Uruguayan authorities say they have smashed a series of left-wing plots to assassinate one of the country's ambassadors, blow up ships in Montevideo harbour and launch a propaganda campaign to discredit the country abroad.

SYNOPSIS: Security forces on Thursday (28 October) raided this house in a suburb of Montevideo, the Uruguayan capital, and behind a false fireplace found a quantity of rifles and ammunition. The authorities were alerted to the presence of the group known as he Party for the Victory of the People, in neighbouring Argentina.

The group is said to have financed its activities through ransoms they collected for their kidnap victims. The authorities claimed the group had planned to assassinate the Ambassador to Brazil and to blow up a petrol tanker and two Navy ships in Montevideo harbour. They say the organisation began a propaganda campaign in Europe last year aimed at depicting the Uruguayan authorities as torturers and kidnappers.

A total of 64 people have been arrested in connection with the plot, including three from this house, a woman and two men.

Uruguay's new President, Aparicio Mendez, a fortnight ago decreed a "state of danger" under which people suspected of subversive "tendencies" faced imprisonment or up to 10 years expulsion from the country.