In other news, Venezuela was invaded this week.

In the early morning of last May 3 Venezuela has witnessed the first attempt of a raid by speedboats with armed mercenary forces on the central coast of Venezuela, just a few kilometres from the capital city, Caracas. The response by the Venezuelan armed forces and the almost continuous updates about the action including photos and videos were quick.

Just a couple of hours later, while the defensive operation was still underway, Venezuela’s Minister of Interior Nestor Reverol issued an initial statement,

A group of terrorist mercenaries attempted a maritime invasion, entering Venezuela with speedboats via the coast of La Guaira. Their aim was to assassinate leaders of the Bolivarian Revolution and carry out a coup.

The suggestion that the raid – already a grave act of aggression – had such menacing consequences was not farfetched, given past attempts to overthrow the Maduro government, including attempted assassinations.

The Venezuelan Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino, in his official communiqué injected inspiring words,

The Bolivarian National Armed Force categorically rejects these acts of irrational violence, before which we have always been victorious in defense of the Homeland, unfailingly clinging to the Constitution.

Diosdado Cabello, president of the National Constituent Assembly and vice-president of the governing party PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela) provided a conclusion of the initial defensive action that ended “with an unfortunate balance of eight deceased, two detained people who were there; a lot of significant weapons, in addition to vehicles that they had ready to carry out actions directly on institutions and authorities.

Cabello also warned of more possible raids and launched a call to the population in general to be watchful for any suspicious or irregular activity particularly along the Venezuelan coast. Consequently, the following day, on May 4, more armed mercenaries were apprehended thanks to the quick reporting by fishers in the contiguous coastal area of Aragua State.

At his point, two important facts are to be noticed: The prompt documented official reporting of events, and more importantly the consistent concurrence on the facts from the different branches of the government including the population that has been qualified as a true civic-military-police success.

Full details of those facts with some analysis of the implied tactical strategies pursued by the mercenary attack can be read here and here for the May 3 and May 4 incidents respectively. But other side stories and revelations lead us to ask, what can we say about the coordination of this ongoing coup attempt, the coup plotters involved and the expected outcome were the coup to succeed?

Let’s put the U.S. government on the side for a moment. We know about its long-standing goal for regime change. We all know that President Trump has denied any U.S. involvement in the raid. That was to be expected but not to be believed.

We would like to focus on some of the implications of this raid that come from three sources: self-appointed president Juan Guaidó and two videos with declarations from key players.

In a tweet communication on May 3 Guaidó dismissed the mercenary attack as a “false flag” by the Maduro government to hide social problems, although a day later he changed his tune in a video interview by suggesting that the “dictatorship” had infiltrated the armed group. This shows that Guaidó was not aware of the upcoming incursion on Venezuela.

Further evidence that he was not part of the planning can be inferred from a video where Venezuelan former National Guard Javier Nieto Quintero appears next to former U.S. Green Beret Jordan Goudreau. Nieto introduces Goudreau as a “member of the special forces of the U.S. army who also runs the Florida-based company Silvercorp USA to provide services to handle “the whole spectrum of crisis situations”, and is reported to “organize a military expedition aimed at ousting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro”. The video announces the raid as part of a so-called armed struggle “Operation Gedeon” and is a call to the Venezuelan military and people to join in the overthrow of the Maduro “regime”.

What is striking is that in the two minutes and a half long video not once there is a reference to Guaidó as the “legitimate interim president” of Venezuela, and that the incursion also intends to support his claim.

On the contrary, in another video Goudreau is interviewed from an undisclosed location by Miami-based Venezuelan journalist Patricia Poleo. The main thrust of the interview revolves around a contract shown and allegedly signed by Silvercorp Jordan Goudreau, Juan Guaidó and other representatives. The existence of such a contract was revealed several weeks ago but never shown before. Goudreau claims that Guaidó breached the contract for failing to pay the convened US$1.5 million for his “services”. That was mentioned to be the reason why “the ‘liberation’ of Venezuela was not achieved.” But surely Goudreau must have had his eyes on the larger “reward” of the multi million dollars promised by the Attorney General’s bounty for the capture of Nicolas Maduro and other high ranking Venezuelan officials.

Conclusion

The statements made by those who masterminded the recent mercenary armed incursion on Venezuela – that was quickly neutralised by the Venezuelan forces – do not seem to have had Guaidó in their minds in the event of a success of the attempted coup that they must have hoped for.

In fact, the coup plotters apparently never included Guaidó in their plans. A news item by Reuters states,

In Washington, a source familiar with U.S. intelligence assessments described the incursion as a ‘private enterprise’ and said it was not believed to have been carried out with Guaidos knowledge or approval.

Not only was Guaidó absent from any consideration for involvement in the raid or in the future Venezuela envisioned by the coup plotters, but Guaidó was directly targeted by a disgruntled foreign mercenary claiming that he was not paid for his “work”. This widely distributed information was timely released by a Venezuelan journalist who is not a supporter of Maduro but a supporter of a more radical rightwing opposition. This can only be construed as intentionally meant to harm Juan Guaidó in the eyes of all Venezuelans, and any claim he might have to leading Venezuela.

This also occurs at a time when Guaidó seems to be losing international support for failing to be a catalyst force among Venezuelans and to bring the Venezuelan army to a mass mutiny. At the same time Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s recent release of a “Framework for a transition in Venezuela” seems to leave Guaidó out of a potential new government at least until new U.S.-suggested presidential elections in Venezuela.

