In one case, he said, Henry Rangel Silva, now the defence minister, ordered leniency for a lieutenant-colonel who had been arrested for cocaine-smuggling.
Defence Minister Henry Rangel Silva said the armed forces had identified some groups planning to cause public disturbances but said violence was "unlikely", the state news agency AVN reported.
Henry Rangel Silva, now defense minister and former intelligence chief of the Venezuelan Army, said in a newspaper interview that the military would not accept an opposition victory in the October, 2012 election.