Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello at a press conference in Caracas, October 17, announcing the capture of a new group of mercenaries lined to the CIA and Spain's CNI. Photo: MPPIJP.
Venezuelan security agencies have arrested 19 mercenaries, including three Americans, two Colombians, one Peruvian, one Bolivian, and one Lebanese national involved in a far-right coup plot. One of US nationals had infiltrated religious groups, another hacked classified files from the Bank of Venezuela, while the third one was a paramedic, reported the minister of the Interior, Justice and Peace, Diosdado Cabello.
The minister reported the news of the capture of this new group of mercenaries on Thursday, October 17, adding that the detainees were linked with the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the CIA, the National Intelligence Center (CNI) of Spain, and criminal gangs. He also reported that 71 weapons were seized from the detainees.
One of the detainees is Jonathan Pagán González, a US national, originally from Puerto Rico, who had the task of infiltrating religious groups.
In a press conference, Minister Cabello denounced Spain’s CNI for “introducing mercenaries and weapons into Venezuela, establishing contact with criminal gangs to attack strategic infrastructure in the country, plotting to assassinate leaders of the Revolution, harming our people and, ultimately, deposing the revolutionary government.”
The most recent revelations made by Diosdado Cabello come 33 days after the Venezuelan government announced that it had dismantled part of a terrorist plot whose objective was the assassination of President Nicolás Maduro, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, and other government officials. On September 14, Cabello stated that “the CIA is at the head of this operation” and that it was working together with Spain’s CNI. At that time, the active Navy SEAL Wilbert Joseph Castañeda, working with the CIA, was captured, in addition to the CNI’s José María Basoa Valdovinos and Andrés Martínez Adasme. A Czech mercenary had been arrested as well.
Cabello mentioned on Thursday that the detainees tried to disassociate themselves from the coup plot by claiming that they had found romatic partners in Venezuela. “It is the recipe [alibi] that they had been given,” the minister commented. He further noted that the US mercenaries are of Latino origin and that they speak Spanish very well.
The mercenary group includes several Americans
Cabello presented a chart with an account of the links of those captured with the CIA, the DEA and the CNI as well as with criminal gangs that operate in Venezuela. The list of those arrested includes several US nationals.
US national Jonathan Pagán González, who had the task of infiltrating religious groups, was arrested in an operation in Zulia state, after someone offered to issue him a Venezuelan identity card. “We are tailing all those in the operation—when he arrived he was arrested and he confessed all his links with destabilizing plans with terrorist groups,” Minister Cabello said.
He added that there is a powerful group from Zulia state behind this individual. “They know who these mercenaries are,” he commented.
“When the mercenary was arrested, we also captured a police chief from there, from the state of Zulia, who was offered between 500,000 and a million dollars to return this gentleman so that he would not be captured and would not be handed over to justice, that they would free him,” Cabello said.
“There are a number of detainees together with” Jonathan Pagán González.
Cabello went on to say that Pagán has “very serious ties in the state of Zulia, plotting to attack the president of the republic and Delcy Rodríguez, and other Chavista leaders.”
The mercenary’s cover was a church. “It is how imperialism is operating, recruiting,” Cabello said.
Another detainee of US nationality, Gregory David Werber, a hacker, “was given the mission to carry out cyber sabotage against the technological structure of Venezuela,” Cabello said. He added that photos of the work that the mercenary was doing were found on his cell phone. Among them, there were hacked classified files belonging to the Bank of Venezuela.
Werber has a Venezuelan partner named Kriscarly Yainelet Castro Carmona, who has links to criminal gangs in Venezuela. Cabello pointed out that this pattern is reccurrent among many of those captured, in this plot as well as the earlier ones.
The third US national arrested is David Guttenberg Guillaume. “His mission was to provide healthcare assistance in cases of injuries in the terrorist activities that they were going to launch. He too has a Venezuelan ‘girlfriend,'” Cabello reported.
In September, three other US citizens had been captured, namely, Wilberth Joseph Castañeda, Aaron Barrett Logan (hacker), and Estrella David, who also has Ecuadorian nationality.
Barrett’s partner, Astrid Emperatriz, a Venezuelan national and hacker, was also captured in September.
Cabello revealed on October 17 that Barrett had information on his phone from institutions and organizations that he was hacking.
A Peruvian in the plot
One of the detainees is a Peruvian citizen, Renzo Yasir Huamanchumo Castillo. His arrest took place in San Antonio, Táchira state. Cabello showed photographs where he can be seen together with groups of alleged mercenaries.
Colombian recruiters captured
Cabello also presented details of the captured Colombian mercenaries. Among them is Manuel Alejandro Tique Chaves, whom he described as a “paramilitary recruiter.” He added that Tique is asscoaited with so-called NGOs.
Cabello also referred to the arrest of Arlei Danilo Espitai Lara, “a paramilitary commander, paramilitary recruiter.” He reported that the trio of Venezuelans who were captured in Apure state were brought by this Colombian national.
A Bolivian-American was to attack the refineries
Jorge Marcelo Vargas, a dual citizen of US and Bolivia, was also among the arrested. He had taken several photographs of the El Palito refinery in Puerto Cabello and the Cardón refinery in Falcón state. The images were extracted from his cell phone.
The detainee declared that “he came to take photos to find the easiest way to access the refineries in Venezuela for a terrorist attack.”
A Lebanese man with ties to Colombia
Another foreign detainee was Said Awada, of Lebanese nationality. He said that he had come to Venezuela to find a girlfriend. He is linked to the Colombian detainee, Arlei Danilo Espitai Lara.