Behind these events we observe a deepening of the division in the rightwing opposition but a more dangerous one that Washington will gladly use to its advantage. The escalation in Venezuela from violent riots to armed mercenary incursions and sabotages, likely aided by the U.S. and its proxy Colombian government, indicates that the Hybrid War on Venezuela is moving to a next stage of aggression that might degenerate into an armed civil confrontation. The strong and committed resistance of a united government, its Bolivarian defense forces and a patriotic population can defuse the aggression. However, Venezuelans and all Latin Americans in the region should be alerted and concerned about the human cost.

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This article was originally published on OneWorld.

Nino Pagliccia is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Mercenary Confesses Failed Plot Was to Bring President Maduro to US

By Telesur, May 07, 2020

Former United States ex-green beret Luke Denman, that was captured Monday by Venezuela’s Armed Forces, confessed Wednesday that his group aimed at kidnapping President Nicolas Maduro as part of ‘Operation Gedeon’. “I was expecting anywhere between US$50,000 to US$100,000,” Denman admitted, confessing he arrived in Colombia on Jan. 16 in Rioacha in order to train Venezuelan deserters.

Venezuela: Trump’s Failed Mini-Bay of Pigs Fiasco

By Kurt Nimmo, May 07, 2020

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo—the former CIA director who admitted the US government lies, cheats, and steals—wants you to believe the Trump neocon-infused administration had nothing to do with the failed coup plot in Venezuela. Standard Pontius Pilate response. Of course, the US government and its private sector “partners” in the subversion business (in this case, Silvercorp USA) are behind this miniaturized Bay of Pigs operation. The fall guy is Jordan Goudreau, “a former member of the US Army special forces” who has, according to the BBC, “been quick to claim an association” with the captured US mercenaries.

The Hybrid War on Venezuela Moves to a New Stage of Aggression

By Nino Pagliccia, May 07, 2020

In the early morning of last May 3 Venezuela has witnessed the first attempt of a raid by speedboats with armed mercenary forces on the central coast of Venezuela, just a few kilometres from the capital city, Caracas. The response by the Venezuelan armed forces and the almost continuous updates about the action including photos and videos were quick.

Anatomy of a Fake News Campaign: Media Spreads Lie From US Govt-funded Korean Outlet that Kim Jong-un Died

By Ben Norton, May 07, 2020

Many of these fake news stories originate with Korean opposition groups that are funded to the hilt by the US government’s National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a CIA cutout created by the Ronald Reagan administration to push regime change against foreign countries that don’t sufficiently kowtow to Washington. The Grayzone editor Max Blumenthal published a documentary demonstrating how the NED bankrolls a global network of regime-change activists, whose unsubstantiated accusations against the DPRK, China, Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Iran, and other nations targeted by the US are spun into unquestionable truths. North Korean defectors are a particularly unreliable source of information, and many of their claims have been proven to be false. They are highly incentivized, however, with offers of nearly $1 million to continue cranking out the disinformation.

Kim Jong Un Is Still Alive. What About Peace with North Korea?

By Catherine Killough, May 07, 2020

The second anniversary of the 2018 Inter-Korean Summit has just passed. Marking the moment, South Korean President Moon Jae-in lamented, “We have been made keenly aware once again that peace will not come overnight.” Images of the two Korean leaders walking hand-in-hand to cross the demarcation line seem a distant, if not surreal memory in a world now overtaken by a global pandemic and sensational false rumors about Kim Jong Un’s health. Nevertheless, another significant milestone—the 70th anniversary of the Korean War—is fast approaching, and the prospects for peace still tug at the hearts of many.

Bay of Pigs 2.0 – Armed Invasion of Venezuela?

By Lucas Leiroz de Almeida, May 06, 2020

The way in which the invasion was designed is still little known outside Venezuela, however, it is speculated that there was a triad of collaboration between the United States, Colombia and the Guaidó’s Venezuelan opposition. At first, these three elements conspired to allow armed mercenaries to enter Venezuelan soil to overthrow the government. According to official sources, the guerrillas left Colombia on a sea route to enter Venezuela, being transported by an American company possibly hired by Guaidó himself. The attack occurred more specifically in the Chuao region, in the state of Aragua. Several photos and videos of the operation to contain the invasion can be easily found on the internet. The Venezuelan Attorney General has published a series of evidences, including the contracts signed between Guaidó and the American company, which describe the sea routes from Colombia, exactly as done during the attack, attesting the veracity of the Maduro government’s allegations.

Juan Guaidó Is Trying to Overthrow the Venezuelan Government Again. Calls on Military to Support Him

By Alan MacLeod, May 04, 2020

Exactly one year since his audacious coup attempt failed spectacularly, self-declared Venezuelan president Juan Guaidó is once again trying to overthrow the government of Nicolas Maduro. “Today I speak to the patriotic soldiers of our Armed Forces who rebelled against hunger and destruction and sided with the constitution,” he announced on social media last night, “To the majority of patriotic soldiers who are still in each branch of the Armed Forces: today, more than ever, there are obvious reasons for them to act and support the formation of a National Emergency Government…we are going to liberate all of Venezuela.” In a separate video published today, Guaidó addressed Maduro directly: “Every political agreement to save Venezuela begins with your departure from power,” he said, demanding his immediate resignation.

 

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