Category Archives: Venezuela

‘His head wasn’t in the world of reality’: how the plot to invade Venezuela fell apart

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Deeply flawed from the start, the audacious plan to overthrow Nicolás Maduro unravelled spectacularly

As get-rich-quick schemes go it was unusually complicated. Invade a foreign country you know little about. Abduct its president to the US. Collect a $15m bounty from the US government – and maybe an even bigger payoff from the people who then seize power.

The plan to overthrow Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and bundle him off to Florida to face drug trafficking charges seemed foolproof to a former US army staff sergeant, Jordan Goudreau, as he mapped it out in a luxury Miami apartment in late 2019. The 43-year-old Canadian-American was certain his years as a green beret in Iraq and Afghanistan had prepared him for the task.

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US mercenary says group plotted to seize Venezuela’s presidential palace

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Airan Berry, captured by security forces, says group aimed to haul Maduro away ‘however necessary’

An American soldier of fortune captured during a botched attempt to seize Venezuela’s leader has claimed his group had plotted to raid Nicolás Maduro’s presidential palace before spiriting him away “however necessary”.

Airan Berry, 41, was one of two US mercenaries captured by Venezuelan security forces this week after what appears to have been a catastrophically executed attempt to topple Maduro by sneaking into the South American country in a pair of weather-beaten fishing boats.

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Venezuela leader calls for extradition of US security contractor after failed raid – video

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President Nicolás Maduro has called for the extradition of a US security contractor after an alleged incursion into the country to abduct him failed.

Luke Denman, one of two US citizens captured during the incident, said he was contracted to a private security firm run by Jordan Goudreau, in an an interview televised in Venezuela. While the US government has denied any role in the alleged raid, Maduro has called for Goudreau to be extradited to Venezuela 

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Venezuela: captured US mercenary describes failed plot to abduct Maduro – video

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Luke Denman is shown on Venezuelan TV after being arrested. Denman was one of two American mercenaries apprehended after a failed attempt to topple Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.

Denman claimed he was on a mission to seize control of Venezuela’s main airport in order to abduct its authoritarian leader – and he alleged that he was acting under the command of Donald Trump.

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Venezuela: captured US mercenary claims he planned to abduct Maduro

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Luke Denman was one of two US citizens seized this week after what appears to have been a bungled bid to overthrow Maduro

An American mercenary captured after a bungled attempt to topple Nicolás Maduro has claimed he was on a mission to seize control of Venezuela’s main airport in order to abduct its leader – and he alleged that was acting under the command of Donald Trump.

Luke Denman was one of two US citizens seized by Venezuelan security forces this week after what appears to have been a catastrophically conceived bid to overthrow Maduro by sneaking into the South American country in a fleet of battered fishing boats.

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Footage shows Venezuelan arrest of ‘mercenary’ in alleged US incursion – video

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Thirteen men were arrested in Venezuela, of which two are believed to be US citizens after what the country's president, Nicolás Maduro, described a failed armed incursion plot coordinated with Washington to enter the country via the Caribbean coast and oust him.

Eight people were killed during the incursion attempt on Sunday, Venezuelan authorities said. Donald Trump has denied any involvement by the US government 

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Donald Trump denies link to Venezuela armed raid by US citizens

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  • Trump: ‘It has nothing to do with our government’
  • Two US ‘mercenaries’ held after Caribbean coast attack foiled

Donald Trump has denied any involvement by the US government in what Venezuelan officials have called a failed armed incursion in the South American country that led to the capture of two American “mercenaries”.

The president made the comment to reporters at the White House after Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, announced that authorities there had detained two US citizens working with a US military veteran who has claimed responsibility for the foiled operation.

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Venezuela: anti-Maduro battle isn’t over as ex-US soldier says he launched raid

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Jordan Goudreau, who was linked to plot to topple Maduro, said his troops are still in action as government said it foiled ‘invasion’

A former US special forces soldier linked to a murky and apparently bungled attempt to topple Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, has insisted his troops are still in action after launching “a daring amphibious raid” into the country.

In a video released late on Sunday – hours after Maduro’s government claimed it had foiled a United States-backed sea “invasion” near Venezuela’s main international airport – Jordan Goudreau claimed the battle was not over.

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Riot in Venezuela prison kills at least 40 and injures 50, including warden

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The violence at Llanos penitentiary started when prisoners demanded relatives be allowed to deliver food

A riot erupted at a prison in central Venezuela, leaving at least 40 people dead and 50 more injured, including a national guard officer who was wounded by an explosion and the warden, who suffered a knife wound, authorities said.

The upheaval at the Llanos penitentiary on Friday started with an inmate protest demanding that their relatives be allowed to deliver them food. An armed confrontation then broke out between inmates and guards, lawmaker María Beatriz Martínez said.

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Venezuela: allies of Maduro and Guaidó hold secret talks over coronavirus fears

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Exploratory talks emerged from concerns over Covid-19 spread, hyperinflation and growing fuel shortages

Allies of the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, and his bitter foe, the opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, have secretly begun exploratory talks as concerns grow about the possible impact of the spread of the coronavirus, according to sources on both sides.

The discussions emerged from concerns about Covid-19, hyperinflation and growing fuel shortages – as well as worries among some members of the ruling Socialist party about how to ensure their political survival under a possible change of government as Washington tightens sanctions, the sources said.

