Socialist dictator of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro announced on Tuesday evening the arrest of two “important American mercenaries” who allegedly wanted to “destabilize” his authoritarian regime.
According to Maduro, the recently arrested American nationals are part of a broader “mercenary group” of seven individuals that also includes two Colombian and three Ukrainian citizens — all of whom stand accused of seeking to “generate violence” in Venezuela ahead of January 10, the date Maduro will be inaugurated for a third fraudulently obtained six-year presidential term.
“We have captured at this hour seven foreign mercenaries, including two important U.S. mercenaries in North America. They are captured. They were caught with the kilos, compadre, of the highest level,” Maduro said. “Convicted, and I am sure that in the next few hours they will be confessed, they came to carry out terrorist actions against the peace of Venezuela.”
Maduro did not disclose the identities of the two captured Americans and did not provide further specifics, describing the two Americans only as “important mercenaries” in remarks given during an official event. The socialist dictator reportedly claimed that the detained Colombians are “hitmen” and that the three detained Ukrainians are “mercenaries who came from the war in Ukraine to bring violence to the country.”
At press time, neither Maduro nor any member of his socialist regime has publicly presented evidence that can substantiate any of the accusations leveled against the two American nationals and five other detained foreigners.
The arrests of the two unidentified Americans mark the latest additions to a growing list of United States citizens the Maduro regime has arrested on dubious charges of “terrorism” since the events of the highly fraudulent July 28 presidential election, which Maduro insists he won.
In October, four American citizens were detained in Venezuela, accused of seeking to “hack” and “sabotage” Venezuelan state infrastructure as well as other “terrorist” actions, such as plotting to “attack” Maduro and other members of his regime.
Three other American “mercenaries linked to the CIA” were detained in September and also stand accused of seeking to assassinate Maduro and carry out other “terrorist attacks” in Venezuela.
Much like the two Americans Maduro mentioned on Tuesday, at press time the Venezuelan regime has presented no evidence publicly that can substantiate the accusations against any of the American nationals arrested last year.
Venezuelan Interior Minister – and long suspected drug lord, actively wanted by U.S. authorities – Diosdado Cabello announced this week that local law enforcement agents had detained over 125 “mercenaries” allegedly involved in “terrorist and destabilizing acts” since the sham July 28 election.
Diosdado Cabello Rondón, from reward poster (state.gov)
According to Cabello, the over 125 “mercenaries” include Venezuelan nationals and foreigners of some 25 countries, including one Israeli “mercenary” and Nahuel Gallo, an Argentine gendarme whose detention prompted the government of President Javier Milei to formally accuse Venezuela of “forced disappearance” at the International Criminal Court last week.
A report published by The Wall Street Journal last week stated that the Maduro regime is “stocking up” on American and other foreign detainees to use as “bargaining chips” ahead of the start of President-elect Donald Trump’s second term.
During the administration of the outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden, the Maduro regime conducted several prisoner swaps with the United States. In 2022, the Venezuelan socialists released a group of unjustly detained Americans in exchange for Efraín Antonio Campo Flores and Francisco Flores de Freitas, the socialist dictator’s two convicted drug-trafficking nephews.
The dictator’s nephews, commonly referred to as the narcosobrinos (“narco-nephews”), were arrested in November 2015 by DEA authorities in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, while attempting to transport 800 kilograms of cocaine belonging to Colombia’s Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) terrorist organization into the United States. The two had been convicted and sentenced to 18 years in a U.S. prison in December 2017.
In December 2023, the outgoing Biden administration released Alex Saab, Maduro’s top money launderer and new Industries Minister, in exchange for another group of unjustly detained Americans. Saab was detained by American law enforcement authorities in Cape Verde in 2020 and was undergoing trial proceedings at the time of his release on charges of using the U.S. financial system to launder $350 million from Venezuela’s state coffers.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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