Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab gives statements to the press on January 22, 2024, about terrorist plots unveiled last year. Photo: X/@TarekWilliamSaab.
Several individuals, who were involved in plans to sow terror and destabilization in Venezuela, with conspiracies aimed at assassinating President Nicolás Maduro, are under arrest. This was reported by the Attorney General of the Republic Tarek Willian Saab during a press conference on Monday, January 22. He added that the far-right opposition politician MarĂa Corina Machado was named by one of the individuals arrested.
Saab explained that among the Venezuelans who were involved in a destabilization plan called “White Bracelet” are Tamara SujĂş, Wender Villalobos, Norbey MarĂn, MarĂa Barraez, Mario CarratĂş Molina and JosĂ© Antonio Colina. Arrest warrants have already been issued against these people, since “it is presumed that they were involved in crimes of treason, attempted intentional homicide against President Nicolás Maduro, attempted intentional homicide against the governor of the state of Táchira [Freddy Bernal], terrorism, and association to commit a crime.”
One of the destabilization plans was to begin in Táchira with the aim of “exploding” everything on January 1, 2024. “The wanted to bathe the country in blood, they wanted the surprise factor,” Saab added.
He also explained the other conspiracies, revealing one that was even intended to be carried out in the presidential residence La Viñeta, to assassinate the Venezuelan president and the minister of defense.
During the press conference, the attorney general presented two videos with the confession of two arrested individuals who recounted the details of their plans.
Saab added that on the phones of the detainees it has been possible to verify their participation, as well as that of the other wanted civilians, soldiers, lawyers, and journalists who could be involved in the events.
The conspiracies of May 2023
The attorney general reported that the conspiracies were underway since May 2023, with the last one scheduled to be carried out between the last days of December and the first days of January.
He said that fortunately the intelligence agencies and state authorities followed up and that the Public Ministry is going to request the courts for the maximum sentence for those allegedly involved.
Concerning the first conspiracy in May 2023, Attorney General Saab reported that 11 Venezuelans were detained: Uaiparu Guerere López, Manuel Gedler, José Ignacio Moreno, Willians Cuña, Sarkis Sako, Nelson Villasmil, Ricardo Marcano, Wilmer Soto, Rafael Dum, Luis Alvarado, and Franklin Alvarado.
In addition, there are arrest warrants against three other people who have been charged with crimes of resistance to authority, serious personal injury, damage to property, conspiracy, treason, disclosure of military secrets, and illicit trafficking of weapons and ammunition.
In the second case, also from May 2023, which the attorney general called the “Guasdualito Espionage Case,” a group of civilians and soldiers were operating in coordination with members of a foreign intelligence organization, to capture members of security forces and even presidential security, to obtain information and attack the president, and cause terror among the population.
“This foreign organization operates and holds clandestine meetings in the city of Bogotá,” said Saab, adding that the following Venezuelan citizens have been detained and charged for involvement in this conspiracy: Douglas RuĂz, JesĂşs RodrĂguez, and Rolando Rojas. They have been charged with terrorism, treason, conspiracy with a foreign government, disclosure of military secrets, and association to commit a crime.
Abduction plot against President Maduro in La Viñeta
The third case of conspiracy reported by Tarek William Saab is called “La Viñeta.”
“In this case, we deactivated a terrorist group whose aim was to attack, to repeat this psychotic obsession, to attack President Nicolás Maduro, and the Minister of Defense Vladimir Padrino.”
The operation was to be carried out at that presidential residence La Viñeta by five individuals “now detained and charged.” In this case, Saab presented a video of one of the individuals, the main person responsible for the terrorist plot confessing how it was planned to be carried out.
The detainees are José Gregorio Montiel, José Daniel Mendoza, José Antonio Moreno, Audelino Bermúdez, and Jhonathan Abache. The crimes with which they have been charged are treason, conspiracy, terrorism, and association to commit a crime.
Video evidence
In the video presented by Saab, an individual identifying himself as First Lieutenant José Gregorio Montiel, from the Presidential Honor Guard, says that he was the chief of security of La Viñeta presidential residence.
He goes on to say that in 2021 he was contacted by a group of Colombians via WhatsApp, but he deleted it. Later, he was contacted again and told that they were working with “a general” named “ClĂver Alcalá.”
Among Montiel’s claims is that he was in charge of selecting the Honor Guard candidates. “Once he had all the staff in the residence, he was going to plan the kidnapping of President Maduro and the ministers who were going to be at the meeting at that moment. This operation was going to take place in November 2023.”
Montiel goes on to relate that when he had control of the residence, taking advantage of his position as head of security, he would place civilians “disguised” as an honor guard in La Viñeta.
“Using a tank to enter the residence, the president and the rest of the ministers were going to be abducted and taken to the Petare neighborhood,” Montiel confessed. “At that time, a journalist would be there to put the information on air.”
