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On the tape, Silva suggests that Cabello has been behind some of the post-electoral chaos because “he doesn’t give his mother’s c___. He’s only interested in money and power.”
In the days before the April 14 vote, Silva says Maduro claimed that he’d seen his own image mysteriously appear in a painting of Chávez. Sliva said he warned Maduro not to talk about the apparition because it would sink his poll numbers. (Maduro had already been ridiculed for saying that Chávez had appeared to him in the form of a bird.)
But Silva said he was convinced that Cabello had somehow encouraged the idea of the apparition “because he knew it was going to get out…they would have said Nicolás was crazy.”
Silva also said there were rumors that Defense Minister Diego Molero was plotting a coup against Maduro. Silva said Molero told him the claims were false but that the president and his partner, Cilia Flores, who is also the attorney general, wouldn’t take his calls. Silva said he believed Cabello was trying to create a rift between Maduro and his defense chief.
On the tape, Silva says Cabello controls the police and the country’s intelligence services and wants to expand his reach. Silva says that Maduro needs to keep the head of state-run PDVSA oil company Rafael Ramirez in place to block Cabello from seizing the lucrative industry.
“I told Commander Fidel [Castro] at one point, that he [Ramirez] cannot leave the position; he can’t,” Silva said. “If Diosdado takes over PDVSA, we’re screwed.”
Near the end of the conversation, Silva seems to ask the Cuban government to advise Maduro about the danger that Cabello poses.
“You have to sit down with him, compadre. You have to sit down and tell him these things,” he says. “I have been on the verge of telling Maduro, ‘Maduro there’s a conspiracy in process.’ I have been on the verge of telling him, but I don’t’ know what kind of reaction I would get.”
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