Crossword plot to kill puzzles Venezuela agents

Government critics — and even some supporters — are ridiculing a state television presenter’s claim that a newspaper crossword may have had a hidden call for a plot to kill the elder brother of Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez.

Intelligence agents questioned the puzzle’s author after television host Miguel Perez Pirela pointed out the crossword had the word “asesinen”, or “kill”, intersecting with the name of Chavez’s brother, “adan”. He noted they were below the word “rafagas”, meaning bursts of gunfire.

Neptali Segovia, an English teacher who has prepared crosswords for the newspaper Ultimas Noticias for 17 years, said it was nonsense to think there was a hidden code in the puzzle.