Venezuela: Two US citizens arrested after beach invasion aimed at capturing Nicolas Maduro, says regime

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday that authorities have captured 13 "terrorists", including two US citizens he described as mercenaries, over allegations that they were involved in a failed plot to invade the country and oust him.

In a state television address, Maduro showed what he said were the passports and other identification cards of Airan Berry and Luke Denman, who he described as employees of Silvercorp, a Florida-based company whose owner has claimed responsibility for the invasion attempt.

Venezuelan authorities said on Monday that they arrested another eight accused "mercenaries" in a coastal town and showed images on state TV of several unidentified men handcuffed and lying prone in a street. The Venezuelan government said that more than 25,000 troops have been mobilised to hunt for other rebels operating in the country.

Diosdado Cabello, the vice-president of the ruling party, posted on his Twitter account a video of a Venezuelan identified as Josnars Adolfo Baduel, who was also detained, and claimed that two US citizens were among those arrested. Mr Baduel is shown responding to a security official who asks him about the Americans captured.

Venezuelan state television broadcast the video but did not identify the Americans. But Jordan Goudreau, a Florida-based former Green Beret,  said he was working with the two men in a mission launched early Sunday to "liberate" Venezuela.

Goudreau has claimed responsibility for Sunday's operation, which Venezuelan authorities say they foiled and left eight people dead at a beach near the port city of La Guaira.

He identified two former US veterans taken into Venezuelan custody who served in Iraq and Afghanistan with him, Goudreau said.

Goudreau said the men were part of an alleged mission called "Operation Gideon" launched before dawn on Sunday that entailed landing boats on the beach.

Venezuela has been in a deepening political and economic crisis under Maduro's rule. Crumbling public services such as running water, electricity and medical care have driven nearly five million people to migrate. But Maduro still controls all levers of power despite a US-led campaign to oust him. It recently indicted Maduro as a drug trafficker and offered a $15 million reward for his arrest.

Venezuela and the US broke diplomatic ties last year amid heightened tensions, so there is no American embassy in Caracas.

"I've tried to engage everybody I know at every level," Goudreau said of the attempt to help his detained colleagues. "Nobody's returning my calls, It's a nightmare."

The mother of one of the Americans told the Associated Press that the last time she heard from her son was a few weeks when he texted her from an undisclosed location to ask how she was coping with the coronavirus pandemic.

She said she never heard her son discuss Venezuela and only learned of his possible capture there after his friends called when they saw the reports on social media.

"The first time I heard Jordan Goudreau's name was today," she said when reached at her home in Austin, Texas.

Goudreau has said he signed a contract with the US-backed Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido to overthrow Maduro, which Guaido has denied. The opposition leader said he had nothing to do with Sunday's raid.

Goudreau says Guaido never fulfilled the contract, but the former Green Beret pushed ahead with an underfunded operation with just 60 fighters, including the two U.S. veterans.

He said he last communicated with Denman and Berry when they were adrift in a boat "hugging" the Caribbean coast of Venezuela. They were still in their boat following an initial confrontation with the Venezuelan Navy early Sunday, he said.

"They were running dangerously low on fuel," Goudreau said. "If they had gone onto landfall, they would have gone to a safe house."

Goudreau said the two were waiting for a boat on the Caribbean island of Aruba with emergency fuel to help extract them.

Maduro ally and Attorney General Tarek William Saab said that the regime has arrested 114 people suspected in the attempted attack and they are on the hunt of 92 others.

Officials in Venezuela's government accuse Colombia and the United States of organising and carrying out the attack aiming to overthrow Maduro. Both US and Colombian officials have denied the Venezuelan allegations.