VENEZUELA’S interior minister accused the wife of a jailed opposition leader yesterday of being involved in a violent coup plot uncovered on Wednesday.

The allegation came after more arrests were made with paroled former general Raul Baduel being sent back to jail under suspicion of involvement in the plot.

In an early morning press conference, Nestor Reverol linked arrested Popular Will (VP) party MP Gilber Caro with Lilian Tintori, the wife of VP leader Leopoldo Lopez.

Mr Lopez was jailed in 2015 for inciting 2014’s Guarimba regime change violence that left 43 people dead.

Mr Reverol said Mr Caro, arrested early on Wednesday with an automatic rifle and explosives, had travelled to Tachira state on the border with Colombia and met “promoters of violence, to negotiate with (Colombian) paramilitaries.”

On Thursday Vice-President Tarek El Assaimi said Mr Caro had crossed into Colombia on Sunday night and returned in the small hours of the morning, avoiding immigration control.

Mr Caro “functioned inside the security structure of Lilian Tintori and is a trusted lieutenant of Leopoldo Lopez,” whose chief bodyguard Walter Mendez had infiltrated cells of paramilitaries close to the Miraflores presidential palace.

Also on Thursday, PSUV chair Diosdado Cabello said the new National Anti-Coup Command led by Mr Assaimi had obtained audio recordings of VP members discussing a plot — dubbed “Plan Alcatraz” — to break Mr Lopez out of jail under cover of a protest march on the January 23 holiday.

And Maracaibo councillor Jorge Luis Gonzalez, a member of the Justice First party was arrested in possession of a hand grenade, explosives and ammunition.