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Ex-Venezuela Spy Chief Says Maduro Ordered Illegal Arrests

Associated Press

   Cruising around Caracas in a convoy with five cellphones full of
   valuable contacts, Gen. Manuel Cristopher Figuera displayed trappings
   that befitted his reputation as a loyal soldier who rose from an
   upbringing in a dirt-floored hut to become Venezuela's spy chief.

   But as President Nicolas Maduro began to lean on the brawny 55-year-old
   to do his dirty work -- in Cristopher Figuera's telling, ordering him
   to jail opponents and victims of torture -- the Cuban and
   Belarusian-trained intelligence officer gradually lost faith. In a show
   of nerve, he betrayed the leader he met with almost daily and secretly
   plotted to launch a military uprising that he said came close to
   ousting Maduro.

   Now one of the most prominent defectors in two decades of socialist
   rule in Venezuela has come to Washington seeking revenge against his
   former boss. He is looking to help the same U.S. "empire" he was taught
   to hate investigate human-rights violations and corruption. On Tuesday,
   he met with the U.S. special envoy to Venezuela, Elliott Abrams.

   It's unclear whether Cristopher Figuera still has influence inside the
   government and can collect evidence against his former comrades. But
   he's talking a big game.

   "I'm like a soldier who raises the flag upside-down to signal
   distress," Cristopher Figuera told The Associated Press. "My mission is
   to seek help to free my country from disgrace."

   In a daylong interview from the presidential suite of a Washington
   hotel, Cristopher Figuera for the first time provided details of what
   he said was Maduro's personal commissioning of abuses, including
   arbitrary detentions and the planting of evidence against opponents.
   The allegations, which the AP was unable to verify, come as scrutiny of
   the Maduro government's human rights record intensifies. A naval
   officer died in state custody last week with apparent signs of torture.
   His death came ahead of the release Friday of a report by a United
   Nations fact-finding mission.

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