Venezuelan authorities raided a U.S. Embassy warehouse Monday and made more arrests, a day after President Hugo Chavez charged there was a plot to oust him. Venezuela soldiers on Sunday arrested 53 Colombian right-wing paramilitary fighters in a raid on a farm outside Caracas, and another 24 recruits were caught after fleeing into the countryside, Chavez said. Soldiers and federal agents searched another farm around the same area Monday, including a warehouse rented by the U.S. Embassy, said Leopoldo Sarria, a lawyer for the family who owns the farm. The agents had orders to seize weapons and military uniforms but found nothing after a five-hour search, Sarria said.
| And your apology followed immediately afterwards, right? |
U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Victoria Alvarado said the embassy used the warehouse to store furniture and denied any U.S. involvement in efforts to oust Chavez. In Washington, State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher rejected comments made by Chavez on Sunday suggesting the United States was behind the alleged conspiracy. "Those kinds of charges are baseless and irresponsible, and we categorically reject these kinds of idiotic outrageous statements and nut-ball accusations," Boucher said.
| Raiding an embassy is very bad. Raiding a rented warehouse falls about where on the outrage scale? |
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