Venezuela: Officials claim CIA is plotting to kill Maduro

Venezuelan officials say they have arrested six foreign nationals, including three Americans, accusing them of plotting to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro.

Six foreign citizens, three of whom are Americans, as well as two citizens of Spain and one citizen of the Czech Republic, were arrested yesterday on suspicion that they went to Venezuela with the intention of assassinating the president of Venezuela, reports ABC.

The arrests were announced on state television by Diosdado Cabelo, Venezuela’s interior minister.

Cabello claims that the arrested persons were part of a conspiracy led by the CIA, with the intention of ousting the Venezuelan government and killing several members of its leadership.

In the television program, Kabelo showed pictures of weapons that he said belonged to the arrested foreign nationals.

The US denies involvement in the plot

One of the arrested, Wilbert Jozef Gomez, is a member of the US Navy, According to Newsx.

Gomez, according to the Venezuelan interior minister, served in Afghanistan, Iraq and Colombia.

The US State Department confirmed the detention of members of the US military and said it was aware of “unconfirmed reports of the arrest of two more US citizens in Venezuela”.

“Any claims of US involvement in a plot to overthrow Maduro are categorically false. The United States continues to support a democratic solution to the political crisis in Venezuela,” the statement said.

The arrest came two days after the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on 16 Maduro allies accused by the US government of disrupting voting during Venezuela’s disputed July 28 presidential election and violating human rights.

Theft of elections and international tensions

Tensions between the Venezuelan government and the US have also risen since the election, the result of which sparked protests in Venezuela in which hundreds of opposition activists were arrested.

Venezuela’s electoral council, which is closely aligned with the Maduro administration, said Maduro won the election with 52% of the vote, but did not provide a detailed analysis of the results.

Opposition activists, however, surprised the government by collecting papers from 80% of the country’s voting machines. Papers collected by the opposition have been published online and show that Gonzalez won the election with twice as many votes as Maduro.

Despite international condemnation of the election’s lack of transparency, Venezuela’s Supreme Court, which has long supported Maduro, upheld his victory in August.

Maduro has rejected requests from several countries, including the leftist governments of Colombia and Brazil, to provide papers proving he won the election. Maduro, who has been in power since 2013, has long claimed that the US is trying to topple him with sanctions and covert operations.

The Maduro administration has previously used Americans imprisoned in Venezuela to obtain concessions from the US government.

In a deal struck last year with the Biden administration, Maduro freed 10 Americans and a fugitive wanted by the U.S. government to secure a presidential pardon for Alex Saab, a close Maduro ally who is being held in Florida on money-laundering charges. According to US prosecutors, Saab also helped Maduro evade US Treasury sanctions through a complex web of shell companies.