Maduro’s ex-spy chief lands in US
anthony Faiola (c) 2019, BY The Washington Post Jun 25, 2019 -
BOGOTA, Colombia - In a palace said to be filled with plotters, turncoats and thieves, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro could count on the loyalty of at least one man: Gen. Manuel Ricardo Cristopher Figuera.
The muscular 55-year-old was one of the revolution’s true believers, having spent a decade as security chief for the late Hugo Chavez, the father of Venezuela’s socialist state and Maduro’s mentor. He studied the art of intelligence with the masters in communist Cuba. He reached the zenith of his power in October with his appointment as head of Maduro’s intelligence police -the feared SEBIN.
And yet, when the U.s.-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido announced his uprising April 30 to oust Maduro, Figuera emerged as a surprise conspirator -and, as the uprising failed, a man suddenly sprinting for his life into the hands of U.S. operatives in neighbouring Colombia.
After nearly two months in hiding here in the Colombian capital, protected around the clock by a security detail, Figuera arrived in the United States on Monday, armed with allegations about Maduro’s government: the illicit gold deals. The Hezbollah cells working in Venezuela. The extent of Cuban influence inside Maduro’s Miraflores Palace.the opposition and the Americans have celebrated a measure of victory with the defection of Figuera - evidence, they say, that they have been effective and their effort remains viable even after the collapse of the uprising.
But as head of the SEBIN, Figuera ran an agency accused of arbitrary detentions and torture. He was one of five senior Venezuelan officials placed under sanctions by the Trump administration in February. His wooing indicates the moral trade-offs Maduro’s opponents have been willing to make in the effort to remove him.