LIMA, Peru — Among the answers to a crossword puzzle that ran in a Venezuelan newspaper on Wednesday were A-D-A-N, the first name of President Hugo Chávez ’s brother; R-A-F-A-G-A-S, which can refer to a burst of machine-gun fire but also a gust of wind; and A-S-E-S-I-N-E-N, which in Spanish is the plural of the imperative form of the verb to kill. 
 
 In the polarized world of Venezuelan politics, where the president’s backers and critics are at each other’s throats over the smallest of matters, the puzzle was interpreted by some as not only a political attack on Mr. Chávez but an out-and-out death threat on his kin. 
 
 “This is a message,” declared Miguel Pérez Pirela, the host of a show on state television and a vehement backer of Mr. Chávez who interpreted the answers as a not-so-secret code against the president’s brother, who is the governor of Barinas State. 
 
 On his show, Mr. Pérez, according to Reuters, used as examples the secret messages that the French resistance leader Charles de Gaulle sent to fighters during World War II, and said he had assembled a group of mathematicians and other experts who agreed with his interpretation. 
 
 But Neptalí Segovia, the longtime puzzle writer for the newspaper, Últimas Noticias, dismissed that sinister view and said his puzzle had no political motive. His newspaper reported Friday that Mr. Segovia had voluntarily visited the National Intelligence Service on Thursday night to offer his version of events. That followed a visit to the newspaper by a team of intelligence agents seeking information on Mr. Segovia. “I went because I am the first one interested in clearing this up,” the newspaper quoted Mr. Segovia as saying. “I have nothing to hide.” 
 
 Mr. Segovia, who has been writing crosswords for the paper for more than 17 years, said the accusations against him were ridiculous. He blamed “irresponsible people who are seeking to generate a controversy in an election season.” 
 
 That election, in October, pits Mr. Chávez, who has held office since 1999, against Henrique Capriles Radonski. Adding to the tension is the uncertainty over the health of Mr. Chávez, who has been undergoing treatment in Cuba for an undisclosed form of cancer. ||||| This handout image shows a crossword puzzled published May 9, 2012 in Venezuelan newspaper Ultimas Noticias in Caracas. A veteran Venezuelan crossword-writer has been accused of hiding on May 11, 2012 a coded message to assassinate President Hugo Chavez's brother in the... 
 
 This handout image shows a crossword puzzled published May 9, 2012 in Venezuelan newspaper Ultimas Noticias in Caracas. A veteran Venezuelan crossword-writer has been accused of hiding on May 11, 2012 a coded message to assassinate President Hugo Chavez's brother in the... 
 
 CARACAS A veteran Venezuelan crossword-writer has been accused of hiding a coded message to assassinate President Hugo Chavez's brother in the latest surreal twist to election year politics in the South American nation. 
 
 Neptali Segovia was interviewed by intelligence agents, his newspaper said on Friday, after a state TV pundit said he had disguised a message to gun down Chavez's brother, Adan, in the answers to various clues in a crossword this week. 
 
 "These sorts of messages were used a lot in World War Two," the pundit, Perez Pirela, said earlier in the week in a dramatic denouncement of Ultimas Noticias newspaper on live television. 
 
 Segovia has denied any subversive intentions. 
 
 While causing laughter in some circles, the case also shows the dangerously polarized environment in Venezuela, where the socialist Chavez has been accusing opposition leaders of planning violence in the run-up to an October presidential vote. 
 
 Mystery over cancer-stricken Chavez's condition has only heightened the nervous atmosphere in Venezuela. 
 
 The pugnacious Pirela, who uses an early evening TV show to lay into Chavez opponents, said a group of mathematicians, psychologists and others had studied the Spanish-language crossword and concluded it was a coded assassination plot. 
 
 Answers to clues included "Adan", "asesinen" (meaning "kill") and "rafaga" (which can mean either a burst of gunfire, or a gust of wind). 
 
 LIKE DE GAULLE? 
 
 "It's a message ... I'm speaking in the name of truth," Pirela added, noting how French leader Charles de Gaulle used to broadcast coded messages from London to Resistance fighters in France during World War Two. 
 
 Police were not available for comment. 
 
 But Ultimas Noticias said six officers from Venezuela's intelligence service had visited the newspaper's editorial offices on Thursday asking for information about Segovia. 
 
 After that, he went voluntarily to the intelligence service's headquarters to give a statement, it said. 
 
 "I am the first to want to clarify this. I have nothing to hide because the work I have been doing for the last 17 years has only a cultural and education intention, and is transparent," Segovia was quoted as saying. 
 
 "I was treated respectfully. They took down my comments and made a routine summary. Then they took me home." 
 
 Another newspaper, the militantly pro-opposition Tal Cual, lampooned the Chavez government on Friday with a front-page crossword highlighting the nation's ills. 
 
 Clues included: "What officials do when they misuse public funds" (Corruption); Perhaps the most abused law? (Constitution); and "Name of supreme leader who governs our destiny? Bearded." (Fidel Castro). 
 
 (Additional reporting by Marianna Parraga; Editing by Anthony Boadle)
– It makes American politics look sane: Venezuela's intelligence service grilled a crossword puzzle maker this week because some think he called for the assassination of Hugo Chavez's brother in code. As Reuters explains, answers to one newspaper puzzle included the words "adan" (the first name of the president's brother), "rafaga" (which can mean gunfire), and "asesinen" (kill). A prominent Chavez backer called it a death threat on national TV, arguing, "These sorts of messages were used a lot in World War II." The puzzle writer denies it and says his work over 17 years has "only a cultural and education intention." He blamed "irresponsible people who are seeking to generate a controversy in an election season," notes the New York Times. Chavez, who is battling cancer, is up for re-election in October.