Cocaine, Payola: How Maduro Keeps Top Military Brass in Line
- Armed forces leaders know that ‘if Maduro falls, they fall’
- Juan Guaido faces uphill climb to persuade them to defect
Vladimir Padrino is Venezuela’s defense minister. Gerardo Rangel is a major general in the army. Nestor Reverol is a former National Guard commander who oversees the Interior and Justice Ministry.
They are also, according to the U.S. Treasury, drug runners and graft-schemers who operate within the criminal enterprise that is the Nicolas Maduro regime.