The regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro arrested the former interior minister and former intelligence chief, Gen. Miguel Rodriguez Torres, on Tuesday.
Videos transmitted by social networks showed how security agents were taking the general, and sources close to the situation said that Rodriguez 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 Chavez as traitors, the ruler had already accused Rodriguez 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, and presumably has in his possession evidence that could highlight the criminal activities of the Chavista regime.
"It is very likely that Rodriguez 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 Garcia 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 Rodriguez Torres expressed his intention to join the Frente Amplio Venezuela Libre launched by the opposition alliance MUD.
