Ex-mercenary chief holds secret meeting with vice-president Venezuela
Erik Prince, a major Trump donor and founder of the controversial security firm formerly known as Blackwater, travelled to Caracas last month for a secret meeting with Venezuela’s vicepresident, according to several people familiar with the visit.
It is not clear whether Prince, who has been accused of backchannelling on behalf of the Trump administration before, and whose sister is US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, was carrying a message from the White House, which has imposed severe sanctions on Venezuela, barring Americans from doing business with President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government.
Prince travelled to Caracas for the late November meeting with Delcy Rodriguez after alerting US officials, said one person briefed on the meeting. Rodriguez is one of dozens of Venezuelan officials sanctioned by the US. The trip marks something of a reversal for Prince, who earlier in the year had discussed with several people a plan to topple Maduro.
A senior US official rejected the notion that any meeting would have been a furtive attempt by the Trump administration to bypass opposition leader Juan Guaido, who is recognised by the US as Venezuela’s rightful president, and to seek some sort of accommodation with Maduro after a year-long campaign to unseat him stalled.
Prince, a major Republican Party donor, has been accused of acting as a back channel on behalf of Trump before. As Trump was preparing to take office in 2017, Prince met with a official close to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Seychelles.
Prince soared to notoriety after Blackwater employees in 2007 shot and killed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad during the Iraq War, casting a light on the role played by private contractors in US military operations overseas. In the wake of the scandal, the company’s name was changed and Prince sold his shares to a private equity fund. Today, the former US Navy SEAL heads a private equity fund focused on investments in frontier emerging markets.