Maduro accuses former Colombian president of plotting to assassinate him

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has accused former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe of plotting to assassinate him.

During a state television broadcast on Wednesday evening, Maduro said Uribe, Colombia’s US ambassador Francisco Santos, and exiled Venezuelan opposition figure Lester Toledo had plotted to assassinate him from “a bunker” in a house belonging to Uribe.

“It is a plan for 32 mercenaries to enter to try to assassinate me and leaders of the revolution,” Maduro said. “But we are here, protected by God.”

Colombian Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes denied the allegation in a post on Twitter.

There was no immediate reaction from Uribe and Toledo.

This is not the first time Maduro accuses politicians from neighboring Colombia of plotting against him. The relations between the two South American neighbors have deteriorated amid an economic crisis in Venezuela that has prompted more than one million migrants to settle in Colombia.

Maduro has accused Colombia and the United States of being behind an attempted drone attack against him last year while he was giving a speech at a military event in Caracas.

Maduro’s government says the United States, which has imposed sanctions against Venezuela, is orchestrating the attempts to topple him as part of a wider offensive against Latin American leaders defying US hegemony.

SS