilization plan and that he will not tolerate any attempts to destabilize Venezuela. "We have to prevent that part of the opposition with violent tendencies backed by the empire from achieving its macabre goals. We are prepared to take whatever measures required of us," Chavez said.

Among his accusations, Chavez also included the El Nacional daily, which he accused of taking money from the United States: "Among the NED’s (National Endowment for Democracy) demands were that El Nacional spearhead the information campaign in Venezuela and that it would finance this," Chavez said.

Regarding the U.S., Chavez said that a media dictatorship exists there and that it has its own people in chains and it wants to chain the entire world.

Robin Nieto