Nicolas Maduro Says US Group Is Plotting To Poison Him, Denounces Colombia President As 'Backstabber'

Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro lashed out at the president of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, in a speech on Thursday in which he accused Santos of betrayal for receiving Henrique Capriles, the opposition leader who refuses to recognize Maduro as the legitimate president of Venezuela. Maduro recalled efforts on his part and that of his precursor Hugo Chávez to mediate between the Colombian government and the FARC, the leftist guerilla group.

"I received envoys from President Santos, authorized by him, I talked to the Colombian guerrilas on his behalf to achieve peace in Colombia. Hours and hours of work, to help Colombia. Now they're going to pay us like this, with betrayal," he said, adding that he would review relations with the South American neighbor. "I'm going to evaluate whether Venezuela will continue in [the peace] process. I doubt the sincerity of President Santos, when he stabbed Venezuela in the back."

Watch an excerpt from Maduro's speech on Thursday below (in Spanish).

He also charged Santos with participating in a conspiracy plot to overthrow his government -- one directed by people from the United States. Maduro called out Roger Noriega, a former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs under George W. Bush, during his speech.

"There's a group of experts directed by Roger Noriega, who are getting ready to come to Venezuela to inoculate me with a poison, not so I'll die in one day, but so I get sick over the course of months."

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He added, "They're not going to manage it because I'm going to live many more years and I'm going to be president of this country for many years too."

Santos had met with Henrique Capriles at the presidential palace the day before. He claims Maduro's team committed electoral fraud.

It is not the first time Maduro has accused foreign agents of conspiring to kill him. In early May, just weeks after the election, Maduro said in a televised speech that former president of Colombia Alvaro Uribe was "behind a plot to kill me."

"Uribe is a killer," Maduro said then. "I have enough evidence of who is conspiring, and there are sectors of the Venezuelan right that are involved."

To Maduro's latest accusations, the Colombian government has promised not to respond by way of comment to the press, but rather in "a direct way", a chanciller told El Pais.