Venezuela claims to have captured two Americans involved in failed invasion

CARACAS, May 5, 2020, CNN. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says two American “mercenaries” have been apprehended after a failed coup attempt launched over the weekend. President Donald Trump on Tuesday denied US involvement in the incident, CNN reported.

“I just got information on that… But it has nothing to do with our government,” Trump told reporters outside the White House before departing for an event in Arizona.

Maduro, in a live address on state television late Monday, brandished what he claimed were the US passports and driver’s licenses of the two men, along with what he said were their ID cards for Silvercorp, a Florida-based security services company.

Maduro also showed what he said was a photo of the two men after they were captured, and accused the pair of playing “Rambo” in a failed attack intended to unseat him.

Footage posted on Maduro’s official Twitter account shows several unidentifiable men in a boat with their hands in the air and a helicopter overhead. The men in the boat were not identifiable in one video, but a separate photo more clearly depicted two men who Maduro claimed were American.

Colombia’s Foreign Ministry strongly denied any involvement in a so-called “mercenary operation” after Maduro on Sunday and Monday accused that country’s president, Ivan Duque, of complicity in the failed invasion.

“These accusations try to hide the real problems the Venezuelan people face, following a usual strategy from this illegitimate regime to look for distractions abroad in times of domestic crisis,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement over the weekend.

The CEO of Silvercorp, Jordan Goudreau, told the Washington Post that two Americans acting within a larger force were captured Monday, along with six Venezuelans, after launching an operation to infiltrate Venezuela. Goudreau said other members of what he called “Operation Gideon” were captured or killed on Sunday.

Goudreau identified the Americans as Airan Berry and Luke Denman, whose names match those on the Silvercorp IDs displayed by Maduro. Goudreau, a former US Army Green Beret, said the two men were fellow former Special Forces members like himself.

CNN has reached out to the US State Department and Silvercorp for comment but has not yet heard back.
Juan Guaido — the opposition leader who is recognized by the US and more than 50 countries as Venezuela’s interim president — denied any connection to Silvercorp on Monday, and called for the human rights of those captured to be respected, Reuters reported.

CNN’s Ray Sanchez contributed to this report.