Guaidó may be drawn into Colombia trial linked to failed incursion to topple Maduro

Juan Guaidó Márquez, the Venezuelan lawmaker recognized by the United States and allies as the legitimate leader of his oil-rich country, may be asked to provide testimony in Colombia about last year’s botched incursion and attempt to overthrow the Maduro regime with the help of ex-U.S. special forces soldiers.

A lawyer for Yacsy Alexandra Álvarez Mirabal, the Venezuelan woman with Florida ties accused of helping to organize the failed coup from neighboring Colombia, has asked the office of Colombia’s prosecutor to name as co-conspirators both Guaidó and former Venezuelan Major Gen. Cliver Alcalá Cordones. The general was extradited to the United States by Colombia last March to face charges in a drug-trafficking indictment brought against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his closest associates.

In a filing this week to the prosecutor’s office in Bogota, her lawyer Pedro Alejandro Carranza Cepeda said that Guaidó and Alcalá “have a direct relationship with what is alleged about my client,” and described them both “as the leaders of an operation that allegedly seeks the freedom of the Venezuelan people.” In a brief jail-cell interview last December, Álvarez, 40, told the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald that she was only a translator who got caught up in something much larger, and said she fears for her life. The prosecutor’s office in Colombia had no immediate comment on the filing.

Alcalá has acknowledged having worked with Venezuelan mutineers and former military officers on an incursion into Venezuela last May that they hoped would lead to an uprising to topple Maduro, himself the subject of U.S. sanctions and indictment. American ex-soldiers Luke Denman and Aidan Berry were captured in the botched coup, known as Operation Gideon, that left six dead and was aided by former Green Beret Jordan Goudreau and his Florida security firm Silvercorp USA. Goudreau late last year brought a breach of contract lawsuit in South Florida against representatives of Guaidó’s alternative government.

The Justice Department alleges Alcalá took bribes on behalf of the Maduro regime to allow cocaine to be shipped through the country by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, designated by Washington as a narco-terror group. It goes by the Spanish acronym FARC. In a Jan. 6 hearing, U.S. prosecutors told a judge that Alcalá is under a separate investigation by another U.S. agency as well.

The events unfolding in Colombia may present an immediate challenge to the new Biden administration. During his confirmation hearing, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said he agreed with his predecessor’s view that Venezuela’s National Assembly is a legitimate governing body but stopped short of fully endorsing Guaidó. The lanky Venezuelan lawmaker was pushed by the Trump administration as Venezuela’s true leader, but Guaidó does not have a strong standing in his nation and there has been jockeying between opposition camps.

If Carranza succeeds in linking Guaidó to the prosecution it could prove embarrassing. A series of investigative reports by the Herald, el Nuevo Herald and their parent company McClatchy has revealed that some members of the Trump administration were aware of the freelance effort to topple Maduro, and that the plotters were infiltrated by Maduro loyalists early on, so much so that rebels landing on boats in Venezuela were led to slaughter. The two captured Americans were later sentenced to 20 years in a Venezuelan prison and are the subject of negotiation efforts by former New Mexico Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson to win their release.

It also might prove embarrassing for Colombian President Iván Duque, a staunch supporter of Juan Guaidó. The Colombian president has accused Álvarez publicly of participating in a plot aiming to destabilize Colombia, instead of her native Venezuela. Some of the actors participating in the incursion have told the Miami Herald and McClatchy that the Colombian Intelligence services also had foreknowledge of the planned coup.

Álvarez is a mystery woman. She owns a home in Tampa but has little social media presence or footprint in Florida. Soldiers who trained in Colombia for the failed coup described her as so close to Alcalá that she was referred to as the general’s niece. Her lawyer Carranza said she was introduced to Alcalá in the Colombian city of Barranquilla by her employer, a wealthy Venezuelan named Franklin Durán. He served time in South Florida in connection with a suitcase full of money that was bound for Argentine politicians when seized.

When detained in Barranquilla last September, Álvarez was accused of illegally importing and distributing weapons and military garb, and involvement in training for illicit activities. Her lawyer counters that Colombia knew of the training camps, from the president on down, and is making Álvarez take the fall when all she did was provide interpretation services for Alcalá, Goudreau and his Florida-based Silvercorp USA.

At a hearing in Bogota on Wednesday, a judge warned that the case would most likely be moved to a province closer to where the alleged crimes occurred. Álvarez was arrested with three others alleged to have been involved in plotting the coup attempt, and a lawyer representing those men signaled on Wednesday he has been in talks with prosecutors exploring a plea deal at this time, something against Álvarez’s interests.

“She will demonstrate her innocence at trial,” Carranza told the judge, saying his client has no interest in any such deal.

Carranza’s filing to prosecutors this week warned that there is “sufficient argument” to conclude “the active and direct participation” of the interim president and the ex-general “in the investigation that you are currently carrying out and for which my client will be called to trial in the coming days.”

This article has been updated.