A conclave of the ruling Socialist party invoked the example of the late Hugo Chávez, but a high-profile defection has left questions about the extent of the conspiracy

A portrait of the “eternal comandante” Hugo Chávez eyeballs delegates from behind the reception desk as they stream into the hotel conference room in downtown Caracas.

Inside, the great and good of the Socialist party Chávez once led are locked in debate about the future of Chavismo – a political movement shaken to its core by Venezuela’s failed uprising last week – and the involvement of at least one member of Nicolás Maduro’s inner circle.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tania Díaz, the vice-president of Venezuela’s all-powerful constituent assembly. Photograph: Tom Phillips/The Guardian

“They will try to divide us. They will spread rumours,” Tania Díaz, the vice-president of the all-powerful constituent assembly, warned of the revolution’s North American foes as she entered the plenary sporting a bright-red T-shirt stamped with Hugo Chávez’s eyes. “It will not work … Comandante Chávez taught us that with every aggression we must deepen the revolution.”

The three-day “dialogue and rectification” conclave this week, was an opportunity to plot a course through potentially turbulent days ahead and pledge public fealty to Maduro as he fights for his political life.

Some Chavista loyalists came in shirts emblazoned with the words “Absolute Loyalty” or the “M” of Maduro. Others roamed the hotel lobby clutching propaganda newspapers bearing the headline “Trump not today!” or shouting: “Viva Chávez! Viva Maduro! Always loyal! Never traitors!”

Yelitze Santaella, the Chavista governor of Monagas state, claimed the failed rebellion had reinvigorated her party. “Today we have ratified – at every level of the party structure – our overwhelming support and dedication to our president, Nicolás Maduro,” she enthused.

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Santaella recognised the botched mutiny had enjoyed “the involvement of some important actors who held important government positions of great confidence to the president” – foremost among them Venezuela’s spy chief, Manuel Ricardo Cristopher Figuera.

But the plotters had failed. “And they will die as traitors,” Santaella declared. “We are not made of betrayal.”

Pedro Carreño, another Socialist party grandee, was also bullish, claiming the failed revolt had helped purify the revolution’s ranks.

Traitors to the Chavista cause would “be swept aside, like rubbish on the riverbed, allowing the clear and crystalline waters” of revolution to advance.

“How brainless. What an idiot,” Carreño scoffed of Figuera’s decision to defect.

For all that public show of grit and devotion, insiders and observers believe a frantic search for answers – and culprits – is now under way as Maduro scrambles to understand what happened last week – and if it could happen again.

Many in Caracas suspect the plot to remove Maduro – while initially unsuccessful – has not yet fully played out and believe his authority may have been mortally wounded by last week’s events.

“I would be scared shitless if my head of intelligence pulled this on me,” said Moisés Naím, Venezuela’s trade minister in the pre-Chávez era. “My first question would be: ‘Who else is compromised and who can I trust?’”

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One source with access to the upper echelons of Maduro’s administration detected surprise and alarm that a figure as powerful as Figuera had been part of the opposition leader Juan Guaidó’s conspiracy.

“They don’t yet understand whether this is a chink, a crack or a crater” within the military, the source said.

A major interrogation campaign was now under way – primarily focusing on the military – to root out other conspirators and gauge how far the rot had spread.

On Wednesday night, Edgar Zambrano, the vice president of Venezuela’s opposition-run parliament, was detained by intelligence agents who transported him to the notorious political prison El Helicoide inside his vehicle after he refused to get out.

“They are worried about what the armed forces might do,” the source added, before predicting: “I think we will see a lot of things happening [in the coming days]. Great instability. Great uncertainty.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Yelitze Santaella, left, the Chavista governor of Monagas state, at this week’s conference. Photograph: Tom Phillips/The Guardian

Even at the Chavista war council there were flickers of recognition that Guaidó’s failed insurrection had exposed deep problems.

Party veteran Luis Reyes Reyes, who took part in the failed 1992 coup attempt that catapulted Chávez to fame, claimed he had never seen Venezuela’s armed forces as united as they now were.

“There might be discontent in some sectors and among some comrades. But the majority … is loyal – 100% loyal – to President Maduro,” he said.

But Reyes also voiced shock that Figuera – with whom he worked under Chávez – had jumped ship and perplexity over what made him “commit this folly”.

“Of course I was surprised by the general’s actions because I thought highly of him,” he said.

“He should have shown his face rather than jumping on a plane to Puerto Rico, which is what people are saying.”

Díaz, the constituent assembly vice-president, brushed off reports that the head of Venezuela’s supreme court and defense minister had also been plotting and claimed the rebellion had shown Chavismo to be “a cohesive force”. “The only way Guaidó will ever become Venezuela’s president … will be on top of a US army tank,” she insisted.

Others are more cautious. Speaking on state television on Tuesday another party bigwig, Freddy Bernal, warned Chavistas it was too early to claim victory: “There could be a repeat – today, in two hours, in a week, in a fortnight.”

As the crisis summit wrapped up and hundreds of delegates poured out of the hotel towards a profoundly uncertain future, Carreño held court near the entrance.

“Maduro was elected president until 2025 and he will remain in the presidency until 2025 … It is the unconquerable will of the Venezuela people,” he maintained, skewering the reactionary imperial “lice and gold diggers” he alleged were behind last week’s fruitless assault.

“The 30th April … was a demonstration that our armed forces are Bolivarian, revolutionary and nationalistic,” Carreño insisted.

For how much longer, nobody knows.