Venezuela has staged an invasion attempt to discredit and persecute the opposition within the country, as well as to consolidate political influence in the Latin American region using anti-U.S. sentiments and securing drug cartels controlled by Caracas.
The Minister of the People’s Power for Interior Relations and Justice, Nestor Reverol, said that early Sunday morning, May 3, security forces had foiled an armed incursion of the La Guaira coast in northern Venezuela, just 30 kilometers away from Caracas (so called operation Gedeon). The group of “mercenary terrorists” had come from Colombia by speedboat, intending to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro, he claimed. The Venezuelan government said eight men had been killed and the remaining two had been captured. The government showed the weapons seized from the attackers, including America’s AR style automatic rifles. Official Caracas has accused the United States and Colombia of planning a coup in Venezuela. One of the people captured by Venezuelan Army confessed to being U.S. DEA Agent.
A former Green Beret Jordan Goudreau, who leads a Florida-based security company called Silvercorp USA, announced he had taken responsibility for what he claimed was a failed attack Sunday aimed at overthrowing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and that the socialist government said ended with eight dead.
Staged foreign invasion of Venezuela is contingent on Caracas’s attempt to escape the criminal prosecution for President Nicolas Maduro over his involvement in the drug trade.
The president of Venezuela’s National Constituent Assembly (ANC), Diosdado Cabello, denounced that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Colombia had direct links in the foiled paramilitary assault that took place on Sunday. Consequently, Venezuela is trying to be proactive, seeking to discredit the DEA, engaged in investigating Maduro’s involvement in drug cartels, in particular Cartel of the Suns.
The government cartel partnered with dissident members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a guerrilla group, “that became one of the largest producers of cocaine in the world”.
Thus, the FARC is the link that provides the evidence base for Colombia’s staged invasion for official Caracas. American weapons, shown by the Venezuelan government, were apparently delivered from Colombia, and seized by rebels from government forces there.
In early April, Donald Trump announced the start of a major operation to combat drug trafficking from Latin America. Venezuela is its main target. The US Secretary of Defense emphasized thereupon that “corrupt individuals, such as the illegitimate regime of Maduro in Venezuela, rely on profits from the selling drugs to maintain their repressive power.”
The U.S. Justice Department also accused Venezuelan Constitutional Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela’s former head of military intelligence, Hugo Carvajal, Venezuelan Army Major General Cleaver Antonio Alcalé Cordones and Venezuelan Vice President for Economics and Finance Tarek El Aissami (affiliated with Hezbollah pro-Iranian movement).
An AP investigation published Friday found that Goudreau had been working with a retired Venezuelan army general now facing U.S. narcotics charges to train dozens of deserters from Venezuela’s security forces at secret camps inside neighboring Colombia. This fact indicates the connection between the incident in Venezuela and the drug trafficking.
Venezuelan authorities have detained two U.S. citizens working with a U.S. military veteran who has claimed responsibility for a failed armed incursion into the oil producing country, said President Nicolas Maduro. Maduro showed what he said were the U.S. passports and other identification cards belonging to Airan Berry and Luke Denman.
Caracas is highly possible to use the staged invasion to capture and arrest DEA undercover workers in Venezuela and to thwart US law enforcement agencies combatting drug cartels in Venezuela.
Goudreau might be initially affiliated with Caracas and could make a deal with the Venezuelan government to avoid accusations of drug trafficking in the United States. Goudreau lives in Florida, where Cuban intelligence is most active.
Goudreau has shown a paper, what he said was an 8-page contract signed by interim president Guaidó and two political advisers in Miami on October 16 for $213 million. The alleged “general services”, as contract doesn’t specify what work his company, Silvercorp USA, was to undertake.
The existence of such papers is absurd, as is the narrative of the negotiations and their signing during a video conference. Thus, there is no doubt that this element of the campaign in the form of paper publishing is an attempt to fabricate false evidence to accuse Gerardo Guaido, as well as officers of the Bolivarian army, opposed to the regime, in organizing a coup.The operation by Venezuela’s authorities is actually based on the historical background, speculating on operations at the Bay of Pigs in April 1961. Thus, next year marks the 60th anniversary of the operation. Such scenario is likely to speak for Cuba and Russia’s experts taking part in the staging, and its implementation might be accelerated over the threats to the Venezuelan government from the DEA investigation.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova criticized the US decision to launch a military operation to cut off drug shipments in Latin America, emphasizing that could have extremely negative consequences. In 2016, the Russian Foreign Ministry was at the center of the scandal over an attempt to smuggle 400 kilograms of cocaine through diplomatic mail from the embassy in Argentina.
The investigation into the incident led to the prosecution of people who did not hold cards to make deals of such scale with drug cartels and to sell such consignments at the black market. The use of Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev’s aircraft for transporting drugs to Russia, as well as the subsequent appointment of one of the defendants in the case as Russia’s ambassador to Mexico (the most developed drug production market) implies Moscow’s stake in conducting an operation to stage the invasion in order to discredit the United States and stop Washington’s anti-drug operation in the region.
The evidence presented by the Venezuelan side speaks for the fake nature of the operation as well. The photos presented showed that one alleged participant had a dentist’s prescription for mouthwash on him. Availability of such papers on the members of the secret mission explicitly specifies an attempt by the organizers of the rally to provide identifying documents that will help connect the operation with specific opposition people or US citizens.
According to Goudreau, 60 of his men were still on the ground and calls were being activated inside Venezuela, some of them fighting under the command of Venezuelan National Guardsman Capt. Antonio Sequea, who participated in a barracks revolt against Maduro a year ago.
Reuters quoted President Nicholas Maduro as speaking of a “group of 13 terrorists” taking part in an attempt to invade the country.
In terms of a special op, landing of a small force with an estimated number of about 30 people from the seaward 30 kilometers away from Caracas to capture and hold the fortified capital of an authoritarian state with a population of 1.9 million people, even backed by 60 fighters inside the country, is not serious. The background of cities’ capture by terrorist groups in Iraq, Syria, Mali, eastern Ukraine suggests the need for at least 2-3 hundred fighters, lightning-fast attack, military advantage, and support in the city itself. However, in Venezuela, long before the operation, Caracas repeatedly declared its readiness to repel an external attack. Long-term presence of military advisers from Cuba, providing counterintelligence tasks in the Venezuelan capital, precludes the existence of a sufficient number of coup plotters in Caracas and its environs for a successful operation.
Staging of the invasion and the anti-U.S. rhetoric of Caracas enables the Venezuelan authorities to take a shot in consolidating Latin American countries with left-wing governments based on anti-U.S. sentiments.
Later in the day Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel called for international solidarity with Venezuela and Nicaragua, while speaking at the virtual summit United against Covid-19, organized by the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).
