Source: Bloomberg

A fugitive Venezuelan colonel said his band of retired and active officers seeking to oust President Nicolas Maduro is stepping up its efforts, making more public appeals and contacting regional governments for support.

Colonel Oswaldo Garcia Palomo, 54, who retired from the national guard and lives clandestinely abroad, in recent weeks has been issuing calls to the Venezuelan military to rise up. In an interview, he claimed responsibility for past rebellion attempts, and he detailed efforts to promote an insurrection to end the hyperinflation, corruption, hunger and lawlessness overseen by the socialist government.

“Our colleagues in Venezuela need to know that we’re working every day to combine international and national forces, and remove the government through the use of arms so the country doesn’t continue to bleed out and die,” he told Bloomberg News. The interview took place outside Venezuela; Bloomberg doesn’t know his current whereabouts.

Opposition Nexus

Garcia was among scores of officers and special-forces troops across all four branches of the Venezuelan armed forces who launched a failed coup this year. He is wanted for that and other attempted uprisings, and is accused of participating in a plot to assassinate Maduro with drones packed with explosives. The government has said he’s an interlocutor for dissident groups with Colombia and the U.S. Garcia doesn’t deny that, although he said he had nothing to do with the drone attack.

Asked why he’s raising his public profile and speaking on the record, he said it’s to spread the word and stir public opinion. “The way we see it, this is part of the war,” he said, adding that he considers Venezuela to be run by a criminal gang, not a government.

In an audio recording he released last week, Garcia urged his fellow members of the military to “assume responsibility before your family, God, the law, your country and the rest of the world.”

Seeking Reinforcements

Garcia said his pitch to other governments is that Venezuela is now their problem, too, because more than 3 million Venezuelans have fled, many to Colombia, Brazil and other South American countries, shaking the region’s stability.

“We have to make our neighbors and the world understand that Venezuela is no longer a threat only to Venezuelans,” he said.

It’s far from clear how much support Garcia and his allies have amid a continuing crackdown on the armed forces and distrust among insurgent groups. According to the Coalition for Human Rights and Democracy, a Caracas legal group, some 162 members of the military are behind bars for political reasons.

Garcia declined to say which countries might be backing his group, but said it was making inroads with what he called friendly governments. He noted that Venezuela’s most important neighbors, Colombia and Brazil, have recently elected conservatives opposed to Maduro’s rule.

Asked about efforts by Venezuelan rebels to solicit Brazilian support, incoming Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo declined to comment. Colombia’s foreign ministry said by email that it has no contact with any group of Venezuelan soldiers.

Sudden Fizzle

As Venezuela has plunged into dysfunction, Maduro, 56, has gone to great lengths to maintain the military’s loyalty, granting it key economic sectors, including top posts in mining and oil. He has also imposed himself over all major institutions, jailing adversaries, forcing others into exile and beating back waves of protests.

Garcia helped lead one of the most serious rebellions, known as Operation Constitution, which intended to capture Maduro and top aides on the eve of presidential elections in May. The plan was infiltrated and foiled before a bullet was fired.

In operational documents shared by Garcia, the plan was to choke off the capital, occupy highways and capture dozens of high-ranking government and military officials. Attack teams aimed to take over key military installations around Caracas as well as airports, government agencies and communication centers across the country.

Fateful Delay

Garcia, who had been living in exile, had crossed the Colombian border by foot and traveled to Caracas to help coordinate. In a meeting in a wealthy suburb, one plotter urged the group to delay, which Garcia believes was part of a double-cross.

The group held off and authorities closed in. Dozens of servicemen and -women and a few civilians were arrested; many say they were tortured. Garcia and others escaped over Venezuela’s western frontier.

“This is the boss of the assassins, who is trying to recruit soldiers for his criminal and fascist adventures," Maduro said in a televised address in August, waving a poster of Garcia apparently wearing a wig and fake mustache. The government has hung wanted posters of him in ministries and airports.

In his interview, Garcia -- sporting onyx cuff links, a spread collar and a rosary -- said his group wants to install a civilian-headed junta and eventually call elections.

Cache Seized

So far, the Maduro government appears undeterred by international pressure or economic collapse and the idea of military rebellion is being increasingly discussed in Venezuela and abroad. In February, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio wrote on Twitter, “The world would support the Armed Forces in #Venezuela if they decide to protect the people & restore democracy by removing a dictator.”

How many groups like Garcia’s exist is unknown. A military intelligence report seen by Bloomberg News said a colonel in central Venezuela was detained last month for stockpiling weapons including plastic explosives, assault rifles and a mortar.

Garcia said he began conspiring more than a decade ago when he headed intelligence for the national guard in southern Venezuela. Angry at corruption, Cuban-style indoctrination and cocaine trafficking by Colombian rebels on Venezuelan territory, he started forming alliances with other soldiers.

Claims of Torture

He said the group didn’t act until after the 2013 death of President Hugo Chavez. Garcia retired from the national guard in 2014 and began to plot an overthrow. He said he and his colleagues are in contact with members of Venezuela’s opposition to consult on plans and gauge support.

A leading opposition figure confirmed the insurgents had discussed a coup and plans for a transition. The person requested anonymity because of fear of retaliation.

Garcia has avoided arrest, but relatives have been detained and say they’ve been tortured, according to the Caracas legal group Foro Penal.

After they were released, Garcia said, he spirited them across the Colombian border this year thanks to contacts with the government of former President Juan Manuel Santos. Then, Garcia redoubled his plans for regime change.

A spokeswoman for Santos didn’t respond to requests for comment.

— With assistance by Samy Adghirni, and Fabiola Zerpa