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The President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, confirmed on Monday that two US citizens were detained as part of a group classified by the Executive as “mercenary” and involved in two failed maritime raids in which at least eight people died.
“In this group, there were members of Donald Trump’s security team: Airan Berry, a professional mercenary of the United States, and Luke Denman. They are already declaring,” Maduro said in a televised statement together with the military high command in which he stressed that so far 15 people have been arrested.
The president showed the passports of both, identification cards as military veterans, as well such as ID cards from SilverCorp, a US security company that the government says is linked to the attempted attack.
It also showed “war material from the United States and Colombia”, military helmets and communication equipment, in addition to the identification badges that are often used by the military of various “attacking terrorists”.
In addition to the two Americans, eleven people were arrested on Monday in a second boat that was approaching a coastal area of the central Aragua state, although Maduro warned that the persecution continues and there may be more arrests.
On Sunday, eight people died and two more were arrested in a first attempt at a maritime incursion in the La Guaira state, neighboring Caracas.
Military and civilians
Among the Venezuelans arrested and of whom Maduro revealed their names today, are Rubén Darío Fernández Figuera, Enderson Israel Ríos Marín and Cosme Rafael Alcalá, of whom their charges did not come out, as well as the civilian Fernando Noya.
Captain Antonio Sequeda, as well as police officers Yeferson Fernández and Rodolfo Rodríguez Orellana, the first from Miranda state (center) and the second from the Baruta municipality (Caracas), were also arrested.
Also, Víctor Alejandro Pimienta, a former member of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB, Militarized Police), and former First Lieutenant Raúl Manzanilla were arrested.
From the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB), Maduro explained that they arrested three people: Paiva Soot, Rojas Tapia and Rodwin Magallanes.
About Sequeda, a former member of the GNB, Maduro said that he is a “traitor deserter” and about another of the participants, Josnar Adolfo Baduel, assured that he was already a fugitive from Justice and that in both 2018 and 2019 he participated in “two or three coup attempts “.
Baduel is the son of Raúl Baduel, a general who was a great ally of Hugo Chávez, considered the architect of his return to the Presidency after the coup that overthrew him for 48 hours in April 2002, a former defense minister between 2006 and 2007 and who He was sent to prison in 2009 on corruption charges.
A long investigation
“It has been an investigative work. Today I can confess that since April 19 the capture of part of the supports of this plot and this conspiracy began”, Maduro declared.
On this support structure, he explained that it was based in Alta Guajira, a desert indigenous territory divided between Colombia and Venezuela. He explained that the United States Drug Control Administration (DEA), expelled from Venezuela in 2005, contacted “drug lords” from both countries to finance and sustain the operation.
The authorities reported hours before that one of the detainees confessed to having worked for that entity. “It will be explained in due course who they were trying to kill, what weapons from the parks of the Republic they were trying to steal by order of Trump and Duque (President of Colombia),” said Maduro.
EFE
