The leader of the failed Venezuela coup that has seen two former US special forces soldiers taken into custody has apparently provided security for Donald Trump.
Ex-Green Beret Jordan Goudreau, 43, can be seen in footage with an earpiece at one of the president’s rallies in Charlotte, North Carolina, in October 2018. He also claims to have provided security at a rally in Houston four days earlier.
The website for his private security firm Silvercorp claims he has planned and led international security teams for the President as well as the Secretary of Defense.
President Donald Trump Tuesday denied any involvement by the U.S. government in Monday’s failed attack.
‘We’ll find out. We just heard about it,’ Trump said when asked about the incident and the Americans’ arrests.
‘But it has nothing to do with our government.’
It has also emerged that he struck on the idea of a coup after meeting with Trump’s longtime bodyguard Keith Schiller and speaking with a billionaire backer.
Goudreau accompanied Schiller to a meeting in Miami with activist Lester Toledo, then Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó’s coordinator for the delivery of humanitarian aid.
The White House says Schiller cut off all contact with Goudreau after the meeting.
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Jordan Goudreau pictured allegedly working security at a Donald Trump rally in North Carolina in October 2018. He started his plan for a coup in Venezuela after meeting Trump’s bodyguard
Former Green Beret Jordan Goudreau (pictured center) has claimed responsibility for a failed operation to overthrow President Nicolás Maduro in a plan named ‘Operation Gedeón’.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Juan Guaido, who swore himself in as the leader of Venezuela, right, stand for photographers outside the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on February 5. Guaido was a surprise White House guest at Trump’s State of the Union speech
Through a friend who works in private security, Goudreau was reportedly introduced to Keith Schiller (left), President Trump’s longtime bodyguard, who also met with Guaidó’s envoys
This Instagram post from Goudreau’s company page alleges to show him working at a Donald Trump rally. It was posted in November 8, 2018, shortly after Gourdreau was seen in video footage apparently wearing an ear piece while at a Trump rally in North Carolina. Silvercorp lists work for the president on its website
Goudreau also met Roen Kraft in Miami, an eccentric descendant of the cheese-making family, who then began raising money for a ‘private coup’.
Kraft lured prospective donors with the promise of preferential access to negotiate deals in the energy and mining sectors if the coup was a success. He represented himself as the ‘prime contractor’ of Venezuela.
Kraft denies giving Goudreau any money.
Goudreau identified himself Sunday as the leader of a plot to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro named ‘Operation Gedeón’.
On Monday, Maduro announced that two U.S. citizens were among eight arrested after authorities were alerted by fishermen in Chuao, a village on the northern coast of the state of Aragua.
It came after eight potential raiders were killed and two more arrested on Sunday in the Caribbean port city of La Guaira as part of Goudreau’s amateur plot.
Maduro ally and Attorney General Tarek William Saab said that in total they’ve arrested 114 people suspected in the attempted attack and they are on the hunt of 92 others.
President Maduro called the arrested men ‘terrorist mercenaries’ and blamed the attacks on the Trump administration, opposition leader Guaidó and neighboring Colombia, all of which have denied involvement.
‘The United States government is fully and completely involved in this defeated raid,’ Maduro said, praising members of a fishing village for cornering one group in the sweep netting the ‘professional American mercenaries.’
Venezuelan Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said on Tuesday the alleged plot was hindered by rivalries among the participants and logistical problems, including a shortage of fuel for their boats.
He presented more details of the plot that he said resembled a ‘Hollywood script’ fueled by the ‘white supremacist’ ideas of its alleged American organizers.
