Venezuela’s Maduro says US citizens included in group of detained ‘mercenaries’ Nicolas Maduro News
President Maduro described the two American captives as having a “very high level” and said the group included mercenaries and “hitmen.”
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has announced the arrest of a group of foreign “mercenaries”, including Colombians and United States citizens, who he said were plotting to stop his inauguration this weekend. Were.
Maduro said on Tuesday that the group was planning “terrorist acts” ahead of the inauguration ceremony on Friday, describing them as two Colombian “hitmen”, three “mercenaries” from the war in Ukraine and two US citizens.
He said the detained Americans were of “very high profile”, but did not provide further details or evidence about the arrests.
“Just today, we have captured seven foreign mercenaries, including two important mercenaries from the United States,” he said in a broadcast on state television, before announcing a massive deployment of police and military across the country. are also included.”
“I’m sure they will confess in the next few hours,” he said.
Maduro, who is set to take office on Friday for a third term following elections last July, said the group had been captured in unspecified parts of Venezuela.
In remarks delivered from the Miraflores presidential palace, he also said security forces had captured a total of 125 foreign mercenaries from 25 different countries. He said they had entered the South American nation “to practice terrorism against the Venezuelan people.”
Neither the US State Department nor Colombia’s Foreign Ministry immediately responded to requests for comment.
Maduro, who first came to power in 2013, has over the past few years made frequent baseless claims of US-led plots to remove him from office.
In late 2023, the Venezuelan government released dozens of prisoners, including 10 Americans, after months of negotiations between Caracas and Washington, while the US released a close Maduro ally, Colombian businessman Alex Saab.
The latest arrests came just hours after US President Joe Biden met with exiled Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia and also following reports that Gonzalez Urrutia’s son-in-law was kidnapped in Caracas.
During the meeting, Biden said he supported a “peaceful return to democratic rule” in Venezuela and warned against further repression inside the country.
He held a big reunion event with President Biden. The agreement with peace and tranquility in Venezuela remains intact.
During 45 minutes you will want to know in depth the positive side of our region, the expansion of democracy in Venezuela.… pic.twitter.com/PuBS6vvgqL– Edmundo Gonzalez (@EdmundoGU) 6 January 2025
Translation: I had a long meeting with President Biden. His commitment to the peaceful and orderly transition of Venezuela remains intact. For 45 minutes we were able to discuss in depth the positive impact that the expansion of democracy, starting with Venezuela, is having on the region. Thank you, President Biden!
Gonzalez Urrutia – who has been declared the president-elect by several governments in the region, including the US – has been visiting friendly countries to drum up international support.
Washington and many of Venezuela’s democratic neighbors believe the opposition leader won a landslide victory in the July presidential election and that official results were falsified.
The opposition has called on “millions” of Venezuelans to protest on Thursday to keep Maduro in power and prevent him from being officially sworn in.
They face an uphill battle.
Maduro, 62, and his political mentor Hugo Chávez, who died in 2013, have ruled Venezuela for the past quarter century.
Both have shrugged off waves of international and domestic pressure, retaining power through populist appeals, disputed elections and the muscle of the army, police and paramilitary gangs.
