Former US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Roger F. Noriega, published on Tuesday an Op-Ed in Forbes in which he harshly criticized the arrest of former governor of the state of Zulia and former presidential candidate Oswaldo Álvarez Paz. Noriega described the detention as a "desperate" action from a "traitor," apparently referring to President Hugo Chávez Frías.

Noriega, who was also US ambassador to the Organization of American States (2001-2003) under President George W. Bush, said that Chávez's supporters and Cuban agents probably began to plot the statesman's arrest the moment Álvarez Paz published an article in which he denounced the surrender of Venezuelan sovereignty and mentioned the presence in his country of Cuban adviser Ramiro Valdez as part of the betrayal.

Noriega considers that the detention of Álvarez Paz could be directly related to the "ideal manifesto of the democratic opposition's campaign for the national assembly elections" wrote by the opposition leader.