Venezuela: a hare-brained plan to topple the president
Venezuela’s leader Nicolás Maduro has often claimed to be the target of foreign-backed coup attempts. This time he might just be right, said Marie Delcas in Le Monde (Paris). An audacious bid to topple his regime by sneaking into the country on a fleet of fishing dinghies was foiled last week when the boats were intercepted on the Caribbean coast by the Venezualan military. The bungled mission ended with eight of the team being killed and 13 – including two US citizens – taken prisoner. Both the Americans are understood to have previously served in the US Green Berets. One of them has since appeared in a heavily edited video on state TV saying the plan was to capture Maduro and fly him to the US. Maduro has blamed President Trump directly for the plot; the White House denies any involvement.
The “perilous” mission was the brainchild of US citizen Jordan Goudreau, said Joshua Goodman in AP (New York). A decorated former soldier who runs Silvercorp USA, a private security firm, Goudreau planned to capitalise on the “Trump administration’s growing interest in toppling Maduro” and recruited troops to his cause. He met representatives of Juan Guaidó, the opposition leader recognised by the US and 60 other nations as Venezuela’s rightful ruler, and has since claimed Guaidó agreed to fund his operation to the tune of $213m. Guaidó denies responsibility, and there’s no evidence of Washington authorising the plot. “If we had been involved, it would have turned out differently,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. But the US has certainly been increasing pressure on Caracas, said Ana Vanessa Herrero in The Washington Post. In March, the US Justice Department labelled Maduro a “narco-terrorist” and offered a $15m bounty for his arrest. And an oil embargo imposed last year has greatly exacerbated the country’s economic crisis.
As if things weren’t bad enough already, the coronavirus is adding to Venezuelans’ misery, said El Nacional (Caracas). One-fifth of the population is malnourished, and the country’s two-month lockdown has crippled food supply chains. Looting is rife, and people are in a state of “despair”. Shortages of water, medicine, electricity and fuel have left the country totally ill-equipped to deal with the pandemic, said Orlando Viera Blanco in Diario Las Américas (Miami). Venezuelans, rendered desperate by hunger, are now openly challenging the regime. Maduro may soon have little choice but to relinquish power.