CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Three former officers who helped President
                   Hugo Chavez stage his famous 1992 coup attempt are lashing out at the
                   president and his inner circle, threatening to carve a division in Venezuela's
                   leftist governing coalition.

                   The ex-coup leaders last week used the eighth anniversary of their revolt to
                   publicly warn Chavez that his year-old government may be betraying the
                   revolutionary goals that prompted them to take up arms.

                   They offered details. But on Monday, retired Lt. Col. Francisco Arias
                   Cardenas, considered the intellectual author of the 1992 coup, said
                   Chavez's Fifth Republic Movement political party is in crisis.

                   "An organization that doesn't allow contrary opinions, that doesn't debate,
                   that doesn't discuss, in my opinion doesn't exist," Arias, who is now
                   governor of oil-rich Zulia state, told the Globovision TV network.

                   Another former coup leader, retired Lt. Col. Jesus Urdaneta, called on
                   Chavez to fire two cabinet ministers and the head of the legislature. He
                   claimed they are leftovers from the corrupt oligarchy the former soldiers
                   want to destroy.

                   Government officials have shot back, fiercely criticizing the former coup
                   leaders and stirring the first major feud among Chavez forces. The spat has
                   led some to speculate that true opposition to Chavez may finally be emerging
                   in the South American nation.

                   Political analyst Anibal Romero said the conflict is partly about power, since
                   the three former coup leaders may feel sidelined in the Chavez
                   administration. Arias was passed over recently for vice president, and
                   Urdaneta was fired as head of the political police after he clashed with the
                   foreign minister.

                   The feud could cause deep rifts in Chavez's governing coalition, especially if
                   the discontent spreads to the military. Yet Chavez also enjoys near-fanatical
                   support among millions of poor people and is the most famous of the former
                   coup leaders. Some say it's Chavez's personality, not his governing coalition,
                   that really matters in Venezuelan politics.

                   Chavez hasn't commented directly on the feud, though on Friday he
                   announced he was retaking control of the Fifth Republic Movement after
                   "letting them do what they want" for the last year.

                   In an apparent attempt to ease tensions, Fifth Republic leaders announced
                   Monday that the third former coup leader, retired Lt. Col. Joel Acosta
                   Chirinos, was resigning as head of the organization but will be the party's
                   candidate for governor in Falcon state in western Venezuela.

                   Chavez spent two years in prison after the coup attempt and was swept to
                   the presidency in December 1998 on a wave of public anger over mass
                   poverty and some of the world's worst corruption. Since then, he has
                   overhauled Venezuela's government -- winning approval for a new
                   constitution, increasing the power of the presidency and ousting the old
                   Congress and Supreme Court.

                   Critics say Chavez has concentrated power in his own hands and moved
                   Venezuela dangerously close to dictatorship.

                    Copyright 2000 The Associated Press.