Chavismo ordered the arrest of an Infobae journalist and other people for alleged “plots” against Nicolás Maduro

The Chavista regime ordered the arrest of 32 people, including civilians and soldiers. And those who could not be detained, because for example they had to flee the country, are Infobae journalist Sebastiana Barráez, specializing in military affairs.

The Venezuelan dictatorship accuses them of “treason” and denounces five alleged “plots” to “assassinate President Nicolás Maduro with the support of the United States”.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office, dominated by the regime, reported this on Monday.

“All prisoners were convicted, confessed and revealed information“There will be no legal action against any of these individuals.”

In dialogue with Clarionthe director of the Infobae World column, Laureano Pérez Izquierdo, told Sebastiana “They have been persecuting her for a long time during the Venezuelan dictatorship” and that’s why they took her and her daughter out of the country a few years ago. They had to do something similar with other journalists living in Nicaragua under the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega.

The journalist is in exile in a European country and their place of residence is preserved for safety. Pérez Izquierdo considered the accusations a “nonsense”, an “absolute infamy that shows that this dictatorship has not changed at all”.

Pro-government Saab detailed alleged conspiracy plans revealed throughout 2023 and early 2024, for which arrest warrants were also issued against 11 other people, including human rights activists, journalists and soldiers in exile.

Among the alleged targets of the assassination was also the Minister of Defense, General Vladimir Padrino.according to the prosecutor.

Padrino said the authorities’ operations against these plots were kept secret because they coincide with “conversations” between Maduro and the United States, which led to the release of detainees in Venezuela in the context of the easing of sanctions imposed by Washington on the country . .

The minister blamed the plans on “the Venezuelan far right”, as government spokesmen normally call the opposition, with the “support” of the CIA and DEA.

Maduro, who appears as a natural candidate of Chavismo for re-election in 2024, he often denounces conspiratorial plans to overthrow him, normally with the same people responsible: the United States, the opposition and Colombian drug traffickers.

On January 15, during the presentation of his report and account to Parliament, the president denounced the conspiracies that Saab referred to on Monday.

The first of these plots was reported in May, with 11 detainees and three search warrants, on charges of “conspiracy, treason, revealing military secrets, illicit trafficking of weapons and ammunition,” Saab said.

In the second, with three detainees, “it was established that a group of civilians and police operated in coordination with members of a foreign intelligence organization” to “access classified information relating to presidential security.”

“They always have an obsession with assassinating the head of state, President Nicolás Maduro, an obsession that doesn’t let them sleep,” the prosecutor added.

The third would have tried to make an attempt on the lives of Maduro and Padrino. There were five prisoners.

The public prosecutor specified that the fourth confirmed case – with five arrests and two wanted people – concerned “alleged espionage and terrorism activities” who sought military information “to send it to the CIA”.

The latter, Saab said, was christened the “White Bracelet” and tried to “initiate an escalation of terrorist acts to attack the life” of Maduro earlier in the year. Seven people are detained and six are wanted, including Tamara Suju, a human rights lawyer in exile in the Czech Republic, and Barráez.

A video was released in which one of the defendants links opposition leader María Corina Machado to this plan, who risks political disqualification with the aim of being a presidential candidate. His name is covered by a beep, but you can read it on the defendant’s lips.

“New arrests will come,” Saab warned, without specifically mentioning Machado.