CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- A band of armed supporters of President
                 Hugo Chavez's self-styled "revolution" has threatened opposition leaders
                 and metropolitan police, and claimed responsibility for a sniper attack last
                 week that wounded five people in a poor Caracas neighborhood.

                 Wearing camouflage fatigues and hoods and brandishing automatic rifles, four
                 members of the "Carapaica Revolutionary Group" told local newspapers they did
                 not support the Chavez government, but rather followed the revolutionary "process"
                 of the outspoken, left-wing leader.

                 Friday's attacks marked the most violent incidents in Caracas since a failed coup
                 against Chavez by rebel military and civilian leaders four months ago. Deep political
                 divisions still rattle his oil-rich South American nation, as supporters and foes of the
                 fiery president blame each other for more than 60 deaths during the April 11-14
                 rebellion.

                 A man calling himself Commander Murachi, speaking to local reporters from an
                 apartment in an impoverished district of the Venezuelan capital, said the group
                 would target Metropolitan police officers, opposition leaders and also dissident
                 government officials.

                 "We consider the leaders of the opposition a military objective. We are like cats, we
                 are lying in wait for our prey. The moment will come for each one of them,"
                 Murachi was quoted as saying.

                 Venezuelan state officials accused the metropolitan police of abuses and
                 heavy-handed crackdowns on recent protests by government supporters. The
                 metropolitan police force is controlled by Caracas Mayor Alfredo Pena, a bitter
                 enemy of the president and a top opposition leader.

                 News photographs on Monday showed the four men armed with automatic rifles
                 and with small arms and handguns. The group's name is taken from a South
                 American Indian leader who battled against the region's Spanish colonial rulers.

                 Part of the people

                 Murachi claimed responsibility for Friday's attack during which hooded men armed
                 with high-caliber rifles ambushed an armored police patrol in the crime-ridden
                 "January 23" neighborhood in western Caracas, wounding a police officer and at
                 least four civilians.

                 Chavez blamed the violence on small groups of anarchists, but opposition leaders
                 claim pro-government groups were behind the violence.

                 "We believe in resistance and you can not call us anarchists because we are part of
                 the people," Murachi said.

                 The gun attack last week followed outbreaks of street violence after the Supreme
                 Court postponed a decision on whether to indict four military officers accused in
                 April's brief coup against Chavez. Demonstrators, who clashed with police, claimed
                 they were protesting the court decision and demanded the alleged coup plotters be
                 jailed.

                 Murachi denied supporting the government and the ruling Fifth Republic Movement
                 party. He said the group followed the principles of Marxism and revolutionary
                 legend Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who has become a popular symbol at
                 demonstrations by Chavez supporters.

                 Chavez, elected on a social reform platform in 1998, has promised to aid the poor
                 with his "revolutionary" policies, such as land reform, cheap credits and a tighter
                 state control over the nation's oil industry.

                 But political foes of the former paratrooper, who directed a botched coup himself in
                 1992, blame his left-leaning economic and social reforms for fomenting class
                 conflict and driving the world's No. 5 oil exporter into recession.

                    Copyright 2002 Reuters.