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Fortunato Case: spying for the CIA
In another destabilization plan called the “Fortunato Case,” five people have been arrested and charged. JosĂ© Fortunato Guerrero Rojas, Daniel Rivas, Jholmar CardĂ©nas, JesĂşs Alberto GarcĂa, and Edgar Carillo fhave been charged with treason, conspiracy with foreign governments, terrorism, and association to commit a crime.
Attorney General Saab explained that JosĂ© Fortunato Guerrero was detained in the JosĂ© MarĂa SemprĂşn municipality of Zulia state. “He entered the country illegally to carry out espionage and terrorism activities, he was looking for information such as names of pilots and military personnel to send it to the CIA,” Saab added.
White Bracelet case: bathing the country in blood on January 1
The “White Bracelet” case was also exposed by Attorney General Saab, accompanied by a video of the alleged terrorist ring leader confessing the details of the operation.
Angelo Julio Heredia led the plan that was to start during the final minutes of the year 2023 and explode on January 1, 2024. “He and his team wanted to bathe this country in blood, at the start of the year, because they thought that everyone was celebrating in their homes… and they wanted the surprise factor,” Saab explained.
Subsequently, a chain of events were to unfold on January 1 in Táchira, then continue to Barinas and so on until culminating in Caracas.
The plan was dismantled by the Venezuelan intelligence agencies, leading to those involved being prosecuted.
More revelations
In the video presented, the individual who identifies himself as an army captain, Angelo Julio Heredia, explains that he is a deserter from the Ramo Verde prison, from where he escaped on December 25, 2019.
He ended up in Bogotá where he had “interaction with a polygraph test with Colombian intelligence, because they wanted to know if it was true that I escaped and was against the regime, and when President Petro won, the situation was very difficult because they were going to extradite me.”
Heredia added that he traveled to the United States to begin his political asylum process, and meanwhile, he was making videos calling for protests, which generated “political affections” for him, particularly from journalists who helped him.
During his stay in the United States, he began to plan his entry into Venezuela, meeting with CarratĂş Molina, and “first lieutenant JosĂ© Antonio Colina,” who expressed their support to execute the plan.
#Ahora Fiscal @TarekWiliamSaab: Veamos el siguiente video donde delatan los planes que tenĂan#22Ene#HaciaEl2030ConLas7T pic.twitter.com/eaNWVkqsHf
— Alfred Nazareth (@luchaalmada) January 22, 2024
Plan from CĂşcuta
Heradia explained that he arrived in CĂşcuta where his entry into Venezuela was planned, and added that “retired Major General Tomás Enrique MartĂnez MacĂas was in charge of recruiting retired officers within Venezuela to join the plan.”
Once the “team of people” was formed, the plan consisted of entering Venezuela “to do intelligence work with the 22nd Brigade Unit, the Negro First Unit, and the Artillery Unit to determine which of the units was the most vulnerable and then to take it by storm, take up arms, create an area defense, use journalists to make statements giving credibility to the operation and recruit ordinary citizens.”
It was planned, according to Heredia’s confession, to take the governor of Táchira as hostage and then make military statements, “from us as a tactical unit, from journalists, and in the end, a political statement, which was going to be made by an opposition leader,” whose name was hidden in the recording but was clearly seen as MarĂa Corina Machado.
A statement was also expected from abroad, made by CarratĂş Molina, and from other people in Venezuela, and a speech had been prepared for a political leader (again the name was hidden), who was going to be the “political image” after the military pronouncements, Heredia said.
In addition, “there were journalists and YouTubers who were aware of the plan and the dates that they were going to have as their mission, the communication part to disseminate on various social media platforms, channels, newscasts everything that was happening on site.”
He added that they had hoped that the Venezuelan population would unite, and when there was a greater number of people, they would advance towards the capital. Saab explained that the purpose was to obtain the weapons fleet, assassinate the president and the governor of Táchira, and sow chaos in the country.
National prosecutors 67 and 74 have been commissioned for this case. The detainees so far in this last plot are Angelo Julio Heredia, Guillermo Enrique CĂ©sar Siero, Tomás MartĂnez MacĂas, Carlos JesĂşs Sánchez Vásquez, Ronald Alejandro Ferrer Vera, and Diana Desiree Victoria Justo.
Arrest warrants have been issued againt Tamara Sulay SujĂş, Wender Villalobos, Norbey Marin, MarĂa Sebastiana Barraez, Mario CarratĂş Molina, and JosĂ© Antonio Colina. All of them are outspoken anti-Chavista far-right content creators and journalists living abroad, with strong links to the far-right Venezuelan opposition that negotiated with the Venezuelan government in Barbados under US directions.
(Ăšltimas Noticias) by Aura Torrealba, with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SC
