VENEZUELA detained five more foreigners in connection with what the government says is a plot to destabilise the country, the interior minister announced Thursday.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello did not say when the five people were detained. He said a Peruvian and a Bolivian citizen had been taken into custody along with the three US citizens 

Mr Cabello also said all “speak Spanish perfectly” and went around the country claiming to be “in love with Venezuela” and planning “to see their partner.”

Last month, Mr Cabello announced the arrests of three Americans, two Spaniards and a Czech citizen whom he accused of being part of a CIA-led plot to overthrow the Venezuelan government and kill several members of its leadership including President Nicolas Maduro.

The mid-September announcement came two days after the US imposed sanctions on 16 allies of Mr Maduro whom the White House accused of obstructing voting during the July 28 presidential election and carrying out human rights abuses.

The Venezuelan electoral authorities declared Mr Maduro the winner of the polls and claimed widespread outside interference in the election including the hacking of its website.

The main opposition coalition claimed that its candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, defeated Mr Maduro by a two-to-one margin.

Meanwhile Mr Maduro condemned on Thursday the genocide carried out by Israel against Palestine, Syria and Lebanon.

Speaking in the state of Carabobo the president said: “Today, once again, those who hate and those who want to dominate are advancing with bombs, physically destroying the lives of thousands in Palestine, in Lebanon, in Syria.”

He added that “they [the Israelis] already did it in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Syria, in Libya. They hate the Arab peoples. It is a work of extermination, they want to destroy and exterminate the Arab and Palestinian people.”