CARACAS, Venezuela — A former intelligence chief in Venezuela who is one of the government’s most prominent figures turned against President Nicolás Maduro on Thursday, calling him a dictator with a corrupt inner circle that has engaged in drug trafficking and courted the militant group Hezbollah.

In interviews with The New York Times, the former intelligence chief, Hugo Carvajal, 58, who is a congressman in the governing Socialist Party, urged the military to break with the president ahead of a showdown with the opposition on Saturday over Mr. Maduro’s blockade of aid shipments on the country’s borders.

“It has been more than enough,” Mr. Carvajal said in a statement, which was also released in a video online on Thursday and addressed to Mr. Maduro. “You have killed hundreds of young people in the streets for trying to claim the rights you stole. This without even counting the dead for lack of medicines and security.”

“To the generals,” he added, “how is it that having the power to allow the entry of international humanitarian aid to our country to save lives, you would decide not to? Would you be so inhuman? So hypnotized?” </s> In a video released on social media, Hugo Carvajal, a Venezuelan congressman and a former intelligence chief in Venezuela, urged the military to reject President Nicolás Maduro. </s> The U.S. Department of the Treasury has put new sanctions on three Venezuelans and 20 entities for connections to drug trafficking.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence announced the new sanctions on Venezuela during a speech Monday at the Organization of American States in Washington.

Condemning Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro's regime, Pence said the upcoming elections in Venezuela would be a "fake election with a fake outcome," calling on Maduro to postpone them.

"Suspend this sham election. Hold real elections, give the people of Venezuela real choices" Pence said "because the Venezuelan people deserve to live in democracy once again".

The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) identified Venezuelan nationals Pedro Luis Martin Olivares (Martin), "as a significant foreign narcotics trafficker pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act)", according to a statement.

Walter Alexander Del Nogal Marquez (Del Nogal) and Mario Antonio Rodriguez Espinoza (Rodriguez) were also identified "for materially assisting in, or providing financial or technological support for or to, or providing goods or services in support of, the international narcotics trafficking activities of Martin."

“This action is in response to Martin’s extensive drug trafficking and money laundering activities. Systemic corruption and a collapse in the rule of law are defining features of Venezuela’s government,” said Secretary of the Treasury Steven T. Mnuchin, according to the statement.

“We will deny corrupt Venezuelan regime officials access to the U.S. financial system as we work with international partners to support the Venezuelan people in restoration of democracy and a return to prosperity.”

OFAC also identified 20 companies in Venezuela and Panama linked to the three men.

In January, the United States sanctioned four current or former Venezuelan officials associated with corruption or repression in Venezuela. </s> Senior ruling party official says situation under control at Paramacay military base as authorities arrest seven.

Troops in Venezuela have put down an attack on an army base near the city of Valencia, officials have said, shortly after a video surfaced of uniformed men declaring a military rebellion there.

Diosdado Cabello, the Socialist Party's deputy, said troops acted quickly on Sunday to quash the assault at the Paramacay base.

Military chiefs said the rebels, whom they described as "terrorists," were trying to steal weapons and that seven people were detained after the attack.

The armed forces "successfully repelled a paramilitary criminal terrorist attack, the 7 captured is giving information!" Rear Admiral Remigio Ceballos, head of the military's strategic operational command, said on Twitter.

The announcement came after a small group of men dressed in military fatigues, some armed with assault rifles, released a video declaring an uprising in Carabobo state, where Valencia is located.

In the video, a man identifying himself as Captain Juan Caguaripano said that any unit refusing to go along with its call for rebellion would be declared a military target.

"We demand the immediate formation of a transition government," Caguaripano said. He was flanked by about a dozen men in military uniforms.

"This is not a coup d'etat," he said. "This is a civic and military action to re-establish constitutional order. But more than that, it is to save the country from total destruction."

One witness in the area told the Reuters news agency of hearing gunshots before dawn.

The Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Venezuela has been rocked by a wave of anti-government protests in the past several months that have left more than 100 people dead.

The reported attack in Paramacay comes two days after government allies inaugurated a new legislative superbody that the opposition and dozens of countries denounced as a power grab by President Nicolas Maduro.

In its first act on Saturday the Constituent Assembly ordered the dismissal of the country's attorney general, Luisa Ortega, a vocal government critic.

The opposition is struggling to regain its footing in the face of the government's tactics and re-emergence of old, internal divisions.
United Socialist Party of Venezuela congressman and former head of the Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence Hugo Carvajal defects to the opposition, urging the military to abandon Nicolás Maduro. Carvajal says drug trafficking and corruption are commonplace in the government.