‘I demand proof of life for my husband,’ says wife of captured Venezuelan rebel officer

The wife of retired Venezuelan National Guard Col. Oswaldo García Palomo, who was captured by the Nicolás Maduro regime’s secret police, says she fears he’s being tortured and wants him to be shown in public and be allowed to meet with this lawyers.

García Palomo has not been seen since he was arrested over the weekend. The regime has described him as one of the most dangerous rebel officers because of his alleged participation in several plots to topple or assassinate Maduro.

“I demand proof of life for my husband. It’s been 72 hours since his kidnapping by DGCIM,” or military counterintelligence, his wife, Sorbay Padilla, told el Nuevo Herald in a brief telephone interview Thursday.

“I fear for his life, for his safety, for his physical integrity, for his mental health, for what they could be doing to him right now in torture centers,” said Padilla, who has received no information about her husband since his arrest.

She added that her husband’s attorneys have been waiting for García Palomo to appear before a judge, which should have already happened under Venezuelan law.

Padilla and other members of the García Palomo family were arrested and tortured some months back as government security agents tried to capture the fugitive colonel, relatives said.

García Palomo was one of the regime’s most wanted men because his organization coordinated an attempt to topple Maduro last year by commanders of some of the most powerfully armed battalions in the country.

That plot failed because of a betrayal by one of the participants. Venezuelan exiles close to the colonel said his recent capture was also due to a betrayal.

“He trusted a general, and they made plans to meet, and the (general) wound up handing him over to the regime,” said one of his supporters.

Voice messages left for him on the day of his arrest showed that an aide to the general sent him instructions to meet along a highway in the state of Barinas. The last message was sent when the colonel arrived.

Supporters later managed to confirm that he was in the hands of military counterintelligence, repeatedly accused of systematically torturing Maduro opponents.

Interior Minister Néstor Reverol confirmed García Palomo’s arrest Thursday but gave a different version of the capture, claiming it took place before dawn Thursday.

“The evidence, telephone analysis and interrogations led intelligence agencies before dawn this morning to capture retired Col. Oswaldo García Palomo, alias Aquiles, 54 years old, wanted for attempted magnicide (assassination of a national leader) treason, instigation to rebellion and attack on a guard of a military installation,” Reverol said.

He added that the vehicle carrying García Palomo also carried José Acevedo Montañez, 57, and Antonio José Iabechela, 55.

The minister said government agents detected García Palomo’s presence in Venezuela because of messages published in social networks by retired Gen. Antonio Rivero González and a story published Tuesday by el Nuevo Herald.

García Palomo confirmed during an interview with el Nuevo Herald in August that his organization had tried to coordinate a military revolt against Maduro in May, but insisted that he played no role in an attempt to assassinate him with an explosives-carrying drone.

He said he had been consulted about the operation, but distanced himself because he thought it was a bad idea.

“I had warned them … Kill Maduro, and then what? That was an isolated action that would have only pushed the whole world to turn and start accusing those of us who are fighting for democracy in Venezuela of being murderers and butchers,” he said.

The interview was done on Skype, and he said he was somewhere in Colombia.

“The whole world would have condemned that attack and we would have lost everything we have been doing, leaving the way open for (regime No. 2) Diosdado Cabello to go after anyone, and no one could have done or said anything because ‘his president’ had been killed,” he said.

“Maduro is not president. He is an illegitimate occupier of the job,” he added. “But in any case the world would have seen it as a magnicide.”