Donald Trump denies link to Venezuela armed raid by US citizens
- Trump: ‘It has nothing to do with our government’
- Two US ‘mercenaries’ held after Caribbean coast attack foiled
Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro shows captured military equipment from the armed incursion at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, on Monday. Photograph: Miraflores Palace/Reuters
Reuters in Washington- 5 May 2020
Published onTue 5 May 2020
Donald Trump has denied any involvement by the US government in what Venezuelan officials have called a failed armed incursion in the South American country that led to the capture of two American “mercenaries”.
Trump made the comment to reporters at the White House after Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro announced that authorities there had detained two US citizens working with a US military veteran who has claimed responsibility for the foiled operation.
“We’ll find out. We just heard about it,” Trump said when asked about the incident and the Americans’ arrests. “But it has nothing to do with our government.”
In a state television address, Maduro said authorities arrested 13 “terrorists” on Monday involved in what he described as a plot coordinated with Washington to enter the country via the Caribbean coast and oust him.
Eight people were killed during the incursion attempt on Sunday, Venezuelan authorities said.
Maduro showed what he said were the US passports and other identification cards belonging to Airan Berry and Luke Denman, whom he said were in custody and had been working with Jordan Goudreau, an American military veteran who leads a Florida-based security company called Silvercorp USA.
The two detained Americans, former special operations forces members who had served with Goudreau, were believed to be in the custody of Venezuelan military intelligence, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The state department did not provide any immediate comment on the arrests. US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, had strongly denied any US government role in the incursions.
Washington has waged a campaign of economic sanctions and diplomatic measures against Venezuela in an effort to oust Maduro, accusing him of having rigged elections in 2018.
But while Trump has repeatedly said all options are on the table, his administration has shown no apparent interest in military action as it pursues what it calls a “maximum pressure” strategy against Maduro.
Maduro’s government, however, says the United States wants to control the Opec member nation’s massive oil reserves.
Since early 2019, the United States and dozens of other countries have recognized the opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the legitimate interim president.
But Maduro remains in power, backed by the military as well as Russia, Cuba and China, which some US officials say privately is a source of frustration for Trump.
Guaidó – often derided by Maduro as a US puppet – cast doubt on the government’s version of Sunday’s events. He insisted that Maduro was seeking to distract from other problems in recent days, including a deadly prison riot and a violent gang battle in Caracas, the capital.
The Venezuelan government, presiding over an economic meltdown, is also struggling to cope with the global spread of the coronavirus.
Monday’s arrests come after Maduro’s government on Sunday announced it had thwarted a “mercenary incursion”.
Goudreau released a video identifying himself as an organizer of the operation, alongside a dissident Venezuelan military officer, Javier Nieto. He identified one of the fighters as “Commander Sequea”, which appeared to be a reference to Antonio Sequea, who was identified by state television as one of the people arrested.
Silvercorp’s website describes Goudreau as a “highly decorated Special Forces Iraq and Afghanistan veteran”.
