Two US ‘mercenaries’ are arrested after a failed attempt to ‘kill’ President Maduro of Venezuela

At the time two former US special forces soldiers were arrested in Venezuela, he was dramatically captured on video as his’ plot to assassinating President Nicolás Maduro ‘was frustrated.

The images show Luke Denman, 34, and Airan Berry, 41, driven from a fishing boat alongside six Venezuelan mercenaries and forced to lie on the ground at gunpoint.

The coup was coordinated by a former green beret named Jordan Goudreau, 43, who says the goal was to capture Maduro. Goudreau claims to have built a 300-man force, allegedly backed by American billionaires.

President Maduro called the arrested terrorist mercenaries and blamed the attacks on the Trump administration, Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó and neighboring Colombia, all of whom have denied involvement. The United States has backed Guaidó as the country’s leader.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump denied any involvement by the US government. USA

‘We will find out. We just found out about that, ” Trump said when asked about the incident and the arrests of the Americans. “But it has nothing to do with our government.”

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During the press conference on Monday night, President Maduro showed images of the fishing boats that the alleged attackers used and equipment such as walkie-talkies and night vision goggles collected in what he called a couple of ‘intense’ days.

“The United States government is fully and completely involved in this defeated raid,” said Maduro, praising members of a fishing village for cornering a group in the sweeping network of “professional American mercenaries.”

The United States has led a campaign to expel Maduro, increasing pressure in recent weeks by accusing the socialist leader as a drug trafficker and offering a $ 15 million reward for his arrest.

Speaking of the two American citizens who have been captured, he said: ‘They were playing Rambo. They were playing heroes, ‘adding that the Venezuelan authorities had learned of the plot prior to its execution.

Six other Venezuelans were arrested along with US citizens, reports CNN.

Maduro’s ally and Attorney General Tarek William Saab said they have arrested a total of 114 suspected people in the attempted attack and are searching for another 92 people.

According to his social media accounts, Airan Berry served as a First Class Sergeant in the US Army. USA Between 1996 and 2013. Appears on the list for having attended school in Texas.

On Monday, Maduro accused former Florida Goudreau Green Beret of leading the raid “with terrorist mercenaries trained in Colombia to storm Venezuela and try to kill me.”

Goudreau said earlier Monday that he was working with the two men on a mission to arrest Maduro and “liberate” Venezuela.

Goudreau is a former associate of Keith Schiller, Donald Trump’s bodyguard. Schiller accompanied Goudreau to a meeting last May to discuss security with representatives of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó. Subsequently, Schiller claims that he cut off contact with Goudreau.

A grim group of American billionaires led by Roen Kraft, an eccentric descendant of the cheese-making family, pledged support for the “private coup” and also met with Schiller and Goudreau.

Kraft allegedly lured potential donors with the promise of preferential access to negotiate deals in the energy and mining sectors with an eventual Guaidó government, one of the entrepreneurs told AP.

He provided a two-page draft unsigned memorandum for a six-figure pledge that he said was sent by Kraft in October in which he represents himself as Venezuela’s “prime contractor”.

Before dawn on Sunday, authorities say the first attack began on a beach near the Venezuelan port city of La Guaira, when security forces made the first two arrests and killed eight others trying to land on speedboats.

The two Americans arrested Monday served in Iraq and Afghanistan with him in the United States Army, Goudreau said, adding that they were part of this alleged mission in Venezuela called “Operation Gideon.” The goal was to capture Maduro, he says.

Sunday’s raid came after an AP report on Friday that revealed how Goudreau was planning a coup training 300 soldiers in Colombia.

However, Ephraim Mattos, a former SEAL in the US Navy. USA Who trained some of the potential fighters in tactical medicine, warned that he was doomed to failure.

“You are not going to get Maduro out with 300 hungry and untrained men,” he said.

Venezuela has been in a deep political and economic crisis under the Maduro government. Crumbling public services like running water, electricity and medical care have led to the migration of nearly 5 million.

But Maduro still controls all levers of power despite a US-led campaign to topple him. He recently accused Maduro of drug trafficking and offered a $ 15 million reward for his arrest.

