Venezuela’s interim leader sacks general in charge of Maduro’s guard

The general in command of Venezuela’s presidential honour guard, Javier Marcano Tábata, has been sacked days after Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro was seized by US forces in a raid in Caracas and taken to New York to stand trial on narco-terrorism charges.

The presidential honour guard is the military force which provides the bodyguards tasked with protecting the head of state.

While the Venezuelan government has not yet provided a detailed breakdown of casualties, members of the guard are thought to be among the dozens of people killed in the US operation to seize Maduro.

The order to replace Gen Marcano Tábata was issued by the new interim president, Delcy Rodríguez.

The sacking of Gen Marcano Tábata is one of the first changes to senior officials in her inner circle.

As well as being in charge of the presidential guard, Gen Marcano Tábata also led Venezuela’s military counterintelligence unit DGCIM.

The DGCIM has played a key role in the repression of people critical of the Maduro government, according to the United Nations.

A UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission found that the counter-intelligence unit had committed myriad human rights violations since 2013.

It documented scores of cases in which those detained were subjected to “torture, sexual violence and/or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment” in the DGCIM headquarters and a network of covert detention centres across the country

However, his sacking does not appear to be related to the repression carried out by the DGCIM under his helm as the man she has appointed to succeed him headed an intelligence service which faces similar accusations.

Gustavo González López was in charge of Venezuela’s national intelligence service, Sebin for many years.

The Sebin controls the notorious Helicoide prison in Caracas, where the UN documented abuses being carried out against “opposition politicians, journalists, protesters, and human rights defenders”.