Venezuela's Maduro says ex-intelligence chief helped plan 'coup'

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Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Friday called his former intelligence chief Manuel Cristopher a "traitor" and said he had helped plan a military uprising called for by the opposition on April 30, which Maduro described as a "coup."

In a speech broadcast on state television, Maduro said he had full confidence in Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino and Supreme Court chief Maikel Moreno, who U.S. officials said had been in talks with the opposition about plans to oust Maduro.

The former director of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN) fled and in spite of organizing the movement, he "was not capable of going to the site where he ordered the coup in Altamira, he did not show up, he left his troops alone," said Maduro.

He said that investigations confirmed that the former SEBIN director had been recruited by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Local residents outside the National Assembly building in Caracas, Venezuela, May 10, 2019. /Reuters Photo

General Gustavo Gonzalez Lopez has been appointed as the director of SEBIN.

The former intelligence chief had been sanctioned by the United States for belonging to SEBIN, an agency claimed by Washington as part of a "torture center." However, days after the failed coup, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence announced the withdrawal of the sanctions.

(Cover: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro walks next to Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez and military members during his visit to a military training center in El Pao, Venezuela, May 4, 2019. /Reuters Photo)

(With inputs from Xinhua and Reuters)