Venezuela and the United States severed diplomatic ties last year amid intense tensions, so there is no United States embassy in Caracas. Officials from the US Department of State. USA They did not respond Monday to a request by The Associated Press for comment.

“I have tried to involve everyone I know at all levels,” Goudreau said of the attempt to help his fellow detainees. ‘No one calls me back. It’s a nightmare.’

Goudreau’s account of the confusing incursion sometimes seems contradictory, for example, he says he was planning a rebellion for months while claiming he had not received a single penny.

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó on Monday denied having anything to do with Goudreau

Guaidó said in a statement that it has “no relationship or responsibility for any action” taken by Goudreau, who repeated claims that Guaidó had a contract with Silvercorp USA, the Florida-based war veteran’s security company, although he said that They only paid him a small part of the agreed amount.

Meanwhile, a cocky Maduro has thrived by broadcasting videos on state television of what he says was a perfect defense of the nation’s sovereignty.

On Monday, Maduro said “The main objective was to kill the President of Venezuela” during a televised speech on state television. “A terrorist attack in the middle of a pandemic while our people were resting one night.”

The government said it has mobilized more than 25,000 soldiers to search for other rebel cells.

Kay Denman, the mother of one of the Americans, said the last time she heard from her son was a few weeks ago when she texted him from an undisclosed location asking him how he was dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

She said she never heard her son talk about Venezuela and only found out about his possible capture there after his friends called when they saw the reports on social media.

“The first time I heard Jordan Goudreau’s name was today,” he said when he arrived at his home in Austin, Texas.

Goudreau has said he reached an agreement with US-backed Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó to overthrow Maduro, which Guaidó has denied. The opposition leader said it had nothing to do with Sunday’s raid.

Goudreau says Guaidó never followed through on the deal, but the former Green Beret went ahead with an underfunded operation with just 60 fighters, including the two US veterans.

He said he last contacted Denman and Berry when they were adrift in a boat “hugging” the Caribbean coast of Venezuela. They were still in their boat after an initial confrontation with the Venezuelan Navy early Sunday, he said.

“They were running dangerously low on fuel,” Goudreau said. “If they had made landfall, they would have gone to a safe house.”

Goudreau said the two were waiting for a boat on the Caribbean island of Aruba with emergency fuel to help extract them.

Venezuelan state television showed images of several unidentified men handcuffed and lying on a street. A video shows authorities handling a handcuffed shirtless man.

He was identified as National Guard Captain Antonio Sequea, who participated in a barracks revolt against Maduro a year ago. Goudreau said Sequea was a commander who worked with him for the past few days on the ground in Venezuela.

Maduro’s ally and Attorney General Tarek William Saab said they have arrested a total of 114 suspected people in the attempted attack and are searching for another 92 people.

Goudreau, a three-time American combat veteran of the Bronze Star, claims to have helped organize the deadly raid from Colombia. Goudreau said the operation had received no help from Guaidó or from the governments of the United States or Colombia.

Opposition politicians and US authorities issued statements suggesting that Maduro’s allies had fabricated the assault to divert attention from the country’s problems.

Goudreau said by phone early Monday that 52 other fighters had infiltrated Venezuelan territory and were in the early stages of a mission to recruit members of the security forces to join their cause.

An AP investigation published Friday found that Goudreau had been working with a retired Venezuelan army general, now facing charges of U.S. narcotics, to train dozens of defectors from Venezuela’s security forces in secret camps inside neighboring Colombia. The goal was to mount a cross-border raid that would end in Maduro’s arrest.

Both Colombia and the United States have repeatedly denied previous Venezuelan accusations of supporting military plots against the socialist government.

“We have little reason to believe anything that comes out of the old regime,” a spokesman for the State Department’s Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs said on Sunday on condition of anonymity, referring to the Maduro government.

“The Maduro regime has been consistent in using misinformation to deflect the focus of its mismanagement from Venezuela.”

Colombia’s foreign ministry also rejected claims made by what it called the “Maduro dictatorial regime.”

Opposition leader Juan Guaidó said the government was seeking to distract itself from recent violent events, including a deadly riot in prison on Friday and a bloody gang battle in Caracas on Saturday night.

