Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro says security forces have uncovered a plot to assassinate him and the head of the National Assembly, as President Hugo Chavez recovers from cancer surgery in Cuba.

Maduro provided no proof of the claim, made at a rally on Wednesday to mark the end of dictatorship in the country 55 years ago, but he said action would be taken shortly.

Al Jazeera's Gabriel Elizondo reports from Caracas.