The general in command of Venezuela’s presidential honour guard, Javier Marcano Tábata, has been sacked days after Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro was seized by US forces in a raid in Caracas and taken to New York to stand trial on narco-terrorism charges.
The presidential honour guard is the military force which provides the bodyguards tasked with protecting the head of state.
While the Venezuelan government has not yet provided a detailed breakdown of casualties, members of the guard are thought to be among the dozens of people killed in the US operation to seize Maduro.
The order to replace Gen Marcano Tábata was issued by the new interim president, Delcy Rodríguez.
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 jailed leader.
US President Donald Trump said in 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 has yet to comment on that statement.
Rodríguez’s tone has been alternating between defiant 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 are 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.
The sacking of Gen Marcano Tábata is one of the first changes to senior officials in her inner circle.
As well as being in charge of the presidential guard, Gen Marcano Tábata also led Venezuela’s military counterintelligence unit DGCIM.
The DGCIM has played a key role in the repression of people critical of the Maduro government, according to the United Nations.
A UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission found that the counterintelligence unit had committed myriad human rights violations since 2013.
It documented scores of cases in which those detained were subjected to “torture, sexual violence and/or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment” in the DGCIM headquarters and a network of covert detention centres across the country
However, his sacking does not appear to be related to the repression carried out by the DGCIM under his helm as the man she has appointed to succeed him headed an intelligence service which faces similar accusations.
Gustavo González López was in charge of Venezuela’s national intelligence service, Sebin for many years.
The Sebin controls the notorious Helicoide prison in Caracas, where the UN documented abuses being carried out against “opposition politicians, journalists, protesters, and human rights defenders”.
Venezuelan analysts think that Gen Marcano Tábata’s dismissal is more likely to be related to the failure of the presidential honour guard to prevent the seizure of Maduro.
Cuba, a close ally of Venezuela which has long provided security and intelligence services to Maduro, said that 32 of its nationals had been killed in the US raid.
Many of them are thought to have been embedded in the presidential honour guard
Venezuela’s military has said that 23 of its members, including five generals, were killed in the US strikes.
Some supporters of the government have said they felt “humiliated” by the way the US forces overpowered Venezuela’s defence systems and Maduro’s personal guard to seize the Venezuelan leader, who was later paraded before the cameras with his hands tied and in prison garb.
Replacing Marcano Tábata could be an attempt by the interim president to surround herself with people she trusts at a time when the threat of another US strike hangs over her.
President Trump said on Saturday that US forces had prepared a second wave of strikes but deemed it not necessary at the time.
However, he has repeatedly said that non-compliance would mean Rodríguez would “pay a very big price”.
She is not the only one in the interim government who could be targeted in a second strike.
Reuters news agency reports quoting unnamed sources said to be familiar with the matter that Venezuela’s hardline interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, had been told by the Trump administration to fall into line.
The US has long accused Cabello of participating in a “narco-conspiracy”, allegedly helping left-wing rebels ship cocaine to the US.
In January, the US state department increased its reward for information leading to his capture to $25m (£21m).
By BBC News
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