Miguel Ricardo Cristopher Figuera, who headed the Maduro regime’s feared political police until May 1, spoke to the media for the first time today about the conditions that led to his hasty departure from the Maduro regime.
Figuera headed the Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia Nacional (National Bolivarian Intelligence Service, SEBIN) had come to the position this past October 31, when he replaced Gustavo Gonzalez Lopez.
Maduro replaced Figuera with his predecessor, just hours after SEBIN officers helped Leopoldo Lopez escape house arrest. on April 30, plunging the country into chaos for the day.
Fuigera told ALnavio that he remains loyal to Maduro, but that the president has failed to heed his advice on a number of occassions in the past.
For example, Figuera said that he advised Maduro to hold presidential elections with a new Consejo Nacional Electoral (National Electoral Council, CNE), presumably as a way to defuse the political crisis in the country. Figuera also told the publication that he asked Maduro to negotiate with the United States for a removal of the various sanctions against individuals and sectors of the Venezuelan financial and oil industries.
Figuera also said that he told Maduro that many in his inner circle are part of a “group of accomplices”, and that this group is the one that actually holds power in Venezuela, not Maduro. The former SEBIN head said that “Maduro is a good man”, and that this group manipulates him for their own benefit.
Lavrov Speaks at Meeting with Arreaza
Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov spoke today on the Venezuelan crisis after a meeting scheduled for tomorrow with his Venezuelan homologue, Jorge Arreaza, in Moscow.
On the possibility of a military intervention in Venezuela, Lavrov stressed that no such action could come without the support of the United Nations Security Council. Otherwise, “it could have catastrophic consequences for all international security”.
At the time time, Lavrov sounded optimistic that the United States would not intervene militarily in Venezuela, citing a recent telephone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Lavrov said:
At least during the telephone conversation [on Friday] with the [Russian] president, [Trump] did not manifest that goal.
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