Criminal Resources for Political Ends: One Year Since the Coup Attempt Swarm

By Misión Verdad – Aug 5, 2025

Over the past year, Venezuela has been the scene of a coordinated offensive that transcends mere criminal activity, forming part of a broader political strategy aimed at destabilization. Following the presidential elections of July 28, 2024, a climate of demobilization within the opposition forced extremist sectors to reconsider their strategy. Rather than accept the democratic outcome, these groups chose to intensify their regime change agenda by leveraging criminal structures.

The shift was no accident: it represented the consolidation of an asymmetrical model of confrontation that had already been used, but without a specific name. What María Corina Machado proposed as “swarming” sought to saturate the state’s response capacities through decentralized yet coordinated violent actions.

Chained plans and events
The attempted assault on the Miraflores Palace, thwarted by security forces during the escalation of violence following the 2024 election, was one of the iconic episodes of this new phase. Almost a year after those events, on July 10, two criminals were killed near downtown Caracas, following separate operations in which logistical material and military weapons were seized.

Preliminary investigations indicate that these individuals were part of the groups that marched toward Miraflores with the intention of committing a robbery, an action directed by Wilbert Joseph Castañeda, a former Mexican-American military officer captured on September 1 of last year at a hotel in La Victoria, Aragua state.

Castañeda was recently handed over to the United States government as part of a prisoner exchange that also involved Dahud Hanid Ortiz, who is wanted by Spanish authorities for a triple homicide. In exchange, Washington handed over the 252 Venezuelan citizens who were illegally transferred to CECOT, a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, under the unfounded accusation of belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang. “Terrorists for innocents, that was the formula,” said President Maduro regarding the exchange. “Today, Venezuela is victorious!”

Diosdado Cabello, vice president of the Policy, Citizen Security, and Peace sector, has repeatedly pointed out that these gangs do not operate in a vacuum: they are coordinated from abroad by figures such as Álvaro Uribe and Iván Duque, and from within by an opposition that has normalized its alliance with organized crime.

The senior official stated that the “Wilexis” gang, neutralized last January, was also supported from Colombia by both former presidents, and that this criminal was linked to the 2017 violence and Operation Gedeón in 2020 — the objective of which was the invasion of Venezuela.

This connection is not new. In 2020, during that failed operation, mercenaries hired from abroad received logistical support from the aforementioned group, which was involved in acts of terrorism and the kidnapping of minors.

These criminal gangs have attempted to reactivate themselves as “sleeper cells” in strategic locations across the country, from Guárico to Zulia, with the aim of generating chaos that could impact political events such as elections. The swarming tactic, publicly promoted by María Corina Machado, was nothing more than a rationalization of this model: rapid, simultaneous, and violent actions designed to collapse institutions and justify external intervention.

This tactic represented an evolution of the guarimbas and sought to adopt a more focused and militarized form of confrontation, where human rights rhetoric is used to shield violent actions.

The dismantling of a strategy
The Venezuelan state has dismantled a string of terrorist operations that reveal the depth of the destabilizing plan. Among them are:

Operation “No to Christmas.” A plan to incite chaos during the 2024 holiday season, with attacks on electrical infrastructure and shopping malls, seeking to provoke a social collapse.
Network of Narco-Mayors (2025). A criminal organization that operated with armed gangs and had ties to politicians elected by parties from different political factions, including possession of weapons of war.

Operation Catatumbo Lightning has made progress in dismantling paramilitary groups on the border with Colombia, seizing arsenals intended for terrorist attacks. Its most notable achievement was the dismantling of the aforementioned network, financed by the Zulia businessman José Enrique Rincón—who fled to Spain—and comprised of judges, prosecutors, and other local officials involved in a drug trafficking network that moved cocaine to the United States.

This businessman financed a paramilitary plot from Spain with €20 million, coordinating with María Corina Machado and Iván Simonovis. Furthermore, the arrest of figures such as Nervis Sarcos, Alberto Sobalvarro, and Jorge Navas, along with judicial officials such as Chief Prosecutor José Gregorio Rondón, exposed a network of institutional corruption that used territorial control to finance subversion.

The criminal gangs involved, led by Oswaldo José Nava Chacín (El Oso) and Jorge Alfredo Durán Ferrer (El Guasón), had been released in 2023 despite having been captured with weapons and grenades, which demonstrates the protection they received from within the justice system.

