Three Americans, two Spaniards, and a Czech citizen were held in Venezuela on suspicion of attempting to destabilize the country, according to the administration, although the US and Spain refuted Caracas’ charges. The arrests come amid rising tensions between Venezuela and the United States and Spain over the country’s disputed presidential election on July 28, which the opposition claims President Nicolas Maduro stole....READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE ▶▶
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello announced Saturday that the foreign nationals were being seized on suspicion of plotting an attack on Maduro and his regime.
“We know that the United States government has links to this operation,” Cabello asserted.
Cabello stated that two Spaniards were recently apprehended in Puerto Ayacucho, in the southwest.
He also said that three Americans and a Czech person were arrested, and that the claimed scheme involved intelligence agencies in the United States and Spain, as well as Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.
Maduro has blamed his country’s problems on the “imperialist” United States, accusing it of collaborating with his Venezuelan opponents to remove him.
A State Department official stated on Saturday that “any claims of US involvement in a plot to overthrow Maduro are categorically false.”
The State Department official also stated that a US military member was being held and mentioned “unconfirmed reports of two additional US citizens detained in Venezuela.”
Spain also rejected allegations it was involved.
“Spain denies and categorically rejects any insinuation that it is involved in a political destabilization operation in Venezuela,” a foreign ministry source told AFP Sunday.
Cabello said those detained had “contacted French mercenaries, they contacted mercenaries from Eastern Europe and they are in an operation to try to attack our country.”
He added that “more than 400 rifles were seized” and accused the detainees of plotting “terrorist acts.”
The Czech Republic has yet to react to the sensational claims, which come amid a deepening standoff between Maduro and Western powers.
Maduro, who succeeded renowned left-wing leader Hugo Chavez after his death in 2013, maintains he won a third term but has yet to reveal comprehensive voting tallies to back up his claims.
Tensions between Caracas and former colonial powers. Spain climbed strongly after Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, 75, fled to Spain a week earlier after being threatened with arrest.
Caracas withdrew its ambassador to Madrid for consultations on Thursday and summoned Spain’s envoy to Venezuela for talks, after a Spanish minister accused Maduro of operating a “dictatorship.”
Venezuela was also outraged by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s decision to meet with Gonzalez Urrutia, warning Spain against “interference” in its affairs.
Caracas has also engaged in a verbal war with the United States, which declared Gonzalez Urrutia the winner of the election.
Washington imposed additional penalties on Thursday against 16 Venezuelan officials, including those from the electoral administration, for obstructing “a transparent electoral process” and failing to publish correct results.
Venezuela condemned the penalties as a “crime of aggression” and rewarded four military officers targeted by them.
Maduro’s claim to have won a third term in government provoked widespread opposition rallies, which killed at least 27 people and injured 192 more.
The opposition released polling station-level results, claiming Gonzalez Urrutia won by a landslide.
Approximately 2,400 individuals, including many teenagers, were arrested during the incident.
Opposition leader Machado called for additional rallies on September 28, two months after the election, to demand international recognition of Gonzalez Urrutia as president.
Maduro also declared victory despite significant allegations of fraud following Venezuela’s previous election in 2018.
Despite international sanctions, he was able to maintain power thanks to the military and other institutions’ support.
Since Maduro took office in 2013, the country’s GDP has fallen by 80 percent in a decade, causing more than seven million of its 30 million citizens to flee.
