Captured US Mercenary Says In Video ‘Confession’ Trump Ordered Plot To “Abduct” Maduro

The nutty ‘Bay of Pigs invasion Venezuela edition’ which appears to have been an utter failure and half-baked scheme nearly from the start just took a few more bizarre turns.

Two days after Venezuelan armed forces captured two US former special forces soldiers turned mercenaries along with others that made up a Venezuela ‘defector force’ allegedly trying to ‘invade’ the county to topple Nicolas Maduro, state TV has aired a “confession” video featuring 34-year old captured American Luke Denman. 

In the heavily edited and scripted “confession” Denman says the mission to orchestrate a coup in the socialist country went straight to the top – ordered by President Trump himself. There were also plans to “abduct” Maduro himself and fly him out of Venezuela and into US custody. 

As The Guardian describes of the video:

An American mercenary captured after a bungled attempt to topple Nicolás Maduro has claimed he was on a mission to seize control of Venezuela’s main airport in order to abduct its authoritarian leader – and he alleged that was acting under the command of Donald Trump.

…In a heavily edited video confession, broadcast on Wednesday by the state broadcaster, VTV, Denman said he had flown to Colombia in mid-January, where he was tasked with training Venezuelan combatants near Riohacha, a city 55 miles west from the Venezuelan border.

From there Denman – who said he had never previously set foot in either South American country – claimed the group planned to journey to Caracas to “secure” the city and the nearby Simón Bolívar international airport, before bringing down Maduro.

The group of a least a dozen men, who were trained by Florida-based private security firm Silvercorp, reportedly tried to sneak into Venezuela via fishing boats, but were caught soon after stepping foot on land. 

BREAKING: Venezuela’s government releases the confession of Silvercorp mercenary Luke Alexander Denman.

Live now on @teleSURenglish pic.twitter.com/PP8V7sTEt7

— Camila (@camilateleSUR) May 6, 2020

Denman further describes in the video his task was to “secure the airport” to pave the way for a broader US military invasion force: 

Denman said his mission had been to secure the airport, set up a perimeter, communicate with its tower and then “bring in planes” including “one to put Maduro on and take him back to the United States”.

“I thought I was helping Venezuelans take back control of their country,” Denman added.

There was no sign that any lawyers were present during Denman’s alleged confession or that he was not speaking under duress.

The Maduro government is hailing this as a major victory over Washington coup plotting, however on Tuesday President Trump formally denied that the US had anything to do with it. 

“It has nothing to do with our government,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

But Maduro and his top officials have alleged the mission came straight from both Trump and the Colombian president.

The Venezuelan president is further saying he’ll seek the extradition of the ex-Green Beret said to have overseen the mission, since back in the United States, Silvercorps founder Jordan Goudreau.

The fiasco prompted a formal denial of involvement or knowledge from US-backed Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido.

The leader of this bungled assault, Jordan Goudreau, falsely claimed to his ragtag army that he had provided security to Trump. The closest he got was a brief relationship with Keith Schiller, who was Trump’s personal bodyguard. https://t.co/ItTktzYv3d

— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) May 4, 2020

As we previously reported, Goudreau orchestrated the plot alongside a high ranking Venezuelan military defector, who hooked up with the mercenary firm Silvercorps in Colombia last year.

In the wake of the botched ‘invasion’ and ‘overthrow’ attempt, which many on social media are hilariously mocking under the #BayofPiglets hashtag, Goudreau has positively admitted to being behind it.

Goudreau reportedly ran the secret training camps in neighboring Colombia, with the aim to infiltrate the group into Venezuela in order to fuel momentum for a broader ‘armed popular uprising’ à la covert CIA-style Syria regime change ops. 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday backed Trump’s denial of US military or intelligence involvement: “If we had been involved, it would have gone differently,” Pompeo said. “As for who bankrolled it, we’re not prepared to share any more information about what we know took place. We’ll unpack that at an appropriate time. We’ll share that information that makes good sense.”

And concerning the captured Americans: “We will start the process of trying to figure a way – if in fact these are Americans that are there – that we can figure a path forward. We want to get every American back. If the Maduro regime decides to hold them, we’ll use every tool that we have available to try and get them back. It’s our responsibility to do so,” the Secretary of State said.