Questions have been swirling about U.S. involvement in a failed ‘coup’ attempt against Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro since two former U.S. Green Beret soldiers were arrested Monday, May 5 – after Venezuela’s socialist regime foiled a bizarre attempted maritime incursion into the nation’s capital of Caracas.
Maduro claims the U.S. government was behind the seemingly farcical attempt to capture him and replace him with the internationally recognized president, Juan Guaido. The plan was code-named ‘Operation Gideon.’ The U.S. does have a $15 million bounty for the capture of Maduro.
The US has flatly denied any involvement. As The Drive reported, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded to the allegations of US government participation by saying – “if we were involved it would have gone differently.”
“Whatever it is, we’ll let you know,” President Trump also told reporters on May 5, according to The Drive. “But it has nothing to do with our government.” Secretary of Defense Esper also denied any U.S. military involvement in the alleged coup attempt.
Based on all available evidence, these official U.S. denials seem credible.
Meanwhile, according to the Daily Mail, Luke Denman, 34, one of the two Green Berets arrested, was shown in a heavily edited video on Venezuelan state TV Wednesday where he claimed that he was hired by Jordan Goudreau, another former Green Beret, and head of small, Florida-based private security firm – Silvercorp USA.
The Daily Mail reported that Denman claimed he, and fellow former Green Beret Airan Berry, were hired by Goudreau to train around 60 Venezuelans, and to accompany them to Venezuela to ensure an airport was captured. Denman also said that all their equipment and uniforms were provided by Silvercorp.
The mission was apparently infiltrated by Maduro’s agents and Venezuelan security forces killed six of the raiders and captured another 13 individuals, including Berry and Denman.
According to the Washington Post, this plot was initiated when Venezuela’s interim President Juan Guaidó asked his US-based political advisor, Juan Jose (J.J.) Rendon, to explore all options in their effort to oust the illegitimate President Maduro. Rendon then formed a “Strategic Committee” in August to study options. Afterward, Rendon engaged Goudreau in September and began planning.
However, Rendon reportedly soon soured on Goudreau and began to disengage. Goudreau apparently then went “rogue” with the operation and continued anyway, without Rendon, or any type of U.S. government connection or support. While “patriotic” motives cannot be discounted, there was also talk of tens of millions of dollars in contracts and fees to Goudreau if the operation was successful.
It does appear some U.S. agencies were indirectly aware of some aspects of this effort. At some point, separately, U.S. officials had discussed whether to organize Venezuelan military defectors in camps in Colombia for humanitarian purposes – but ultimately decided against it, according to the Washington Post.
The Colombians “were against it and we were against it,” a U.S. official said on the condition of anonymity.
As the Washington Post explained:
U.S. officials were aware, and concerned, about the hundreds of Venezuelan soldiers who had defected and were living precariously in Colombia. U.S. and Colombian officials shared concern that if they were destitute, they could be drawn into illicit activity. Discussions were held about how and whether to feed those men, or organize them to aid the Venezuelan refugee community.
But they viewed the idea that they could be organized into a fighting force as “completely insane,” one official said.
According to the Daily Mail, the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) also became aware of what they believed was some sort of gun smuggling operation to guerrilla groups in Colombia but took no action and passed the information to Homeland Security (DHS), which apparently found no reason to get involved either.
A U.S. military source who reportedly spoke anonymously to Connecting Vets said that the CIA did catch wind of the plan in Jamaica and warned Goudreau and Silvercorp not to go through with it several times. If true, the CIA warnings clearly went unheeded.
While this raid appears ill-advised and foolhardy, Goudreau, as well as Berry and Denman, all served honorably in Iraq and Afghanistan. As noted by The Drive, all three were part of the Crisis Response Force from the 10th Special Forces Group that flew to Europe in the wake of the infamous 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Though details are still emerging, it seems some U.S. agencies may have been aware of aspects of this operation. However, there is no evidence that the U.S. government was involved in any way.
Sadly, this incident can only bolster Maduro’s claims that the US is trying to overthrow him, and embarrass the U.S. government, regardless of any real relationship to the plot.
Advertisement
HELP Expose the TRUTH About Creepy Joe Biden
A rogue like Schiff or Brennan, maybe, but not the Mark Esper Pentagon for sure – Maduro’s claim is only b/c the two mercenaries are former green beret which has no attachment to the United States Pentagon.
Those 2 guys did it for the $15,000,000.00 bounty, and they would likely do it again. If I was about 6 months (well, maybe 30 years) younger, I’d give it a whirl,
Worth the risk. Spirit Maduro out of country, cash in on $15mm. Hooray for Captain Spaulding. Say the secret woid, the duck’ll come down and you’ll split a hunnert dollahs.
In any case this turned into a really messy situation and now two Americans are being held by Venezuelan forces. Goodness what to do here? Even though they might have gone rogue, they are Americans and as an American in the Trump era you would expect your government to engage in some sort of effort to bail you out. I think? It really kills me to know that 2 Americans are being held in Venezuela.
Nah! Stupid Venezuelians deserve Maduro, they ‘put’ him in power, they can take him out…it’s their ‘frickking’ problem!
We do know that George Soros has his finger prints all over Venezuela – Soros has already tried to destroy the economies in France and England – all for his profit. He is involved in trying to destroy the U.S. economy right now. We also haven’t heard anything from comrade Kerry lately either. He is slithering around somewhere with his little back door deals thinking he somehow represents the USA – which he does not. He should have been arrested and charged under the Logan Act a long time ago. Hopefully they are just giving him enough rope to hang himself. We see Drunken Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats kissing China’s ass as well so who knows what these traitors have been up to.
60 untrained defectors to over run a well armed military base? that would be a long reach for 60 navy seals, in your dreams. the millions of Venezuelians can easyly over run the Gov if they want to , aparently they are not motivated. Yet.
Who gives Maduro the time of day anyway? Only lip service from Iran, China and Russia. He’s a farcical puppet. He’s being played and he thinks he’s on the world stage as a power house. Don’t think so.
Pretty dumb to be carrying passports…..
This Venezuela fiasco is far more amateurish than the Pay of Pigs. I smell a scam show by Maduro to generate support from Venezuelans or from outside countries. No half way knowledgeable military person would set up something this stupid.
Another case where the truth won’t matter, just what is BELIEVED. Especially by Venezuelans