Furore in Venezuela over leaked recording

Furore in Venezuela over leaked recording
11:31 PM 21 May 2013
Reuters/Caracas

A recording released by Venezuela's opposition purportedly revealing
graft and conspiracy in the ruling Socialist Party has stirred a new
political storm in the Opec nation's already traumatic transition after
the death of Hugo Chavez.

Opposition leaders played an hour-long, expletive-laced diatribe in
which a man identified as powerful state TV commentator Mario Silva
criticises party heavyweight Diosdado Cabello.

They said Silva was talking to a Cuban intelligence officer.

Silva, whose close links to the late Chavez have led many to see him as
more powerful than some cabinet ministers, did not deny it was his voice
but said the recording had been manipulated by Israeli intelligence and
the CIA.

"I categorically reject this set-up," he said.

Cabello, who heads Congress and is seen by many Venezuelans as a
possible rival to recently-elected President Nicolas Maduro, called the
recording a "media show" and urged unity within government ranks.

The comments have fed into months of opposition theories of a furious
power struggle within the disparate "Chavismo" coalition that the late
Chavez controlled with an iron grip during his 14-year-rule.

"The only way to get rid of Diosdado is to demonstrate that he is
corrupt and is corrupting everyone else, and to show proof that (Chavez)
knew about it," said the man on the recording, which sounded like
Silva's familiar, gruff voice.

He said Cabello controls intelligence agencies and was using the tax
agency and the currency control board to acquire "financing." "He wants
to take control of the Armed Forces and force Maduro to do what they
want or they will stage a coup," said the man in the recording.

He was speaking with a person named Palacios, whom the opposition
identified as a Cuban intelligence officer.

Silva, a friend of the late Chavez, runs a late-night talk-show that has
a near-cult following among government supporters.

In a statement, he said foreign intelligence services had fabricated the
tape by editing actual conversations obtained through recordings made by
aircraft being flown over his office. He said he was temporarily
suspending his programme for health reasons.

Cabello is a key power broker, with strong ties to the military. "No
matter what they do, they will never be able to divide those are who
truly dedicated to 'Chavismo,'" he said as Venezuelans picked over the
recording.

The legislators who presented the recording said it was destined for
Cuban President Raul Castro, whose government receives generous
assistance in the form of subsidised oil.

"It's evident who Maduro answers to ... the Castros!" tweeted opposition
leader Henrique Capriles, who narrowly lost to Maduro in April
presidential elections, referring to the Cuban president and his brother
and predecessor Fidel Castro.

The late Chavez was adored by millions of poor Venezuelans for his
social spending programmes and bombastic nationalism that vowed to
battle US intervention in Latin America.

He named Maduro as successor in December, just before he underwent a
fourth and final cancer operation following a two-year battle with the
disease.

He died on March 5, triggering a new vote in April that Maduro won by
just 1.5 percentage points - a weak showing compared to Chavez's
double-digit ballot-box victories.

The man in the recording appeared to suggest that computer hackers had
taken over the elections council systems to lower the margin of Maduro's
victory.

"We need to control (Cabello's) sources of financing," he told Palacios,
adding that if Cabello takes control of state oil giant PDVSA "we're
doomed."

In his alleged comments, Silva attacked a range of top government
figures including the first lady, Cilia Flores, whom he accused of
putting a group of "vampires" in charge of state TV and letting them
"steal all the cash they could."

Silva's show features vitriolic attacks on opposition figures and has at
times broadcast wire-tapped phone conversations that reveal embarrassing
information about government critics.

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