Plot to topple Maduro falls apart
Former Green Beret’s role in 300-man force raises questions
MIAMI — The plan was simple but perilous. Some 300 heavily armed volunteers planned to sneak into Venezuela from the northern tip of South America and ignite a popular rebellion that would end in President Nicolas Maduro’s arrest.
Instead, the ringleader of the plot is now jailed in the U.S. on narcotics charges. Authorities in Colombia are asking questions about the role of his former U.S. Green Beret adviser. And dozens of combatants who flocked to secret training camps in Colombia have been left to fend for themselves amid a global pandemic.
This never-told story of a call to arms that crashed before it launched is drawn from interviews with more than 30 Maduro opponents and aspiring freedom fighters directly involved in or familiar with its planning. Most spoke on condition of anonymity fearing retaliation.
The operation stood little chance of beating the Venezuelan army, said Ephraim Mattos, a former U.S. Navy SEAL who trained some of the would-be combatants in basic first aid.
“You’re not going to take out Maduro with 300 hungry, untrained men,” Mattos said.
When hints of the conspiracy surfaced last month, the Maduro-controlled state media portrayed it as a CIA plot. An Associated Press investigation found no evidence of U.S. government involvement in the plot. Nevertheless, interviews revealed that leaders of Venezuela’s U.S.-backed opposition knew of the covert force.
Opposition leader Juan Guaido was also told about it but was not involved and showed little interest, according to Hernan Aleman, a Venezuelan lawmaker and one of a few politicians to openly embrace the clandestine mission to remove Maduro.
Planning for the incursion began in the aftermath of an April 30, 2019, barracks revolt by a cadre of soldiers who swore loyalty to Guaido, recognized by the U.S. and other nations as Venezuela’s rightful leader.
A few weeks later, some involved in the failed rebellion retreated to Bogota, Colombia. That’s where they met Jordan Goudreau, an American citizen and three-time Bronze Star recipient who served as a medic in U.S. Army special forces, according to five people who met with the former soldier.
Goudreau, 43, declined to be interviewed, but said in a written statement that he would not “confirm nor deny any activities in any operational realm.”
After retiring from the Army in 2016, he set up Silvercorp USA, a private security firm, near his home in Melbourne, Fla.
Goudreau’s focus on Venezuela started in February 2019, when he worked private security at a concert on the Venezuelan-Colombian border in support of Guaido.
In Bogota, Lester Toledo, Guaido’s coordinator for international humanitarian aid, introduced Goudreau to a rebellious former Venezuelan military officer — Cliver Alcala.
Alcala, a retired major general, seemed an unlikely hero to restore his homeland’s democracy. In 2011, he was sanctioned by the U.S. for allegedly supplying guerrillas in Colombia with weapons in exchange for cocaine. And last month, Alcala was indicted by U.S. prosecutors alongside Maduro on narcoterrorist charges.
Over two days of meetings with Goudreau and Toledo, Alcala explained how he was housing dozens of combatants selected from among the throngs of soldiers who had fled to Colombia, according to three people who participated in the meeting.
Goudreau told Alcala he could prepare the men for battle, according to the three people.
Guaido’s envoys ended contact with Goudreau after the Bogota meeting, believing it was a suicide mission, according to three people close to the opposition leader. Undeterred, Goudreau returned to Colombia and began working with Alcala.
The plot to oust Maduro came to an end in late March when Colombian police stopped a truck transporting a cache of new weapons, including 26 American-made assault rifles with the serial numbers rubbed off.
Alcala claimed ownership of the weapons shortly before surrendering to face the U.S. drug charges, saying they belonged to the “Venezuelan people.” He also lashed out against Guaido, accusing him of betraying a contract with his “American advisers.”
Guaido through a spokesman said he doesn’t know Alcala.
After the would-be insurrection collapsed, Maduro’s allies celebrated. Socialist party boss Diosdado Cabello said the government was aware of the plot for at least six months. He outed Goudreau on state TV, showing snapshots of the “mercenary.”