Venezuelan general flees

A VENEZUELAN general who is under US sanction for incompetent management of a state medicine programme has fled to Colombia amid growing pressure on President Nicolas Maduro, two sources said yesterday.

The US last year sanctioned army General Carlos Rotondaro, former head of a government agency that provided medicine for chronic health conditions, as part of efforts to “highlight the economic mismanagement and endemic corruption” by Maduro’s government.

Rotondaro has apparently left for Colombia and joined forces with former Venezuelan chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega, who is working to have Maduro removed from office.

High-ranking military officers are seen as crucial to keeping Maduro in power in the face of a hyperinflationary economic collapse that has fuelled hunger and disease and led to an exodus of 3 million people.

Maduro says the country is the victim of an “economic war”.

Western nations have disavowed his government in favour of Juan Guaido, head of Congress, who invoked the constitution to assume the interim presidency in January.