“The regime seeks to divert attention with an alleged incident in La Guaira riddled with inconsistencies, doubts and contradictions,” the Guaidó press team said in a statement.

Venezuela has been in a deep political and economic crisis in recent years under the Maduro government. The crumbling of public services, such as running water, electricity and medical care, has led nearly 5 million to migrate.

A coalition of nearly 60 nations supports opposition leader Guaidó as Venezuela’s legitimate leader, saying Maduro’s 2018 elections were a sham because the most popular opposition candidates were barred from running.

The United States has led a campaign to expel Maduro, increasing pressure in recent weeks by accusing the socialist leader as a drug trafficker and offering a $ 15 million reward for his arrest.

The United States also increased severe sanctions, cutting Venezuela’s oil sector to drown Maduro from a key source of cash.

Ivan Simonovis, a former high-ranking Venezuelan police officer who now advises opposition leaders on Washington’s intelligence strategy, speculated on Twitter that there may have been a clash between security forces on Sunday and suggested that the government de Maduro created the story of a plot to justify “repression against the interim government and any Venezuelan who opposes the dictatorship.”

But in addition to economic and diplomatic pressure from the US. In the US, the Maduro government has faced several small-scale military threats, including an attempt to assassinate Maduro with a drone and Guaidó’s call for a military uprising, joined by few soldiers.

Maduro has overseen a six-year economic crisis that has left many citizens unable to obtain basic food and medicine and has forced nearly five million people to emigrate.

The United States and dozens of other countries disavowed Maduro after their disputed 2018 elections, which they say were rigged. Instead, they recognize Guaidó, who is head of the country’s legislature.

But Maduro retains the backing of the country’s armed forces, as well as countries like China and Russia, which have harshly criticized U.S. sanctions.

The Associated Press reported on Friday that an apparently poorly funded attempt to amass a 300-man invasion force in Colombia involving a former Venezuelan military officer and Goudreau, suffered setbacks in March when a main organizer was arrested, a cache of weapons and some Participants left their camps.

The retired captain of the Venezuelan National Guard, Javier Nieto Quintero, appeared in a video with Goudreau, urging members of the armed forces to help liberate the nation in an action he called “Operation Gideon.”

Nieto, when contacted by the AP on a Miami phone, declined to comment and hung up. Goudreau also declined to comment in a call from Caracas.

Diosdado Cabello, the number 2 most powerful person in the country and the gray eminence of Venezuela’s vast intelligence network, linked Sunday’s attack with key players in that alleged plot.

One of the men who said he was killed, a man nicknamed ‘the Panther’, had been identified as being involved in obtaining weapons for the force in Colombia.

Maduro and his allies say the Trump administration is determined to end Venezuela’s socialist government to exploit the South American nation’s vast underground oil reserves. Maduro remains in power, backed by the military and with international support from Cuba, Russia, China and Iran.

Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López, speaking on state television on Sunday backed by armed soldiers and tank units, called the mercenary attackers “without a soul.” They are cowards.

Guaidó acusó al gobierno de Maduro de aprovechar este ejemplo de disturbios para desviar la atención del mundo del vergonzoso derramamiento de sangre en otras partes del país, incluida una revuelta en la prisión días antes que dejó al menos 40 muertos.

“Por supuesto, hay miembros patriotas del ejército dispuestos a luchar por Venezuela”, dijo Guaidó. “Pero está claro que lo que sucedió en Vargas es otra táctica de distracción”.

Según la Universidad Johns Hopkins, Venezuela ha visto 357 casos confirmados del coronavirus, con 10 muertes como resultado de la enfermedad.

La ONU ha dicho que Venezuela podría ser uno de los países más vulnerables debido a la enfermedad debido a la falta de productos de higiene y agua en los hospitales, agravado por el empobrecimiento general de la población.

Cómo la antigua boina verde detrás del fallido complot golpista de Venezuela proporcionó seguridad a Donald Trump y tramó el complot después de reunirse con el guardaespaldas del presidente, un miembro multimillonario de la familia Kraft y los líderes de la oposición del país en Miami

El líder del fallido golpe de estado de Venezuela que ha visto a dos ex soldados de las fuerzas especiales estadounidenses detenidos se le ocurrió la idea después de alistar a un respaldo multimillonario y reunirse con el guardaespaldas de Donald Trump.

