The country’s top court this week accused 10 legislators in the opposition-run congress of treason for participating in a failed April uprising against Maduro’s government, and security forces on Wednesday arrested the second-highest ranking legislator, Edgar Zambrano. Further arrests could cripple the functioning of the legislature, which has been a crucial part of the opposition’s strategy to unseat Maduro amid a hyperinflationary economic collapse that has fueled an exodus of millions of citizens. A senior U.S. administration official said on Friday that the U.S. government had seen its contacts with Venezuelan military officials surge since the attempted uprising.
