(Caracas) Venezuelan authorities have arrested three Americans, two Spaniards and a Czech, accused of being linked to an alleged plot to “destabilize” the country, Caracas announced Saturday, reporting the seizure of some 400 rifles from the United States. Washington immediately denied any American “implication” in a “plot” to “overthrow” President Nicolas Maduro.
Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello spoke at a press conference about an alleged plan aimed at “generating violence” and “destabilizing” the country.
According to him, President Maduro, whose re-election on July 28 is contested by the opposition and part of the international community, was the target of this alleged plan, along with other executive officials.
“Two Spanish citizens were recently arrested in Puerto Ayacucho,” he said, adding that an “American citizen” was also behind bars. He later reported the arrest of two other Americans, as well as a Czech.
Mr Cabello linked the alleged plan to Spanish and US intelligence services, as well as opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.
“French mercenaries”
“They contacted French mercenaries, they contacted Eastern European mercenaries and they are carrying out an operation to try to attack our country,” he said, adding that the detainees were confessing.
The more than 400 rifles seized were intended “for terrorist acts here in Venezuela, terrorism encouraged by political sectors,” he said, assuring: “We even know that the American government is linked to this operation.”
American diplomacy responded Saturday evening, through a State Department spokesperson, to have been informed of the “detention” by Caracas of an “American soldier” and referred to “unconfirmed information on the detention of two other American nationals.”
But “to claim that there is U.S. involvement in a plot to overthrow Maduro is categorically false. The United States continues to support a democratic solution to the political crisis in Venezuela,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.
“Dictatorship”
The arrests come amid heightened tensions between Venezuela and the United States, as well as with Spain, over the disputed election of President Maduro.
PHOTO FERNANDO CALVO, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia
Diplomatic relations with Spain have deteriorated sharply since Thursday and statements by Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles, who called Venezuela a “dictatorship.”
The remarks coincided with the reception by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who arrived in Spain on Sunday after fleeing his country, where he was the subject of an arrest warrant.
Spain, like all other member states of the European Union, is demanding the full publication of the minutes issued by the polling stations following the presidential election, which the Venezuelan authorities have not done, saying they were victims of computer hacking.
The National Electoral Council (CNE) declared Maduro the winner of the election, with 52% of the vote. But the opposition claims, based on the minutes provided by its scrutineers, that Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia obtained more than 60% of the votes.
In the absence of complete results, EU countries have so far refused to recognise a winner.
This is not the case in the United States, which decided to recognize Mr. Gonzalez Urrutia as president and announced sanctions on Thursday against sixteen people close to Mr. Maduro for “obstructing” the presidential election.
Caracas immediately rejected these measures “with the greatest firmness”. On Friday, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino assured that the armed forces – one of the essential cogs of power – were not “corruptible” and would not allow themselves to be “intimidated by the imperial scourge” of the United States.