Americans captured in Venezuela coup plan

One of the two Americans captured by the Venezuelan military as part of a failed plot to capture leaders of the country’s socialist regime said in an interrogation that the aim was to take control of an airport near Caracas, apprehend Nicolas Maduro and put him on a plane bound to United States.

Shown in a 10-minute edited video, Luke Denman, a 34-year-old U.S. Army veteran, also said that he had expected to receive between $50,000 and $100,000 for a job that was part of a contract between private security firm Silvercorp USA with Venezuela’s interim President Juan Guaido.

In the video, in which Denman appeared calm and without visible signs of mistreatment, the captured veteran said the contract for the job involved Guaido, Miamibased Venezuelan political consultant J.J. Rendon and Silvercorp owner Jordan Goudreau.

When asked who controlled Goudreau, Denman answered that it was

President Donald Trump.

Both Guaido and Trump have denied having any links with the military insurrection that sought to promote a democratic transition in Venezuela by capturing Venezuelan regime leaders accused by Washington of running a drug cartel on the side.

Guaido is seen as the legitimate president of Venezuela by a coalition of about 60 countries led by the United States.

Denman, who was captured over the weekend along with another American veteran, Airan Berry and about a dozen Venezuelan military insurgents, said that he played two main roles in the plot: to train the former Venezuelan military personnel participating in what was called Operation Gedeon, and to participate in the initial wave by securing an airport inside Venezuela.

“I was to meet Venezuelans in Colombia, train them and come with them to Venezuela to the city of Caracas and to secure the airport here, to use it,” Denman said in the video of the interrogation shown by Venezuelan state television.