A Venezuelan court has ordered the arrest of 59 dissident military officers accused of rebellion for taking part in protests against President Hugo Chavez nearly two years ago, the state news agency reported last night.
The arrest orders came after Chavez and government officials stepped up accusations that his opponents plan to use violence to disrupt an Aug. 15 recall referendum on his rule.
Authorities ordered the arrest of the officers for failing to appear at an audience to hear charges of conspiracy, civil rebellion and instigating insurrection, the Venpres agency statement said.
"Some people ... are keeping up with the perversion of violence and want to make the referendum one more subversive act," Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said.
The officers joined more than 100 military dissidents in October, 2002, to take over a public square to declare themselves in civil disobedience against Chavez, who they said had destroyed the armed forces.
Many of the officers also backed a brief April, 2002, coup against the leftist leader. Several have been accused of taking part in bombings against the Colombian and Spanish embassy buildings in Caracas and some have fled the country.
After he survived the 2002 coup, Chavez purged the ranks of the armed forces and installed loyal commanders in top posts.
The military has played a key role in his self-styled revolution.
The referendum is the latest challenge to the son of rural teachers who says most Venezuelans back his social reforms.
Venezuelans will vote next month on whether he should step down from the presidency of the world's No. 5 oil exporter.
Chavez spent two years in prison after he led a failed coup himself as a young officer. Six years later, he won a landslide 1998 election victory vowing to better distribute the country's huge oil revenues.
But his critics say his social policies have swelled the ranks of the poor and unemployed. They say his self-styled revolution is a carbon-copy of Cuban leader Fidel Castro's Caribbean communism.