Failed Venezuela Raid
On May 4, 2020, Venezuelan dictator, Nicolas Maduro, announced on state TV that two former U.S. Special Forces soldiers were captured by the Venezuela Coast Guard. Maduro stated that on May 3, Venezuelan authorities intercepted two fishing boats containing large sums of weapons and “mercenaries”. The Coast Guard then engaged in a firefight which led to the death of eight men and the capture of eight other Venezulean/Colombian freedom fighters. Maduro now claims that the United States’ Government was involved in the planning of this failed coup d’etat. Maduro then continued to show the U.S. passports of the two Americans captured. They were identified as Airan Berry and Luke Denman. These two men were later identified as employees of a private security company known as Silvercorp USA.
Silvercorp USA, a Florida based security firm, claimed responsibility for organizing the botched invasion. Jordan Gaudreau, the CEO of the company, is a former Green Beret. Silvercorp was supposedly offered $213 million by Maduro’s opposition, Juan Guaido, in taking control of Simon Bolivar International Airport in order to forcibly capture and fly out Nicolas Maduro. Ultimately removing the current Socialist Party and recognizing Juan Guaido as the official Venezuelan President. However, Juan Guaido denies any of these allegations. The Trump administration has also flatly denied any involvement in this amphibious raid. “If we had been involved, it would have turned out differently,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed on May 6, 2020 during a press conference.
Along with the capture of these ‘mercenaires’, Venezuelan authorities seized weapons, vehicles, equipment as well as raided safe houses located in the country itself. These raids confiscated various items including AR-15 type rifles, body armor, handheld radios, computers, helmets, ammunation, pistols, Toyota pickup trucks with mounted machine guns, and airsoft guns. Most likely used for training purposes.
As more and more information comes out every day, it is easy to see why this plan failed. First, the Venezulan government knew everything about the operation beforehand and even posted an unofficial article about it two days before the event sprung into action. Then, it didn’t help that Gaudreau himself publicly tweeted about the operation's execution while also live streaming himself with another high ranking leader explaining his plans to overthrow the government. Finally, the operation had only a 60-man force. This, even under the best circumstances, would have been impossible to carry due to the fact that Venezuela has an active military of about 351,000 personnel. Nevertheless, this has to be considered the most nonsensical attempt at overthrowing a nation-wide government in the 21st Century.