This is important because Iran was accused of “hauling gold bars” out of Venezuela’s national reserve over the last week. In fact it appears the gold was being transported on May 1 just as the strange plot to invade the country by a group of Venezuelan dissidents and two Americans was being executed. It was a desperate attempt to revive Venezuela’s oil industry in “cash-strapped” Venezuela, the US said on May 1.
Also on May 1, the Associated Press was about to publish a story about an “ex-Green Beret” who “led failed attempt to oust Maduro.” Nicolas Maduro came to power in 2013 after strongman Hugo Chavez died. Maduro had faced increasing challenges to his power over the years, including pressure from the Trump administration and opposition leader Juan Guaido who declared himself president in January 2019. On April 30 there was a small uprising in Venezuela as small groups of armed forces appeared to support Guaido and even freed Leopoldo Lopez, another opposition leader, from house arrest.
It now appears that members of the military who were linked to the April 30 uprising retreated to Colombia and planned how to remove Maduro. Oddly the press got wind of this and in April the Maduro regime accused the US of planning a new “Bay of Pigs” style invasion, a reference to anti-Castro forces who landed in Cuba in 1961. The planning was linked to a group called Silvercorp USA and Jordan Goudreau, who was former special forces soldier. According to Military Times he brought in several other Americans, including former seagent Airan Berry, who was a special forces engineer from 1996 to 2013.
Oddly, the “plot” already unraveled in March, according to reports. But it continued to limp on in April and early May. Even though the AP had published a long account of the invasion on May 1, the elements went ahead with it and Goudreau posted a video on May 3 announcing the raid. The invaders apparently left from a town called Riohacha in Columbia and made their way almost 1,000 km to the coast near Caracas. There in Macuo and Guaira things fell apart and they were captured. They had made it within 12 km of the capital city. In May 6 Venezuela TV posted the video of the “detained American national Luke Denman.” Iran’s PressTV says that Denman said his mission was to seize control and secure the Caracas airport so that his team would be able to bring in a plane to take Maduro to the US.
Iran says that this invasion was part of a team of “US-backed mercenaries.” Now the usual suspects are mocking the US. Russia has said that Washington’s denial of involvement is “unconvincing.” Of course US officials have not only denied responsibility but US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said “if we had been involved it would have gone differently.” He says the US will use whatever tools necessary to get the US ex-soldiers back.
The problem for the US is that this raid conjures up not only the Bay of Pigs but other US meddling that went awry. For Iran’s regime the talking point will be the 1953 “CIA-backed coup.” Russia’s TASS News agency says that Venezuela will refer the issue of “armed invasion” to the UN Security Council. The embarrassment for the US will be used to entrench Iranian and Russian and even Turkish support for the Venezuela regime. Turkey, like Iran, has a history of accusing Americans of involvement in the 2016 coup attempt. The US had to beg Turkey to release a detained pastor in 2018.
The problem for Washington is not necessarily any official involvement but why officials weren’t able to sidetrack the raid once it was widely known. US officials could have moved to have Columbia detain the Americans involved. This leads to questions about why the US was clumsy in no realizing how embarrassing it would be to have Americans involved in an armed raid on Venezuela.
For many, the Bay of Pigs is the obvious reference. The reality is that Fidel Castro’s invasion of Cuba in 1956 with 81 fighters aboard the Granma is in some ways more similar to the May 3 raid near Caracas. The Granma sailed from Mexico and almost all of its fighters were killed or wounded when they arrived in Cuba. Only some twenty survived to continue fighting in the hills. Just over Two years later Castro’s revolutionaries took Havana. The men who embarked on the invasion of Venezuela however appear to have been mostly defeated in early May. Nevertheless, the Maduro regime will not last forever. The embarrassment of the raid and the detention of Americans could give it some bargaining power.