These structures, dedicated to contract killings, drug dealing, and collecting “vaccines,” operated on the eastern coast of the lake and were key to facilitating the trafficking of various cocaine shipments that were seized at multiple locations in Zulia. Of particular note are the more than five tons discovered in the La Cañonera area as part of an operation dubbed “Manglar Strike.”

At the same time, assassination operations have been dismantled, such as the plot to assassinate President Nicolás Maduro. Investigations revealed that the plot was logistically supported by the Tren de Aragua and Tren del Llano gangs, whose expansion since 2020—with the involvement of the DEA and Colombian cartels—has been key to their reactivation.

Between August and October 2024 alone, security forces carried out 60 operations in 11 states across the country, with 25 confrontations resulting in the elimination of 37 criminals and the capture of 81 more. A total of 1,729 cartridges, 60 firearms (including 8 rifles), grenades, and tactical equipment were seized, demonstrating the military capability of these cells.

Venezuela: Are We Taking María Corina Machado’s Secret Insurrection Plan Seriously?

Mercenary threats, collaborators and financiers
The threat doesn’t only come from within. From abroad, actors such as Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater, former Commissioner Iván Simonovis, and even former OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro have been identified in official hampogramas (organized crime structure diagrams) as part of the destabilization network.

His ties to financiers and private security contractors pointed to a scenario of covert military intervention, where mercenary groups could be used to justify a “rescue mission” or “humanitarian protection.”

María Corina Machado and Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, have been central to this diplomatic offensive. Both have promoted sanctions, calls for intervention, and delegitimization campaigns that are paving the way for a military escalation. The external factor, which has also been dismantled, includes plans such as:

Operation “Almost Venezuela.” The campaign to raise $10 million—conceived by Gustavo Lainette and the Vera brothers—was denounced as a pyramid scheme. Lainette admitted that the goal was to prop up a “private intervention” led by Erik Prince (founder of the mercenary company Blackwater), but the platform collapsed due to internal conflicts and fraud. It was a “citizen” campaign to finance actions that would justify a narrative of internal “chaos” similar to that of Haiti.
Assassination plot and takeover of Miraflores Palace. Approximately 400 rifles were illegally shipped from Orlando, Florida, under FBI supervision to carry out the assassination of President Maduro, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, and other high-ranking officials. The plan included the takeover of Miraflores Palace and Maiquetía Airport in coordination with mercenaries from the Spanish National Intelligence Unit (CNI) and other foreigners. Castañeda operated under the alias Niño Guerrero del Tren de Aragua and received logistical support from Colombia.

The recent tension with Trinidad and Tobago, another neighboring country that has served as a logistical base for interventionist operations, reflects how alignment with the United States is a prerequisite for serving as a springboard for attacks on Venezuela.

And in all, the narrative war
While the state was combating terrorism in the countryside, media outlets such as Insight Crime and Infobae were repeating the false positive linking Venezuela to drug shipments seized in Guinea-Bissau and Brazil, without evidence.

The narrative war has been waged in the global media, most notably how the Aragua Train has been overexploited by the Trump administration as a “global cartel,” despite journalistic and intelligence investigations showing that its media construction serves as a destabilization strategy. The objective is clear: to criminalize the Venezuelan state, justify sanctions, and prepare international public opinion for intervention.

In parallel, the Trump administration has promoted “crimmigration,” portraying Venezuelan migrants as “foreign enemies.” The kidnapping of children by that government has been sold as part of a national security policy, when in reality it is a psychological operation aimed at discrediting and scaring the Venezuelan community. This fake news machine not only fuels hatred but also seeks to isolate Venezuela diplomatically, presenting it as a “failed state” in need of intervention.

In this context, the narrative of the “Cartel of the Suns”—an alleged network of high-ranking drug traffickers—has been revived as part of this media offensive. However, investigations have also shown that these accusations lack concrete evidence and are part of a delegitimization strategy that combines espionage, disinformation, and financial pressure.

In short, Venezuela faces a multidimensional siege in which anticipation has been key to dismantling networks, neutralizing threats, and exposing the true nature of the most irrational sector of the opposition: an alliance between the far right, drug trafficking, and the de facto powers that be, run by corporations through the White House.

(Misión Verdad)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

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