Two very dangerous men, both under indictment in the U.S., rule Venezuelans and the current leader, with ruthlessly enforced intimidation tactics. Currently signaling cooperation with U.S, but…
-–
When Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez gave a speech condemning the U.S. capture of Nicolás Maduro, she was accompanied by two men who can make or break the regime’s future.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino command Venezuela’s police and military, the forces that kept Maduro in power for more than a decade with deadly crackdowns on dissent.
…
“Those are the two guys who control Venezuela right now,” Naranjo said.
“In Venezuela’s storied history, the military has been responsible every single time for the elimination of democracy and the restoration of democracy,” he said. “They hold the ultimate vote.”
For now, Cabello and Padrino appear to be playing ball after the large-scale strike that took out Maduro’s personal security apparatus and led to his capture, along with his wife, Cilia Flores….
… their continued hold on power is one reason people in Venezuela say they haven’t celebrated the downfall of Maduro, who was widely unpopular.
“People are still terrified because they are still in charge,” said Douglas Farah…
Cabello and Padrino have been indicted in the U.S. on drug smuggling charges.The U.S. has offered a reward of $25 million for information leading to Cabello’s arrest and/or conviction and $15 million for Padrino.
Along with Maduro, Cabello and Padrino are accused of being the leaders of a drug trafficking network of senior military officials called the Cartel de los Soles, or Cartel of the Suns, which the Trump administration has labeled a foreign-terrorist organization.
Cabello, the 63-year-old who has long been seen as Maduro’s enforcer, was one of the first senior officials to appear publicly after U.S. commandos arrested Maduro on Saturday. …
Both men have military backgrounds, but took different paths to power.
Cabellohas been a crucial link between the regime’s civilians and the military. As a teenager, he was a member of a far-left group called the Bandera Roja, or Red Flag. Later, he became an early follower of Chávez. He was jailed after participating in Chávez’s failed 1992 military coup.
After Chávez took power and was briefly ousted in 2002, Cabello rallied Venezuelan soldiers to help bring Chávez back to power.
Under Maduro, Cabello was largely seen as the second most powerful man in Venezuela. He is known for his rants against political rivals and the U.S. on his state television nighttime show, “Hitting It With a Sledgehammer,” where he holds a spiked club.
He oversees paramilitary units on motorbikes, a tool used by the regime to crush protests. Chilean prosecutors call him the mastermind behind the 2024 kidnapping and murder of an exiled Venezuelan military dissident living in that country. Cabello has denied involvement in the killing.
Padrino,a four-star general whose parents named him after Vladimir Lenin, became a follower of Chávez only after he took power in 1999 and began installing loyalists in the military and purging it of dissenters.
In his early years, Padrino was sent to theU.S. for infantry training at Fort Benning, Ga., which he said provided insight into American culture, what he called “the monster in its entrails.”
….
As the head of the military since 2014, Padrino kept soldiers in line for Maduro amid several attempts by the opposition to foment a coup.
While Cabello is a more hard-line nationalist, Padrino had closer ties with Cuba and Russia, said Martin Rodil, a Venezuelan who has helped U.S. officials build criminal cases against Maduro and other regime officials.
“He’s more ideological,” said Rodil. “Russian intelligence has been supporting him in his job to control the Venezuelan armed forces, with technology, training and other activities.”
Under Maduro, Padrino’s power derived not just from his position with the military but also from his control over social programs and ports. Padrino also oversaw the military as it expanded its reach into illegal activities such as fuel smuggling, illegal gold mining and cocaine trafficking, which helped Maduro maintain power as the economy collapsed, according to U.S. officials.
“By allowing them to more openly engage in illegal activities, he was kind of buying stability in the ranks, in allowing those ill-gotten earnings to lubricate the military,” said Naranjo, the former U.S. diplomat.
Write to Ryan Dubé at ryan.dube@wsj.com
https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/international-relations/ar-AA1TB0Aa