Venezuelan Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez (left) said on Tuesday the alleged plot was hindered by rivalries among the participants and logistical problems, including a shortage of fuel for their boats comparing it to a ‘Hollywood script’. He claimed U.S. involvement in the failed coup and presented information which he said linked the plan back to the American government. The U.S. government has denied all knowledge of the attempt led by ex-Green Beret Jordan Goudreau
Luke Denman (right) and Airan Berry (left), both former U.S. special forces soldiers, were identified by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro during a press conference
Luke Denman (left) and Airan Berry (right): Two arrested US ‘mercenaries playing Rambo’ are paraded after failed attempt ‘to kill’ Venezuela’s Maduro in a failed raid, the president claimed
The equipment captured from the group during the failed attack included Samurai Demon tactical masks, pictured center
The equipment used by the group of ‘mercenaries’ aiming to capture the Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The president blamed the attacks on the Trump administration, Venezuela’s opposition leader and neighboring Colombia all of which have denied involvemen
‘They thought that because we’re black, because we’re Indians, that they were going to easily control us,’ said Rodriguez, showing images of what he said were boats and training camps inside Colombia from where the insurrection was organized.
He presented video testimony from a Venezuelan military deserter, Capt. Victor Pimenta, one of 13 captured participants.
Pimenta said that a group of nearly 60 combatants left Colombia at sundown on Friday, May 1, in two boats aiming to reach La Guaira along the coast near Venezuela´s capital of Caracas.
The second vessel carrying the commander of the operation, Capt. Antonio Sequea, and the two Americans experienced motor problems and had to abort the mission, he said.
Initially the stranded group tried to reach the Dutch Caribbean island of Bonaire, Pimenta said, but as the vessel was running out of fuel it dropped off a group of combatants along the Caribbean coastline. Commandos from Venezuela’s armed forces caught up with them.
Rodriguez also presented video testimony of another individual, Jose Socorro, who claimed that he had been working with Sequea to collect and stash weapons for the combatants at a safe house in La Guaira.
Echoing Trump, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper told a Pentagon briefing: ‘The United States government had nothing to do with what’s happened in Venezuela in the last few days.’
The U.S. State Department has yet to provide any comment on the arrests.
On Monday, Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro used a press conference to display the equipment that had allegedly been seized by Venezuelan armed forces after capturing the ‘mercenaries’
Two U.S. citizens arrested in Venezuela Monday are seen being taken into custody in a shocking new video following a foiled plot to capture the Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the socialist leader has claimed. The footage shows Venezuelan authorities catching the group as they attempted to land in a fishing boat and arresting them. Pictured is Airan Berry
The group of ‘mercenaries’ were taken from the fishing boat at gunpoint and forced to lie on the ground during the arrest. The American men are seen here with six Venezuelans during the arrest
Goudreau’s idea for the overthrow attempt was sparked in February 2019 when he worked security at ‘Live Aid for Venezuala’, a concert in support of Guaidó organized by the British billionaire Richard Branson on the Venezuelan-Colombian border.
The three-time Bronze Star recipient came back from the concert looking to capitalize on the Trump administration’s growing interest in toppling Maduro, and he held conversations with Guaido’s envoys; Roen Kraft and Trump’s bodyguard Keith Schiller.
Planning for the incursion began after an April 30, 2019, barracks revolt by a cadre of soldiers who swore loyalty to Madura’s would-be replacement, Juan Guaidó, the opposition leader recognized by the U.S. and some 60 other nations as Venezuela´s rightful leader.
Goudreau’s focus on Venezuela began in February 2019, when he worked security at a concert in support of Guaidó. Goudreau is seen working the concert in a picture posted on Instagram
‘Controlling chaos on the Venezuela border where a dictator looks on with apprehension,’ wrote Goudreau in an Instagram post of the concert (pictured), dubbed ‘Venezuelan Aid Live’
Contrary to U.S. expectations at the time, key Maduro aides never joined with the opposition and the government quickly quashed the uprising.
A few weeks later, some soldiers and politicians involved in the failed rebellion retreated to the JW Marriott in Bogota, Colombia.
The hotel was a center of intrigue among Venezuelan exiles. For this occasion, conference rooms were reserved for what one participant described as the ‘Star Wars summit of anti-Maduro goofballs’ – military deserters accused of drug trafficking, shady financiers and former Maduro officials seeking redemption.
