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Gold9472
10-14-2005, 12:12 PM
Missionary group denies CIA link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4341592.stm

10/4/2005

A US missionary group threatened with expulsion from Venezuela has denied spying for Washington.

President Hugo Chavez said on Wednesday that the New Tribes Mission would have to leave because it had been sharing sensitive information with the CIA.

The missionaries said they respected Venezuela's laws and their only goal was to help its indigenous peoples.

The group said it hoped to be allowed to stay once it had explained its activities to the Chavez government.

Strained relations
Mr Chavez announced on Wednesday his plans to expel the evangelical group, which has been working in Venezuela for more than half a century.

"These are real imperialist infiltrations," he said, accusing the Florida-based group of making unauthorised flights and setting up luxurious camps amid poverty.

His decision was defended on Thursday by the country's Vice-President, Jose Vicente Rangel, who said the missionaries operated on the "edge of legal boundaries".

"We have intelligence reports that some of them are CIA," he added.

The accusation was rejected by a spokeswoman for New Tribes, which preaches to non-Christian indigenous communities.

"When you consider the people that we're with, there really isn't any sense of strategic information they would have," Nita Zelenak said at the group's Florida headquarters.

Mr Chavez has been at loggerheads with the US for some time.

He has in the past accused the US of plotting to assassinate him and suspended co-operation with the US Drug Enforcement Agency after accusing its officials of spying.

Washington strongly denies any plot and correspondents say it is hard to tell how genuinely the Venezuelan president believes what he says.