CARACAS, Venezuela: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Venezuelan authorities Monday to quickly launch an independent investigation into the death of a navy captain who died in custody after being arrested on suspicion of plotting to assassinate President Nicolás Maduro.
Guterres is “deeply concerned” at reports of Capt. Rafael Acosta’s death, and he urged a prompt, independent investigation, said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, adding that Guterres wants the government to bring anyone responsible for his death to justice.
Venezuela’s chief prosecutor announced that two officers attached to a military intelligence agency had been arrested on homicide charges, though he made no reference to allegations of torture.
Acosta died Saturday hours after his attorney Alonso Medina Roa says his bruised and bloody client was brought to court in a wheelchair, unable to stand from intense pain and struggling to speak, covered with cuts and with bloody fingernails and black eyes. He died a short time later after a judge ordered him transferred to a military hospital.
The government says that Acosta and five other members of the armed forces or judicial police planned to launch an operation on June 23 to kill Maduro and other top officials, including first lady Cilia Flores and socialist party boss Diosdado Cabello.
A manhunt is underway for eight other men suspected in the plot, officials say. Security forces arrested Acosta on June 21 on the outskirts of Caracas, Medina Roa said, adding that his client was healthy at the time.
Acosta’s wife, Waleska de Acosta, has denied he planned to kill the president, while acknowledging that her husband opposed Maduro. She and her husband have two children aged 4 and 12, de Acosta said.
The death has drawn condemnation from the United States and several other nations as well as opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who renewed calls on the military to reject Maduro and join his movement to oust the socialist president.
Acosta’s death follows a recent visit to Venezuela by Michelle Bachelet, the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights. Bachelet concluded her three-day trip calling on the government to free all those detained for “exercising their civil and political rights in a peaceful manner.”
Bachelet expanded on Guterres’ comments in her own statement Monday, saying she was “shocked” by allegations of torture, which may have been the cause of Acosta’s death.
“I remind the Venezuelan authorities that they are responsible for the life, and the physical and psychological integrity of all people deprived of their liberty,” Bachelet said. “Structural measures should also be urgently adopted to prevent the recurrence of torture and other ill-treatment of people held in custody by the State.”
Bachelet urged authorities to let attorneys and relatives visit six others arrested in the case to ensure they are treated with “humanity and dignity” and are “protected from torture and other forms of ill-treatment.”
She said two members of the Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence, the agency that had Acosta in custody, have been charged on suspicion of first-degree murder. But she “regretted” that torture allegations didn’t appear to be included in the charges.
Venezuela’s chief prosecutor, Tarek William Saab, has said that Maduro ordered an exhaustive probe into the death.
Saab later identified the two men arrested on homicide charges as Sgt. Estiben José Zárate and Lt. Antonio Ascanio, both members of the Bolivarian National Guard attached to the intelligence agency. The prosecutor said a preliminary investigation linked the men to the “regrettable” act.
Meanwhile, Minister of Foreign Affairs Jorge Arreaza said Venezuela is in talks with Germany to restore diplomatic relations nearly four months after Maduro declared German Ambassador Daniel Kieser a “persona non grata” for backing Guaidó and ejected him from the country.
Germany is among some 50 nations that back Guaidó as Venezuela’s legitimate leader. Kieser was thrown out after meeting with Guaidó at the airport near Caracas in March with other foreign diplomats to prevent his arrest for leaving the country against a court order.
The German Embassy in Caracas did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment.
Death of Venezuelan navy captain draws eye of UN watchdog
Death of Venezuelan navy captain draws eye of UN watchdog
- Venezuela’s chief prosecutor, Tarek William Saab, has said that Maduro ordered an exhaustive probe into the death
Trump calls for one year cap on credit card interest rates at 10 percent
- Trump says Americans have been ‘ripped off’ by credit card companies
- Lawmakers from both parties have raised concerns about rates
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Friday he was calling for a one-year cap on credit card interest rates at 10 percent starting on January 20 but he did not provide details on how his plan will come to fruition or how he planned to make companies comply.
Trump also made the pledge during the campaign for the 2024 election that he won but analysts dismissed it at the time saying that such a step required congressional approval.
Lawmakers from both the Democratic and Republican Parties have raised concerns about high rates and have called for those to be addressed. Republicans currently hold a narrow majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
There have been some legislative efforts in Congress to pursue such a proposal but they are yet to become law and in his post Trump did not offer explicit support to any specific bill.
Opposition lawmakers have criticized Trump, a Republican, for not having delivered on his campaign pledge.
“Effective January 20, 2026, I, as President of the United States, am calling for a one year cap on Credit Card Interest Rates of 10 percent,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, without providing more details.
“Please be informed that we will no longer let the American Public be ‘ripped off’ by Credit Card Companies,” Trump added.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on details of the call from Trump, but said on social media without elaborating that the president was capping the rates.
Some major US banks and credit card issuers like American Express, Capital One Financial Corp, JPMorgan , Citigroup and Bank of America did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
US Senator Bernie Sanders, a fierce Trump critic, and Senator Josh Hawley, who belongs to Trump’s Republican Party, have previously introduced bipartisan legislation aimed at capping credit card interest rates at 10 percent for five years. This bill explicitly directs credit card companies to limit rates as part of broader consumer relief legislation.
Democratic US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Republican Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna have also introduced a House of Representatives bill to cap credit card interest rates at 10 percent, reflecting cross-aisle interest in addressing high rates.
Billionaire fund manager Bill Ackman, who endorsed Trump in the last elections, said the US president’s call was a “mistake.”
“This is a mistake,” Ackman wrote on X.
“Without being able to charge rates adequate enough to cover losses and earn an adequate return on equity, credit card lenders will cancel cards for millions of consumers who will have to turn to loan sharks for credit at rates higher than and on terms inferior to what they previously paid.”
Last year, the Trump administration moved to scrap a credit card late fee rule from the era of former President Joe Biden.
The Trump administration had asked a federal court to throw out a regulation capping credit card late fees at $8, saying it agreed with business and banking groups that alleged the rule was illegal. A federal judge subsequently threw out the rule.