La ex boina verde Jordan Goudreau, de 43 años, cuyo sitio web afirma que trabajó anteriormente en seguridad para el presidente Trump, asistió a una conferencia en Miami de líderes de la oposición y es aquí donde conoció a Roen Kraft, un excéntrico descendiente de la familia de productores de queso, que luego comenzó a recaudar dinero para un “golpe privado”.

Kraft atrajo a los posibles donantes con la promesa de acceso preferencial para negociar acuerdos en los sectores de energía y minería si el golpe fue un éxito. Se representó a sí mismo como el “contratista principal” de Venezuela.

Kraft niega haberle dado dinero a Goudreau.

Goudreau también sostuvo reuniones con el guardaespaldas de Donald Trump, Keith Schiller, quien lo acompañó al evento de Miami. En la reunión, Goudreau y Schiller discutieron la seguridad del líder opositor Juan Guaidó con sus representantes.

La Casa Blanca dice que Schiller cortó todo contacto después de la reunión y Guaidó también niega su participación en el complot.

Goudreau identified himself Sunday as the leader of a plot to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro named ‘Operation Gedeón’.

The idea was sparked in February 2019 when Goudreau worked security at ‘Live Aid for Venezuala’, a concert in support of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó organized by the British billionaire Richard Branson on the Venezuelan-Colombian border.

The three-time Bronze Star recipient came back from the concert looking to capitalize on the Trump administration’s growing interest in toppling Maduro, and he held conversations with Guaido’s envoys; Roen Kraft and Trump’s bodyguard Keith Schiller.

Planning for the incursion began after an April 30, 2019, barracks revolt by a cadre of soldiers who swore loyalty to Madura’s would-be replacement, Juan Guaidó, the opposition leader recognized by the U.S. and some 60 other nations as Venezuela´s rightful leader.

Contrary to U.S. expectations at the time, key Maduro aides never joined with the opposition and the government quickly quashed the uprising.

A few weeks later, some soldiers and politicians involved in the failed rebellion retreated to the JW Marriott in Bogota, Colombia.

The hotel was a center of intrigue among Venezuelan exiles. For this occasion, conference rooms were reserved for what one participant described as the ‘Star Wars summit of anti-Maduro goofballs’ – military deserters accused of drug trafficking, shady financiers and former Maduro officials seeking redemption.

Among those angling in the open lobby was Goudreau, according to five people who met with the former soldier.

By this time, Goudreau had met with Schiller and accompanied him to a meeting in Miami with activist Lester Toledo, then Guaidó’s coordinator for the delivery of humanitarian aid.

It is not certain how the pair met but Goudreau claims to have worked security at President Donald Trump’s rallies with his private company Silvercorp.

According to the website, Silvercorp has planned and led International security teams for the President of the United States, as well as the Secretary of Defense, and Goudreau is seen in a video allegedly working at a rally.

At the Miami meeting, there was a lively discussion with Schiller about the need to beef up security for Guaidó and his growing team of advisers inside Venezuela and across the world, according to a person familiar with the meeting.

Schiller thought Goudreau was naive and in over his head, however, and he cut off all contact following the meeting, said a person close to the former White House official.

In Bogota, however, Toledo introduced Goudreau to a rebellious former Venezuelan military officer the American would come to trust above all others – Cliver Alcalá, ringleader of the Venezuelan military deserters.

Alcalá, a retired major general in Venezuela´s army, seemed an unlikely hero to restore democracy to his homeland. In 2011, he was sanctioned by the U.S. for allegedly supplying FARC guerrillas in Colombia with surface-to-air missiles in exchange for cocaine.

And last month, Alcalá was indicted by U.S. prosecutors alongside Maduro as one of the architects of a narcoterrorist conspiracy that allegedly sent 250 metric tons of cocaine every year to the U.S.

Alcalá is now in federal custody in New York awaiting trial. But before his surrender in Colombia, where he had been living since 2018, he had emerged as a forceful opponent of Maduro, not shy about urging military force.

