Less than a month before Venezuela's elections, President Hugo Chavez accused media liked CNN in Spanish, The New York Times, and Grupo Prisa of Spain of orchestrating a campaign of "intrigues" and "lies" about his government and of sabotaging the coming elections, reported the news agency AFP and the magazine Semana.

The president made repeated criticisms of CNN, which broadcast a documentary critical of alleged armed groups in Caracas. Chavez branded the CNN journalists as "imbeciles," added El Universal. He also ruled out ties with Islamic terrorism and denied that Venezuelas was more dangerous than Iraq, as had reported The New York Times.

In his Sunday column, Chavez said that foreign media were looking to present his government as illegitimate and terrorist. According to Telesur, Chavez called on citizens not to be deceived by media wanting to "distort the reality" that the Venezuelan public hs lived during his 11 years in office.