Goudreau, a three-time Bronze Star recipient for bravery in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he served as a medic in US Army special forces, was among those who showed up at the hotel
Among those angling in the open lobby was Goudreau, according to five people who met with the former soldier.
In Bogota, Toledo introduced Goudreau to a rebellious former Venezuelan military officer the American would come to trust above all others – Cliver Alcalá, ringleader of the Venezuelan military deserters.
Alcalá, a retired major general in Venezuela´s army, seemed an unlikely hero to restore democracy to his homeland. In 2011, he was sanctioned by the U.S. for allegedly supplying FARC guerrillas in Colombia with surface-to-air missiles in exchange for cocaine.
And last month, Alcalá was indicted by U.S. prosecutors alongside Maduro as one of the architects of a narcoterrorist conspiracy that allegedly sent 250 metric tons of cocaine every year to the U.S.
Alcalá is now in federal custody in New York awaiting trial. But before his surrender in Colombia, where he had been living since 2018, he had emerged as a forceful opponent of Maduro, not shy about urging military force.
Over two days of meetings with Goudreau and Toledo at the JW Marriott, Alcalá explained how he had selected 300 combatants from among the throngs of low-ranking soldiers who abandoned Maduro and fled to Colombia in the early days of Guaidó’s uprising, said three people who participated in the meeting and insisted on anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations.
Alcalá said several dozen men were already living in three camps he maintained in and around the desert-like La Guajira peninsula that Colombia shares with Venezuela, the three said. Among the combatants in the camps was an exiled national guardsman accused of participating in a 2018 drone attack on Maduro.
Goudreau told Alcalá his company could prepare the men for battle, according to the three sources. The two sides discussed weapons and equipment for the volunteer army, with Goudreau estimating a budget of around $1.5 million for a rapid strike operation.
Alcalá was indicted by US prosecutors alongside Maduro as one of the architects of a narcoterrorist conspiracy that allegedly sent 250 metric tons of cocaine every year to the US. Alcalá is now in federal custody in New York awaiting trial. Pictured is Alcalá’s wanted poster
Goudreau told participants at the meeting that he had high-level contacts in the Trump administration who could assist the effort, although he offered few details, the three people said. Over time, many of the people involved in the plan to overthrow Maduro would come to doubt his word.
From the outset, the audacious plan split an opposition coalition already sharply divided by egos and strategy. There were concerns that Alcalá, with a murky past and ties to the regime through a brother who was Maduro´s ambassador to Iran, couldn’t be trusted.
Others worried about going behind the backs of their Colombian allies and the U.S. government.
They did have apparent backing, however, from Kraft who was among those meeting with opposition envoys in Miami and Washington.
At some point, Kraft reportedly started raising money among his own circle of fellow trust-fund friends for what he described as a ‘private coup’ to be carried out by Silvercorp, according to two businessmen who he asked for money.
Kraft allegedly lured prospective donors with the promise of preferential access to negotiate deals in the energy and mining sectors with an eventual Guaidó government, said one of the businessmen. He provided AP a two-page, unsigned draft memorandum for a six-figure commitment he said was sent by Kraft in October in which he represents himself as the ‘prime contractor’ of Venezuela.
But it was never clear if Kraft really had the inside track with the Venezuelans.
After retiring in 2016, Goudreau worked as a private security contractor in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria. In 2018, he set up Silvercorp USA (pictured), a private security firm, near his home in Florida to embed counter-terror agents in schools disguised as teachers
In a phone interview with AP, Kraft acknowledged meeting with Goudreau three times last year. But he said the two never did any business together and only discussed the delivery of humanitarian aid for Venezuela. He said Goudreau broke off all communications with him on Oct. 14, when it seemed he was intent on a military action.
‘I never gave him any money,’ said Kraft.
