Venezuela's military on Thursday arrested the country's former oil minister and the ex-chief of state oil company PDVSA after both men were sacked as part of an anti-corruption crackdown.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab told journalists that the former minister Eulogio del Pino and ex-PDVSA boss Nelson Martinez were picked up in a dawn operation by the country's Military Counterintelligence Unit.

Both former officials were arrested at their homes, four days after they were axed from their jobs by President Nicolas Maduro.

The Venezuelan leader supported the operation and warned that "whoever violates his oath of loyalty and violates the trust placed in him... will be persecuted and punished," Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez said on Twitter.