The general in command of Venezuela's presidential honour guard, Javier Marcano Tábata, has been sacked days after Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro was seized by US forces in a raid in Caracas and taken to New York to stand trial on narco-terrorism charges.
The presidential honour guard is the military force which provides the bodyguards tasked with protecting the head of state.
While the Venezuelan government has not yet provided a detailed breakdown of casualties, members of the guard are thought to be among the dozens of people killed in the US operation to seize Maduro.
The order to replace Gen Marcano Tábata was issued by the new interim president, Delcy Rodríguez.
Rodríguez was sworn in by the National Assembly, which is dominated by government loyalists, on Monday. She served as Maduro's vice-president and is considered to be a close ally of the jailed leader.
US President Donald Trump said in the news conference following Maduro's seizure that the United States would run Venezuela and that the US was talking to Rodríguez.
He also threatened that Rodríguez would face a fate worse than Maduro's if she did not comply with US demands, including those for oil, of which Venezuela has the world's largest proven reserves.
On Tuesday, the US president said that Venezuela would be turning over up to 50 million barrels of oil to the US, but Venezuela's interim government has yet to comment on that statement.
Rodríguez's tone has been alternating between defiant and conciliatory since she was designated interim president by Venezuela's Supreme Court.
She denounced the seizure of Maduro as an illegal kidnapping but has also said that her government had invited the US government to work together on an agenda of co-operation.
Her actions are being watched closely both inside and outside of Venezuela to gauge what course she may steer now that she is in charge of the country and for signs of any potential rifts in her government.
The sacking of Gen Marcano Tábata is one of the first changes to senior officials in her inner circle.
As well as being in charge of the presidential guard, Gen Marcano Tábata also led Venezuela's military counterintelligence unit DGCIM.
The DGCIM has played a key role in the repression of people critical of the Maduro government, according to the United Nations.
A UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission found that the counterintelligence unit had committed myriad human rights violations since 2013.
However, his sacking does not appear to be related to the repression carried out by the DGCIM under his helm as the man she has appointed to succeed him headed an intelligence service which faces similar accusations.
Venezuelan analysts think that Gen Marcano Tábata's dismissal is more likely to be related to the failure of the presidential honour guard to prevent the seizure of Maduro.
Replacing Marcano Tábata could be an attempt by the interim president to surround herself with people she trusts at a time when the threat of another US strike hangs over her.
President Trump stated that US forces had prepared a second wave of strikes but deemed it not necessary at the time.
Rodríguez is not the only one in the interim government who could be targeted in a second strike.