Back in Colombia, more recruits were arriving to the three camps — even if the promised money didn’t. Goudreau tried to bring a semblance of order. Uniforms were provided, daily exercise routines intensified and Silvercorp instructed the would-be warriors in close quarter combat.
Goudreau is ‘more of a Venezuelan patriot than many Venezuelans,’ said Hernán Alemán, a lawmaker from western Zulia state and one of a few politicians to openly embrace the clandestine mission.
Alemán said in an interview that neither the US nor the Colombian governments were involved in the plot to overthrow Maduro. He claims he tried to speak several times to Guaidó about the plan but said the opposition leader showed little interest.
‘Lots of people knew about it, but they didn’t support us,’ he said. ‘They were too afraid.’
Goudreau’s plot quickly began to crumble in early March when one of the volunteer combatants was arrested after sneaking across the border into Venezuela from Colombia.
Shortly after, Colombian police stopped a truck transporting a cache of brand new weapons and tactical equipment worth around $150,000, including spotting scopes, night vision goggles, two-way radios and 26 American-made assault rifles with the serial numbers rubbed off.
Fifteen brown-colored helmets were manufactured by High-End Defense Solutions, a Miami-based military equipment vendor owned by a Venezuelan immigrant family.
High-End Defense Solutions is the same company that Goudreau visited in November and December, allegedly to source weapons, according to two former Venezuelan soldiers who claim to have helped the American select the gear but later had a bitter falling out with Goudreau amid accusations that they were moles for Maduro.
Nonetheless, Goudreau continued with the plot which launched Friday but was quickly foiled by Maduro and mistakes on the part of his volunteers.
Neither the US nor the Colombian governments were involved in the plot to overthrow Maduro, AP reports.
Guaidó also denies involvement.
He stood by comments made to Colombian media that he never signed any contract of the kind described by Alcalá, who he said he doesn’t know.
He said that he had no relationship with Silvercorp, ‘for obvious and evident reasons, but we have to make that clear’.
Venezuela has been in a deepening political and economic crisis under Maduro’s rule. Crumbling public services such as running water, electricity and medical care have driven nearly 5 million to migrate.
The United States broke diplomatic ties with Venezuela last year amid heightened tensions, so there is no U.S. embassy in Caracas.
A coalition of nearly 60 nations backs opposition leader Guaidó as Venezuela’s legitimate leader, saying Maduro’s 2018 election was a sham because the most popular opposition candidates were banned from running.
The United States has led the campaign to oust Maduro, increasing pressure in recent weeks by indicting the socialist leader as a narco-trafficker and offering a $15 million reward for his arrest in March.
In February, Guaidó appeared as a surprise guest at President Trump’s State of the Union address in which the U.S. President used his speech to support efforts to oust socialist Maduro.
Trump blasted Maduro as an an ‘illegitimate dictatorship’ and pledged to ‘stand alongside the Venezuelan people to ensure a future that is democratic and prosperous’.
In response, Maduro has called Guaidó a U.S. puppet seeking to oust him in a coup.
Both Colombia and the United States have repeatedly denied previous Venezuelan allegations of backing military plots against the socialist government.
‘We have little reason to believe anything that comes out of the former regime,’ said a spokesperson with the State Department Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, speaking Sunday on condition of anonymity, referring to Maduro’s government.
‘The Maduro regime has been consistent in its use of misinformation in order to shift focus from its mismanagement of Venezuela.’
Though the incident has reverberated through the Venezuelan news media and social media, it has done little to change the situation either for Maduro – who oversees a collapsing economy – or for the opposition, which has been unable to remove him despite heavy U.S. sanctions and broad international support.
While Trump has repeatedly said all options are on the table, his administration has shown no apparent interest in military action.
Maduro’s government says the United States wants to control the OPEC member nation’s massive oil reserves.
Among the country’s which support Maduro is Russia who in July 2019 vowed strengthen Venezuela’s military to resist ‘enemies’ who want to destabilize the country.