Ex-Green Beret claims he led foiled raid into Venezuela – New York Post, Nypost.com
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CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) – A former Green Beret has claimed responsibility for a failed attack Sunday aimed at overthrowing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro that the socialist government said ended with eight people dead.
Jordan Goudreau’s comments in an interview with an exiled Venezuelan journalist capped a bizarre day that started with reports of a pre-dawn amphibious raid near the South American country’s heavily guarded capital.
An AP investigation published Friday found that Goudreau had been working with a retired army general now facing U.S. narcotics charges to train dozens of deserting Venezuelan soldiers at secret camps inside neighboring Colombia. The goal was to mount a cross border raid that would end in Maduro’s arrest.
But from the outset the ragtag army lacked funding and U.S. government support, all but guaranteeing defeat against Maduro’s well-equipped if demoralized armed forces. It also appears to have been penetrated by Maduro’s extensive Cuban-backed intelligence network.
Both Goudreau and retired Venezuelan Capt. Javier Nieto declined to speak to the AP on Sunday when contacted after posting a video from an undisclosed location saying they had launched an anti-Maduro putsch called “Operation Gideon.” Both men live in Florida.
“A daring amphibious raid was launched from the border of Colombia deep into the heart of Caracas,” Goudreau, in a New York Yankees ball cap, said in the video standing next to Nieto who was dressed in armored vest with a rolled-up Venezuelan flag pinned to his shoulder. “Our units have been activated in the south, west and east of Venezuela.”
Goudreau said 60 men were still on the ground inside Venezuela and fighting under the command of Venezuelan National Guardsman Capt. Antonio Sequea. He said he hoped to join the rebels soon and invited Maduro’s troops to join the would-be insurgency although there was no sign of any unrest in the capital or elsewhere as night fell.
In an interview later with Miami-based journalist Patricia Poleo, he presented a contradictory account of his activities and the support he claims to have once had – and then lost – from Juan Guaidó, the opposition leader recognized as Venezuela’s interim president by the US and some 60 countries.
He provided to Poleo what he said was an 8-page contract signed by Guaidó and two political advisers in Miami in October for $ 213 million. The alleged “general services” contract doesn’t specify what work his company, Silvercorp USA, was to undertake.
There was no immediate comment from Guaidó on Goudreau’s claim that the two had signed a contract. Previously, Guaidó has said that he hadn’t signed any contract for a military incursion.
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