Venezuela Arrests Another US Citizen in Alleged Mercenary Plot

The Venezuelan Minister of the Interior, Justice and Peace Diosdado Cabello reported that another US citizen linked to a terrorist plan against the peace of Venezuela was arrested.

“We were following him, he took photos of military facilities, electricity infrastructure and state entities, using the excuse of being a tourist,” he said during his speech at the plenary session of the National Assembly on Tuesday, September 17, where he was invited to present of the newly unveiled mercenary plot.

Following the alert about a terrorist plot to smuggle grenades and explosives into the country, an investigation was carried out that led to the capture of three citizens.

Cabello said that the three US nationals detained, who all identified themselves as “tourists,” are being held in a safe place. “We respect human rights,” he added.

He also reported that the detained individuals are related to groups of “escort services” who are related to gangs associated with members of the defunct Tren de Aragua criminal gang.

Cabello added that they have obtained information from the detainees, who have confessed that the Spanish National Intelligence Center (CNI) hires mercenaries and those mercenaries are in Venezuela. They already had defined tasks, one of which was to take over the Simon Bolivar International Airport serving Caracas.

Four Facts About New US/Spain-Led Mercenary Plot Against Venezuela

He said that the subjects linked to these cases have the alibi of being “tourists” and that the leader of the operation is Wilberth Joseph Castañeda. “The White House spokesman recently acknowledged that Joseph Castañeda Gómez is an active military officer in the United States, he was trained to carry out missions in Latin America and that he is, in fact, detained here in Venezuela,” said Cabello.

Castañeda has been a member of the US Navy Seals since 2009 , the main special operations force of the US Navy. He is a trained individual; he took a course in Virginia (US) in group No. 4, an explosives expert. He was then transferred to group No. 7 in San Diego (California), which is the elite group, their special group. He took a course in river operations, mixed weapons, pistol and rifle, urban and close combat, parachuting, rural combat, explosives, offensive and defensive handling, and offensive weapons. He was in the war in Afghanistan in 2010, and in 2014 he participated in the war in Iraq for 6 months.

Cabello reported that in 2021, Wilbert Joseph Castañeda traveled to Colombia where he made contact with a woman named Deisy Jugles González, who was the partner of “a very high-level man from the Aragua Train gang who was murdered in Colombia.”

In Colombia they contacted Belén Salas, María Teresa Clavijo, Carlos Andrade, alias Petare, alias El Flaco, “all belonging to criminal gangs and groups,” with the aim of recruiting people to form a group to commit terrorist acts in Venezuela.

The terrorist plan involved hiring prisoners and arming them with the 400 rifles that were confiscated. In total, they had already contacted 14 prisoners. Three of them were shown by Cabello in a photo.

“Are the CIA and the DEA behind all this? The Pentagon?” Cabello asked.

“They accuse us of attacking a supposedly innocent child? He is not an innocent child. Jorge Rodriguez explained Operation Gideon in detail, including the coordinates, the camps, who was leading them, and they said it was all a lie. We even gave the initials of the person who was going to lead it, Jordan Goudreau, and they denied it. But we are obliged to defend our country and our sovereignty and nothing will stop us,” he said.

“They want to turn Venezuela into a non-state. This is not just a problem of Chavismo, it concerns us as Venezuelans. We are working to guarantee peace for everyone.

Cabello accused Iván Simonovis, a far-right opposition leader based in the US, of being responsible for the mobilization of all the weapons.

(Últimas Noticias) by Odry Farnetano

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/JRE/DZ