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Lockdowns leave poor Latin Americans with impossible choice: stay home or feed families

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Families struggle to maintain coronavirus restrictions as they seek to stay afloat: ‘My fear is my children going hungry’

Leaders across Latin America have ordered their citizens indoors as they struggle to tame the coronavirus.

But for Liliana Pérez, an Argentinian single mother of six, staying at home is a pipe dream.

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Returning Venezuelans in squalid quarantine face uncertain future

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Migrants who lost their jobs in Colombia’s pandemic lockdown have been shocked by their confinement in a border town

When Jhoel Brito headed back to Venezuela last week he sought safe haven from an epoch-making global health emergency that has paralyzed scores of countries and claimed more than 120,000 lives.

After losing his job as a butcher in Colombia, the 25-year-old Venezuelan migrant believed he would be safer waiting out the coronavirus storm back home.

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Venezuelans return home as coronavirus piles more misery on migrants

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With many South American countries under lockdown of some sort, exiles are taking to the road – but still only a fraction of the 4.5m who left Venezuela

Jenny Salazar fled her native Venezuela last year, trudging hundreds of miles down a motorway to Colombia’s capital with only a suitcase and her nine-year-old daughter in tow.

“It was tough, walking up and down those mountains. But it was the only way we could survive. Staying in Venezuela meant we would die,” the 34-year-old street vendor said of her economically ruined homeland.

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Sanctions should not impede coronavirus fight, EU diplomat says

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Josep Borrell backs UN call for global ceasefire to allow the world to focus on pandemic

Sanctions should not stop the delivery of medical equipment and supplies to countries trying to contain outbreaks of coronavirus, the EU’s top diplomat has said.

Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, made his comments in a declaration on Friday in which he backed the UN’s call for an immediate global ceasefire to allow the world to focus on the pandemic.

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US calls on Maduro and Guaidó to stand down in Venezuela transition plan

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  • Plan includes five-member council and sanctions relief
  • Sceptics see little incentive for government leaders

The US has proposed a political transition plan for Venezuela, offering to lift sanctions if the president, Nicolás Maduro, and his opponent, Juan Guaidó, step aside and pass power to an interim government made up of their supporters.

Related: Coronavirus live news: rise in Italy, US and France deaths takes global confirmed toll past 40,000

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US indicts Nicolás Maduro and other top Venezuelan leaders for drug trafficking

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  • $15m reward for information leading to president’s capture
  • William Barr alleges plot involving Farc guerrilla faction

The US has charged the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, and 14 members of his inner circle with drug trafficking, “narco-terrorism”, corruption and money laundering, and offered a $15m reward for information leading to Maduro’s capture and prosecution.

Unveiling the indictment, the attorney general, William Barr, said the Venezuelan leadership collaborated with a dissident faction of the former Colombian guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, operating on the Colombian-Venezuelan border, which Barr described as an “extremely violent terrorist organization”.

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‘Mask, gown, gloves – none of that exists’: Venezuela’s coronavirus crisis

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Continuing chaotic sitation under Nicolás Maduro leaves hospitals and health services desperately unprepared

There is no ideal time for a pandemic, but fewer countries are less equipped to deal with the Covid-19 outbreak than crisis-ridden Venezuela, warn doctors and public health experts.

Bed shortages, a lack of isolation areas and short supplies of soap are already a daily reality at one hospital in Ciudad Guayana, a city in the country’s east. There is a nearby centre set up for the pandemic response but workers there say there are not enough ambulances to ferry patients.

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‘A generation that decided to fight’: making music amid chaos in Venezuela

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As they endure a political crisis that has led millions to flee, Venezuela’s musicians are striving to make life worth living

‘Everything here happens at gunpoint,” someone tells me when I arrive in Caracas. Venezuela is in crisis, suffering from a lack of power, water and basic supplies and enduring widespread violence on the streets: the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence estimates that the country has the world’s highest murder rate at 81.4 per 100,000 people. According to the UN, around 4.5 million people have fled since 2015, escaping an economy in a state of hyperinflation and the authoritarian rule of president Nicolás Maduro.

The chaos has intensified recently, as opposition leader Juan Guaidó – recognised as the true president by more than 50 countries – was forced to storm a barricade of riot police to gain access to the country’s national assembly. Donald Trump has now rolled out economic sanctions to try to squeeze Maduro out of power – but they will squeeze an already embattled Venezuelan public, too.

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One in three Venezuelans not getting enough to eat, UN finds

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  • World Food Programme says 9.3m people are food insecure
  • People struggling for minimum nutrition amid economic crisis

One of every three people in Venezuela is struggling to put enough food on the table to meet minimum nutrition requirements as the nation’s severe economic contraction and political upheaval persists, according to a new study by the UN World Food Programme.

A nationwide survey based on data from 8,375 questionnaires reveals a startling picture of the large number of Venezuelans surviving off a diet consisting largely of tubers and beans as hyperinflation renders many salaries worthless.

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‘They wanted a better life’: the young Venezuelans escaping into Brazil alone

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After six years of economic crisis in their neighboring country, Brazilian officials say more and more unaccompanied minors are arriving

Jesús Pérez was 16 when he crossed into Brazil in June, fleeing a life of hunger on the streets of his disintegrating homeland.

In Pacaraima, the Brazilian border town that is the main entry point for fleeing Venezuelans, he told social workers he hoped for a fresh start.

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