What is known about the alleged plot to assassinate Maduro?
“They contacted French mercenaries and mercenaries from Eastern Europe, and they are in an operation to try to attack our country,” said Cabello, who added that 400 firearms were confiscated during the operation.
The Venezuelan parliament has called for breaking relations with Spain. Getty Images
And finally, the official promised a firm hand.
“We will use all mechanisms to repel and defeat these groups of mercenaries, terrorists (…) We will be extremely strict and severe in defending the security and peace of Venezuela.“, he said.
According to the organization Foro Penal, the minister’s words seem to be the prelude to a new wave of arrests, just when the country has already recorded more than 1,600 arrests for participating in protests against the election results.
Earlier this year, Maduro claimed that in the last months of 2023, Venezuelan security forces had dismantled five alleged plots against him, which he claimed had been orchestrated by his adversaries.
Following these allegations, the government interrupted talks with the opposition and arrested dozens of politicians, journalists and human rights activists.
Venezuelan authorities say they have seized 400 firearms during their operations. Getty Images
«My son does not work for the CNI»
Cabello’s accusations were denied by the family of those arrested.
“My son does not work for the CNI, of course not.”the father of Andrés Martínez Adasme, one of those captured, assured the Spanish newspaper El Mundo.
This version was corroborated by government sources to the Madrid-based newspaper El País, which denied that the detainees were agents of the Spanish intelligence service.
The man also said that his son and the other suspect were on vacation in South America, but that on September 2 they lost track of him when they were both near the Colombian town of Inírida.
“He was missing on a trip to Venezuela and now he is in Caracas, that’s all I know”added Martinez’s father.
The United States and Spain, for their part, have rejected Cabello’s accusations.
“Any claim about U.S. involvement in a plot to overthrow Maduro is categorically false,” the State Department said.
Washington has said that the only thing it is supporting is “a democratic solution to the political crisis in Venezuela.”
The Spanish authorities expressed similar opinions.
“Spain denies and rejects any suggestion that it is involved in a political operation in Venezuela. The government has confirmed that those arrested are not part of the CNI or any other state body. Spain defends a democratic and peaceful solution to the situation in Venezuela,” reads a statement released on Sunday by the executive of socialist Pedro Sánchez.
Spanish-Venezuelan relations are at a low point following Madrid’s decision to host opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia. Getty Images
The Americans
Venezuela has not provided much information regarding the detained Americans.
So far, it is only known that one of those captured would be a member of the US Navy named Wilbert Joseph Castañeda, who is explosives expert who served in Afghanistan and IraqCabello reported.
Regarding the other two, the US admits that it has not yet been able to confirm their situation.
The arrests only serve to further increase the tension between Caracas, Washington and Madrid.
The recent wave of sanctions against Venezuelan judicial and military officials by the US has been strongly rejected by the Maduro government.
On the other hand, the arrests have been announced just a week after the opposition candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutiawill request asylum from the Spanish government.
Although the opposition leader’s departure was agreed upon, the symbolic decision by the Spanish Congress to recognise Maduro’s rival as Venezuela’s president-elect and the subsequent description by the Spanish Minister of Defence, Margarita Robles, of the Venezuelan government as a “dictatorship” has not gone down well in Caracas, where its ambassador has been recalled from Madrid.
*With information from Malu Cursino