Cabello stressed that the human rights of all the foreign detainees, as well as the Venezuelan ones, are being respected.
More than 12 Venezuelans detained
Cabello also reported the arrest of 12 Venezuelans involved in the terrorist plot planned by US and Spanish intelligence agencies and Colombian mercenaries.
The minister added that there are other Venezuelans detained linked to criminal gangs, but he did not provide further details.
Ex-cops linked to Simonovis
In the plans against Venezuela, a group of ex-policemen linked to the fugitive Iván Simonovis, “who was bringing weapons to Venezuela,” is involved.
Among them, Cabello mentioned Jean Carlos Michel Ramírez, currently residing in Florida, and Mauricio Andrade Santa María, who is an active member of the US Army. Both are Venezuelan and are fugitives.
Two other Venezuelans from that group have already been arrested, namely, Leonardo Atilio Micalitti Henrández and Argenis José Mavares Alcalá.
In that operation, carried out on September 15, in which the two were captured, 24 disassembled rifles had been seized. “The rifles are brought in parts and here they were assembled, put together and delivered to the terrorist groups,” Cabello explained, showing some of the weapons.
He further stated, “There is evidence of a larger number of rifles that were sent in parts. We are looking for those rifles, that weaponry, to neutralize any attempt that the far-right may make.”
The former police officers delivered weapons to a gang of seven people of Venezuelan nationality, who are already detained. The detainees are Carlos Alberto Infante, Neomar Jesús Páez, José Rafael Odreman Fajardo, Ana Isabel Moreno (a CICPC official), FANB Captain Argenis Rafael Rincón Martínez, Ricky Rafael Zapata de los Santos, and Pedro Gerardo Gutiérrez.
“This group operated for the delivery of weapons to gangs such as the Tren del Llano, the Tren de Aragua, and other gangs,” Cabello added.
Three other Venezuelans linked to the CIA operative
Three individuals who entered Venezuela through the state of Apure were also arrested. The trio is of Venezuelan nationality and is linked to Wilbert Joseph Castañeda, the active US military official, member of the Navy SEAL and a CIA operative, captured on September 1 of this year.
Those arrested are Vakeny José Díaz Rodríguez, Joel Manuel González Moreno, and Randy Alexander González González.
Weapons seized in Zulia and Aragua
Diosdado Cabello also reported that Venezuelan authorities seized 71 weapons of war in various recent operations.
He reported that on September 15, a day after his first press conference on the mercenary plot, a stash of weapons was seized in Zulia state. “They are US-made rifles, AK type. They are made by an US company, Century Arm, which manufactures AK rifles in the United States,” Cabello stated. “Those weapons are normally used to destabilize countries.”
He added that an individual, alias David, associated with those weapons, is yet to be captured, whom he described as “the person in charge of sending the weapons via Ivan Simonovis.”
“We have arrested people linked to violence in Colombia who have acted as recruiters of Colombians to come to Venezuela as terrorists, mercenaries,” he added.
He said that after the seizures on September 15, the security agencies were deployed in the area, and “we received information that the groups operating in the Aragua Valleys, associated with the Tren de Aragua and Tren del Llano, were carrying out an operation in the Tejerías area.”
In response, officials from the Scientific, Penal and Criminal Investigations Corps (CICPC) carried out an operation to seize “33 rifles that had been stolen from our Bolivarian National Armed Force.”
Cabello reported that those weapons were found in the possession of the gang of the seven detainees mentioned above. “There was a confrontation there and unfortunately a CICPC official died, several members of the gang were captured, some fell in combat, others were wounded, I mean from the gang of criminals,” he said.
Cabello noted that this criminal group is known as the Jason Comino gang and operates in Las Tejerías area. Its leader was Jeison Arráez Escobar, who was arrested. “Another group of Venezuelans was detained” for their association with the criminal organization and mercenaries.
Simonovis, an arms dealer
Cabello complained that Iván Simonovis is acting as a coordinator of arms trafficking for these groups. “Iván Simonovis has become the mercenary for arms sales, an arms dealer, not only for Venezuela but for other parts of the world,” he noted. “Recently some weapons were seized in Bolivia, and all of them were traced back to Iván Simonovis.”
He added that Simonovis is protected by the US government because “he has been an agent of the empire” for a very long time.
He said that the United States uses the DEA, the CIA and the CNI as operational agents to attack Venezuela, and in Colombia has the support of Álvaro Uribe Vélez and Venezuelan fugitives, such as Iván Simonovis, Carlos Vecchio, and Julio Borges, as well as that of María Corina Machado.
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Interpol statement
Minister Cabello also read a statement sent by Interpol on October 7, regarding the illegal smuggling of firearms from the United States. Cabello said that the US authorities are aware of the shipment of weapons to Venezuela and it looks like they are trying to cover their tracks and identify the seized weapons.
“One wonders if Interpol is playing offside. Is the United States government washing its hands? They know that these weapons are here,” Cabello said, noting that the Interpol letter is an evidence against those claiming that the seized weapons, now numbering over 500, are a fabrication.
He added that the weapons belong to the firm Don’t Tread On Me. The brand bears the flag designed by Christopher Gadsden in 1775, which is a symbol of the far right. He said that the traffickers were hired by the National Intelligence Centre of Spain.
Investigation continues
Minister Cabello informed the public that law enforcement agencies continue working to dismantle all destabilization attempts against Venezuela.
(Diario VEA) by Yuleidys Hernández Toledo, with Orinoco Tribune content
OT/JRE/SC
