Featured image: Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello during an interview with Telesur this Saturday, September 14.
“The coup plotters now have a hard time in Colombia because they do not have a government that collaborates with them,” said the Venezuelan Interior Minister.
Ecuador is revealing itself to be the new beachhead for terrorist plans against Venezuela. This was reported by the Venezuelan minister for interior, justice, and peace, Diosdado Cabello, during his participation in a special interview broadcast by Telesur and VTV on Saturday, September 14.
Cabello made this revelation while elaborating on details provided earlier in a press conference about the capture of foreign operators who came to Venezuela with the intent to assassinate figures such as President Nicolás Maduro and Vice President Delcy Rodríguez. Cabello’s name is also included on the “hit list.”
The decision to center operations in Ecuador is based on the fact that Colombia is not as willing to participate in overthrowing President Maduro since President Petro came to power. However, Colombia still hosts at least seven US military bases, and operatives continue to use it, only to a lesser degree.
After emphasizing that Ecuador is “…the kingdom of drug trafficking and paramilitarism at any level,” Cabello noted that “Nieto Quintero” resides in that territory. He was referring to either Javier or Juan Carlos Nieto Quintero, two brothers who were involved in the failed Operation Gideon in May 2020.
Previously, Cabello had mentioned the name of Iván Simonovis, a far-right operator and fugitive from Venezuelan justice, as an arms dealer who negotiates with mafias located throughout the Americas and is also involved in the new mercenary plot. “All his life he has lived off arms trafficking,” Cabello added.
A tropicalized agent
Wilbert Joseph Castañeda Gómez was mentioned early in the afternoon the previous day by Cabello Rondón as an important CIA operative tasked with advancing mercenary and terrorist plans. His capture was made possible through a follow-up operation, which was planned based on processed intelligence hints.
Cabello said, “We began to search for telephone connections, and he was captured in the mountainous area between La Victoria and Colonia Tovar, in the state of Aragua.” He also pointed out that the man had entered the country twice: once in March and again on July 14 of this year. He travelled between Venezuela and Colombia.
“From the moment he arrived in Venezuela, he began to make contact with politicians. He began to make contact with people from organized crime gangs, which the United States itself has been saying have entered its territory, such as El Tren de Aragua, Tren de los Llanos,” the minister said.
He stated that Castañeda Gómez was responsible for directing the operation planned by criminal gangs in collaboration with the Venezuelan far-right opposition that began on July 28, the day of the presidential election in which Nicolás Maduro won the majority of the votes. Cabello added, “On July 28, 29, and 30, I was monitoring developments around Miraflores Palace with alias ‘El Flaco,’ checking in real-time during the operation.” He then displayed a screenshot from the seized phone, which showed the following messages: “We are active. We are going to kill even the dog. We will see what happens tonight. They have already announced that Maduro won. Venezuela is going to ignite. I see that Caracas is a center of flames. It has become a war zone. People with weapons need to organize and launch a large offensive. Many innocent people will die, but to achieve the result the country deserves; there is no other way.”
“It is the first time that we can say that we have [captured] an officer of the US Army, in this case of the US Navy, directing an operation of this type,” said Cabello.
He reiterated that the US operative contacted a Venezuelan “who was in Colombia, called Deisy Jugles González, who is detained. She was the partner of a very high-level man from the Tren de Aragua gang who was murdered in Colombia … She served as a link to connect him” with criminal groups here in Venezuela.
Cabello added, “[he is a] very high-level operator. He is talking about active participation in these plans. In his phones, in the conversations, there are the contacts he has had.”
Spain’s reaction was expected
After the Saturday press conference, the Spanish government denied that José María Basoa Valdovinos and Andrés Martínez Adasme, captured near the airport of Puerto Ayacucho, Amazonas state, have links with the National Intelligence Center of Spain. This was announced by Spanish-owned media company, Radiotelevisión Española, on its website. When asked about it, the Venezuelan minister said that he had already predicted that the European nation would disassociate itself from the violent plans: “It was foreseeable, we had said in the press conference earlier that Spain was going to come out and say that they have nothing to do with it.”
Cabello revealed that the Venezuelan government “received first-hand information where a person says that he was contacted by the CNI and gives us the complete plan.”
“When they were arrested, at first they did not say anything, then they admitted to being from the intelligence agencies, of the CNI,” added Cabello,
“These people are confessing their active participation. They have connections with Castaneda, with far-right political groups in Venezuela and criminal gangs in Venezuela,” continued Cabello.
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Cabello noted that this intelligence organization has several French nationals among its personnel in Venezuela. “What has been said and reported is only a part of the complete set of information we have gathered. The CNI is aware that we have more information,” he said. Among their objectives was to seize control of the Simón Bolívar International Airport, a goal similar to the one outlined in Operation Gideon, as he recalled.
The Venezuelan minister of the interior also mentioned the case of Czech citizen Jan Darmovzal, who was associated with a mercenary group known as the AZ Command. Cabello displayed an image of a notebook containing what appeared to be a manual for torture procedures. He also noted that Darmovzal had connections “with what happened here in Venezuela on July 28, 29, and 30.”
Minister Cabello commented that while the plot is not completely dismantled and the threat remains active despite the significant blow dealt by Venezuelan intelligence agencies, “For them, this issue with the [400] machine guns is a very severe setback. Now comes the stage of desperation. Claiming they have nothing to do with it is a sign of that desperation.”
(Diario VEA) by Ildegar Gil and Yuleidys Hernández Toledo
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/MCM/SL
