Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello during his statement broadcast by Venezuelan news channel VTV. Photo: Ministry of the Interior Press.
Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello confirmed the arrest of a group of 38 mercenaries involved in a conspiracy seeking to sabotage Venezuela’s legislative and regional elections scheduled for May 25.
In a press conference held this Monday, May 19, Minister Cabello also explained that of the 38 new detainees—including explosives experts, coyotes, and mercenaries—17 are foreigners (from Colombia, Mexico, and Ukraine) and 21 are Venezuelans.
“A few days ago, we received information that I warned about. I confirm it, explosive attacks specifically targeting embassies in Venezuela. They say in their meetings that if they bomb an embassy, the whole world will find out, and there will be talk of the government’s ‘weakness.’ People who have no scruples whatsoever,” he said.
Minister Cabello also specified that the targets were embassies, police stations, hospitals, healthcare centers, public service facilities, transportation facilities, gas stations, and electrical substations. He reported that they have documents, conversations, and evidence on phones used to plan the terrorist acts.
He added that other targets included figures from both the Bolivarian Revolution and the Venezuelan opposition, “especially those currently at the forefront as opposition candidates. This is the scenario they want to present to the world: that there are no conditions for holding elections in Venezuela.”
“The world knows perfectly well that the electoral schedule has been fully met, everything planned has been done, and the country is ready for these elections. The Bolívar Plan formally launches this week. The polling stations are being filled within the framework of the Republic Plan,” he said.
Among the detained foreigners, Cabello said that one is of Albanian origin with Colombian nationality and is wanted as an international drug trafficker. This individual had a payment made from the US for a hotel reservation in Caracas. He also noted that this is related to drug trafficking in Ecuador, which is led by an Albanian network, pointing out that narcoparamilitary training camps are located in Ecuador.
Minister Cabello also spoke about the arrest of foreign citizens in Venezuela with data and information on leaders of the Bolívar Chávez Battle Units (UBCH), the Local Supply and Production Committees (CLAPS), among other community leaders.
Machado and Simonovis behind the conspiracy
Regarding the so-called “coyotes,” Cabello said the network is linked “to everyone [involved] because they have the telephone contacts for kidnappings here in Venezuela… That figure has practically disappeared, and a few days ago, we began to receive reports of kidnappings in the west of the country. The payment method they are using is cryptocurrency, supposedly to avoid leaving any trace.”
The minister reported that the leader of the group is Arturo José Gómez Morán, a former officer of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB), who participated in an attempted coup d’état at the Altamira bridge on April 30, 2019. “This former officer, who is in the United States under government protection, maintains direct ties to conspiratorial groups in the US. The person leading this latest conspiracy in Venezuela is Iván Simonovis, who has a long history of failure,” he stated.
Cabello explained that the “coyotes” kidnapped people, including members of the Venezuelan government, to terrorize their families. Upon reviewing the mercenaries’ cellphones, authorities discovered plans for violent, terrorist, and conspiratorial activities.
The minister recalled that opposition extremist María Corina Machado recently spoke about being “attentive to the signs,” with her sector having openly expressed intent to sabotage the electoral process.
“Behind this is Ms. María Machado, and the operational arm is the same old defeated Iván Simonovis. Terrorism and conspiracy, which is the central axis, explosives, drug trafficking, coyotes, human trafficking, and mercenaries are involved. This is their new adventure to prevent elections on May 25,” he stated.
He also said that “the financing of conspiracies and terrorism in Venezuela comes directly from Colombian drug trafficking, led by [Álvaro] Uribe, [Iván] Duque, [Andrés] Pastrana, and [Juan Manuel] Santos, the leaders of drug trafficking in Colombia. Everyone in Colombia knows that.”
Capture of individuals with explosives
Minister Cabello explained that among those captured was a group of Venezuelans returning to the country “with explosive devices, which they call electric detonators.”
“There are eight [explosive devices] that we took from two people; each detonator is a target. The explosive is placed there, and it’s the initiator of the explosion. Without that, there is no way to prepare an explosive that can be activated remotely. That is the advantage—they can trigger it by phone, a watch, or other mechanisms,” he added, noting that the group captured with detonators had also operated in Ecuador.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
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