‘The main objective was to kill me’: Venezuelan president accuses Colombia and the U.S.

Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro accused the United States and Colombia of orchestrating a plan with members of the opposition to have him killed before authorities foiled a maritime invasion and killed eight suspects.

The incident reportedly took place early Sunday morning when the 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.’

According to socialist party chief Diosdado Cabello, two of the attackers were arrested and interrogated by authorities.

Maduro charged that the failed plot, ‘Operation Gedeón,’ was the latest attempt by the United States and neighbor Colombia to overthrow his government – a claim that has been denied by Washington and Colombian officials.

‘We have proof that this group trained in Colombian territory. We have the places where they were trained,’ he said. 

Maduro accused ex-Green Beret Jordan Goudreau of leading the incursion ‘with terrorist mercenaries trained in Colombia to assault Venezuela and try to kill me.’  

On Monday, authorities arrested eight men, who allegedly were also part of the unsuccessful attack, after they were alerted by fishermen in Chuao, a village on the northern coast of the state of Aragua.

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó on Monday denied having anything to do with Goudreau, who claimed responsibility for a deadly beach invasion aimed at arresting Maduro. 

The government, meanwhile, said it has mobilized more than 25,000 troops to hunt for other rebel cells.

Guaidó said in a statement that he has ‘no relationship nor responsibility for any actions’ taken by Goudreau, who repeated assertions that Guaidó had a contract with Silvercorp USA, the war veteran’s Florida-based security company, though he said he was paid only a tiny share of the amount agreed upon. 

That claim could pose a danger for Guaidó, who has been harassed but not arrested in the year since he declared himself Venezuela’s legitimate leader, a role recognized by the U.S. and some 60 other nations.

The three-time Bronze Star U.S. combat veteran claims to have helped organize a seaborne raid from Colombia early Sunday on the Venezuelan coast, which the government said it foiled, killing eight insurgents and arresting two others. He said the operation had received no aid from Guaidó or the U.S. or Colombian governments.

Goudreau said by telephone Monday that 52 other fighters – including two U.S. veterans – had infiltrated Venezuelan territory and were in the first stage of a mission to recruit members of the security forces to join their cause.

‘That’s going to take time,’ Goudreau told The Associated Press in a phone interview. ‘The ultimate goal has never changed – it’s to liberate Venezuela.

‘Those who assume they can attack the institutional framework in Venezuela will have to assume the consequences of their action,’ said Cabello, adding that one of the two men detained Sunday claimed to be an agent of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Authorities said they found Peruvian documents, high-caliber weapons, satellite phones, uniforms and helmets adorned with the U.S. flag. 

‘They tried to carry out an invasion by sea, a group of terrorist mercenaries from Colombia, in order to commit terrorist acts in the country, murdering leaders of the revolutionary government,’ Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said in a televised address.

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

‘We have little reason to believe anything that comes out of the former regime,’ said a spokesperson with the State Department Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, speaking Sunday on condition of anonymity, referring to Maduro’s government.  

‘The Maduro regime has been consistent in its use of misinformation in order to shift focus from its mismanagement of Venezuela.’

Colombia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry also rejected the claims made by what it called ‘Maduro’s dictatorial regime.’

It claimed the supposed attack was an attempt to distract attention from ‘the true problems that the Venezuelan people are living.’ 

Venezuelan Interior Minister Nestor Reverol described the attackers as ‘mercenary terrorists’ bent on destabilizing Venezuela’s institutions and creating ‘chaos.’  

Authorities say the attackers had vehicles and heavy arms waiting for them in the port city. 

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

‘The regime is seeking to divert attention with a supposed incident in La Guaira plagued with inconsistencies, doubts and contradictions,’ Guaidó’s press team said in a statement.

Venezuela has been in a deepening political and economic crisis in recent years under Maduro’s rule. Crumbling public services such as running water, electricity and medical care has driven nearly 5 million to migrate.

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

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

The U.S. also has increased stiff sanctions, cutting off Venezuela’s oil sector to choke Maduro from a key source of hard cash.

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

But in addition to U.S. economic and diplomatic pressure, Maduro’s 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, which was 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 forced nearly five million people to emigrate.

The United States and dozens of other countries disavowed Maduro after his disputed 2018 election, which they say was rigged. They instead 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 including China and Russia, which have harshly criticized the U.S. sanctions. 

The Associated Press reported on Friday that an apparently ill-funded attempt to amass an invasion force of 300 men in Colombia involving a former Venezuelan military officer and Goudreau, suffered setbacks in March when a main organizer was arrested, an arms cache was seized and some participants abandoned its camps.

Retired Venezuelan National Guard Capt. 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 Gedeón.’ 

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

Cabello linked Sunday’s attack to key players in that alleged plot. 

One of the men he said was killed, a man nicknamed ‘the Panther,’ had been identified as 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 TV Sunday backed by armed soldiers and tanks units, called the attackers mercenaries who ‘don’t have souls. They’re cowards.’

Guaidó accused Maduro’s government of seizing on this example of unrest to draw the world’s attention away from embarrassing bloodshed in other parts of the country, including a prison riot days earlier that left at least 40 dead.

‘Of course, there are patriotic members of the military willing to fight for Venezuela,’ Guaidó said. ‘But it’s clear that what happened in Vargas is another distraction ploy.’