Former comrade-in-arms fears presidential political assassination from followers.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Saturday, March 29, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Francisco Arias Cardenas says he’s willing to accept the post of Executive Vice President if President Chavez Frias gets rid of radical sectors he has surrounded himself with.

The former Zulia State Governor and February 4, 1992 (4F) rebel commander recalls his last talk with the President by phone a month ago and being held up on his way to La Chinita airport by government gunmen, who, he claims, are part of a parallel military command.

“Ayala Battalion commander Colonel Clevert Alcala Cordones, Military Police chief Colonel Jose Gregorio Montilla Pantoja and former State Political & Security (DISIP) Police director, Army Captain (ret.) Eliecer Otaiza are part of a parallel army command … they’re crazy and are ready to kill Chavez Frias if he negotiates with the opposition … they are responsible for all this."

"I would like to know how General Garcia Montoya’s stomach is because he’s been suffering from ulcers since he was a teenager … the country can’t be governed with kids that still wear diapers.”

Arias Cardenas says PM intervention was a constitutional move.

Commenting on criticism that the Armed Force (FAN) High Command has failed to comment on the Metropolitan Police (PM) intervention, Francisco Arias Cardenas says it’s probably because the measure was taken using the mechanism of a Presidential decree which is part of the President’s constitutional right.

”If the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) and its Constitutional Chamber took the precautionary measures that police commissioners requested and rule in favor of the Metropolitan Mayor, then it would be a different matter.”

• Arias Cardenas forecasts that there will be no “home” or Chavist coup and that an unfavorable consultative referendum vote will be respected by military officers supporting the government.

The President’s former comrade-in-arms says it’s time to end the PM intervention and stop calling for a national stoppage.