Rogue Venezuelan officers who kidnapped officials and stole weapons have been captured, government says
- Protesters burned rubbish and a car outside the National Guard outpost where the officers were arrested for kidnapping and stealing weapons
Venezuela has captured a group of military officers who stole weapons and kidnapped four officials, the government said in a statement on Monday, hours after a social media video showed a sergeant demanding the removal of President Nicolas Maduro.
Protesters burned trash and a car outside the National Guard outpost where the officers were arrested in a sign of growing tensions following Maduro’s inauguration to a second term that governments around the world have called illegitimate.
Though the incident signals discontent within the armed forces, it appeared to involve only low-ranking officers with little capacity to force change in the hyperinflationary economy as many people suffer from shortages of food and medicine.
“The armed forces categorically reject this type of action, which is most certainly motivated by the dark interests of the extreme right,” the government said in a statement read out on state television.
Maduro was inaugurated on January 10 under criticism his leadership was illegitimate following a 2018 election viewed by some as fraudulent.