Maduro arrests Chávez’s ex-spy chief

The Nicolás Maduro regime arrested on Tuesday the former interior minister and former intelligence chief, General Miguel Rodríguez Torres.

Videos transmitted by social networks showed how security agents were taking the general, and sources close to the situation said that Rodríguez Torres was being transferred to the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence.

Even though the name of the retired official did not appear in the decree issued on Feb. 28 in which Maduro identified a number of military and ex-employees of late leader Hugo Chávez as traitors, the ruler had already accused Rodríguez Torres years ago of acting against the revolution, and even being an agent of the CIA.

The arrest is seen as a high-risk move in view of the many years Rodriguez Torres served as head of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN), and presumably has in his possession evidence that could highlight the criminal activities of the Chavista regime.

“It is very likely that Rodríguez Torres will begin to leak the information that he has in his possession to use it as a tool to improve his situation,” former minister Herbert García Plaza said in Washington. “If he does not, his agony will be very long.”

Rodriguez Torres has used social media to question the regime.

The last straw for the Maduro government appears to have been when Rodríguez Torres expressed his intention to join the Frente Amplio Venezuela Libre launched by the opposition alliance MUD.

Antonio María Delgado