Vzla: Busted!

A man President Hugo Chavez claimed was dead begs to differ with the Venezuelan leader. "I'm not dead. I'm alive and kicking," 61-year-old Emiliano Chavez Rosales said in comments published Monday by El Universal newspaper.

Chavez Rosales said he signed a petition for a vote to recall the president, who alleged the signature was bogus during a speech to foreign ambassadors on Friday.

"I'm sure Emiliano Chavez doesn't exist," the president said, holding up a copy of the petition form. He pointed to an identification number accompanying the signature, No. 2,550,083, and claimed it belonged to a dead woman.

In local interviews, Chavez Rosales insisted the number was his. A search of the country's voter database turned up Chavez Rosales' name and the same number.

There was no immediate comment from the government. The form was one of several Chavez offered as evidence of fraud. Others, he said, bore the names of foreigners and minors.