Venezuela UPDATE: Maduro assassination & military coup plot foiled

maduro military

There was a plot to assassinate Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, and to stage a coup. The plot has been foiled. The Latin American country’s intelligence agency has made the claim.

The foiled plot envisioned a group of rogue officers storming the presidential palace and installing an imprisoned general in his stead.

The plot by current and former military officers involved breaking retired General Raúl Isaías Baduel out from a maximum security prison in Fuerte Tiuna, where he is kept since 2017 for wanting to overthrow the government, and seizing state-run Venezolana de Televisió. Through Venezolana de Televisió, it was planned, Baduel would be announced president.

Intelligence agencies had been unraveling the plot for 14 months.

The main part of the plan that was scheduled for June 23-24, involved assassinating Maduro and leader of the National Constituent Assembly Diosdado Cabello, while seizing the Miraflores presidential palace and the Carlota military base in Caracas.

“140,000 seized cartridges for machine guns and several combat groups were predetermined to be used to capture President Nicolas Maduro,” said Jorge Rodriguez, the Venezuelan Minister of Communications and Culture, on June 26, 2019.

The minister announced arrests of the conspirators.

Rodriguez said that he believes Colombian president Ivan Duque and Chilean president Sebastián Piñera provided financing and other support for the plot, which was allegedly endorsed by US national security adviser John Bolton.

“The complicity and participation of Duque and the government of Colombia in this fascist attempt to assassinate me is evident,” said Maduro in reaction to the news.

The Venezuelan president said, “Colombia is conspiring and we will not tolerate it.”

The foiled April 30 coup attempt

Jorge Rodríguez revealed videos and evidence providing more details about the April 30 failed attempted coup including division within the opposition forces, which was a factor in the plan’s failure.

The minister revealed also the involvement of several foreign governments in the financing of the April 30 coup attempt and its operatives.

“What Guaido doesn’t know, is that we had people in all the meetings where they planned hits on members of the government; we have all the recordings, videos and information necessary to face down a coup,” Rodriguez told reporters.

The plan included seizure of weapons stored at the Central Bank, seizure of the Presidential Palace, separate teams tasked with murdering key leaders and generals, and murder President Maduro and Diosdado Cabello.

Among the governments involved in the financing of the cup, according to Rodriguez’s statements, were Chilean President Sebastian Piñera, the Colombian President Ivan Duque as well as the government of the United States in Washington.

In one of the videos revealed by the minister, one senior figure within the coup, known as ‘Marina’ was heard telling, “I told them, the support of the gringos and an intervention is necessary.”

In another video, a soldier who was part of the April 30 coup attempt revealed the involvement of two foreigners in the operation, one from Panama, one from Israel.

Oust Guaido

Rodriguez went on to reveal that during the most recent coup attempt, there were also plans for a usurpation of the opposition leadership against Juan Guaido, the self-declared “interim president” of Venezuela in January.

Evidence collected by the Venezuela government and intelligence also showed that Guaido had paid another opposition figure to ensure that former general Baduel not be released, as Baduel was head of a rival opposition faction.

As evidence of these accusations, the minister presented the same statements made by Piñera, Duque and U.S. National Security Advisor, John Bolton, in which they assure that Maduro’s government has little time left.


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