(PatrioticPost.Com)- Did the United States attempt to infiltrate Venezuela to remove President Nicolas Maduro?
That’s what Maduro himself said on Monday during a live address on state television.
Maduro showed the United States passports and driver’s licenses of two “mercenaries” he said were apprehended over the weekend during an apparent coup attempt. Madura also showed the ID cards the two men had from Silvercorp, a security services company that is based in Florida.
The two men were identified as Luke Denman and Airan Berry. They are clamied to have been working with Silvercorp and its owner, Jordan Goudreau, who is an American military veteran.
Goudreau said he organized the weekend invasion, saying Denman and Berry were working with him.
“They’re working with me. Those are my guys,” he said.
Maduro said the two men were playing “Rambo” in trying to unseat him with an attack over the weekend.
According to Maduro, Venezuelan authorities captured and 13 “terrorists” that were involved in the alleged plot to unseat him. The president said the group was sent by Washington to enter Venezuela from the Caribbean coast to oust him from his position.
During the incursion, eight people were killed, according to Venezuelan authorities.
Thus far, the U.S. State Department hasn’t commented on the arrests, according to a Reuters report. Other U.S. officials have denied the federal government was involved in the alleged incursions.
Maduro was elected to his first term as president in 2013, and the economy fell sharply in the preceding years. He won re-election to a six-year term in 2018, but the elections were controversial, with many of the opposition parties boycotting it altogether.
Some candidates were jailed or fled the country fearing they’d be jailed, and others were barred from running for election at all. The opposition, then, said the elections wouldn’t be free or fair.
When Maduro was re-elected, the opposing National Assembly called Maduro a “usurper” and did not recognize his election. The party even said the presidency was vacant because of the actions of the party.
In cases such as those, the Venezuelan constitution says the leader of the National Assembly would step into the role of presidency, and that man was Juan Guaido, who declared himself acting president.
The United States and 50 other countries currently recognize Guaido as the interim president of Venezuela. Some others, though, including China and Russia, have stood by Maduro.
On Monday, Guaido said he and his allies “have no relationship with or responsibility for the actions of the company Silvercorp.”
Guaido, however, said there is some doubt in his mind about the validity of Maduro’s report. He believes the Venezuelan president conjured up this story to distract people from recent events in the country, which include a prison riot that turned deadly and an ongoing violent gang battle in Caracas.
In a statement on Monday, Guaido also said:
“We demand the human rights … of the people captured in recent hours be respected.”
