Venezuela’s Interim Leader Sacks General Over Maduro’s Capture
Interim leader of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, has sacked the general in command of Venezuela’s presidential honour guard, Javier Marcano Tábata, days after President Nicolás Maduro was captured by US forces in a raid on the country’s capital Caracas.
The development may be connected to the manner in which Maduro was picked by the US Special Forces and taken away to New York, where he is standing trial on narco-terrorism charges.
The presidential honour guard is the military force which provides the bodyguards tasked with protecting the head of state but General Tabata apparently failed in his duty or incapacitated by a superior force. His sacking is one of the first changes to senior officials in her inner circle.
And to worsen the situation while the Venezuelan government has not yet provided a detailed breakdown of casualties, members of the guard were thought to be among the dozens of people killed in the US operation to seize Maduro.
Rodríguez was sworn in by the National Assembly, which is dominated by government loyalists, on Monday. She served as Maduro’s vice-president and is considered to be a close ally of the embattled leader.
US President Donald Trump said at the news conference following Maduro’s seizure that the United States would “run” Venezuela and that the US was talking to Rodríguez.
He also threatened that Rodríguez would face a “fate worse than Maduro’s” if she did not comply with US demands, including those for oil, of which Venezuela has the world’s largest proven reserves.
On Tuesday, the US president said that Venezuela would be “turning over” up to 50 million barrels of oil to the US, but Venezuela’s interim government wws yet to comment on that statement.
Rodríguez’s tone has been alternating between defiance and conciliatory since she was designated interim president by Venezuela’s Supreme Court.
She denounced the seizure of Maduro as an “illegal kidnapping” but has also said that her government had “invited the US government to work together on an agenda of co-operation”.
Her actions were being watched closely both inside and outside of Venezuela to gauge what course she may steer now that she is in charge of the country and for signs of any potential rifts in her government.
As well as being in charge of the presidential guard, Gen Marcano Tábata also led Venezuela’s military counterintelligence unit DGCIM.
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