May 12 (UPI) -- United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said the U.S. capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro came partially as a result of "major complicity" within his country's power structure.
That statement prompted a formal protest from the government of interim President Delcy Rodríguez.
Speaking Monday at a news conference in Nairobi after a new U.N. office opened, Guterres said the Jan. 3 military operation in which Maduro was captured would not have been possible without fractures in loyalty inside Venezuela's political system.
Asked whether a similar military intervention scenario could occur in Cuba, Guterres rejected the comparison, pointing to what he described as the erosion of trust within Venezuela's ruling socialist movement, known as Chavismo.
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