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Venezuela's Chavez spies on rivals in election game
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-18 16:15

Chavez Intelligence

Chavez's most vocal critics liken his eavesdropping campaign tactics to Stalinist police-state surveillance. But some of those being tapped say the effort is more about electoral politics than creating a Big Brother spy network.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez campaigns in Charallave, outside Caracas November 17, 2008. Venezuelans go to the polls on November 23 to elect state governors and city mayors. [Agencies]
"I tell my friends in the government the day I stop talking on the phone is when they should worry," said Teodoro Petkoff, an opposition newspaper editor. Two of his recent phone conversations have been repeatedly played over state airwaves.

Chavez earlier this year decreed an intelligence law requiring citizens to inform on one another but withdrew it in an unusual about-face after withering opposition criticism.

He has urged his followers, some of whom work as the waiters or maids of his wealthier rivals, to eavesdrop on conversations and pass along the juicy gossip.

"Sometimes in restaurants or hotels they are talking and they just don't realize the waiter is listening," Chavez told supporters. "Sometimes they don't realize the chauffeur is listening and he's one of ours."

Petkoff, who says all the phones in his cramped office are tapped, doesn't doubt Chavez has his network of moles.

"But is it of the dimension he says? I really don't think so," said Petkoff with a dismissive wave of his hands.

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