Over two days of meetings with Goudreau and Toledo at the JW Marriott, Alcalá explained how he had selected 300 combatants from among the throngs of low-ranking soldiers who abandoned Maduro and fled to Colombia in the early days of Guaidó’s uprising, said three people who participated in the meeting and insisted on anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations.

Alcalá said several dozen men were already living in three camps he maintained in and around the desert-like La Guajira peninsula that Colombia shares with Venezuela, the three said. Among the combatants in the camps was an exiled national guardsman accused of participating in a 2018 drone attack on Maduro.

Goudreau told Alcalá his company could prepare the men for battle, according to the three sources. The two sides discussed weapons and equipment for the volunteer army, with Goudreau estimating a budget of around $1.5 million for a rapid strike operation.

Goudreau told participants at the meeting that he had high-level contacts in the Trump administration who could assist the effort, although he offered few details, the three people said. Over time, many of the people involved in the plan to overthrow Maduro would come to doubt his word.

From the outset, the audacious plan split an opposition coalition already sharply divided by egos and strategy. There were concerns that Alcalá, with a murky past and ties to the regime through a brother who was Maduro´s ambassador to Iran, couldn’t be trusted.

Others worried about going behind the backs of their Colombian allies and the U.S. government.

They did have apparent backing, however, from Roen Kraft, an eccentric descendant of the cheese-making family who — along with former Trump bodyguard Schiller — was among those meeting with opposition envoys in Miami and Washington.

At some point, Kraft reportedly started raising money among his own circle of fellow trust-fund friends for what he described as a ‘private coup’ to be carried out by Silvercorp, according to two businessmen who he asked for money.

Kraft allegedly lured prospective donors with the promise of preferential access to negotiate deals in the energy and mining sectors with an eventual Guaidó government, said one of the businessmen. He provided AP a two-page, unsigned draft memorandum for a six-figure commitment he said was sent by Kraft in October in which he represents himself as the ‘prime contractor’ of Venezuela.

But it was never clear if Kraft really had the inside track with the Venezuelans.

In a phone interview with AP, Kraft acknowledged meeting with Goudreau three times last year. But he said the two never did any business together and only discussed the delivery of humanitarian aid for Venezuela. He said Goudreau broke off all communications with him on Oct. 14, when it seemed he was intent on a military action.

‘I never gave him any money,’ said Kraft.

Goudreau’s plot quickly began to crumble in early March when one of the volunteer combatants was arrested after sneaking across the border into Venezuela from Colombia.

Shortly after, Colombian police stopped a truck transporting a cache of brand new weapons and tactical equipment worth around $150,000, including spotting scopes, night vision goggles, two-way radios and 26 American-made assault rifles with the serial numbers rubbed off.

Fifteen brown-colored helmets were manufactured by High-End Defense Solutions, a Miami-based military equipment vendor owned by a Venezuelan immigrant family.

High-End Defense Solutions is the same company that Goudreau visited in November and December, allegedly to source weapons, according to two former Venezuelan soldiers who claim to have helped the American select the gear but later had a bitter falling out with Goudreau amid accusations that they were moles for Maduro.

Nonetheless, Goudreau continued with the plot which launched Sunday but was quickly foiled by Maduro.

Early Sunday morning, an armed group of ten individuals used speedboats to land on a beach in the Caribbean port city of La Guaira.

‘The main objective was to kill the President of Venezuela,’ Maduro said Monday during a televised speech on state television. ‘A terrorist attack in the middle of a pandemic while our people rested one night.’

Eight suspects were killed and two were arrested.

The failed attack continued Monday when authorities arrested eight men after they were alerted by fishermen in Chuao, a village on the northern coast of the state of Aragua.

Maduro ally and Attorney General Tarek William Saab said that in total they’ve arrested 114 people suspected in the attempted attack and they are on the hunt of 92 others.

Neither the US nor the Colombian governments were involved in the plot to overthrow Maduro, AP reports. Guaidó also denies involvement.

He stood by comments made to Colombian media that he never signed any contract of the kind described by Alcalá, who he said he doesn’t know.