MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Opposition leader claims “fractures” within the Venezuela Armed Forces

“The conflict today is within the government — not just at the political level, but more importantly within the armed forces,” Borges said in an interview in Bogotá

An exiled opposition leader accused by Venezuelan authorities of directing a failed plot to assassinate President Nicolás Maduro says the greatest threat to the embattled socialist leader may be his detractors in uniform standing quietly behind him.

 Julio Borges, who once led Venezuela's opposition-controlled National Assembly, said that the arrests of two high-ranking military officers in connection with the attack using drones loaded with plastic explosives is yet another signal that fractures within the nation's armed forces are growing.

“The conflict today is within the government — not just at the political level, but more importantly within the armed forces,” Borges said in an interview in Bogotá.

His comments came after Venezuela's chief prosecutor announced the arrest of Gen. Alejandro Perez and Col. Pedro Zambrano from Venezuela's National Guard as part of the investigation into the August 4 attack. Their alleged roles were not described. Authorities said they have arrested 14 people so far while Borges and other alleged conspirators are being sought.

Maduro has accused Borges of plotting with others to train anti-government saboteurs in Colombia and transport the drones and explosives used in the attack across the border into Venezuela. Borges, who fled to Colombia with his family following the breakdown of negotiations with the government this year, said he had no prior knowledge of the plot. “Not at all,” he said in his simple, bare office in a drab building in Bogotá.

Almost from the moment the attack took place, Venezuela's opposition has warned that Maduro would use the incident to intensify a crackdown on his opponents as the government seeks to clamp down discontent over the country's imploding economy. In the past week, the number of suspects and detainees has nearly doubled.

Since taking over Venezuela's presidency in 2013 following the death of Hugo Chavez, Maduro has sought to maintain the loyalty of the armed forces by awarding troops outsized bonuses and bestowing officers with top government posts. With Venezuela reeling economically, and its oil production collapsed to levels unseen since the 1940s, that support has become even more important.

Maduro and top military commanders dispute the idea that dissention is growing in the armed forces, but analysts say discontent has been brewing among rank-and-file soldiers, many of whom now need to find second jobs in order to put food on their families' tables.

“Maduro is facing a divorce with the armed forces, which is apparent in the various rebellions that have taken place in recent months,” Borges said. “That's opened a road which is irreversible.”

The drone incident was not the first attack targeting Maduro's government. Rogue police officer Oscar Perez stole a helicopter and flew it over the capital in June 2017, launching grenades at the Supreme Court building. He and several comrades died in a gun battle with police after months on the run. A year ago, a small band of armed men assaulted an important military base.

Attorney Alonso Medina Roa said 154 members of the military have been detained in recent months as discontent and instability escalates within the armed forces.