I'm John Batchelor, Mary Anastasia O'Grady, the America's columnist for the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal,

observing the tragedy in Venezuela, and one particular neighborhood that is unusually flattened and collapsed

in the twin earthquakes. It struck a troubled country. However, Mary, a very good evening to you.

Begin your excellent column with a mystery.

Why would a member of the cabinet, a senior member of the cabinet, a man who is in charge of

the guns, a man who has been indicted for narco-terrorism and yet remains in Venezuela

and part of the Rodriguez cabinet that is blessed by the Washington and the Trump administration,

why would he prevent a rescue worker from digging in rubble and perhaps helping somebody who's

still buried? It's a wonderful mystery, Mary. Who is he? And good evening to you, Mary.

Well, good evening, John. I think maybe your listeners are familiar with the name Diazdao Covello,

because his name has been in the press a lot since President Trump sent the U.S. military

to remove Nicholas Maduro as the dictator of Venezuela.

You know, he replaced Maduro with somebody called Delci Rodriguez.

She was the deputy dictator, and now she's the top dictator.

And so Trump kept her there.

But there's this other guy called the Estado Cabello, who's the interior minister.

That's not in charge of the national parks like it is here. That's the guy who really runs state security. And this guy also happens to

run a good part of the military, the paramilitary, that they call the collectivos, who are enforcers of the regime.

And he was caught on camera last week, turning away an American rescue worker who was saying to him,

I'm trying to get to somebody over there who's a victim of the earthquake who needs our help,

and we're trying

to reach him. And Cabeo said, no, you have to go away, you have to go away. And of course,

...