Venezuela's Chavez attacks enemies before election

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez attacked his enemies on Thursday, spicing up an election campaign with assassination plot charges, a cut in U.S. flights and a pledge to confront would-be coupsters in ally Bolivia.

Chavez, whose followers face tough campaigns for local offices in November, vowed to defeat what he said were a slew of U.S.-backed efforts to oust him that showed the opposition's election desperation.

Chavez, a socialist ally of Cuba and declared enemy of the Bush administration, played a taped conversation live on TV between retired military officials apparently planning to kill him in a putsch he said the United States supported.

His government also ordered U.S. airlines to scale back their Venezuelan flights in retaliation for a Bush administration warning to American travelers that questioned the OPEC nation's airport security.

And Chavez threatened to support armed groups in Bolivia to restore President Evo Morales to power should violent protests end up ousting his leftist ally.

Morales expelled the U.S. ambassador on Wednesday, saying the envoy supported the opposition rallies. The United States responded by ejecting Bolivia's ambassador to Washington.

Chavez typically seeks to fire up his majority poor political base before national votes by lashing out at foreign powers and denouncing the opposition as undemocratic coupsters who aim to rule over some of the world's largest oil reserves.

He adapted his vote strategy on Thursday by launching the attacks at the start of the campaign -- instead of the end.

The coming election is unusual because it is the first time since he came to power in 1999 that Chavez is entering a campaign after losing the previous vote -- a referendum on expanding his powers.

Late in last year's campaign, he threatened to cut oil supplies to the United States and expel Spanish banks while accusing the opposition of holding violent protests to stoke a civil war.

This year, voters' concerns over crime, inflation and some shortages in shops could loosen his grip on regional centers of power in gubernatorial and municipal elections, although the opposition has failed to fully unite against him.

YANKEE STOOGES

Chavez's attacks on Thursday came in the same week he received Russian bombers in Venezuela and announced navy exercises with Moscow aimed at eroding U.S. regional clout.

For Chavez, all of the alleged moves against him -- including maneuvers to weaken his regional allies -- stem from collaboration between the United States and his Venezuelan opponents who he labels Yankee stooges.

The United States clashes with Chavez over everything from the drugs war to democracy despite being his top oil customer.

This week's airline dispute resurrects a years-old spat that periodically sees Washington complain about Venezuelan safety and Chavez hit out at U.S. companies.

Chavez led a failed putsch in 1992 as a paratrooper. A decade later, after winning office at the ballot box, he himself was ousted for two days in a coup.

The United States initially welcomed his ouster but routinely dismisses his plot accusations as an attempt to distract voters from Venezuela's problems.

Opposition leader Manuel Rosales said Chavez released the military tapes to improve his loyalists' chances in November.

"This is a smokescreen," Rosales told reporters, adding he thought the information was old. "If it's true, they should show proof and accuse whoever it is they need to accuse."

(Editing by Kevin Gray and Chris Wilson)