THE WORLD - Venezuela 'plan' for Paraguay causes an uproar - Paper said to be orders from Chavez to deepen ties prompts cries of foreign infiltration.

ASUNCION, PARAGUAY — A reported plan by leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to bolster his influence in Paraguay has sparked a heated debate about alleged foreign "infiltration" in the affairs of this small South American nation.

The Paraguayan newspaper ABC Color last week revealed the existence of a 21-page document purportedly detailing Chavez's directives, labeling it "a plan of infiltration."

Although the text calls on Venezuelan diplomats to advance Chavez's strategies and pet projects, none of the directives appears illegal or even subversive. There is no suggestion of direct Venezuelan interference in politics in Paraguay, where the center-right Colorado Party has had a stranglehold on power for decades.

The plan directs Venezuelan envoys to seek out social, political and military leaders in Paraguay to further Chavez's idiosyncratic "Bolivarian" vision of a unified, left-leaning continent allied against Washington.

The Venezuelan Embassy has neither confirmed nor denied the authenticity of the plan, which carries the heading of Venezuela's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is titled "Annual Operating Plan 2007."

That the disclosure has caused an uproar in this tropical capital underscores the region's extreme sensitivity to Chavez's aggressive use of Venezuela's oil riches to export "21st century socialism."

Critics have labeled Venezuelan embassies across Latin America bastions of chavista outreach and propaganda.

Chavez "has a continental project -- he has said so and he has demonstrated it in his practices," said Benjamin Fernandez Bogado, a political analyst here. "The historical memory in Paraguay is fragile, and the economic necessities make it very receptive to a leader who is demagogical and populist."

Paraguay, an impoverished, landlocked nation of 6 million, has maintained a fragile democracy since the 1989 ouster of military strongman Alfredo Stroessner, who ruled for 35 years and whose staunch opposition to communism made him a U.S. ally during the Cold War.

Leftist activists here allege that the ruling elite leaked the plan in an effort to discredit the surging presidential candidacy of Fernando Lugo, a charismatic Roman Catholic priest dubbed the "Bishop of the Poor."

Lugo, standard-bearer of a left-center opposition coalition, is seeking to end the Colorado Party's 60-year rule in elections scheduled for next April.