The head of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s intelligence police, Gen. Manuel Ricardo Cristopher Figuera, arrived to the U.S. after taking part in an alleged plan to overthrow Maduro—which the U.S. was aware of. According to The Washington Post, Figuera had been part of a plan that aimed to flip the country’s supreme court chief justice—who would issue a ruling that would return control to the “opposition-controlled National Assembly” and push Maduro out. Sources told the Post officials in D.C. were “informed” of the plot’s progress and “offered regular advice” to those conducting the plan. “I’m proud of what I did. For now, the regime has gotten ahead of us. But that can quickly change.” Figuera said. “I thought I would be able to make Maduro see sense. I couldn’t.”
After the uprising failed, Figuera reportedly fled to Colombia and arrived in the U.S. on Monday. He alleges seeing the extent of corruption from his top post—including a money laundering operation tied to the then-Vice President Tareck El Aissami. Figuera also said he investigated a company tied to Maduro’s son which sold gold at higher prices to Venezuela’s central bank, and claimed Hezbollah had cells in the country running illicit business operations to “help fund operations in the Middle East.”
Read it at The Washington Post
